Full House in Adelaide - June 2-5, 2012

The next morning in Clare was ultra-relaxed, so we slept in, had breakfast, and packed the van for the last time.  After a nice daytime drive back to Adelaide we stopped for groceries and settled back in at home for a very enjoyable day.  I usually try not to talk too much about food on this blog, but this will be an exception for two reasons.  First, now that I don't have to cook for myself every day because of work, I absolutely love cooking when I'm home.  Second, we ate like kings, and you can too if you come to visit!

For lunch we had a delicious spread of gourmet meat, cheese, fruit, crackers, bread, quince paste, and other goodies.  Then I got straight into cooking dinner, which was cold spring rolls and green curry from scratch with cauliflower "rice".  I recruited everyone to roll the cold rolls and help with the other bits, so it was a group effort.

The next day was also all about food.  Ryan cooked a delicious breakfast of grilled eggplant with a hole cut in the centre for a fried egg.  So yummy!  The weather started to turn, so we went for a short walk by the river in the morning before the rain.  I promised everyone a variety of birds, and we saw almost all of the ones I was expecting.  I was sure we would see the shy Australian Grebe, but we didn't have any luck until right at the very end, so I kept my promise.

Everyone did their own thing for the afternoon, and I enjoyed making our delicious dinner:

Appetizer:

-shrimp cocktail

-prosciutto wrapped melon balls

Main:

-citrus, rosemary, and garlic roasted chicken

-orange roasted veggies (sweet potato, squash, carrots, oranges, rosemary)

-fennel and orange salad

-parsnip purée

Dessert:

-coconut cake (made by Ryan)

Leanna and Daniel also arrived in time for dinner, so it was a full house on our tiny table but so much fun.  Due to lack of space (and good luck), Leanna and Daniel spent the night in our guest house on wheels (we had the campervan for 7 days).  Maybe not something you should expect if you come to visit…

In the morning we had an amazing breakfast spread, and got organized and out of the house by 10am.  Leanna and Daniel had to return their rental car and pick up a campervan, I had to pick up the minivan, and the others returned our campervan.  As you can imagine, it was quite the coordination effort, but we managed to be on the road to McLaren Vale by 11:30am.

We spent awhile debating over doing a walking tour, a biking tour, or just the normal car tour, but the weather made the decision for us.  After a quick stop at the visitor centre, we drove to Lechonfield Wines.  It was one of the first wineries we had ever been to in Australia and it was where I first started liking wine, so it was a good starter place for Bryce and Leanna.  After tasting from their massive wine list, we had a scrumptious gourmet lunch.

Once everyone was a bit tipsy, we all agreed that it was a good thing we weren't on bikes!  Next we stopped at Fox Creek - another one of our absolute favourites.  We had been serving Fox Creek wine all week, so it was nice to show everyone where it came from. 

Dog Ridge was our third stop, and the only new place we went to all day.  It was really neat because it had some amazing bird art on display by Jen Wright (painted with red wine and squid ink, among other things), and they sat us down together at a nice table for tasting.

By this point we were getting short on time, so we quickly drove to Lloyd Brothers (wine, olives, and olive oil tasting) before they closed.  This is always one of my favourites, and it's nice to have something other than wine at the end of the day.

Despite the bad weather and the increasing darkness, after three attempts we found a lookout over the region.  We'll definitely go back on a nicer day to get the full effect. 

Finally, we stopped at Vale Ale for some beer tasting.  It added some nice variety to the day, but unfortunately on the way home Leanna realized she left her purse there.  Because of that the evening was a bit rough, but that story has a happy ending.

After a simple dinner of lamb, salad, and leftovers (and some wine for the designated driver), Leanna and Daniel returned to their campervan (I swear the neighbours think we're nuts) and everyone prepared for their respective departures the next day.

The entire visit was hectic, but I wouldn't change a thing.  We're so lucky to have such great family and friends to share our Australian adventures with.

Fossils in the Flinders - June 1, 2012

After our second night in the Flinders, we packed up and left the campground.  On our way out we passed a group of adorable baby emus.  Instead of getting off the road like their dad, they all plopped down in a circle and started eating whatever was on the road.

This day was about finding some interesting fossils for Ryan.  Unfortunately, Ryan just asked the visitor centre "So, where are the fossils?" Not realizing that there were super-cool ones (that he wanted to see), and some less-cool ones (where the guy told us to go).  None the wiser, off we went 40km north of the campsite in pursuit of fossils.  As Ryan figured out the discrepancy while looking at his newly-bought geological map of the area, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

When we arrived at the Geologic Trail, Ryan confirmed his suspicions that the Ediacaran fossils  were 7km past the point our campervan was able to go.  We decided to drive as far as we could, and tossed up the idea of walking the rest of the way.  On the way though, we passed lots of really fun things.  First, we saw two massive wedge-tailed eagles just off the side of the road.  I've never seen brown ones before (the ones at work are much older and therefore black), and I've never gotten so close.

