November 1, 2025
We started our day by traveling to the airport in Adelaide in hopes that the car rental place would have a replacement for us. It turned out to be quite easy and two very helpful young women quickly got us into a newer version of the Cupra. (We are still, however, having trouble with the back windshield wiper).
On the way back to our apartment on Flinders St, we stopped at a grocery store, Woolworths, and stocked up.
Both of us agreed that we needed a day of rest after all the traveling we've done. So, we ate our meals in the apartment and read our books and watched a bit of television.
November 2
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| Botanic Garden, Adelaide |
Today it has rained off and on. And, somehow discovered that Barbara had lost her favorite light green rain coat somewhere. Bummer. After breakfast at the apartment, we drove to the Botanic Garden. We did not stay long because of the rain, but did manage to see the grey-headed flying foxes. (bats) A ranger in the park said that there were about 60,000 at a recent count. They are considered megabats and they are endemic to Australia in the region we are in.
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| Grey headed flying foxes (megabats) |
They weigh about a kilogram and have a wingspan of over a meter. In the daytime, they gather in "camps" of "colonies" of 1,000s of individuals.
The huge trees in the park were also very impressive. Gums, Eucalyptus, Plane trees...
As we were getting wet, we went shopping on Rundle Street and Barbara bought a new rain jacket, angry at herself for losing her raincoat. We caught a bite to eat at Betty's Burgers and then went back to the Botanic Garden properly clothed and walked most of the park - in a steady rain, but not a downpour.
November 3
Today started out with heavy downpours. We contemplated going to an art museum, but we have already been to quite a few, so we decided to wait out the rain and see if it would clear.
Adelaide has a lot of big, sandy beaches within just a few miles of the center city. We started at Henley, then went north to Semaphore Beach, where we ate at a Vietnamese noodle place. Then, we continued south (maybe east?) to Glenelg Beach, stopping to look at the Tasman Sea. Unfortunately, it was too chilly and windy to dip our feet in, but it was nice to get out.
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| Semaphore Beach, with Barbara sporting her new jacket |
At six o'clock, we met former student, Aryn Perryman and her 7-year old daughter, Adeline at Von Thai down the street where we are staying. It was very nice of her to drive in after a full day of work. We had a lovely dinner and a nice chat. It was great to see her and hear about her life in Australia, where she has lived for 25 years. We took her some chocolate covered cranberries from Aunt Leah's fudge.
