Our week at Airlie Beach & Hamilton Island - Day 1

FRIDAY 21st Feb

Chris kindly drove the 5 of us - me, Jo, Kelly and the boys - to the airport, leaving Old Noarlunga at 5 am. Chris didn't have enough leave left to join us for this holiday so he returned home to work - and also to oversee the work that was planned on the toilet block - while the rest of us were swanning away in North Queeensland again.

We flew in to the small but lovely Whitsunday Coast aiport (Proserpine):

It was a bit bumpy coming in and our pilot had to abort his first attempt at landing due to the high cross winds but we made it safely second time around.

The airport shuttle bus took about 40 mins to get us to our resort high up in Airlie Beach, overlooking the ferry port and marina. The 2 nights we had booked here had been done at the last minute as the original Air B&B that Kelly had booked was cancelled, as the property had been water damaged during the recent floods in the area.

I've commented before on how large Queensland is - Airlie Beach is almost 700 kms south of Port Douglas, where we had spent a week in January, but over 1,100 kms north of Brisbane. Definitely tropical.

Our resort was lovely and we had 2 adjacent rooms at the top of one of the buildings, each with large balconies that we could talk to each other from. The boys were very happy here - good wifi and an excellent pool and adjacent hot tub - what more could they want?

The restaurant and bar are next to the pool and are open fronted, but, happily with a decent roof to take the brunt of the regular fairly heavy showers we experienced on our first day. The rain never stopped anyone using the pool and hot tub, least of all our intrepid duo:

We took the resort shuttle bus downtown - a very short journey, but one that is very useful on the return back up the steep hill to the resort. Walking round the touristy town we came to the large outdoor lagoon style pool - similar to the one we had used in Cairns. Jo demonstrated the new top she had bought over her new swimsuit:

No restaurants for us in the evenings - the boys like to go online or watch a movie and snack/gorge in their apartments - and we were happy to do likewise, albeit with a couple of G & T's.

Last week in SA

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.

Another week has passed

A couple of folllow-ups to the comments on my last post - both of them good news:

Jo is back to being fully fit again and we managed to find alternative accommodation for our first 2 nights in Airlie Beach next weekend - https://clubwyndhamairliebeach.com.au/.

The return ferry to Hamilton Island (3 nights there) is also booked as is the shuttle from the airport to our resort on Friday. We have an early departure from Adelaide on Friday and we still have to arrange transport to the airport but otherwise we're pretty well sorted. Let's hope the weather behaves.

It's been an up and down week weather-wise here. On Wednesday we hit our highest temperature so far of this holiday - 43 C (109 F). On that day the local media reported that Adelaide was the hottest city in the world. This weekend it's cooled down quite dramatically with the thermometer just creeping in to the low 20's today (Saturday) with a similar forecast for tomorrow, then rising again over the next few days.

I got further confirmation that my next pre-assessment appointment for my knee operation has been scheduled for Monday 10th March - the day after we get home! The operation itself has to take place within 8 weeks of the pre-assessment which would make it early/mid-May at the latest.

Now for the daily diary:

WEDNESDAY 12th Feb

Although Jo was no longer feeling sick, today wasn't going to be a day for long walks. Apart from the need to break her in gently, the forecasters had warned us of the excessive temperatures we were likely to face, so it seemed like an opportunity to visit our favourite, almost posh, supermarket - Pasadena Foodland. We marvelled at the huge range of ingredients, the bakery etc and did some shopping, had some lunch while listening to the girl playing piano.

We took back some goodies for Chris, Kelly - and us - not forgetting the boys. Here they are on Miller's bed, tucking in to iced doughnuts:

THURSDAY 13th Feb

Jo was feeling much better today so we headed south to Aldinga and the beach there, which is a bit more rugged than the other beaches slightly north of there with their miles and miles of golden sand leading gently down to the warm Southern Ocean.

First we had to get down from the cliiftop to the beach via this staircase:

Jo is checking her vital signs on her watch and perhaps already worrying about how she's going to get back up to the car.

Don't be misled by the photo above - it's not all rocks - there's plenty of sand, interspersed with what looks like a form of coral on the beach. We walked south for a while and, just as we were heading up a fairly gentle slope back to the clifftop, Jo spotted something dark moving around in the water. It was hard to make out what it was at first - could it be our first ever shark sighting? As the object moved a bit closer to the beach and we made our way to the water's edge, we finally recognised it as a large seal having fun rolling over in the sun:

Staying on the clifftop promenade, we drove the short distance north to Port Willunga and the well-known Star of Greece restaurant where Kelly and Chris, pre-kids, had first taken us for our 40th anniversary so many years ago. Since that time, the expensive restaurant has added a kiosk extension for quick and easy - and much cheaper - eating - and it's there we went this time.

