Saturday in Port Adelaide

We drove down to Henley Beach to go shopping in Foodland with Kelly on Saturday morning, and, in the afternoon, we all went to nearby Port Adelaide where there was a large scale graffiti-style art exhibition. Here's some examples:

Also in the Port was the oldest Clipper style ship in the world, shipped over to Adelaide from Scotland last year. It's even older than the only other survivor, the Cutty Sark, which also has a Scottish connection. Its "modern" name, the City of Adelaide, makes it obvious where it should reside. It's on exhibition just now:

Chris had arranged to meet up with some of their friends and we caught up with them at the Old Port Hotel Brewery. After a couple of drinks there, we wandered off round the Port a bit more:

The final bit was the kiddies' corner, where Miller had a ball - check http://youtu.be/aQafjq1wmII

Kelly and Chris are out just now shopping for the big Australia Day celebration tomorrow. Today is Burns' Day, however and we hope Andy can do the business in Melbourne this afternoon.

Back to Adelaide

After packing on Friday morning we checked out of our resort:

Myponga is just a few miles north of Normanville and that's where we planned to watch the Tour Down Under cyclists going through. We had time to kill so we went for coffee and doughnut/Danish Wedge at the local bakery, from where we planned to walk up to the corner where we knew the tour would be passing in a couple of hours. In the end, we just drove our car up to the junction and checked with the parked police car that it was OK to park there - "as long as you make sure it's well off the road when the cyclists come past, mate".

I wasn't quite sure exactly when the Tour would pass this spot. I knew they were scheduled to leave Glenelg at 11:30 am and that's just over 40 kms away, so I had told Kelly that it would likely be between 12:30 and 1:00 pm when they passed, but I was anxious not to miss the moment. We tried sitting at a few places, but one of them was near a dried up underground pipe and there was a bit of a stench there and it was plagued with flies, so we moved away. Some of the other Tour watchers told me 12:50 would be when it happened, so we had tons of time and went back to the car for a while. I kept going back to check, however, and eventually a flotilla of 20-30 advance promotional cars came racing through, tooting their horns and cheering:

We assumed the cyclists wouldn't be far behind but we were wrong - it would be at least another half hour. Another local gave me a good tip to stop me from continually jumping in and out of the car needlessly - "when the cyclists are getting near, the first thing you will see and hear is the TV helicopter coming over the hills". Good tip, but actually before that there was a procession of police motor bikes and cars, each a few minutes apart. I guess there were as many as 15-20 motorbikes and 10-12 cars. Bit of a holiday day out for the boys in blue, methinks.

Not long after the scheduled arrival time, the cyclists eventually appeared. The leading group went past so fast that I barely saw them - certainly I never got time to photograph them. I was wrestling with Jo's camera and trying to remember how it worked (mine was low on battery) and my eyes were focused on the large peloton behind:

Now I was standing off the road on the gravel but I nearly got run over as some of the group, who were incredibly tightly packed, were forced off the tarmac and whooshed inches by me.

Behind this was a fleet of back-up vehicles with spare bikes, wheels etc aboard, followed by ambulances and even more police cars. We joined the procession north-eastwards for a few miles before they turned off and we carried on to Willunga on to McLaren Vale, then McLaren Flat, where we'd arranged to meet Kelly and Miller at the Currant Shed for lunch.

We were a little late in arriving - it wasn't that easy to find - but Kelly and Miller were happily playing in the lovely garden there and we sat down to join them:

We had a glass of wine and some bread in this spot and then sat at our table for our meal.

Kelly asked us if we needed some guidance or to follow her back to Semaphore, but we thought we would manage - and we did - eventually. We had a couple of stops first of all - firstly for some take-away beer at Ekhidna's (https://ekhidnawines.com.au/) cellar door, then later to re-fuel Kelly's car, which we'd had use of all week.

We had beers in the back garden and awaited Chris' arrival home after his first full week's 9-5 regular job for a few years. Chicken, salad and, of course, wine for dinner.

You'll be pleased to know the family Huntsman spider is still alive and well - although she (we think it's female as it appeared to have eaten the previous one) had moved to a new, more prominent, position high on the lounge wall - but it's nowhere to be seen this morning. Cue dramatic music.

Last 2 days in Normanville

It's Friday morning now and we're having breakfast before packing and heading back to Adelaide. We're going to meet Kelly and Miller in McLaren Vale for lunch after taking in a bit of the Tour Down Under cycling on the way there.

How's Jo you ask? Hale and hearty again. Wednesday was a write-off for her but it gave her a chance to recover her strength after a really bad night and yesterday (Thursday) she was all go and raring to go for a long walk.

