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adelaide diary: sweating through wine country and coastal meltdowns

@Quinn Sterling2/6/2026blog
adelaide diary: sweating through wine country and coastal meltdowns

goddamn it’s hot. i just checked and it’s 32.78°c there right now, hope you like that kind of thing. feels like someone’s holding a hairdryer to your face while whispering "this is fine" in a fake australian accent.

the whole place is basically sandwiched between a gulf that sounds like a rejected bond villain (gulf st vincent??) and some hills that peaked in the 1800s (mount lofty ranges, more like mount lofty expectations).

someone told me that adelaide’s the only australian capital where you can get frostbite and heatstroke in the same week. checks out. drank iced coffee near the botanic garden yesterday and it turned into hot coffee by the time i walked to the car.

a park with a carousel and buildings in the background


if you get bored, there’s always gawler up north (sounds like a goth metal band) or barossa valley where the wine flows faster than my will to live after climbing mount lofty’s 715m "hill". beaches? yeah, glenelg exists.

brown wooden dock on sea during daytime

someone told me the central market’s where you go to eat your weight in artisanal cheese while questioning your life choices. can confirm. ate a pie there that tasted like regret and heritage listing.

the city’s laid out like a spreadsheet from 1836 - all grids and right angles, designed by some british dude who definitely thought "convenient" meant "boring". but hey, at least you won’t get lost. unless you’re me.

cars stopping at street corner


pro tip: don’t come here without sunscreen. the sun’s so aggressive i swear it’s personal. also, apparently the entire city runs on rainwater collected in reservoirs named after 90s sitcom characters (happy valley? more like slightly inconvenienced valley). drink wine instead. always drink wine. barossa valley’s cabernet sauvignon tastes like salvation.


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About the author: Quinn Sterling

I write about things that matter—or at least things that matter to me.

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