Kelly was going to be late home from work so I had booked a table for 5 of us back at the "Oldy" - the local pub/hotel/restaurant - somewhere the boys always enjoy going to:

FRIDAY 14th Feb

Kelly and Chris thought they were going to a Fringe show this evening but they were a month out - the show was on 14th March, not February! No alternative Valentine's Day plans were made - it would have been too late anyway to get a reservation at anywhere decent.

Jo and I thought it was time to jump on the train again and head in to the city. We headed to the Botanic Gardens to see the exhibition there of glass scultpures by Dale Chihuly, who, apparently is internationally renowned. 15 exhibits dotted throughout the park on a mapped trail - this was the last of them:

Earlier, Jo had a rest at one of the fountains:

Leaving the Gardens, we took the tram 3 stops back to the Railway Station, walking though to the riverside for lunch again at the Malt & Shovel which has a lovely view of the river, parklands and the Oval. We shared a cheeseboard for lunch with the obligatory beer sampler paddle:

After lunch it was back on the tram again, heading westwards this time to Thebarton and our first visit this holiday to my favourite pub - the Wheatsheaf Hotel & Brewery (http://wheatsheafhotel.com.au/).

Back in Old Noarlunga it was Friday evening and the gin bottle was opened again - as were the beer cans and wine bottles as we nattered round the kitchen island.

SATURDAY 15th Feb

As earlier indicated, it's been a relatively cool day and Jo and I haven't left the property, working our way through our books. Chris did the shopping this morning and was working on the garden and pool area this afternoon prior to joining his friends at a DJ Shadow gig this evening.

Kelly had a busy day too - usual Saturday cleaning chores and taking Asher to go-karts this afternoon while preparing for an early start tomorrow - big works meeting.

Jo update

It's now 2 pm Tuesday 11th Feb here and I'm happy to report that Jo is a little better today. She's still in bed but in the last hour has managed to eat a small piece of dry toast - not a lot, but a sign of progress.

In other news, Kelly got an email from the owners of the Air B&B at Airlie Beach that she had booked for the first 2 nights of our upcoming Whitsunday Islands holiday. The floods there had caused a lot of water damage to the property and they needed to get it fixed, so, regrettably, they had to cancel our booking. So now we're on the hunt for an alternative.

One thing I noticed when we were up in the tropics a couple of weeks ago was that the sun didn't really cast a shadow in the middle of the day - it went straight down to your feet.

It's very hot again and tomorrow they say we're going to be hitting 40+ C (104+ F). I went out for another cycle this morning and it was hard work but I believe it's going to cool down a bit by the weekend. Here I am at Perry's Bend on the Onkaparinga River - just a few kms to go:

I received an email overnight from my knee surgeon's secretary who seemed a little confused about one I had sent her back in August prior to our going to USA last year. I've put her right now but I liked the fact that she got in touch again and had correctly noted that we return from Australia on 9th March. Fingers crossed that I get an early appointment. We haven't made any arrangements to go to USA this year and won't do so until I've had the op.

No outings today - obviously. Kelly's out at work up north all day and Chris left for the city at lunchtime. Miller is very independent and comes home from school himself but it's always nice that somebody is at home when he gets here at 3:15 pm - and today that's us. Asher is at the after school club (OSCH) and Chris is picking him up at 5 pm.

That's you up to date again.

Another week in Old Noarlunga

TUESDAY 4th Feb

I introduced Jo to the walk that Kelly does regularly with the dogs. She had done the clifftop part last year but had never ventured down to that beach and this was a chance for Jo to do it at her/our pace. Her attention was immediately drawn to this information block:

When we did get down to the beach, Jo fancied a quick paddle:

The climb back up the cliff is fairly steep in a couple of parts and Jo needed a rest after the first one:

I'm happy to report that she was fine and made it to the top ok!

WEDNESDAY 5th Feb

Most mornings, at dawn, Kelly is out on the deck working on the weights:

Chris' 48th birthday was coming up this weekend so Jo and I took a drive to the huge indoor mall at Marion to see if we could find anything suitable. Almost as soon as we arrived I had a thought - perhaps a t-shirt from one of the local breweries would be a good idea, so we jumped back in to the car and let Google take us to, allegedly, the nearest one - Brightstar Brewing (https://brightstarbrewing.com.au/) in Thebarton. It was hot so, naturally:

Unfortunately, none of their merchandise took our eye but we did pick up a 6-pack of their products, so that was part one of Chris' present at least.