Next, Ryan gave us a geology lesson and took us on a field trip through a river bed.  I will definitely fail that exam since I was too busy taking pictures.

On that field trip we also found some golden orb spiders and a massive flock of cockatoos, so there was a little something for everyone.

Finally we made it to the end of our road at an obstacle called "Slippery Dip".  As you can imagine, we really weren't eager to take our campervan up and over it since it had been raining (though I swear it looked worse in person).

We pulled over to assess the situation, and I noticed a middle-aged guy checking out the nearby cliffs.  He was super scruffy, but had a hand lens (geology tool) around his neck.  I went up to him, and the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Anything interesting over there?

Him: Nah, nothing special.

Me: Are you a geologist?

Him: No, just interested in that stuff.

Me: Neat.  We're travelling with a geologist.  Are you going to see the fossils?

Him: Yeah

Me: We were hoping to, but I don't think we'll get this beast (point to van) over Slippery Dip.

Him: No, maybe not.

Me: Are you going there and back, or driving the loop?

Him: The loop.

Me: We were gonna walk it, but it's starting to rain now.

Him: How far is it?

Me: Only about 7km.

Him: Let me go talk to my wife, maybe we can give you a ride and drop you back here after.

Me: Oh wow, that's awfully nice of you!

Yeah...I did that.  Meanwhile, the rest of the gang got out of the campervan and walked over to me.  I quickly explained what was going on as the guy came back and said "Oh, I didn't realize there were 4 of you…."  Ryan ran over and quickly told him that we didn't need a ride, but thanks for the offer.  Ryan doesn't get mad at me often, but boy was he mad at me for this!  I guess that's where Wasylyks and Pippys are different.  I thought the guy would have loved to take a geologist with him to explain the fossils!  I certainly didn't care if I went, but Ryan was way to embarrassed and taken by surprise to go.  Oh well!

Since that didn't really work out, we went to see the stromatolites instead.  Once Ryan explained them, they were kind of interesting.  Turns out there are still some living in Shark Bay, Western Australia, so I'm sure we'll go see them before we move back to Canada.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I could care less about geology stuff, but boy do I get to see some beautiful places because of it!

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful.  We stopped in Hawker for some traditional Aussie meat pies and sauce (a.k.a. ketchup), then made our way to Burra to find a campsite for the night.  It was dark when we got there, and when we pulled in, a sketchy guy left his drum fire to come and talk to us.  I was freaking out, but Ryan told me to roll down my window anyways.  Turns out he just wanted to tell us there weren't any powered sites left, so then we promptly left.  Thank goodness!

We drove an extra hour to get to the Clare campsite, ordered some pizza from a chicken shop, bought some treats from the grocery store while we were waiting, and had a delightful evening of board games and wine.  This is the life!

Adventure in the Flinders Ranges - May 30-31, 2012

Early the next morning, Sue and Bryce woke up to strange bird calls.  After I told them that it was the Laughing Kookaburra they could hear, they both eagerly went out with their cameras to see the iconic bird while Ryan and I continued our much needed sleep recovery from work.  Disaster struck not long after when I was trying to cook breakfast and I started a small stove fire and set off the smoke alarm repeatedly, but nothing I couldn't handle! 

We were on the road by 9am for a beautiful drive north.  After a few missed turns, we ended up detouring through the Clare Valley (another main wine region of South Australia) which was gorgeous at this time of year.  I never expected Australia to have fall colours like we do in Canada, but some trees here do change colours and the wine vines definitely change.  After lunch in Peterborough, Sue took over the driving for a few hours before our arrival in Wilpena at 3:30pm.  Wilpena is the "town" in the Flinders Ranges National Park, but it's basically just a resort and an amazing campground.  After gathering information from the visitor centre, we drove to our campsite which was full of emus.  Their poop is really disgusting, but actually quite hilarious!

Eager to walk around a bit, we went for a nice walk until dark.  We didn't get very far, but we had fun playing around with cameras and watching out for birds and kangaroos.

The walk back went something like this:

Bryce: Did you hear that?  It sounded like a chicken.

Steph: Hmm, I heard it too...sounds like a goat.

Ryan or Bryce: Yeah! Let's go look!

Steph (sarcastically): Right, like there will be goats in the Outback.

One of us:  Look, there's a goat!

Sure enough, there were goats on the cliffs nearby.  Proved me wrong!

That evening for dinner we had a delicious grilled kangaroo salad with shiraz sauce, pears, and walnuts - so yummy!  We also finally got around to cracking open some wine and board games, and spent the evening as it was meant to be spent.

After much debate the night before, we decided to do the Mount Ohlssen Bagge hike.  It was meant to be a 4 hour, 6km, mountain trail, and it didn't disappoint.  For the length of the hike, we got some beautiful views of Wilpena Pound and a good amount of exercise.  We sort of had a photo contest going on, so I'm going to try and pick what I thought were everyone's best shots of the day (while still showing a variety of subjects).

Bryce - Part of the walk was victim to a forest fire, so the burnt branches and new undergrowth were beautiful.

Ryan - Damn him and his wonderful polarizer lens!  We walked to the top of these cliffs.

Sue  - Just before the bad weather came in, we had this beautiful view from half way up.

Steph - I loved the colours and the interesting plants on the path.

Overall the hike was super fun and an excellent way to see the area, though we didn't see any of the birds or lizards that we were hoping for.  Our timing was great because just as we got to the bottom it started to rain.

After the hike we spent a little while just relaxing.  Sue and I did some watercolour painting, while Bryce and Ryan did their own thing.  We played a round of SmallWorlds with wine before cooking mouth-watering lamb meatballs with zucchini "pasta" and mint pesto, followed by more games, wine, and chocolate.

Food, Wine, Family, and Friends - May 28-29, 2012

After spending 12 days at work, Ryan and I were really looking forward to our break last week because it meant the arrival of Ryan's mom Susan and his brother Bryce.  One year into our stay in Australia, it was amazing to see some more friendly faces.  Susan and Bryce had already spent a week in Australia, so they were over their jet lag and settled in pretty well.  I arrived home first at 6pm, and spent the next hour catching up and waiting for Ryan to get home.  By 7:30pm when he arrived, we were all peering out the window eagerly watching for his taxi.  A few hugs later, we promptly headed to Justin and Kelsey's for dinner.

As usual, dinner with them was amazing.  They always outdo themselves with the food, wine, and company, and this time was no exception.  Picture an entrée of pork belly and crackling, a main of Spanish paella filled with mussels, shrimp, pork, veggies, and a million other things, and homemade macaroons for dessert.  All of this accompanied by various wines from South Australia.  How are we so lucky to have friends like this?!  Content, we all stumbled home at 11:30pm.

The next morning I was happy to be back in my own kitchen and got right into cooking a delicious breakfast of blueberry muffins, beef fillets, eggs, grilled veggies, and fresh fruit.  (For those of you aware of our new food philosophy, breakfast is by far the best improvement!)  I also managed to get a short skype chat in with my family, and quickly packed for our camping adventure.  Susan and Bryce were interested in seeing the Australian Outback, so we decided to take them to the Flinders Ranges.  They're about a 6 hour drive north of Adelaide, through 2 wine regions, and we hadn't been there before, so we thought it would be the perfect 5-day trip.

The adventure began with picking up our MASSIVE campervan at 10:30am. 

This beast had 3 double beds, 2 eating areas, tons of storage space, a 3 burner stove, a bathroom (that technically had a shower), and even had a kitchen sink.  It was so complicated that we had to watch a half hour video before we could leave the rental office.  The only downside was that it was a standard, not automatic, which made for an interesting start to the trip.  I opted to drive since I get quite carsick, but I felt sorry for the passengers in the back.  It was pretty scary to drive it through town to the grocery store and back to the house, but once we got it packed up and got on the highway it wasn't that bad. 

Since we didn't leave town until about 2:30 we decided to spend the night in the Barossa Valley, only one hour north of Adelaide.  Lucky for us it is a wonderful wine region!  We stopped first at Charles Melton - a winery known for red wine.  It was beautiful with a nice hot fireplace and two quiet Dalmatians, but Ryan and Susan fell in love with their delicious wines.  They each ended up buying a Grains of Paradise 2009 Shiraz, which was the most expensive wine we've ever bought.  I of course didn't try it since I was the driver, but I still managed to back us into a ditch on the way out.  Without hitting any vines (though it was too close for comfort), and with lots of guidance, I eventually got us unstuck.

Next, we drove 500m down the road to Rockfords.  I had been there before with Justin, but it was a first for Ryan.  It's a nice old place, also with a fireplace, and of course the wine there is also awesome.

Collectively we managed to buy a case of delicious wine and a few mustards and jams, and then we were on our way to our campsite in Nuriootpa.  Our campsite was nothing fancy, but we were excited to set up the van, crack open the wine, and play some board games.  After a delicious stir-fry for dinner though, everyone was so exhausted and wined-out that we all gladly went to bed early.

So Many Birds

This bird update had been a long time in the making, and I have seen tons of new birds without travelling too far.  I can't wait to go to Queensland where all of the fancy birds are!  I'm also hopefully getting a new camera soon, so I should be able to get some great close-ups of birds.  Many of these pictures were actually taken by either Ryan, his mom, or brother (thanks guys).  Also, you might not know that for the birds that don't have pictures I update past posts when I do finally get a picture.  Enjoy!

Apostlebird

Australian Ringneck ('Malee'  variety)

Australian Ringneck ('Port Lincoln Parrot' variety)

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Black-faced Woodswallow

Great Egret

Grey-fronted Honeyeater

Grey Shrike-thrush

Hooded Robin

Little Black Cormorant

Masked Lampwing

Nankeen Kestrel

Red-capped Robin

Red-rumped Parrot

Spinifex Pigeon

Western Bowerbird

White-plumed Honeyeater

White-winged Fairy-wren

Zebra Finch