Ballarat Bugs and Adelaide Apples!

The following weekend (2 March) Sarah and I set out for Ballarat (a city north-west of Melbourne and famous for its gold mines, like Bendigo). The journey took about three hours and we again stayed at a host family, as, like previously, the weekend was organised by the ITA.
On the Saturday morning I woke up to very itchy legs, which I naturally scratched. As the day developed so did the huge red marks/bites on my legs. I did not know what caused it and Sarah was out of the equation, I think. Anyway, during the day we went to a reconstructed 1860's village in Ballarat (not a Victorian Victorian village!!!). It was a very authentic look at life in gold-rich Ballarat and the organisers made sure that everything was as exact as could be in replication. There were a few volunteer actors parading around as various locals, which made it very original. It was like we literally stepped back into time, only the modern dress of the visitors giving it away. After wandering around and visiting different parts of the town we set off to find some pills and some spray to put on my now very red and incredibly itchy legs. In the evening we went to a barbecue at one of the local ITF houses. On the way we passed the lake where the 1956 Olympic rowing events took place, although that would be difficult to hold now as there was not a drop of water left in it, due to the drought. At the barbecue we enjoyed the company, drink and food (again I tried kangaroo, this time barbecued though, and a little tough too). The organisers got the numerous Canadians and Australians there to sing their national anthems and then Sarah, myself and the only other English woman there to sing 'God save the queen' (which we reluctantly managed to do through forced teeth).
The next day we headed back to Echuca, me scratching all the way. I went to the doctors on the Monday, due to my itching and she did not know what caused it (sand flies were the most likely explanation though). We had to pay $48 for the privilege and managed to claim back about $32 of it through the reciprocal agreement the two countries have in the form of Medicare. The Australian health system seems to be half way between the UK and US system, in terms of health care payments.
On Thursday 8 March we set off for Adelaide in the evening. I was allowed a day off school so we decided to leave in the evening. We drove for about two hours and then found a motel for the night in Swan Hill, which is further up the Murray river. On Friday we continued our journey to the South Australian capital. It was an interesting journey as we drove through semi desert landscape in parts. As we crossed the state border between Victoria and South Australia we had to put our watches back half an hour to GMT + 10 1/2. More bizarrely about half a kilometre into South Australia we were halted by a luminous jacketed official next to a road block. It wasn't the police but some SA state border official. What could they be stopping us for I asked Sarah? Could they be checking for drugs? Illegally imported alcohol? Cigarettes? Smuggled Kalashnikovs for Al-Qada? No - they were after apples! They checked our car over for these dangerous products. Luckily we had swallowed the evidence 50km down the road - a narrow escape - phew! Apparently it is illegal to carry fruit between the two states as they might contain fruit fly which could potentially devastate crops in more remote areas.
We finally arrived in Adelaide in mid afternoon and checked into our motel in the city. We checked out the city centre then, which was a 10 minute walk from our motel. The following day, with temperatures forecast to hit 37 degrees (it has now turned into Autumn, apparently) we headed for the beach on a tram, which had been travelling there and back for over 100 years. It was a pleasant way to arrive to the beach suburb of Glenelg and the tram (which took about 20 minutes to get there from the heart of the city) terminated literally a minutes stroll to the sand. We enjoyed the next few hours sunbathing and swimming before heading back to the city. That evening we hit a few lively pubs and sampled the local ale, Coopers. The city had seemed much more lively than Melbourne or Sydney had been. Maybe because it was smaller and we had been in the centre.
The following day we walked by the river, visited the zoo and went shopping before enjoying a Chinese meal in the evening. We drove back to Echuca on the Monday, a public holiday in Victoria. The drive took 8 hours (+ the half hour we added back on) and almost 700km and I was knackered by the time we arrived at the house.