That evening all of us, bar Jo, headed to the cliffs again with the dogs. Kelly, Miller and Lily took the lead:

I followed, while Chris and Asher brought up the rear, with unseen Rufus bounding around in the wild:

Down the hill and back up again, Kelly and Miller had a seat and watched the sun go down:

THURSDAY 6th Feb

The hunt for the elusive brewery t-shirt continued. Jo and I drove to Aldinga and Kick Back Brewing (https://www.kickbackbrewing.au/) but no joy there either. Our next stop was to check out Willunga in the vain hope that the small Shifty Lizard (https://www.shiftylizard.com/) might have something - but, again, no joy. We did stop there at the nice Golden Fleece cafe for coffees and a shared muffin. We think the site must have been a garage in the past, given the prevalence of motoring mementos.

McLaren Vale is a bigger town so we thought we would make that our next stop, if only to check out again the lovely Bracegirdle's chocolate shop there:

We bought one of their small selection boxes as a top-up for Chris' present as we were beginning to despair about finding a suitable brewery t-shirt for him. A Google search revealed that there was a brewery not too far away - one that we'd never been to before - so we jumped back in the car and headed east.

Penny Red Beer Co (https://www.pennyredbeerco.com/) was due to open at 2 pm. It's a tenant of the adjacent Sew Sew winery:

We had arrived a little early so just nosied around the brewery. One of the doors was open so we popped in for a look around and waited for the official opening time. 2 pm came and went and still there was no sign of life so we asked at the winery and the girl there contacted the owner who was horrified that his staff member hadn't shown up for her shift. Jo waited in the relative cool of the winery shade for the brewery owner to drive over and serve us:

When the brewer arrived, he, apologetically, opened up and served us some very generously sized samples in our paddle. Of course, I was driving, so Jo had to do the majority of the heavy lifting.

The owner was a Londoner and had only been at this location for 18 months - and yes, he did have t-shirts, so we had finally cracked it!

The winery and brewery have an interesting approach road:

FRIDAY 7th Feb

No photos taken today. No evidence means nothing happening - just a day at "home". Friday evening is gin night, however, and it was also decision time for our next vacation week to the Whitsunday Islands. Just 2 weeks away now and the balances for the accommodation fall due tomorrow. Should we stay or should we go? Northern Queensland has been suffering from heavy floods - roads closed and all flights were cancelled today. Tomorrow's paper carried this article:

Despite all this we decided to go for it so fingers crossed.

SATURDAY 8th Feb

Chris' pre-birthday do was held at the lovely Sidewood Winery in the Adelaide Hills. Chris' Mum and Dad, brother Matt and a bunch of friends all showed up for a very sociable afternoon over wine, beer, pizzas etc:

SUNDAY 9th Feb

Today was Chris' birthday and the boys and Kelly presented him with a new pair of running shoes and we followed this up with our t-shirt, chocs and beers.

Saturday's chores - house cleaning and weekly shopping etc hadn't been able to be completed in the time available so they carried over to Sunday. This led to Jo and me getting out of the way for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We drove over to O'Sullivan Beach and parked near the boat ramp. The cafe was in the process of shutting shop early when we arrived but when he saw us he agreed to remain open a bit longer so we had ginger beer and ice creams before going on a short walk.

The walkway was a little steep in places so Jo stopped halfway for a seat and I decided to take a photo of her with the interesting rock strata behind her:

Unfortunately, as Jo pointed out, the perspective was all wrong - especially on her legs. She was looking out at these views:

Under shade we read a couple of chapters of our current books then headed back to Old Noarlunga where the boys had been promised a 4 pm projector showing of Despicable Me 4. Chris' choice of birthday meal was "takeaway" curries which we got delivered. Then there was the birthday t-shirt pose, followed by the cake and the blowing out of the candle:

MONDAY 10th Feb

The day hasn't started well - Jo didn't have a good night and is feeling poorly. She's medicated now and hopefully on the mend. It's going to be a day "in-house".

Back in Old Noarlunga

The weekend we arrived back from Cairns was, a little unsurprisingly, a quiet one. Sunday 26th January was officially Australia Day but Monday 27th became the workers' holiday - and it was a hot and busy one. I understand this picture made international news:

This is Aldinga beach - one of our regular walks. It's a beautiful sandy beach and it's usually quiet. It's also one of the many beaches round Adelaide where you're allowed to drive cars on to the hard-packed sand but we've never seen it looking anything like this.

