Indian Pacific, 12th March 2006

Compensation

Adelaide is a stop over for me, between Katherine and Perth. There are two nights of Adelaide between Ghana and Indian Pacific.

Adelaide hosts horse races this Monday. The Australian holidays keep surprising me. Horse racing would be a marginal event in the Netherlands. Here it comes close to a national Holiday. Hotels are fully booked, right during my stop over.

Getting accommodation for the first night gives a bit of trouble already. For the second night I have to divert to the edge of North Adelaide. It is all fine with me.

I like North Adelaide, better than expected. It is not a modern suburb, but a nice, old part of town including a nice cathedral. North Adelaide appears to be the centre of night life, with plenty of restaurants and bars.

The arrival at the hotel does not meet expectations. My rooms is not ready yet. I dump my big backpack at the reception and hit the road again. The city centre is only a fifteen minutes walk, according to the receptionist.

Hmm, these fifteen minutes are long. And, my source of shade, the Australian hat, is still hidden in the big backpack. My head wets from sweat on my head. So stay under the trees, stay cool.

Botanical Garden

It is a bit odd to suddenly be in Adelaide. 3 days, 2 nights of Ghan seem to have flown away. Adelaide is familiar territory from previous stop overs, but it remains an odd place to me. The summer house in the Botanical Garden offers plenty of shade, perfect for reading the Saturday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald. The Samurai Sudoku, five linked puzzles, seems difficult, but is doable with a bit of computer power. Cracking Sudoku puzzles is now a beaten track for me. Using my Sudoku Solver even the Samurai puzzle becomes easy to solve. It is good for me that computers can give insight into difficult puzzles. A game of Sudoku is not difficult, when the hidden information is brought to surface.

There is a bit of music coming from the back of the Botanical Gardens. It sounds like a band performing live. But the styles of music differ greatly, it looks like different bands are playing. As soon as I finish the newspaper, I walk into the direction of the music.

The music comes from a big concert, just outside of the Gardens, including the typical Australian security check for alcohol. Australians seem to have love or hate relation to alcohol.

Over heated

Once I get out of the Botanical Garden I really start missing my hat. The good part of the afternoon is over, but still my head gets overheated. So I'll skip the open air concert for now.

The river Torrens flows along the city centre, just outside the festive area. Being only just outside the centre it is just a small creek here. The park circling the centre is a bit more rough here, less cultivated, more forest than park. Sounds of the concert mix with the rushing of the trees, odd combination of humans and nature.

When the afternoon is reaching its end I feel overheated. Walking without hat is not a plan to go by. Moving from shade to shade, refilling my water bottle all the time, I finally reach the hotel. I have a head ache, got a to great a share of sunlight on my head today. O, how I'd love a cold shower and an unlimited supply of water.

Suite

My room turns out to be a real suite, with a living, bed room and a bath equipped bathroom. O, what a wonderful end of the day this is. The tub fills with bubbles. I pour myself a fresh cup of Dutch Douwe Egberts and submerge. This is a great way to kill a head ache.

It is as if the luxury of home promotes itself, compensating for reaching the end of my journey. It is just the frog that is missing.

Till next nut,
Nut