Rollin', rollin' rollin' on a river, and a highway or two.

[queenslander]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Do you want me to continue posting about the rest of our travels or have I bored you enough already?

 

I'll probably only do one blog post every few days from now on.

 

I haven’t been on this site for a while but was interested in reading about your trip! A cruise I booked out of Brisbane in August was recently cancelled so I was thinking of going to Adelaide in April to see my son. Perhaps I could go on a Murray river cruise for my birthday as they pick up in Adelaide! 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

Thanks for letting us come along on your little Adventure Julie. It looks like a great trip although I'm used to more than one morsel of each vegetable on my plate. All the meals looked lovely.

Please do continue, it's nice to see someone is able to travel. We aren't "locked down" but are being prudent about going anywhere. 

Yes, I prefer more veges as well usually, but we'd had a big bowl of delicious pumpkin soup to start, plus a fennel salad with the prawns, so the veges with the steak were enough.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 minute ago, queenslander said:

I haven’t been on this site for a while but was interested in reading about your trip! A cruise I booked out of Brisbane in August was recently cancelled so I was thinking of going to Adelaide in April to see my son. Perhaps I could go on a Murray river cruise for my birthday as they pick up in Adelaide! 

 

Yes, the Proud Mary bus will pick you up in Adelaide and drop you back there. They probably don't pick up at private addresses though, just main CBD hotels and the bus terminal. They run 5 night cruises Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, and two day cruises Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. 

[queenslander]

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

 

Yes, the Proud Mary bus will pick you up in Adelaide and drop you back there. They probably don't pick up at private addresses though, just main CBD hotels and the bus terminal. They run 5 night cruises Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, and two day cruises Friday evening to Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for your reply! The 5 day ones are booked out for April but there are  2 day ones available.😊

[possum52]

29 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I hate front loader washing machines! They take so long to do one load, and we had three loads to get through. 

 

I love my front loader. This is the second one we've had and am so glad we decided to buy this type of washing machine. It has a program which goes for 45 minutes which we mainly use for most washes, which is a similar time to our last top loader.

 

30 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Do you want me to continue posting about the rest of our travels or have I bored you enough already?

 

I'll probably only do one blog post every few days from now on.

 

Please do continue posting Julie. I have loved reading about your travels to SA and along the Murray. I look forward to reading more about your trip.

 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

Cruise Summary

 

The Proud Mary five night Indulgence cruise ranks as one of the best cruises we have ever done.

 

Much of the sightseeing is centred around the history and environment of that part of the Murray River, and we learnt so much. We also met some lovely people and had lots of laughs.

 

The cabins are very small, especially those on the top deck, and there is very little storage space for bags. There is no room under the very comfortable beds, the only space is under the drawers etc. The bathrooms are very squeezy.

 

The stairways between decks are quite steep, steep enough that they advise going down them backwards. I managed them OK even with my wonky knee (which actually behaved itself during the cruise).

 

Dress is very casual and, apart from the Captain's Dinner, most people don't change for dinner. 

 

There is a good mix of excursions and free time and the top deck "big verandah" is a great place to watch the everchanging river scenery. It can be cool up there in the shade though.

 

You can fish off the boat when it is moored and fishing rods are provided. There are also a couple of kayaks available for passenger use.

 

We highly recommend this cruise. We had a wonderful time.

[OzKiwiJJ]

8 minutes ago, queenslander said:

Thanks for your reply! The 5 day ones are booked out for April but there are  2 day ones available.😊

Keep an eye on the website. Sometimes people cancel at the last minute especially if there have been SA border closures to VIC or NSW.

[OzKiwiJJ]

4 minutes ago, possum52 said:

I love my front loader. This is the second one we've had and am so glad we decided to buy this type of washing machine. It has a program which goes for 45 minutes which we mainly use for most washes, which is a similar time to our last top loader.

 

Please do continue posting Julie. I have loved reading about your travels to SA and along the Murray. I look forward to reading more about your trip.

 

Leigh

The one in the hotel apartment takes almost 3 hours to do a similar wash to what my top loader does in 47 minutes. Not what you want when you're travelling, especially when you only have overnight stops where you need to catch up with laundry.  Luckily we're in Adelaide for a few days.

[possum52]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

The one in the hotel apartment takes almost 3 hours to do a similar wash to what my top loader does in 47 minutes. Not what you want when you're travelling, especially when you only have overnight stops where you need to catch up with laundry.  Luckily we're in Adelaide for a few days.

That is ridiculous Julie! Does it only have one program? I wonder if it is an older machine. It doesn't seem the best choice for an apartment or really for any situation!

 

Enjoy Adelaide and safe travels.

 

Leigh

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, possum52 said:

That is ridiculous Julie! Does it only have one program? I wonder if it is an older machine. It doesn't seem the best choice for an apartment or really for any situation!

