McClaren Vale |
One
of many quirky things about Adelaide
is its Southern Expressway. This is the world's longest reversible
one-way freeway. You drive one way on it
for half the day and then it is closed briefly and re-opened for the other part
of the day for driving in the opposite direction. Weird huh?
It
won't be like that for too much longer because the State Government has decided
that it would duplicate it – and make it into a normal motorway. Of course, it would have been a lot cheaper
if it had been built as two way in the first place.
We
did a day trip to have a look at the wine region McClaren Vale and to get there
we got to go on the one way freeway – it was a weekend and on the weekends the
freeway goes the opposite way round from during the week.
McClaren Vale is a nice wine region
with lots of wineries that you can visit to do wine tastings – which are free
and generously poured! A bit of a missed
opportunity for my better half who volunteered to be the designated
driver! But I tasted (and bought) some
very nice Rieslings. We had lunch at one
winery (Woodstock) which rather than being relaxed and informal turned out to
be very "posh". Unfortunately
the pasta special of the day I had turned out to be the only real
disappointment in terms of South Australian food that we had the whole time we
were there. But we did stumble onto a
lovely 2008 chardonnay there so that made up for it somewhat.
Aldinga Beach |
Another
highlight of the day was the drive back to Adelaide – we went up the coast and
were driving merrily along and came round a corner and there was an amazing
sight. Aldinga Beach. As you can see from the photo, when you go to this
beach you take your car, drive along the beach, park up with your friends and
have a picnic right alongside your vehicle by the water.
This
is not something that is permitted on any other beach in the area – quite something. We even saw synchronised vehicles being moved
inland to avoid the rising tide.
Maslin Beach |
Then
a little bit further along the coast we came to Maslin Beach – and it had signs saying that it was an "Unclad
Beach" – by which we believe it meant for nudists. But the indication was that you could only go
naked at least 500m down the beach and the section that could be seen from the
carpark did not contain any naked people – and no, we didn't go walking down to
see if we could see any!
It
was a lovely day. Don't miss going
there, if you get some time in Adelaide.
And
just to finish off, I was struck by this sign we passed on the side of the road
– aimed at snakes perhaps? ( I looked it up via Mr Google just now and
apparently it is intended to warn people who allow their speed to creep up!)
Lol, I love the Stop Creeping sign. We need one here in NC or perhaps just on my road. Stopping by via Moms Monday Mingle. I connected to you GFC and my GFC is at http://onecreativeprocrastinatinggal.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteYou are making me miss home. I am an Aussie living in the USA and these pictures just reminded me how crazy and beautiful Australia is all at the same time. Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteAustralia looks absolutely incredible Carole. Compliments to the camera person. Do you want any rain or wind? We have tons of it in Southern Ireland at the moment.
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful beach photos - I love these! Thanks for linking up :)
ReplyDeleteSarah @ A Cat-Like Curiosity
Great post! I used to live in Australia and went to the Barossa Valley--best wine I've ever had! Crazy about the motorway...good thing they are adding to it!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and I'm loving the pix. By the way my maiden name is McLaren.
ReplyDeleteI love Australian wines so that would be a great trip for me! :)
ReplyDeleteWe had a section of one of the busy main streets in Tucson, AZ that was like your Southern Expressway but they finally "undid" it a few years ago. Whew!!
What a beautiful countryside! But I'm not sure about the one-way reversible road. Think that would make me quite nervous. ;)
ReplyDelete