Its been a week in South Australia and I have rediscovered the love that I had for this country as a teenager. Australia has always been special. I have dreamt of kangaroos and koalas since I was in school and  as a die hard fan of Steve Waugh cheered for the Australian cricket team. My first international trip was to Australia as well and Adelaide was my first port of halt.

Read my post ,” Adelaide, Australia where it all began..”

But the last week in South Australia had made me fall in love with the country all over again. South Australia particularly was so understated, beautiful and wild and Adelaide grew on me.

A view of the Adelaide Oval

The visit to Oval kindled my passion for cricket and I was almost tempted to see a Sheffield match between South Australia and Victoria. If seeing Wimbledon in Wimbledon is one of my dreams, then watching a cricket match in Australia has been another. Love the way, the Aussies come to see a cricket match like it is a family picnic, lying on the grass, drinking beers and cheering for their team. Adelaide Oval, am told has been renovated recently and it will host the World Cup match between India vs Pakistan next February. Hopefully I get a ticket to watch it live.

The other highlight was of course to walk inside the scorecard..yes, you heard that right. We climbed through the rickety wooden steps that have been preserved for the last several hundred years and looked at the stadium through the eyes of the men who worked on the scores outside the pitch.And the last highlight was of course, a fleeting sight of Sir Donald Bradman’s house.

The lizard man poses

I landed here on a Monday evening and the city was filled with people. Being an University town, I was not surprised to find so many young people out there, but I was told that the crowd was largely due to the ongoing month long Fringe Festival. It was closed on Monday but I got to see an awesome show Limbo and a couple of acts and comedy shows besides a few street performances.

Blue is my favourite colour

But it was Kangaroo Island with its stunning beaches and wildlife and birds that took my breath away. In the wild we spotted kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, echidnas, seals, endemic birds and some jaw dropping landscapes.An encounter with kangaroos and koalas happenned a couple of days later again, but this was in the Cleland Conservation Park .

Kangaroos in Kangaroo Island

A koala sleeping in an eucalyptus tree in Kangaroo Island

Barossa Valley got me high on spirits as I tasted a 100 year old wine, dated 1914 at Seppeltsfield which was released barely a couple of days ago. I got to pose with my “birth wine” too. The guys at Seppeltsfield used to prepare a wine every year since 1878 and a cellar is stocked with barrels dating till the present day. So, you can find the barrel corresponding with the year of your birth ! I tried four different wines there before heading to Jacob’s Creek for some lovely lunch and more wines.

At Seppeltsfield – Tasting a century old wine

And wine was not enough for my spirits. So I tasted eight different beers at a micro brewery at Lobethal in Adelaide Hills. Earlier in the day, we roamed in a German village, Hahndorf, the oldest surviving settlement in Adelaide Hills which was populated in the 19th century by 20 families from Germany. As I wandered around it, I was taken back to the town of Sieffen, a charming snow swept village in Saxony Germany .

Australian for beer – a tasting session at a microbrewery

The official tour ends today and I am too lazy to step out after some late night partying at Adelaide on a vibrant Saturday night. But I hope to head to the beach today to Glenelg. The real holiday however begins tomorrow..so stay tuned to more posts. Until then, signing off from Adelaide, South Australia.

Sunset from the ferry on the way from Kangaroo Island