After a couple of nights in Adelaide we are heading off in an hour or so to visit Helen and David for a few days before they start work at Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.

We arrived in Adelaide on Sunday afternoon after meandering through the hills from Victor Harbour and found ourselves a campsite just a couple of kilometres from the city centre. Once our home sweet home was built, we took a walk through the botanical gardens that were just across the road from us and into the main centre of town for a look around. Adelaide is split into two parts with the main centre to the south and North Adelaide on the other side of the river, and we decided to check out the main centre first.

There are some really nice old buildings lining the northern streets of the main city, which seems to be the main cultural hub with the library, the museum and the art gallery all housed in some huge Victorian buildings next to each other. From here it was only a couple of blocks to the main shopping mall in the city centre, although it has more of a large town atmosphere than that of the capital of South Australia. We treated ourselves to a Boost juice as we were both well aware that it would be some time before we reached anywhere with the everyday amenities that we normally take for granted, before stocking up on all the essentials.

We continued our stroll around the town before heading back up towards the botanical gardens again to find our way back and as we passed the library once again there was a brass band outside playing "Eye of The Tiger". The gardens seemed a lot smaller than the previous ones we have visited and there was less space devoted to followers and plants and more to open spaces and parklands. Perhaps this is due to the harsh weather that they can get down here, but at least there was grass - unlike our campsite which was all stones and gravel!

Yesterday morning we set about seeing the other areas of the city and began the day by driving up to Mount Lofty, which has the highest vantage point across Adelaide. It was only when we were here that we truly realised just how small the city really is as from the top of the viewing area it was difficult to make out any tall buildings at all and it was only when we looked at the information maps that we could distinguish between the main centre and the surrounding suburbs.

When we got back down to the city again we headed into North Adelaide to have a wander around the old streets that we had read about. However, after driving around for a while we decided that we liked the main centre a lot more and headed back in that direction. From the northern end of the city we could see people out on pedaloes along the river that backed onto the cultural centre but we both agreed that it wasn't hot enough for that sort of carry on and continued on.

Our last stop of the day was to the optician's so that Jen could see out of both eyes for the first time since we got to Melbourne and she decided to drop one of her contact lenses on the floor! At least now she will be able to see all of Ayers Rock instead of just half and a blur!!

All that remains now is to pick up Fergal from the four wheel drive garage where we are getting a UHF aerial fitted so that we can annoy truckies along the way, and we will be setting off into the Outback.