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Adelaide

2002-12-05 - 9:11 p.m.

I'm feeling sleepy. I guess driving 3800km in 8 days (one of which we did no driving) is starting to catch up with me...

Speaking of catching up... the eclipse! It was awesome, one of the most exciting astronomical events you can observe in your lifetime. Okay, it was short, at sunset, and kind of clouded over. We only got to see the top half of the sun for the first few seconds of totality, after which it was covered by a cloud. So instead of a diamond ring effect at 3rd contact, we got to see a sort of "light-switch" effect, as the cloud and the ocean underneath it were suddenly light up by the no-longer-fully-covered sun. And turns out that if we had been in Ceduna, rather than Thevenard, it would have been completely clear! I'm tempted to blame it, as all other things, onto the tour organiser, but this time it's probably not his fault. Anyway, it was still a great great eclipse, even if it's the 3rd best eclipse I've seen. :) If only I could find a way to get to Antarctica in 2003....

The second most spectacular thing we saw (and it's not a close second) was the Great Ocean Road. A really picturesque segment of coastline just west of Melbourne. Correspondingly, I took some pictures, mainly of the 12 apostles area, but we really rushed through it, just like we rushed through everything else on our route. It's now finally time to slow down, spend a couple of days in Adelaide and then 5 days in Sydney. I think we're all cranky from driving so much and from spending so much time in close proximity, so some down time will do us good. Tomorrow, it's off to the Barossa Valley wine tour, and if that can't get us into a happy and relaxed mood, I don't know what can.