 

Enjoy Adelaide and safe travels.

 

Leigh

No, it looks very new. It's a Fisher and Paykel. Perhaps we're using the wrong program although it seems to match what we would call a regular wash on our machine.

[ilikeanswers]

4 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The one in the hotel apartment takes almost 3 hours to do a similar wash to what my top loader does in 47 minutes. Not what you want when you're travelling, especially when you only have overnight stops where you need to catch up with laundry.  Luckily we're in Adelaide for a few days.

 

There must be other cycles😱. I have stayed in a few apartments with front loaders and there has always been shorter cycles I suggest Googling the instructions for that particular washing machine. I have found that to be useful many times even when overseas and I had to translate those instructions😜.

[Elorac123]

Loving your posts Ozkiwi, been off the air a couple of weeks so binged on it and it sounds like a lovely thing to do

Cheers.Carole

[MMDown Under]

8 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

There must be other cycles😱. I have stayed in a few apartments with front loaders and there has always been shorter cycles I suggest Googling the instructions for that particular washing machine. I have found that to be useful many times even when overseas and I had to translate those instructions😜.

I love my Miele front loader.  Just use the shortest cycle, as front loaders are like hand washing and wash clothes clean.  We got caught with a combined front loader washer and dryer in Berlin, which went for hours and I couldn't cancel the cycle.  

[OzKiwiJJ]

8 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

There must be other cycles😱. I have stayed in a few apartments with front loaders and there has always been shorter cycles I suggest Googling the instructions for that particular washing machine. I have found that to be useful many times even when overseas and I had to translate those instructions😜.

I think there are shorter cycles. However they don't always get stains out properly but are good for items that just need freshening up. 

 

Anyway, we got everything washed OK although we might put a load through tomorrow night so we have everything clean for the next stages of our trip where we won't be in apartments with in-room laundries. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

38 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I love my Miele front loader.  Just use the shortest cycle, as front loaders are like hand washing and wash clothes clean.  We got caught with a combined front loader washer and dryer in Berlin, which went for hours and I couldn't cancel the cycle.  

Those combined washer/dryers are dreadful, and the clothes never seem to dry fully. On one trip in NZ years ago we ended up having to put the damp clothes in plastic bags while driving to our next destination, then we could let them dry overnight. Luckily that place had a pull-out line over the bath to hang stuff on.

[Blackduck59]

2 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Those combined washer/dryers are dreadful, and the clothes never seem to dry fully. On one trip in NZ years ago we ended up having to put the damp clothes in plastic bags while driving to our next destination, then we could let them dry overnight. Luckily that place had a pull-out line over the bath to hang stuff on.

My Mom had one of those combo things, she loved it even though she had to use a clothes line to get the laundry dry. We have a Samsung front load laundry pair. The "heavy duty" cycle is 85 minutes and the only longer cycle is "whitest whites". The dryer has a "perfect steam" cycle that we have never used.

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Sounds like you guys had a great river cruise!

[NSWP]

On 2/28/2021 at 9:30 AM, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think there are shorter cycles. However they don't always get stains out properly but are good for items that just need freshening up. 

 

Anyway, we got everything washed OK although we might put a load through tomorrow night so we have everything clean for the next stages of our trip where we won't be in apartments with in-room laundries. 

Many motels have guest laundries, just ask the managers. You just need to be careful with the spin dryers, your XXL polo shirt might end up as an S.  Like on the ships laundries.😁

Edited March 2, 2021 by NSWP

[OzKiwiJJ]

24 minutes ago, Kiwi_cruiser said:

Sounds like you guys had a great river cruise!

We did, it was wonderful.

[OzKiwiJJ]

18 minutes ago, NSWP said:

Many motels have guest laundries, just ask the managers. You just need to be careful with the spin dryers, your XXL polo shirt might end up as an S.  Like on the ships laundries.😁

Yes but the problem with guest laundries, just like those on cruise ships, is that you have to keep an eye on your laundry. With apartments with laundry facilities in each unit you can stick a load on then go out to dinner, then put it in the dryer overnight.

[NSWP]

9 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes but the problem with guest laundries, just like those on cruise ships, is that you have to keep an eye on your laundry. With apartments with laundry facilities in each unit you can stick a load on then go out to dinner, then put it in the dryer overnight.

True, but luckily have been Elite on Princess since 2009, so got the freebies. But also used the ship's laundromat on other lines, like P&O UK, Cunard, never stayed in laundromat to supervise and never a victim of laundry rage. But I know what happens now and again, people's clothes getting removed etc.

