SUNDAY 16th Feb
No photos taken so not sure what happened today. Suspect we stayed put and had a quiet day.
MONDAY 17th Feb
I suggested we go for a local walk this morning and Jo surprised me by saying we should tackle the hill opposite - going up any kind of gradient being Jo's least favourite and most complained about activity. So off we set - across the pedestrian bridge:
and up we climbed:
Multiple stops of course, but Jo made it to the top:
Now the decision is which way down? Three options - the first, to the left of the above picture has a steep gritty, slippy fiinish; the second, to the right, is the infamous Pipeline trail where I had a nasty fall last year - which still gives me shudders. The third option is just to go back down the trail we had just come up.
I described the options to Jo to let her decide - surprisingly she chose the Pipeline option, probably because I had made a remark about exorcising my demons. Mostly downhill but including the steep and slippy Pipeline section itself. Careful baby steps and try to find the slightly grassy option to the side of the main track. There could be no holding of hands - I took the lead and Jo followed - even more gingerly than I did:
I said mostly downhill but there was one short but steep and tricky section:
Then we arrived at the scene of my accident last year - it's a rock wall with a few natural footholds:
Last year, I was on my own and doing this trail the other way round - clockwise - so I was coming down the rocks backwards when I lost my footing and tumbled head over heels before landing in the river reeds below this spot.
We had originally intended to reach this spot and then go back the way we had come as the next section after this, if we carried on, is a narrow slippy path high above the river. However, I had told Chris that we would be back before 1 pm and it had been slow getting to this point so the shortest, quickest option was to carry on anti-clockwise. That was a decision that proved to be a scary one for Jo, who spent most of the time on all fours, clinging to whatever she could find above her.
We survived without any damage this time.
After dinner that evening, Jo and Asher went for a dip:
TUESDAY 18th Feb
Chris had a meeting in the Somerton area of the city this afternoon and offered to take us there if we wanted another beach walk, and he would pick us up after his meeting finished - an offer we gladly accepted.
Chris dropped us off at a nice beachside cafe and Jo and I had a spot of lunch before heading along the beach northwards towards Glenelg, arriving there about 40 minutes later. Glenelg is well known to us, having stayed there a couple of times. Whichever beach we go to, we have to do a walk to the end of the jetty - and this was no different:
We walked past our former accommodation and the restaurants and bars round the small harbour there, until eventually it was time for cold beers at the Stamford Hotel:
WEDNESDAY 19th Feb
Another "no photographs" day for me so I'm guessing not much happened? I think we took a stroll round to Long Shot cafe for a bit of lunch and then crossed the road for Jo to take this one of me beside the local book exchange, which I've been using regularly:
THURSDAY 20th Feb
It was the day before our next little adventure - a week up in North Queensland's Whitsunday Islands - and Jo's swimsuit was shot so we drove over to Big W at Seaford and got her a new one. After that we headed to Port Noarlunga and, for the first time parked south of the pier.
The plan was to beach walk to the Onkaparinga river mouth but I spotted a trail through the dunes that would hopefully lead us a bit further up the beach. It was hot - and so was the sand. We were both wearing flip-flops (aka thongs) on our feet and it felt like walking on hot coals at times. The sand was very soft and it was a bit of a climb up the dunes so we were both pretty knackered by the time we eventually arrived on the beach:
The decision now was whether to carry on towards the river mouth:
- or head back to the port for some cold beers. As we hadn't intended a long walk today we hadn't taken water with us, so it was a no-brainer.
Back in Port Noarlunga, it was mid-afternoon on Thursday and a surprising number of licensed establishments didn't open until 5 pm - or, worse still, not until the weekend. We ended up in Drifters, which worked out pretty well in the end.
