Day Thirteen - Back On The Mainland!

Happy Tuesday to you all! At least ... My phone is telling me it's Tuesday ... The days are blurring together a little, but that's half the fun of holidays, right?!?! Well it's Day Thirteen of our holiday & it once again started out somewhat earlier than we night owls prefer, as we had to catch the 8:30am ferry back to the mainland from Kangaroo Island. All other ferry runs were booked out except the last one, which didn't work as we had an over two hour trip from the ferry terminal to our temporary home. But we weren't the only ones up early ...

Mr Pelican was cruising in the bay of KI as we prepared to leave. 45 minutes later & we were ready to do some more exploricating. WARNING! Lots of photos following. :0)

We decided to take a slightly circuitous route to pass through the McLaren Vale area to visit a few more wineries. First stop ... Coriole vineyards. While I didn't find any wines that tickled my tastebuds, I LOVED the setting ...

The stone buildings, the views ... The GARDENS ...

There is just something warm about the look of stone buildings. They seem to have grown up out of the ground.

Cornflowers, lilies. Iris & more ...

Half wine barrels holding more flowers & everywhere the image of relaxed cottage charm. NICE! :0) Then there was something a little different ...

D'Arenberg wines had possibly been indulging in a bit too much of their own products before building this! :0) We didn't go in ... There was a charge just to head inside for a look ... But decided to pop across the road from the Cube to Lloyd wines who advertised olives & wine. EXCELLENT decision! :0) Along with the super helpful, friendly service, we had a DEEEEEEEEELICIOUS platter of locally produced goodies ...

Cheeses, olives, pate, baby gherkins, almonds, crusty bread, olive oil & dipping crunchies. And did we enjoy it?

Smiles say ... YES!! :0) Our lovely sommelier also helped us find a couple of wines that just HAD to come home with us. :0) We're starting to joke about the Big Blue being a mobile wine cellar on the way home! Tee! Hee! Hee! Mind you ... We'll be stocked up for a while. :0)

We decided to end our tastings today on that high note & headed into Adelaide for a visit to the Botanic Gardens ... Via another public rose garden ...

The colours were so vibrant they almost hurt your eyes.

The plants were covered in blooms ...

... And spelled AMAZING! Then on to the Botanic Gardens. There was lots to see & enjoy & we walked around the gardens for quite some time ... Mainly cos there weren't many signs & we became geographically misplaced. :0) But we enjoyed the rainforest display ...

It was planted in the protective & warmed building in this pic that looks like the aliens' mother ship has landed!

The water lily garden was amazing. It felt like you could sit on those lily pads ... They were huge! And as we headed back to the ute to come home (once we worked out where we were & where we needed to be!) we met ...

... One of the locals ... A blue tongue lizard who was soaking up the sun.

And that was the last thing on today's itinerary. :0) Tomorrow we have a special treat ... But I'm not going to tell you yet! Right now, though, I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open, so I'll sign off & hit the pillow. Thanks for traveling along with us! Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!

KRIS

OOPS! I ran out of today & it is now tomorrow! I'll try to do better next time!