 

Yes apartment laundries the go, all your own.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We don't stay in the laundrettes to supervise but do ensure we get back there just before the program ends so we can free up the relevant machine immediately it finishes. We've only done one short cruise since we reached Elite but we did get some laundry done on that just because we could. 😊

[OzKiwiJJ]

Adelaide

 

Saturday

 

We slept in this morning. We put the last load of laundry on then made breakfast. The kitchen is reasonably well equipped except for bench space so it was a bit tricky but we got there in the end. I wish apartment hotels would have the sense to buy good quality heavy based frypans from a professional kitchenware shop, which don't buckle, last for ages and therefore work out cheaper in the long run, than buying cheap ones.

 

After breakfast we went to the Central Markets. I was in food heaven. We spent hours there. I hadn't intended cooking any meals other than breakfast during our Adelaide stop but as soon as I saw fresh samphire for sale I knew I had to cook fish for dinner. I love samphire, having had it several times overseas, but it's almost impossible to get in Sydney.

 

We had a very nice char kway teow for lunch then started assembling what we needed for dinner. We got some lovely King George whiting, bread, salad ingredients, lemon, and gourmet butter. Luckily there was a bulk foods shop so I could get just a small amount of flour to dust the fish with. We found a nice riesling, and a muscat to have with fruit cake for dessert.

 

By then we were starting to feel tired. I hadn't slept all that well so we went back to the apartment for a rest.

 

Dinner was yummy. I cooked the fish in butter and squeezed lemon juice into it at the last minute which essentially made a lemon beurre noisette sauce. Sampire is also called sea asparagus and is cooked the same way as asparagus, just a couple of minutes in boiling water.

 

Sunday.

 

Oh dear, we nearly had a travel disaster. I hadn't booked the Kangaroo Island car ferry as I wanted to make sure we could get into SA. I intended to book it while we were in Hahndorf but completely forgot. There were no car bookings available! But we could get passenger bookings. We checked out Kangaroo Island rental car options and made an enquiry with Hertz which would be very expensive. I was just checking out another rental car company, went back to the ferry website to check the ferry times and discovered new sailings had been added, one each way very, very early in the morning, 6:30am going over and 5:30am for the return. Yikes! We booked them immediately. Disaster averted! Phew!

 

After a reviving coffee, we walked down to and through Rundle Mall. I picked up a couple of small items I needed, and DH bought me a pretty "amethyst" necklace and earrings from Secrets Shhh, a jewellery store that specializes in excellent quality synthetic gemstones, great for travel. What I like about those stores is that at anytime you can drop in and get your Secrets jewellery cleaned free of charge, so I got my "diamond" earrings cleaned.

 

We found a lovely little Japanese restaurant for lunch, then caught trams to Glenelg. It was very crowded. We stopped for a coffee at a cafe near a busy road where noisy cars seemed to be circulating round and round. Not a good place to relax for a while unfortunately. So we went for a wander along the beachfront and round to the marina where we found a lovely restaurant with a "garden" bar that had very comfy chairs, and enjoyed a couple of cocktails before an early dinner.

 

For dinner we had beautiful oysters and so-so beef carpaccio (it was weirdly watery and bland), which we shared.  Then had excellent steaks for dinner. I had one of the best peppercorn sauces I've ever had with mine, DH had bearnaise sauce. The sides were disappointing. The so-called creamy mash was too buttery and a bit grainy, the mixed green veg was just broccolini, and the onion rings were horrible. We did have a very nice granache/tempranillo with the steak.

 

We declined dessert, paid the bill, and wandered beachside to watch the sun set. Rats! There was low cloud on the horizon so no chance of seeing a green flash but there was some interesting effects on the clouds for a while.

 

We caught the tram back to the city and called it a night.

 

Monday

 

Unfortunately I woke up feeling slightly nauseous. Something hadn't agreed with me. DH went over to the nearby Coles to get some vegemite. I find toast and vegemite settles my tummy down reasonably well. 

 

Eventually we headed out. We stopped at a nearby cafe for coffee then decided to go to the botanic gardens using the free trams. 

 

We wandered around the first part of the gardens. I went into the Amazon waterlily house but it was too hot and humid for DH in there.

 

We were getting hungry so went to one of the cafes for lunch. I chose a chicken and avocado sandwich which turned out to be heavily loaded with mayo as well. My tummy did not like that at all so we ended up leaving the gardens and getting an Uber back to the apartment.

 

Before dinner we started organizing our packing, sorting out what we needed for the next few days. Then we went over to Chinatown for a light meal. We found a very nice ramen bar which suited us both.

 I chose a tonkatsu/miso base, DH chose the chef's special which was quite spicy.

 

We enjoyed our short stay in Adelaide. Our next stop is McLaren Vale.

 

 

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Sunset on Glenelg Beach.

 

 

That's the first time I've seen a beach sign advising people to watch out for snakes!

 

 

A very appropriate Monday morning epigram. 

 

Waterlilies. Large = Amazon, small = Nile

 

Lotus

[MicCanberra]

great work.