The highlights from my adventure in Adelaide
My time studying at Flinders University is nearly over. It’s hard to believe how quickly the time has flown past. During my stay, I’ve explored a lot [in] Adelaide and the surrounding area. Some of the best places I’ve had the joy to visit include Morialata Conservation Park, Barossa Valley, and Kangaroo Island.
Morialata Conservation Park
I visited Morialata Conservation Park a few weeks back with a group of friends. It’s roughly an hour and a half long bus ride from the Flinders’ campus but despite the trek, it’s well worth it. The park has numerous trekking trails centring on its three waterfalls. The waterfalls are a true marvel of nature. However, the highlight for me was by far the wild koalas that inhabit the park. We had seen three before we had even left the carpark at the entrance.
Barossa Valley
Barossa Valley is about an hour’s drive outside of Adelaide. Due to its milder climate, it is perfect for producing wine and so has become one of the world’s major wine producing regions. I did a day tour, visiting the highlights of the area including the world’s biggest rocking horse and the Barossa Reservoir. Barossa Reservoir is also known as the ‘whispering wall’ due to its incredible acoustic feature. If stand at the side of the dam, you can hear a person standing on the other side of the dam talk as if they are standing next to you. It’s 140 meters wide. Admittedly, I was very sceptical about this until I tried it for myself but yes, it actually does work. According to a quick Wikipedia research this feature is known as the ‘parabola effect.’ Of course, being in one of the World’s major wine producing regions it was only natural that we would take the chance to do some wine-tasting. We visited Kaesler Winery and Langmeil Winery. It was at Kaesler winery that I discovered my love of sweet Riesling. My new favourite wine.
Kangaroo Island
During the mid-semester break, I spent a weekend visiting Kangaroo Island. I can easily say this has been the highlight of my trip in Australia so far. We were extremely lucky in regards to the weather while we were on Kangaroo Island. During the rest of the week, the weather had been poor with rain and the wind but the sun was shining for the duration of our stay. There was plenty of wildlife, Kolas, New Zealand Fur Seals, and Sea-lions. We even went on a tour where we went down onto a beach amongst a Sea-lion colony. It wasn’t just wildlife, though, we also went sandboarding in Little Sahara. It was just like sledging on snow, minus the wet and cold.
Despite having my end of term assessments looming, I’m sure I’ll be able to fit more fun in before it’s over.
Alasdhair McBride, semester exchange at Flinders University from University of Stirling, the U.K., Semester 2 2016
- Read Alasdhair’s first post here
- Are you a student from one of our exchange partner institutions wishing to study at Flinders University on an exchange? Find out information here
