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Wet Noodle Aussie shares her love of South Australia
By Trish Morey
Cherry orchards, apple trees, vineyards and bushland, my own special
spot in South Australia has it all. Norton Summit is a blink of a
town a few short kilometres outside the capital city of Adelaide,
yet it’s a different world. Whereas the city is situated on the long
flat plain stretching north and south between the hills and St.
Vincent’s Gulf, Norton Summit is perched at the tip of those hills
just to the east.
Follow the winding road up through the valley and suburbia slips
away, the air sweetens and million dollar views greet you as you
make the steep climb up the escarpment. Take the trip late afternoon
and you’ll be rewarded with even more breathtaking views as the
valley is bathed in golden red hues as the sun sets over the sea.
In pride of place at the top there’s a pub, perhaps uninspiredly yet
so appropriately named the Scenic Hotel, with commanding views
through the cleft in the bush clad hills, over the city and to the
gulf and beyond. The Scenic serves the best seasoned squid in the
world, or at least outside that cute little trattoria in Volterra,
Tuscany that’s just a tad too far distant for take away. Or try the
Scenic Burger, a tower of a burger that will ruin you for chain junk
food for life.
Unusually for an Australian town, churches outnumber hotels in
Norton Summit. There are two. There’s also a post office agency, a
primary school that has almost one hundred enrollments and a
cemetery that boasts several hundred more. Don’t waste your time
looking for a shop.
Nowhere in South Australia shows the change in seasons to better
effect than the Adelaide Hills. Winters are cold and wet, the city
below often disappearing beneath the magic white fog that hangs
thick and silent over the hills. Perfect writer weather! The whole
world dissolves so you can make up your own. Snow makes a rare and
brief visit.
Spring sees the blossoming of cherry, apple and pear orchards
bursting into life and the winds that whip through the orchards,
sending flurries of white petals through the air. Up in the gum
trees, old-man Koalas grunt like chainsaws on steroids throughout
the day and night, advertising their availability to any passing
love interest and causing windows all around the hills to be slammed
firmly shut.
Then summer. Summer is hot and dry, picking season full on as trucks
weighed down with fresh produce roll their way slowly downhill to
the city and the markets and the planes that will take fresh
cherries to tropical Christmas lunches in Darwin, Brisbane and
beyond. Colourful rosella parrots, the curse of growers and the
delight of birdlovers alike,
vie with the pickers for the best fruit while black cockatoos divest
the pine trees of cones, firing their detritus down on the unwary
below.
And autumn, most beautiful season of them all with still, perfect
days and leaves turning every shade from russet through gold. A
magic time and nature’s reward between the blowtorch of summer and
the winter damp.
It’s a very special corner of the world. Close to the city but a
world away.
Can you tell I love it here?
For more
information about the Adelaide Hills and other regions of South
Australia, including pictures, check out:
http://www.sasecrets.com.au/product.asp?product_id=9002719
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