The park was right next door to a zoo so ... yep!!!! We saw kangaroos and were in heaven! Not only did I get to see them, but I also touched, petted, fed, cuddled and was kissed by them! We even saw a mama with her little joey!! Is that weird? ~ A full sized "roo" with an extra set of legs sticking out! They are so soft...like petting a bunny rabbit. Again, the birds are spectacular ... the colors are beyond imagination. It reminded me of a box of crayons that were melting together ... bright and vibrant! It was so strange to look out the window of the rig in the morning to see parrots and big cockatoos.

Echuca is a rural tourist town with a community that works hard to harness and develop its best features - the rich history and the Murray River. This is in a sunny, warm climate, and an all round friendly, easy going ambience. The community's hard work has paid off in that it's all just sitting there waiting to be taken in. One of the best features of this place is the relaxed, kickback atmosphere, created by a combination of the Murray River (one of the biggest rivers in Australia) that flows through the area, and the historic paddle steamers that still chug the river as they did a century ago.

Via some wonderfully scenic back roads, we arrived in Adelaide. We parked at the home of some folks we met online over a year ago and have communicated with since, Clive and Rosemary. Both are retired schoolteachers and have a great home out in the country. When we got there, Rosemary had prepared a traditional Aussie dinner: roast lamb, browned potatoes, baked pumpkin and various veggies and bread and butter pudding with mangos and fresh cream, wine and Aussie beer. The following day we were escorted through the countryside. We went to another zoo to see koalas and pet more kangaroos. We toured a winery and sampled their fare, had lunch at a delightful bistro, saw the world's largest rocking horse and a tree house built in a gum tree (eucalyptus) that was actually home for a family of 18 in the late 1800's.

It is impossible to describe Australia without talking about the people, and Clive and Rosemary were so typical of the fantastic people we met. Folks in this country love life; they love to be happy and they love their homeland and one another. There is so much PRIDE and it shows in every aspect of their existence.

The city of Adelaide is gorgeous! It is a planned city. That means that the layout of the city was designed before anything was built. There are several very elegant but useful parks ... with lakes, fountains, statues, benches, tables, sport fields, pools, gardens and one had a larger gazebo for concerts. We visited the "market" which is like a farmer's market in the US but a whole lot larger ... aisles and aisles of fruits, veggies, cheeses, breads, meats, flowers, etc, etc. Rosemary took us through the Culinary Institute while Clive attended his meeting there at the University ... they call it the "Uni". We saw the butter and the sugar carvings, the dining rooms and several kitchens. We saw the city against the Gulf of Saint Vincent, which is off the Southern Ocean. We even went back in the evening after dark to view it as a sea of lights. We took our friends to dinner and while Lynn had kangaroo, I had Morton Bay Bugs! They are like little lobsters and we tried a new Aussie beer, Southwark Premium...really good too.