This left doesn't feel right...

...or "we officially have the cleanest windscreen in South Australia". I could not decide which one of those titles I wanted to use since they are both equally fitting. You can probably already guess why - if not then you’ll know by the end of this post.

Last Sunday Elvira, Inessa and myself were accompanied by Tycho - a very relaxed, cool and likeable Dutch guy who had a few stories up his sleeve. Not surprisingly after eight months of travelling in Australia. 

We chose to drive to the Adelaide Hills which is a lovely, rolling landscape, very green with lots of trees, supposedly reminiscent of NZ. If that is the case Elvira and myself might need to alter our travelling plans and visit New Zealand before departing for Asia… Anyhow there are a few things to see in the hills like Mt Lofty (great view over Adelaide), the toy factory with the "big rocking horse" (we didn't go there though), wineries and several wildlife sancturaries with the typical flora and fauna of this area. We chose to visit the Warrawong wildlife sancturay because it was on our route and, as a bonus, free of charge. Then there is Hahndorf - touted as a "German" town but overall rather disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it is a lovely place to see - but nowhere close to any place you'll find in Germany or even "Europe" for that matter (how I dislike to use the misleading collective term Europe). Yes there are lots of German flags, bars are playing "Bierkeller songs" and excessively expensive German products like Milka chocolate ($ 5.50) can be bought. But to me it failed to shake off the fake hue that usually surrounds mediocre theme parks... 

Top row: Elvira with lazy kangaroos and cockatoo showing off, bottom left: unusual nest placement in Hahndorf, 

bottom right: view over Adelaide from Mt Lofty (Pictures by P.Wettstein)

Since Elvira and myself did not work yet we chose to get up early, fetch the rental car and pick up our two friends at the hostel – sounded pretty straight forward in theory. Elvira steered straight towards the driver’s seat although I was meant to drive – welcome to Australia. Once we had that sorted out I wanted to shift into first gear but pulled on the door handle instead – needless to say that the employees from the rental company were starting to look quite worried… Anyhow I managed to drive off and turned left – with no indicator but wipers going at full speed instead. No matter how hard I tried it kept on happening for the whole day and I felt like a clueless 18 year old taking his first driving lesson... 

Sticker placed on our Windscreen - just to make sure... (Picture: Government of SA)

We did manage to get through the day without causing an accident. But I am tempted to open up a rental car business for tourists with wipers and indicators the "proper" way around – it might even be funded by the Australian government in the interest of safety. With roughly six million tourists per year (vs. 22 million Australians) it could be worth it... :)