I guess many people still celebrate Australia Day but there's a growing feeling amongst many Aussies that it's not appropriate to do so any more. It marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and the raising of the Union flag of GB. In today's Australia, due reverence and deference is given to the original inhabitants of the land.

Jo and I chose to dodge the heat and went to the cinema to watch A Complete Unknown - the Dylan biopic that covers his early years in New York up to the time he "went electric" - and very good it was too.

TUESDAY 28th Jan

We took a run to Brighton beach where the annual Sculptures by the Sea is held. I've posted a lot of the sculptures on Facebook but here's a 3 more with us posing beside them:

We had a beer break on the balcony at the local Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC):

WEDNESDAY 29th Jan

We took our first trip in to the city this morning. Chris had a slightly later meeting at work so he gave us a lift in and dropped us off at his office and Jo and I just wandered round from there. The usual stops - pharmacy, book shops and a coffee stop. We popped in to the Railway Station to top up our Metro cards for the return journey then walked through from there to the Malt Shovel for lunch - a pub that is perfectly situated overlooking the River Torrens and across at the Adelaide Oval, one of the world's most beautiful and iconic sports stadiums (stadia?).

The return train journey was a further opportunity to read a chapter or two of our books and when we arrived at Seaford Meadows station we decided to walk the more scenic and quieter way back to Chris' and Kelly's.

THURSDAY 30th Jan

Although we had exceeded our notional target of 10,000 steps round the city yesterday, it had been a very casual walk with lots of stops. Today we decided to go for a proper walk round the trails at Onkaparinga River Recreation Park:

We had arranged to pick up Asher from OSCH (after school club) at 5 pm - Miller made his own way home from school at 3:30 pm - and drive the boys in to Marion to meet Chris and Kelly, who had an appointment in the city to order materials for their new house. The bait was that we would meet at the Lego store for Asher to pick a present for one of his school pals whose party he was going to on Saturday.

The shop was an eye opener for Jo and me - especially the prices of some of the exhibits. This one exceeded 4-figures in A$:

Our evening meal was in the Food Court - each of us choosing a different franchise - Asian, Indian, Mexican.

FRIDAY 31st Jan

Jo and I went for another late morning walk - our first time this year over the nearby footbridge over the Onkaparinga river - a regular solo trip for me in previous years, doing a loop up the relatively short but steep hill that overlooks the appropriately named Hillview - but I had been spooked by my nasty fall last year and vowed never to do it again - at least not alone.

This time, it was the much gentler Chuch Hill walk with Jo:

After an inspection of the churchyard graves we deposited some of the books we had read in the local bring one, take one, box and then went to Long Shot for coffee.

Friday evening - end of the working week - time to open the gin - not to mention the beer and wine. We had a good old chinwag round the kitchen island.

SATURDAY 1st Feb

I decided it was time to get back on the bike again - maybe not the smartest decision, given the heat allied to a slight lingering effect from the night before. I didn't go far and was glad to eventually get back to the shade and the A/C:

SUNDAY 2nd Feb

Kelly takes the dogs out to the beach a few mornings each week and she usually asks me if I want to tag along. Until now, I'd always said no but this morning I agreed to join her. It was already pretty hot as we set off along the clifftop and down to the beach, followed by a short but occasionally steepish climb back up the cliffs:

It was a busy day - Kelly had arranged to take the boys to the beach and meet up with a couple of the school Mums and their kids. The plan was that this would be done after our morning dog walk and before Chris' Mum and Dad arrived early afternoon. Best laid plans and all that - everyone was running late, but, in the end, we did all get together mid-late afternoon.

Chris' best pal Anthony, who recently celebrated his 50th, also came along and brought with him his new girlfriend Anne-Marie, her daughter and her daughter's pal. The girls spent the entire afternoon in the pool while the boys and Kelly had spent 2 hours in the sea.

MONDAY 3rd Feb

Even hotter today - it reached 39 C (102 F), slightly lower than the forecast 41 C but still pretty unbearable in the full glow of the sun. Jo and I decided that it might be another day for us to go back to the cinema, but, first of all we would do a short walk at Christie's Beach.

Our walk along the beach included a pit stop at the Espy Bakehouse for brunch/early lunch and our first proper Aussie pie. We made it back to the car and then off to the cinema to see Conclave, which, incidentally, is excellent.

We did a short store shop (groceries and liquor are separate shops in Oz) before heading back to Old Noarlunga and a plunge in the pool. The Steele family went in after dinner - boys first, then their parents:

That's all for now, folks.