Day 11: Quirky South Australia

It is interesting how it's the little differences that you really notice when you travel to a foreign place.  Some things are obvious, like driving on the left hand side of the road.  I have gotten much better at NOT heading for the driver's side when I'm meant to be the passenger.  But when I'm driving, although I'm becoming more confident, I still struggle to find my seatbelt, accidentally turn the windshield wipers on when I mean to indicate a turn, and check for phantom traffic coming from the wrong direction when I change directions.

South Australia is a very dry state - Australia in general is the driest continent in the world.  With so little water citizens must do what they can to conserve.  Almost everyone has giant rainwater collection tanks in their back yards.  These tanks are piped to the gutters and rainwater flows straight off the roof and into the tanks.  In Eve's house, this water is preferred for drinking, because it has a better taste.  Something about essence of crushed insects and bird poo.  Somehow I think people in the states would raise a fuss and complain about germs and uncleanliness.  But here it makes sense.

Many houses have corrugated iron roofs.  This material seems to work well for the climate - I imagine the extra surface area allows for better heat transfer.  Eve's house has an extended roof made of corrugated, opaque plastic that forms a shady back patio area.  The roofing allows light in but creates a cool spot to rest during the day.  It's interesting to me that corrugated iron is not considered a classy building material in the states, yet here in a very nice Adelaide suburb, I can look out the window and see house after house with similar roofing.  It seems to work well so it seems people are going with it.

Different phrases catch my ear and it's fun to learn the ways Australians express ideas.  "Please be upstanding," means you are asking people to stand up.  And, "I'm stuffed," means you are tired, while, "I'm chockers," (like chock full) means you have eaten too much.  Gas is LPG and petrol is gasoline.  Whingeing is what you do instead of whining.  Oregano is pronounced oh-ray-GAH-no, since they don't use miles there is no miles-per-gallon, or even kilos-per-gallon, but instead you could talk about fuel economy, and a pharmacy is called instead a chemist.  Biscuits really are cookies and lollies is the word for candy.  Just small things and easily understandable, but I always notice when I hear them and the expressions are just different enough to make me stand out when I talk.  Hopefully that ads to my mystery as a foreigner!

Tomorrow Eve and I head out on our road trip/Outback adventure.  Apparently they have been getting some heavy rains in the outback, so the mosquitoes and flies are pretty bad up there.  We will have to plan most of our outdoor activities for very early in the morning as it can get intensely hot during the day (up to 50C = 122F.  And I'm told that temperature is measured in the shade!)  Our itinerary will take us and our hired Spaceship camper van to Wilpena Pound National Park in the Flinders Ranges, where we hope to climb St. Mary Peak; then to Port Augusta, on the ocean; northward to Coober Pedy, a mining town where it is dangerous to wander after dark in case you fall down a mine shaft, and it's so hot that the population lives underground; farther north to the Northern Territory where we will visit Uluru and the Olgas, interesting rock formation in the middle of nowhere; and finally to Alice Springs, the "metropolis" in the middle of the desert.  We have stocked up on groceries and DVDs for our trip and are looking forward to some adventure and fun times.  We plan to be back next Saturday so I won't be able to update the blog for a while but I look forward to sharing photos and stories when I return.