Whilst Jo was sleeping on Wednesday afternoon I played golf. I walked 18 holes in the afternoon heat and felt it when I was finished. The course was quiet - I hardly saw anyone else, although I did have a bit of a funny experience on the 2nd tee. I was about to play when I looked over and there, staring at me, just a few feet away were:

I turned round and there were another two, then another three. In total, I was surrounded by 10 kangaroos. They watched me intently - never threatening a move, but they're big animals and it felt kind of spooky being out there alone.

Jo planned our walk on Thursday. We drove up to Willunga and set out on the Shiraz Trail, which is part of the much longer Coast to Vines Rail Trail (aka The Kidman Trail). It's a former rail line which is now a walking, cycling, horse-riding track. Our plan was to walk to McLaren Vale, have some lunch and then walk back - a total of 12 miles (19 kms).

We were pretty well prepared - lots of slap on, wearing hats and carrying a backpack with a couple of bottles of water. Our first experience was the loud screeching of all types of birds, including:

It seemed for a while that there was some kind of bird war going on. We still don't know what was driving them all crazy but they were still at it when we returned five hours later.

The trail has little shelters and seats where the former stations were. Here we are at the first and second stops:

Jo was fascinated by some of the apparently dead trees and the growths on them:

After a few miles of walking through nothing but vines, we eventually came in to the outskirts of McLaren Vale and some vineyard visitor centres, the first of which was Serafino:

We walked past the town centre and out to the McLaren Vale visitor centre for re-fuelling and a brief rest before walking back and finding a suitable spot for lunch - which we did. Oscar's was the first proper restaurant we saw, adjacent to the Trail. We thought we may have been there before with Kelly and Chris, but we couldn't be sure. Anyway it was very nice - pasta for Jo and salmon for me, washed down with some Swell Pale Ale:

That's water that Jo's throwing back - honestly!

Tuesday week 2

We decided to take a drive from our resort in Normanville and headed inland and eastwards on a planned loop over to Victor Harbour and back round past Ingalalla Falls.

First stop on the tourist trail was Selwyn's Rock:

View from above:

Pretty enough, but a little underwhelming. Nice cafe adjacent overlooking the above view and we considered stopping but, in the end, we decided to press on to Victor Harbour. Car parked with 3 hour limit, we hurried off to the Information Centre before walking across the causeway to Granite Island.

There's a horse-drawn tram that takes you there, but we preferred to walk:

We had been advised to walk anticlockwise round Granite Island and this was the view of the causeway and Victor Harbour as we started up the walkway:

We'd been on G.I. a few years ago, but I seem to recall we didn't walk very far. This time we were determined to do the circular tour. We came across some of the odd-shaped rocks that we had seen on nearby Kangaroo Island on one of our previous visits to Oz:

So what do you think we are doing here?:

The idea was to frame the view of the rocks below, which Jo saw as a man lying facing down with his bum in the air:

Once we'd done two-thirds of the circular walk, there's a stairway down to the jetty and cafe:

We had heard about a Heritage Trail and went in search of it, but soon gave up and headed back along the beach when there appeared to be no sign of a proper trail. Lots of seaweed on the beach and scores of what we deduced were probably cuttlefish shells:

Our walk round Victor Harbour's attractions covered 5 miles. Time almost up in the car park, now it was time to head towards the Falls, but we got diverted to the Bluff at Rosetta Head, where there were a number of trails around and up to the top of the hill, which was 340 feet above the sea below. Jo chose to stay in the car park below and read her book but I had to go up:

Eventually we left the Victor Harbour area and found our way to Ingalalla Falls, a beautiful cavernous spot, which must provide spectacular falls in winter, but at this time of year, it was little more than a trickle:

A special place, we both felt.

It was just 5 or 6 miles back to our resort from there, but, first we had to go to Foodland to pick up something for dinner. BBQ chicken and Caesar salad was our choice - easy, cheap and very nice.

I had a quick splash in the pool to cool down and then jumped in to the jacuzzi bath after Jo had finished. Now it was time for G & T's.

Jo had a bad night last night and struggled with her breathing - she was very congested. This morning, I'm blogging whilst she sleeps off and on - I don't think we're going far today.

Sunday/Monday activities

Sunday was a really lazy one. Chris' Mum & Dad, Lorene & David, came over to see us in the afternoon, so we just hung around the apartment in the morning, only popping out to grab some cake to offer our guests. We needn't have bothered - they arrived bearing gifts - edible, of course. We shared this Germanic-looking concoction consisting of pastry containing apple and custard, topped with icing - can't remember the name. The second gift they brought we haven't opened yet - it's a gift pack containing Brioche Crispbread, Masala Jam and Nigella Kasundi, whatever that is. We look forward to trying it out.

