It's one thing to be roasted in the desert - you expect it, but it is much more unpleasant to be baked in a city. Yesterday, when we came back to Adelaide, it was 43 in the shade. 3 degrees more than in the desert. The tar on the roads had melted and in the evening all of the street furniture - benches, lamp posts etc. were still almost too hot to touch. All of the walls were radiating and it felt like heat was coming at you from every direction. In the evening the city centre was like a ghost town - everyone was at home huddled round their AC. To make matters worse, the AC in our hotel was useless. We had a most uncomfortable night.

This morning, we emerged from the hotel with all of our hot weather gear - wide brimmed hat, big bottle of water and our cooleroos (the things round our necks in the desert pictures). We almost had to go back in for our jumpers, the temperature had dropped by 20 degrees and it was a wonderful temperature for setting off to explore the city.

First of all we visited the Botanical Gardens where we joined a free guided tour conducted by an elderly gentleman volunteer called Henry who had an in-depth knowledge of plants and all thing botanical. Many of the trees were over 160 years old, the gardens having been established shortly after the area was colonised.

Then onto the the Art Gallery where once again we were just in time for a free guided tour. There were some challenging pieces in the gallery including some that would have had Damien Hirst scratching his head. As always there is some smart Alec who has a semi-plausible explanation for what it all means but for me two dead horses stitched together takes a bit of explaining. I wasn't the only one wondering if the Emperor had any clothes on.

The South Australia Museum has a very large collection of Aboriginal artefacts which was extremely interesting. This included a huge number of boomerangs of many different designs. It occurred to me that I haven't seen a boomerang being thrown so far. I suppose I could buy one and throw it myself but what if it didn't come back. Does anyone remember a TV programme from their childhood about a magic boomerang? When it was thrown time stood still.

The previous two days we had been out of town. On Saturday we took a drive up the Barossa valley and visited some vineyards where we conducted a in-depth investigation of all of the wine varieties and styles. In the afternoon we visited a traditional Aussie Pub and sampled the beers. Happy daze!

On Sunday we toured the Adelaide Hills area. This is where all the rich people live. The landscape was of gentle rolling hills, lochs and streams, tall majestic eucalyptus trees of many different types. We passed through several lovely little towns, mostly German in style and culture since Prussian Lutherans had populated the area and established many of the vineyards. The houses and gardens were beautifully kept. The towns were very busy - I think a lot of people had come out of the city to escape the worst of the heat.

Apparently, 150,000 Scots came to Adelaide in the 19th century. The clipper ship that brought many of them has been excavated and is going to be restored. It arrived in Port Adelaide today to begin the process. There are lots of Scottish names around the city - part of the beach front is called Largs Bay.

We really liked Adelaide and the surrounding countryside very much. The city has lots of history, green space, vibrant commercial area (shops) and lovely friendly people who are happy to engage with a visitor in conversation. It is a place to return to in the future.

Tomorrow we are off down the Great Ocean Highway to Robe which was described by our guide as a fishing port. Susan is thinking Crail, I'm thinking Peterhead. We'll see who is nearer the mark.