While Not Working

Now that my bike is up and running we've started exploring Adelaide by bike, and seeing we're so close to the beach the coastal shared pathways are the obvious place to start.   Yesterday we headed out through Port Adelaide and followed the Outer Harbour Greenway to Semaphore Beach. Although it was a Friday night Semaphore was much less crowded than on Tuesday.  South Australians obviously grab whatever good weather they have and head to the beach, regardless of whether it's a week night or not.   There were a few hiccups in the beach-side path, and we walked the bikes for quite a while on an 'unofficial' path between the houses and the sea.  In transit I spoke to a lady in one of those houses, and she told me that the shared pathway was due to be built where we were walking.  She thought it was a great idea but she wasn't going to use it because she's scared of people on electric bikes. She prefers to ride her bike in Hervey Bay, Queensland, at least 200...

 The weather here in southern Australia changes more quickly than a toddler's tantrum.  Buddy and I barely made it home from our morning walk before the first wave of weather moved through. It is not possible to rush home with an old blind dog.  He can't see the weather and he doesn't care.  I don't know if he can hear the thunder or not, but he doesn't care about that either.  He has things to sniff and sniff he must, and should he be hurried he will merely sit until he has sniffed enough. The storms went on to deliver hail and heavy (by South Australia's standards) rain to parts of Adelaide, but we were unaware of this.  We left Buddy at home and with our shiny new Metro cards we sallied forth upon the Adelaide Metro all the way to the CBD, where it was raining again. "I think  we'll skip the Botanic Gardens and the Zoo," we said, looking at the rain. "Lets catch the free bus instead." Rundle St Mall in the rain. So we did.  The free bu...

I saw a seal! I saw several seals, actually. After work we collected my bike from the shop. I brought my helmet and gloves, intending to ride along the foreshore in the evening. I was not clever enough to remember to bring my seat so I had to forego my ride and go for a walk instead. At the end of the Semaphore jetty several seals were happily cruising around the piers, stealing bait from the crab pots thrown in by hopeful crabbers on the jetty. The crabbers were one and all very optimistic: they threw their pots in despite being able, through the crystal clear water, to watch the seals raid them. The seals were not gracious winners and wallowed lazily in the sea, munching happily on their takeaway and waiting for more, teasing the crabbers by taking their time deciding which pot to rob.   We bought fish and chips and sat at the bottom of the Semaphore tower, watching the sun set over the sea calm as a mill-pond and guessing why there was ever a Semaphore tower there in the first p...

Distilling the day into a couple of paragraphs and some photos has become a habit, such that I find it hard to stop. As a result, despite saying yesterday that I was finished, here I am with an update. Yesterday we discovered that Buddy, being blind, lost us easily. If we were quiet and he couldn't hear us, he stood up and barked in order to get a response. It took a while and a couple of jump-out-of-my-skin moments for me to realise that all he needed was to know where we were.  Hello? Are you still there? This morning he was duly walked, fed, medicated, watered and loved.  Given that he is used to being at home all day alone while his owner works, we had no qualms about leaving him and walking off to explore Port Adelaide. The Port was a curious mixture of industry, commerce, and all manner of homes from decrepit historical stone cottages, through big blocks of public housing, to grand and expensive mansions along the river. Old industrial buildings jostled side by side with...

Remember I told you about Buddy the dog? We moved into Buddy's house today and here we will stay until his owner comes home. Buddy is a chocolate labrador and has bestowed his undying love on us, bought forever by regular meals and pats, and with the occasional loud bark to remind us that he has lungs.  Buddy can't see, so we have to learn to use our voices to tell him where we are, and not to put things where he will crash into them. A quiet Buddy moment.   Life with Buddy will happen at a slower pace than life on the road. We won't have adventures, near-misses with mice and drop bears, or struggles with flat mattresses and gale force winds at anywhere near the frequency of the last few months. This means that I won't update the blog as frequently as I have done; I'll still write about any adventures that happen as we explore Adelaide but this is the last of the daily-ish entries. I'd like to thank all of you who have followed along for the journey. I've ha...

We didn't even try to go downtown in Hahndorf today. Every person and their dog was out enjoying what South Australians perceive to be 'warm' weather, and an inordinate number had chosen to do their enjoying in Hahndorf. Beautiful day breakfast view from the camp kitchen.   We went for a drive through the back roads to Mt Lofty instead. This wasn't necessarily a bright idea because all the people who weren't in Hahndorf had decided to go to Mt Lofty, and some of them had dressed up in their most figure-hugging Lycra and decided to do so on their bicycles.  Half way up the mountain we slowed to a complete stop because a recalcitrant koala was sitting in the middle of the road and everyone, including the bicyclists, had stopped to take photos. Not us, though; having feasted on koalas at Mikkira we were not enamoured of a single mangy individual that may or may not have been a drop bear in disguise. We just got frustrated until everyone got the koala photography out of...

The goose gang came to visit this morning. From their demeanor I guess that the goose gang waddles up from the dam every morning and takes a short cut through our site on their way to the green pastures at the top of the caravan park, along the way picking up whatever tasty bits are offered or have been left by campers.  They were a little flummoxed to find our tent in their path, and much goose-gossiping ensued before, deciding we posed no threat, they goose stepped on through to greener pastures.  We walked in to Hahndorf: a total of about 3000 steps and roughly 2.5km. Hahndorf is a town that makes much of its German heritage and we were even passed in the street by a genuine German family, speaking rapidly in German. I imagined that they were quite possibly laughing at the German folk music blaring from the German pubs with their advertisements for German hot dogs plastered outside. But I could also be both cynical and wrong. How Hahndorf Came to Be We wandered up and down ...

We met a dog called Buddy. Buddy needs someone to stay with him in Adelaide while his owner is elsewhere, so starting Sunday we will hang our hats at Buddy's home for a while. In the meantime we spent an extra day looking at Adelaide, which mainly involved more walking on the Linear  Path: We had an exit directly from the caravan park, down the steps, and off we could go in both directions. I found a suspension bridge, which was quite a novelty. The bridge was built, so the story goes, in the 1920s by a developer who wanted to improve access to his development. The construction was not legal or approved, but the locals took to the bridge with gusto and declared it theirs.  Thankfully both councils responsible for the bridge (one either end) agreed that it was important and stumped up the cash to rebuild it when it eventually became too dangerous to use. This version of the bridge opened in 2018 after being closed for a couple of years for the rebuilding. I found an old house t...

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, the kind of beautiful day we would expect, in Roma, to enjoy in August. The kind of day made for being out and about, enjoying wearing only one layer and being free of a puffer jacket. The kind of day that makes a person grumble about having to stay in a cabin in front of a laptop, working. With the door shut I might add, to prevent passing tradies (there are ensuites under construction next door) from overhearing private conversations. It was some consolation that Roger had to spend this beautiful day out running errands and doing washing, so we were equal in our grumbles. He did rave a bit too much about finding a nice bakery but I had to forgive him for that because he brought me some yummy samples of its wares. Home for the night/Office for the day: Levi Caravan Park, Adelaide. It was still a beautiful day when I finally shut the laptop, so we went for a walk along the River Torrens. Bearing in mind that the use of the word 'river' in...

I apologise to the koalas for complaining about their night time noise.  The koalas on Mikkira Station couldn't hold a candle to the cacophony of drunken conversation and domestic argument that reigned in the Cowell Caravan Park last night, although according to the Park manager all the real action had happened the night before and this was but a mediocre encore which settled quickly after a stage left appearance by SAPol. This was all a bit of a shock after our pleasant day exploring the various teeny towns as we drove north up the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula. Views across the Sleaford Meer on our way back from Mikkira. Port Lincoln from Winters Hill lookout, which gives a huge view across Boston Harbour.  Looking west, the sandhills near Coffin Bay were visible. Beautiful little town #1: Tumby Bay Beautiful little town #2: Port Neill Beautiful little town #3: Arno Bay And there we were in Cowell last night, listening to the rabble rousers and counting Harley Davidsons i...