We had supper in the on-site Peninsula Bar, where we sat on the veranda, overlooking the golf course, with the sun going down:

For the record, Jo had prawns and I had squid - both very nicely cooked.

Monday morning's exercise was golf. I decided I would like to try and walk rather than buggy - and I did for the first 9 holes, with Jo accompanying (but not caddying) me. Jo's still struggling a bit with a cough/cold - she blames Chris and Miller! - and she couldn't walk any more, so we took a buggy for the back nine. Jo was snapping away with her camera:

I always used to joke that Jo was "barking" and she certainly has been these last few days - she sounds like an Alsatian dog, but we think it's easing a little now and she's moved on to the runny nose stage now. We understand Miller is on the way back as well now, having taken antibiotics.

I'd finished the one and only book I'd brought down to Normanville with me - the others I left in Adelaide - so we went looking for another book to keep me occupied for the rest of the week and we came across a charity shop with a few second hand paperbacks. Nothing much took my fancy but I decided to invest 50 cents in a Frederick Forsyth novel - The Afghan - the first time I've tried one of his books.

The rest of Monday was spent lazing around - a short snooze then a dip in the pool, followed by a jacuzzi bath, then supper - a take-away pizza, washed down with Penfolds Koonunga Hill Cab Sauv. Sitting on our porch, watching the sun go down, we waited for the kangaroos to come hopping over the golf course as they do at this time every evening. A mother and her Joey came right up to the tennis courts beside us. When I got up to take a photograph, I got a proper stare from Mum:

I didn't go any closer and after a few minutes, they hopped off, with little Joey bringing up the rear:

Today (Tuesday) we'll probably drive around a bit - once we've both had breakfast.

End of first week

Leaving a sick baby behind, Jo and I took Chris' car on Friday and headed south to our timeshare in Normanville, stopping first of all at the Old Salopian Inn for lunch:

Our apartment is a ground floor one bedroom one, overlooking the pool and golf course, with a distant sea view:

On Saturday morning, we decided to go for a long beach walk:

Normanville Pier

 At the far end of the beach, there was a small steep hill, which I climbed up:

It was 4.6 miles to this point and we needed to get back to Normanville for lunch. We had a huge meal of 6 plates of various sizes of tapas at the Courthouse - very nice, but we still had another mile or so to walk back to our complex, taking our total walk up to over 9 miles. We knew already that dinner would be a light one again after such a heavy lunch, so we went out in the car to stock up with beer and buy some eggs. The Myponga Brewery was our first stop:

Today (Sunday), Chris' parents, David and Lorene are coming over to see us this afternoon. Otherwise no plans. Jo has had a bad cough for the last few days - it gets worse at night when she barks away. Jo reckons she now has mucus in her stomach which will affect her appetite - that might be a blessing in disguise.

First Thursday down Under

Kelly was at work yesterday and Miller, who had been a bit under the weather the evening before, seemed good enough to go to Day Care, which meant Chris could drive Jo and I out to Prancing Pony's (http://prancingponybrewery.com.au/) brand new brewery - so new, in fact, that the builders were still tidying up as we arrived.

Nice place - and a good lunch - but when we got back, Miller had taken a bit of a turn for the worse and poor Kelly and Chris had a bit of a night of it last night, dealing with projectile vomiting etc. All he wanted was his Mummy:

This morning, Miller seems a little brighter. Kelly's off to work and Chris has gone for a haircut, leaving Jo and I in charge for the first time. Jo took this photo of me out in the back garden with Miller earlier on:

Today is the start of our week long time-share down at Normanville - just an hour and a half south of here. We're taking Chris' car and he and Kelly might come down and join us for the weekend if Miller's up to it. Chris is working next week but he gets the train in to the city, so doesn't need his car, which is handy for us.

Oh - and Chris' Mum & Dad weren't able to come over yesterday as Lorene had an emergency tooth extraction, poor thing. We'll catch up with them another time.

Oz - days 3 & 4

On Tuesday, we wandered round Rundle Mall with Chris and had lunch at one of these quick-as-you-can-eat Malaysian restaurants in the Asian Food Mall. It was good, if a little heavy for lunchtime. Kelly, meanwhile, had left work and was heading for her Citizenship test, which we assumed would take 30-45 minutes. In fact, she finished it in less than 5 minutes and got 100%. Celebrations were held at the Curious Squire before heading back to Derby St., where Chris prepared Spag Bog.

