The Nomadic Explorers | Australian Travel Blog

No matter if you are a botanical novice or a plant expert, you’ll be fascinated and intrigued by the amazing floral diversity and dramatic hillside setting of Mount Lofty Botanic Garden. First opened in 1977, the garden is dedicated to the cultivation and display of the world’s cool-climate plants, which thrive in the Adelaide Hills environment. The collections in the garden come from various geographic regions such as South America, China, East Africa, New Zealand, South East Asia and North America.

We visited Mount Lofty Botanic Garden twice - in April 2015 to capture the colour of autumn around Adelaide and in January 2016, to escape summer heat. I’d say this majestic garden is a absolutely must-visit place if you are in Adelaide Hills. Let me explain why.

Located only 12km from the heart of Adelaide City, Glenelg is a charming seaside suburb with sandy white shores, bustling shops and restaurants and attractions for all ages. Established in 1836, it is the oldest European settlement on mainland South Australia (the oldest being Kingscote on Kangaroo Island), with the proclamation of the colony of South Australia.

We always like to visit the Botanical Gardens wherever we go. Adelaide was no exception. We visited the Botanic Gardens twice while we were in Adelaide in April 2015 and in January 2016. Each season offers a new perspective in the Gardens: beautiful roses in autumnt, gorgeous lotuses in summer, purple Chinese Wisteria in spring - and just about any other splash of colour you can imagine, you can easily lose yourself in the overall splendour.

We love zoos! When we travel, they are always in our ‘places to visit’ list, as we know we don’t want to miss an opportunity to learn more about animals. As you may know, we are proud to be Zoos Victoria Members for 4 years in a row and today I am going to show you one of the benefits of having such a membership.

Being a Zoo Member means that you pay a once-off fee and then receive free entry for a year to many zoos around Australia (read more here about how all things work). As for us this means that when we travel to Sydney / Perth / Adelaide we can visit their zoos for free unlimited number of times! Cool, isn’t it?

When we went to Adelaide last year, guess where have we headed first? You’re right - we went to Adelaide Zoo!

As some of you might remember, last year Yegor and I (Katerina) travelled to Adelaide from Melbourne and back. We took bikes to cycle and explore the Encounter Bikeway - a scenic trail on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula. The trail links the coastal city of Victor Harbor with the river port town of Goolwa, passing through Port Elliot and Middleton. The bikeway itself is well signposted, however, not all the sections are off-road paths, some follow the road.

As safety of my son was (and is!) a highest priority for me, my choice was to cycle kids-friendly sections: around Goolwa and then Victor Harbour to the Bluff. This decision turned out a nice addition to our holiday.

Mushroom picking is one of our favourite things to do in autumn. We usually pick them in the Mount Macedon’s forests, but this weekend we decided to explore another area - Mornington Peninsula.

The Grampians are a series of five spectacular sandstone ridges running north to south with steep and craggy slopes on the eastern side and gentler slopes to the west. They are the result of earth movements lifting and tilting the hard sandstones to create an impressive landscape of peaks and valleys. There are lookouts with stunning panoramic views as well as a number of impressive waterfalls. You can spend weeks exploring this beautiful region: bushwalking and rock climbing, fishing, canoeing or learning more about the history, aboriginal rock art and culture of this region at Brambuk – the National Park and Cultural Centre.

However, not everyone has that much time. The Grampians region is usually visited by tourists on their way from Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne as a part of Great Southern Touring Route. So it always come to the question: “If I have only one day what would you recommend me to see?”. Frankly saying, it is hard to tell what exactly should be in your list. Some people love walking and it is not a problem for them to walk 2.5h walk to the Pinnacle and back. Some other with young kids might say that they’d prefer to visit lookouts and watch wildlife and not to walk that much….

However, there is something for everyone and here is my list of best points of interest (mostly easily accessible).

The Grampians were first settled by Aboriginals 5,000 years ago, which by Aboriginal standards is quite recent when compared to areas in northern Australia that were first settled 35,000-50,000 years ago. The Aborigines called the mountains the Gariwerd mountains and it became the heart of the Aboriginal culture in Victoria. The region has the largest number of rock art sites in southern Australia – more than 80 per cent of Victoria's rock art sites. Approximately 60 art sites, containing more than 4,000 different motifs have been identified in the national park.

Five shelters are open to the public and are all easily accessible: Manja and Billimina shelters in the Western Grampians, Ngamadjidj and Gulgurn Manja shelters in the north and, one of the most important sites in Victoria, Bunjil's shelter, near Stawell. We visited the Bunjil’s shelter on our way back from Halls Gap to Melbourne.