Koalas to Kuala Lumpur

18^th to 20^th March 2011, Koalas to Kuala Lumpur

Adelaide, lots of exploring and at last a Tasmanian devil.

I’m blogging whist waiting for our Sunday flight to KL Malaysia, and finishing at 6.00am after the call to prayer on Monday morning.

Adelaide has been a great stage of the trip and made all the more interesting with the Clipsar 500 racing, loads of live music everywhere, hundreds of petrol heads, and even more logo’ed up team shirts, Howden is the local car manufacturer – part of the GM group- and the winners here last year so as you can imagine there is absolutely fanatical support for the local team.  Our hotel has been buzzing with talk of the cars, drivers and social activities and has added an extra dimension to the stay.

Having a car is freedom (albeit not in the Clipsar 500 league) to go where we want for how long we want here. Nowhere is that far from the city a couple of hours max. Friday we explored down to the southern coast Victor Harbour, Goolwa, the McClaren valley, Adelaide Hills.  Mouth of the Murray River.   Saturday  - Cleeland conservation Park, Hahndorf, Belaire, and Glenelg.   And all villages in between many with English names

Friday we headed down to the southern coast, we had driven from Melbourne along

The Ocean Road last time we were in Australia and today we bridged a little more of the road.

Hindmarsh IslandVictor Habour

Hindmarsh Island there wasn't a bridge until recently

We then went to Goolwa and over to the Mouth of the Murray, wonderful birdlife and fabulous beaches.  Another bakery for Lunch!!

Mouth of the Murray River and National Park

Koalas, Roos and Tasmanian Devils

Saturday we walked to the central market to get a picnic, our guide book states it’s the largest covered market in the Southern Hemisphere,

it is good, a real mix of ethnic foods, everything from Asian, German, French and of course somehow very British.

Notice the slogan.

Adelaide was laid out in Victorian times and has the centre square Victoria Square and in each corner a further square, it’s very easy to navigate, and whilst of course the city has expanded outward over the past 160 years the centre still retains the original 5 squares.  Crossing the river to North Adelaide its laid out in the same manner with one there is a further square.

The key north south road is King William Street, the roads that cross it change name, because King William did not want anyone/street crossing him!.

This is potentially confusing until you understand as a road your on suddenly changes name.

Views of Victoria Square

Cleeland Conservation Park.

Finally a Tasmanian devil at the Cleeland Conservation Park, they are not native to Aus now.

 A few facts, they were native and their fossils have been found in Melbourne area

They have very strong jaws and can eat an entire animal

They do not have hair/fur on their ears and when stressed their ears go bright red.

Koalas

These slow moving little creatures are in the park. It ws feeding time and they sprung to life at the rustle of the eucalyptus branches and leaves,

 they are stationary for up to 85% of the day so we timed our visit well to capture theses shots.

For those Koalas in the wild the Aussies are very helpful, at night the Koalas will cross roads and motorways to get to eucalyptus trees and so in the locations where they are known to cross the highways maintenance people put up little mesh climbing frames every 100metres or so, I kid you not.

Glenelg and Holdfast Bay

The weather has been kind to us all the way through this trip and how lovely to spend the last few hours on the Beach,

Glenelg is so like an English resort in the very best possible way, great wide and white sand beaches no traffic adjacent it’s about 45minutes from Adelaide.

The first landing place for Colonel Hindmash looking for a new settlement in 1836, which became Adelaide,   

So that’s it for Australia wonderful part of the trip lots of new experiences, and leaving from Adelaide can be highly recommended, it’s a smallish airport and very easy to get through the customs immigration stuff that can take hours elsewhere.

The Flight to Kuala Lumpur with Malaysian Airlines was good and caught up as usual on the new films, The Kings Speech and Burlesque this time. Both enjoyable in different ways and may watch again on the long leg back to UK.  The journey was 5862kms and took 7 hours exactly the time difference is 2 ½ hours.

As soon as we stepped outside the airport you just know you’re in a different continent, humid, hot and the air full of new smells and noises, very exciting.

Pulling back the curtains when we arrived at the Traders Hotel, we have the most fabulous view of the Petronas Towers and its thousands of lights, we’re on the 30^th floor and they tower (pun) above us at 88 storeys.

We were awake early this morning as body time we’re ‘ahead’.  We heard for the first time the call to prayer for the Muslim faith, this starts at 6.0am lasts about 30 minutes. It’s still dark as I finish this blog but the city is waking, and starting the day.