a weekend in South Australia
This weekend, I took the train to South Australia (about 60km from Adelaide, at the top of the Barossa Valley wine growing region) to attend a weekend party and burn hosted by my friend David from Burning Seed. I went with limited expectations, and had a really nice time in a variety of surprising ways.
Most of the train ride was nothing to write home about. Flat, dry, scrubby brush dotted with gum trees. To put it in perspective, at one point a couple hours from Melbourne we passed a hillock that was visible for 60km in any direction. After passing the Murray River, however, it got hilly and scenic for the last couple hours. Verdict? A pleasant enough experience, but given the opportunity, fly.
We were met in Adelaide by David, and then whisked off to some mediocre Vietnamese food in a bustling Chinatown. This was all we saw of Adelaide, since we left into the hills to get to David and Rick's house. I was pretty dubious the first evening. I thought I was going to a burner event, but discovered that the host was the only other burner, and that most of his friends found him a bit outlandish and over-enthusiastic. I was also alarmed to discover when I got there that I was the youngest guest staying for the weekend except for the young adult children of some of the guests. People were 40s into late 50s. This made me nervous. I have some amazing friends in their late 50s and beyond, but I know them precisely because they find people their own age too straight. Hell, *I* have that problem with my age peers and I'm only 40. It was pretty clear that Dana and I were going to be the radical fringe among open-minded, pot-smoking boomers. On top of that, it was not a particularly critical or intellectual group; this isn't a requirement, but it went on the list of discomforts when people started making the sorts of painful hippie truth claims that could be dispelled with 15 seconds on google. I toned down my expectations and settled in for the weekend, since I had little choice in the matter.
I was there from Thursday evening through Sunday morning. Friday we woke early to birdsong, admired the trees and quietly sipped coffee for a while. Around midday, 9 of us went wine tasting at 2 wineries in the Barossa Valley, which was an unexpected pleasure. Barossa Valley is dotted with cute little 1880s towns with beautiful golden sandstone buildings. It was a perfect autumn day, and the landscape of dry grass, rolling hills and rock was a dead ringer for Sonoma if you replaced the live oaks with red gums. That evening the full moon rose enormous and orange through the trees. We ate pizza, chatted, and went to bed early.
On Saturday people trickled in for the party starting around 3. There was heaps of food, electroswing tunes, and an effigy called Burnadette who went into the fire around midnight. I met people, had a variety of interesting chats, and wandered off to bed around 130. It was nice to be among relative strangers who didn't know Will and therefore didn't ask about him. I was just Jodi, which is a welcome change.
This morning I got a lift to the airport with some Ken and Steve who were headed back to Queensland. They woke late and were all a-fluster, I hope they made their plane. Since I was 3 hours early for my flight, I seized the opportunity to check in for an earlier flight and headed directly to the gate. Even though my gate was one of the closest, the distances are loooooong on crutches. Security was a bit comical as they figured out how to handle me.
On the Melbourne end, things were very speedy. I was met in the terminal by one of those people carts, which whisked me to the front of the airport. When I arrived home, my Air BnB guests had clearly just departed--the house was squeeky clean and the kettle was still warm.
There were lots of new things. I saw kangaroos in the wild for the first time, hollow red gum trees, and beautiful Autumn colours and we drove through the wine country. Autumn is my favourite season, and I felt like I was missing it by being laid up, so I was pretty pleased about that. I went to a big gay party with a bonfire, talked to an Argentinian woman about David Lynch films and her life in Alice Springs; met a gardener, 2 chefs, a horse breeder, a reluctant bank manager, a hospital fundraiser, a bitcoin investor, and a woman who'd lost use of her legs in a roller derby accident. I had anise scented snuff, which was strangely appealing. All in all not a weekend I could have predicted, but one I would repeat.
Most of the train ride was nothing to write home about. Flat, dry, scrubby brush dotted with gum trees. To put it in perspective, at one point a couple hours from Melbourne we passed a hillock that was visible for 60km in any direction. After passing the Murray River, however, it got hilly and scenic for the last couple hours. Verdict? A pleasant enough experience, but given the opportunity, fly.
We were met in Adelaide by David, and then whisked off to some mediocre Vietnamese food in a bustling Chinatown. This was all we saw of Adelaide, since we left into the hills to get to David and Rick's house. I was pretty dubious the first evening. I thought I was going to a burner event, but discovered that the host was the only other burner, and that most of his friends found him a bit outlandish and over-enthusiastic. I was also alarmed to discover when I got there that I was the youngest guest staying for the weekend except for the young adult children of some of the guests. People were 40s into late 50s. This made me nervous. I have some amazing friends in their late 50s and beyond, but I know them precisely because they find people their own age too straight. Hell, *I* have that problem with my age peers and I'm only 40. It was pretty clear that Dana and I were going to be the radical fringe among open-minded, pot-smoking boomers. On top of that, it was not a particularly critical or intellectual group; this isn't a requirement, but it went on the list of discomforts when people started making the sorts of painful hippie truth claims that could be dispelled with 15 seconds on google. I toned down my expectations and settled in for the weekend, since I had little choice in the matter.
I was there from Thursday evening through Sunday morning. Friday we woke early to birdsong, admired the trees and quietly sipped coffee for a while. Around midday, 9 of us went wine tasting at 2 wineries in the Barossa Valley, which was an unexpected pleasure. Barossa Valley is dotted with cute little 1880s towns with beautiful golden sandstone buildings. It was a perfect autumn day, and the landscape of dry grass, rolling hills and rock was a dead ringer for Sonoma if you replaced the live oaks with red gums. That evening the full moon rose enormous and orange through the trees. We ate pizza, chatted, and went to bed early.
On Saturday people trickled in for the party starting around 3. There was heaps of food, electroswing tunes, and an effigy called Burnadette who went into the fire around midnight. I met people, had a variety of interesting chats, and wandered off to bed around 130. It was nice to be among relative strangers who didn't know Will and therefore didn't ask about him. I was just Jodi, which is a welcome change.
This morning I got a lift to the airport with some Ken and Steve who were headed back to Queensland. They woke late and were all a-fluster, I hope they made their plane. Since I was 3 hours early for my flight, I seized the opportunity to check in for an earlier flight and headed directly to the gate. Even though my gate was one of the closest, the distances are loooooong on crutches. Security was a bit comical as they figured out how to handle me.
On the Melbourne end, things were very speedy. I was met in the terminal by one of those people carts, which whisked me to the front of the airport. When I arrived home, my Air BnB guests had clearly just departed--the house was squeeky clean and the kettle was still warm.
There were lots of new things. I saw kangaroos in the wild for the first time, hollow red gum trees, and beautiful Autumn colours and we drove through the wine country. Autumn is my favourite season, and I felt like I was missing it by being laid up, so I was pretty pleased about that. I went to a big gay party with a bonfire, talked to an Argentinian woman about David Lynch films and her life in Alice Springs; met a gardener, 2 chefs, a horse breeder, a reluctant bank manager, a hospital fundraiser, a bitcoin investor, and a woman who'd lost use of her legs in a roller derby accident. I had anise scented snuff, which was strangely appealing. All in all not a weekend I could have predicted, but one I would repeat.