No excuses on Wednesday morning - we had been idle for long enough, so Jo and I went for a long walk south along the coast. We had left fairly early in the morning and planned stopping for breakfast at the first cafe on the shore, but it didn't appear until after 5.6 miles of walking on concrete paths, grassland, beach and on paths in the dunes. Here's a few of the photos we took along the way:

Semaphore Pier at the start of the walk

Finally, the Grange Pier Cafe and breakfast - and a rest

As you can see, it was overcast and coolish - low 20's is as high as it's got so far. The locals are all complaining about the "cold snap".

As we were having our breakfast, at first just a trickle, but then a flood - if that's the correct collective noun - of local lifeguards walked past us. There must have been 30-40 of them, all of them in just their swimsuits and pretty ripped. It was like something out of Baywatch - except no babes. They all had tanned arms and legs, but white on the core body where their vests normally were.

Then it was back to Derby St. for us. the entire walk was 11.3 miles and it took us over 4 hours of walking, not including our stop for breakfast (BLT for Jo, pancakes, maple syrup & cream for me). Check out the stats and route here - http://www.mapmywalk.com/workout/842406403

Kelly still had a bit of admin to do on her Citizenship papers so we all headed back to the city with her and from there to fine local brewpub - the Wheatsheaf - where I even managed to get some cask conditioned beer - my first in Oz, I believe.

By now, the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day, so Jo and I spent some time in the back garden, reading, snoozing and boozing, whilst Chris prepared salmon for dinner. Excellent.

Today (Thursday), Kelly is back to work, Miller is in Day Care and Chris is doing some work at home. Chris' Mum & Dad are coming over later on, and I think we're just going to chill until then.

Aussie Diary Day 2

My case duly arrived yesterday morning about 10 am, so it was nice to shower and change in to my own clothes.

Jo and I went for a walk and a spot of lunch - along the prom, up to the end of Semaphore Pier and then up - and down - Semaphore Road, looking for a cafe that Kelly recommended. We never saw it so ended up going back to the cafe where we'd all had coffee on Sunday.

There were little specks of rain, but it never came to anything. After lunch we all went to the movies to see Imitation Game - very good - then we picked up Miller at his nursery and went back to have dinner on the decking. Chris had prepared a huge chunk of corned beef - and really nice it was too. Here he is relaxing on the decking with Miller whilst the rain - which was pretty heavy by now - was giving the garden a good soaking:

This morning, the storm is moving east - it's quite windy, but dry and overcast. Today, Kelly has gone back to work and then has her test for citizenship and we're meeting her up town before we pick up Miller.

First day Down Under

The journey was pretty good, considering it's a mammoth 32 hour slog. We rate Cathay Pacific - excellent service, nice food - everything went well, but I'm not sure how it would have been had we been at the back of the bus. On the longer leg to Hong Kong, we both managed to get a decent few hours' sleep in our little pods. The section of cabin we were in only had 8 berths and we were in the middle but we hardly saw each other, the way they were angled.

I watched the James Brown biopic, but there weren't really any other movies I wanted to watch. When we got to HK, we only had about 40 minutes to catch our connection to Adelaide and it was quite a walk - I reckon over a mile! Going east meant we were losing time so this was our second night trip, but neither of us was ready for a long sleep, and we just dozed off and on.

On arrival in Adelaide, we were amongst the first off the plane and whisked through Immigration courtesy of the electronic system. Jo's bag and my golf clubs arrived quickly, but soon there was a call over the tannoy for Mr. Stewart. I knew what that meant - my bag didn't make the final leg from HK to Adelaide.

So here I am, sitting here on Monday morning, blogging away, awaiting a call from the airline, who are supposed to be delivering my bag this morning. Just now, I'm wearing a pair of Chris' shorts and one of his t-shirts - yes, I did get in to them! - but, having worn them all day Sunday, I'd quite like to shower and change in to my own gear now. This was yesterday's look:

Jo and I didn't crash until after 8 pm last night, having survived a long day, Kelly and Chris having picked us up early morning at the airport. It was overcast in the morning but the sun broke through in the afternoon and it got pretty warm later on. We went for a morning stroll, then back for a spot of lunch, then out again in the afternoon for a walk along the beach, followed by a beer, then more beer back at the house, where Kelly and Chris demonstrated how to relax in a hammock:

We don't look quite as relaxed:

Miller was having a great time playing in the paddling pool and the adjacent sand pit, although you could barely tell one from the other after he'd finished shipping sand in to the pool and water in to the pit:

We had G & T's and wine to follow to wash down the lovely meal Chris prepared, then it was off to bed.

This morning we spotted the large Huntsman spider that Kelly and Chris share their house with:

They tolerate its presence - high up near the ceiling - as it is apparently harmless to humans and it eats a lot of the other nastier beasts around.

To close, here's Kelly's typical breakfast - a huge bowl of 6 - yes six! - boiled eggs, pickles and salad: