6. Australia - Adelaide and tyred out

Covering 28 September to 1 October 2019

one of the lovely late Victorian/Edwardian Adelaide buildings

On our first morning walk in Adelaide, we were waiting for some pedestrian lights to change and the man in front and to my left turned round and said “you’ve got a great complexion mate, lovely skin”.  Difficult to know how to react but being quick with a quip I managed “thanks very much”.  Bizarre.  Particularly from someone who was covered in tattoos, including a revolver inked right up one side of his face.  He was one of those people you see from time to time who look as if they’d fallen into a deep sleep when a group of young children armed with indelible marker pens had happened across him and set to scribbling.  Mind you, at my age I’ll accept any compliment going.  Come to think of it, I’d have accepted any compliment at any age.

I didn't realise the D of E was that old

Adelaide streets are set out on a grid pattern and just like Perth, Adelaide has a free bus service around the centre of the city.  The Botanic Garden also turned out to be free.  It really is surprising how many things are free in this country.  All the leaflets in tourist information centres are free, unlike in England where many are charged for if they’re produced by the local councils.  In Australia they seem to realise that if you encourage visitors to stay just for a short time the chances are you’ll spend some money in their town.  

just Turkish Delight

It was fortunate that on our first morning here (1.5 hours later than Western Australia with the time zone change), the big central produce market was open.  A tremendous display of food, showing the vast variety that Australia can produce with the various climatic conditions such a huge country has.  Variety too in what was being produced.  I’ve never before seen a whole market stall just selling different types of Turkish Delight or a stall just selling nuts.  There was also a good second-hand bookshop where we saw a copy of Winnie-The -Pooh in Latin.  Roo is apparently a marsupio, although there weren’t many Kangaroos hopping around the Roman Empire.  Even they didn’t  get this far.  Or did they ?  I feel a conspiracy theory coming on.

Further into the shopping area, we were in the Tourist Office talking to a ten-pound Pom who had been in Australia since the early 1950s and still thought of himself as English.  He took us outside and pointed to an upper floor window.  “That was Don Bradman’s office” he said, “he was a stockbroker in real life”.  Now I think quite a lot of Cricket fans would dispute that the World’s greatest ever batsman was anything other than a cricketer in real life.  I read once that as a boy he used to practice by hitting a golf ball with a cricket stump against a garage door and continuing by hitting the rebounds.  I suppose he knew that eventually someone would let him out. **

Don Bradman's office -
and no blue plaque !

Adelaide’s centre was compact and clean and we had some good meals here but it wasn’t what you’d describe as an exciting city.  It had the feel of a medium sized town really.  We weren’t staying long anyway as we planned to pick up another motorhome and head off into South Australia.  To begin with we’re aiming for the Flinders Mountains about three hundred miles to the north which is just next door in this country.

some street statuary

a sign of the times.  I can't quite
see it being used these days

I mentioned Maui and Britz in my Perth blog and it seems that Mighty is in the same group.  This hire from Adelaide was with Mighty but we had a van with Britz written on it, so clearly interchangeable.  They are apparently No.1 in motorhomes but of course that all depends on what No. 2 and 3 are like.  And No.1 in what I wonder, certainly not in the checking of their vehicles for road worthiness.  We were driving north and the juddering on the steering which I‘d not been too bothered about was causing Heather more concern.  The steering also pulled to the left.  Our first thought was tyre pressures so we phoned the office we’d hired from in Adelaide to ask if the tyres were checked before a hire started.  We were assured that they were.   The person we spoke to wasn't very interested and said we should phone the service number displayed on our windscreen.  The service people gave us two tyre company names in the town we were headed for so that we could get the tyres looked at.  This was Port Augusta, about 200 miles or so from Adelaide.  So the following morning we drove to one of them who told us that one tyre was good and the other three needed replacing, one of which was dangerous and highly illegal.  The tracking on the steering was badly adjusted and the driver’s side front tyre was worn right down to the canvas on the inside.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a worn tyre.   So much for checking them.  I’d love to see the service history for the van we had.  The upshot of all this was that we were told there were no tyres of the correct size available (apparently in the whole of South Australia) and they had to get a replacement van driven all the way from Adelaide for us.  One sharp stone in two hundred miles and we would have had a catastrophic blow-out on the driver’s side front and you wouldn’t be reading this. 

front wheel driver's side 

that is canvas you can see, where the rubber has worn completely away

The response from MauiBritzMighty ?  Well every individual we spoke to (about 6 to 8 of them) was very pleasant and apologetic but officially not a peep except that they have refunded one whole day’s hire cost.  I think with the condition of the tyre we’d been let loose with, that catastrophic accident we were lucky to avoid could have led to a Corporate Manslaughter charge.

** I’ve since read that it was a curved water tank he practised on, which spoilt my little joke completely but I like it so much I’ve deliberately left the inaccuracy in place.