Sunday, September 12
We left Victoria and its freezing weather (it is said that one can experience all four seasons in the same day in Victoria) to drive back to Adelaide, in the state of South Australia. On the road we pass many towns with the most fascinating names. There is Nar Nar Goon (Jar Jar Binks' hometown?), Mount Ararat, Garfield and Robin Hood. Melbourne even has Batman Avenue, after a pioneer of that name. I have to comment, by the way, on the name of Latrobe Valley. If Latrobe is a valley, then the Beqaa plain is a crevice. See for yourself
With its sunny greeting sign, South Australia can't be missed. The differences between the two states are present all the way into details such as accident markers. In Victoria, the locations of accidents are marked with stones that are covered in flowers. In South Australia, a white "I" on a red pole means injuries, a red cross on a black pole means the accident was deadly. Victoria is the Garden State, and SA is, appropriately, the Festival State.
For hours on end, this was what the view looked like.
As we approached Adelaide, the land lost some of its flatness.
The room seen from the house.
My roommates. Karma learned to fly during my stay (don't ask).
Sour sob! I couldn't believe it! Anne's garden was full of sour sob! This flower we call hummeyda grows abundantly in Lebanon in the spring, and I would never have expected to find it in Australia, of all places.
Anne took me around Adelaide, in particular to the Adelaide-Himeji garden a foretaste of a trip to come. The garden was opened to commemorate the two cities becoming Sister Cities in 1982. While I was savoring the irony of having a palm tree in the background of a Japanese garden, I was shocked to hear a familiar sound. I turned to find a whole flight of rainbow lorikeets chattering in a tree. They were all exact replicas of my beloved pet Figaro, hence my amazement.
A taste of things to come, a year from then...
