Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Over the last few days I have shared some photos I took last spring on a visit to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. It was a delightful sunny day with many trees and other plants in flower. We had just come from a food fair so we really needed the walk before heading off on the journey home to Murray Bridge.

I managed to take quite a nice little collection of photo despite the batteries on my camera going flat - and the spare batteries I had with me were also flat! Never mind - I did get some.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

My wife and I enjoy visiting botanic gardens whenever we travel. On an interstate holiday recently we visited all the major and few minor botanic gardens along the route. In fact, I especially chose the route to include as many as we could see in the three weeks we were away.

My wife enjoys looking at the plants, especially the native Australian plants. I enjoy looking for the bird life and botanic gardens with their abundant plant communities are ideal for this. I also love taking photos of the spectacular plants in flower.

Yesterday I shared a few photos taken on a recent trip to one of our nearest gardens, the Adelaide Botanic Gardens here in South Australia. They are about a fifteen minute stroll from the CBD of our capital city. Today I share a few more photos taken there last spring.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Late last year we attended a special food fair in Norwood in suburban Adelaide. After sampling the various wonderful Chinese and southeast Asian food on offer we decided to visit the Adelaide Botanic Gardens for an hour or so. It was a sunny spring afternoon and just right for some photography. I thought I’d share some of my photos today and over the next few days.

I would have liked to have taken more photos but the batteries in my camera went flat. When I went to replace them I found that the spare batteries were also flat. You have days like that! It forced me to relax and enjoy the beautiful environment.

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Adelaide Botanic Gardens, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

The Lakeside Model Railway is in Clare in the mid north of South Australia, just over two hours from Adelaide. The area is a popular tourist and visitor destination because it is one of the state’s leading wine producing regions. This delightful little model railway is one of the lesser known gems in the Clare Valley. Even better - it is a five minute stroll from my daughter’s home. She is a teacher in one of the local schools.

The railway is set in a park like environment with picnic grounds, golf club and Country Club adjacent the railway. Lake Inchiquin is only a few metres away too. The last photo in this set shows the operational days of the month and times of running for this lovely little railway.

Click on any photo to enlarge the image.

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Click on any photo to enlarge the image.

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

I enjoy visiting my daughter who is a teacher in Clare in the mid north of South Australia. There are many things for the tourist and visitor to do in the Clare Valley, one of our state’s leading wine producing areas.

A little known attraction is the Lakeside Model Railway, pictured here on this post. The local model train enthusiasts have regular meetings and the model trains are available for rides by the public. See the sign shown below for days of the month when they run, as well as the times of operation.

And the best thing is this little delight is a five minute stroll from my daughter’s home!

Click on any image to enlarge it.

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Click on the photos to enlarge the image.

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

The Lakeside Model Railway at Clare is a five minute stroll from my daughter’s house. It is situated in a lovely park like setting next to Lake Inchiquin, a popular picnic spot next to the Clare Country Club and Golf Course. On a regular basis model train enthusiasts hold meetings here on their extensive track layout. Rides on the model trains are extremely popular.

Click on the photo of the sign to enlarge so that you can read the days and times of operation.

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Lakeside Model Railway, Clare, South Australia

Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

Over the last week I have travelled three times to Adelaide to attend the 2010 Adelaide Writers’ Week. This is an integral part of the biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts. Writers and readers come here from all over Australia for this important festival, one of the best of its kind in the world. A fine array of talented international writers are also on the speakers’ list or on panel discussions on books and writing.

Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

The sessions run from 9:30am to 6pm every day for six days and admission is free to all sessions (except the evening sessions in the Town Hall). Sitting there all day is a marathon effort for both organisers and audience members. The audience would have to number well over 500 at any one time, often swelled for popular or well-known writers, or during the lunch break of workers in the nearby CBD, a five minute walk away.

Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

Three large marquees are set up for the week in the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Gardens located beautifully between the CBD and the River Torrens. The East Tent and the West Tent host the writers’ talks and panel discussions, while the central tent is the Book Shop. The shop stocks many of the books of the visiting authors as well as stocks of new books launched during the week. Every guest speaker is encouraged to sit at tables in front of this tent for book signings, and to meet their readers.

Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

Last week I travelled to Adelaide several times to attend this year’s Writers’ Week, an important feature of every Festival of Arts in the city. This special part of the festival runs for six days at the beginning of the festival. It attracts writers and readers from all over Australia for the day long sessions. The programme always features leading Australian writers as well as a significant array of international writers and publishers.

Tom Keneally opening Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

This year’s writers’ week was opened by leading Australian writer Tom Keneally (pictured above). Tom is probably best know for his book Schindler’s Ark which was made into a very successful movie. Tom is an entertaining speaker as well as very thought provoking for readers and writers alike.

During the first afternoon the Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann (photo below), announced the Premier’s awards for writing in ten different categories.

Premier Mike Rann announcing awards at Adelaide Writers' Week 2010

Ama Dablam, Nepal

This blog about my travels is now four years old.

I started this blog exactly four years ago in the dining room of my son in Sydney. He had just set up the domain name and busily went about teaching me how to blog. He was a good teacher for I was soon off and away with blog entries. And I haven’t let up in the intervening years. I try to post every day but during the last two years I have also been trying to complete my Master of Arts in Creative Writing which has impacted on how frequently I have been able to write articles here. I’m also in the last stages of completing the writing of a novel for children as part of those studies. It has all taken a lot of my time.

During the life of this blog I have written about many places, including a visit to Thailand and trekking in Nepal. By far the majority of the nearly 600 articles are as a result of travelling here in Australia, including New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and my home state of South Australia of course.

I’d like to thank all my many regular readers, those who have occasionally dipped into various pages and especially those who have taken the trouble to leave comments. I value you all - you people make this blog a worthwhile endeavour.

A special thanks to my son Sim’ who looks after the background administration of this and my other blogs, keeping them ticking over nicely.

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

The Bluff, Victor Harbor, South Australia

The Bluff is a prominent feature of the seascape at Victor Harbor on the south coast of South Australia. It is on the edge of the seaside town of Victor Harbor which is about an hour’s drive from the state capital, Adelaide.

The Bluff is a rocky outcrop of granite jutting into the skyline to the south west of the town. There are several walking trails to the top but these can be demanding to the unfit person. There is a road to the top and excellent views can be seen from the lookout, including of Victor Harbor, Encounter Bay, Granite Island and the Southern Ocean stretching to Antarctica.

At the base of the steep hillside there is a small parking area and a spot where there is excellent fishing from a jetty. In the photo above you can just make out several cars and the jetty on the lower right hand side of the photo (click on the photo to enlarge the image).

The Bluff, Victor Harbor, South Australia

Further reading with more photos:

• Encounter Bay, Victor Harbor
• The Bluff, Victor Harbor
• Horse drawn tram, Victor Harbor