While Not Working

The quick visit to Adelaide stretched to 10 days while my bicycle holidayed in Renmark, growing alien life forms based on snow peas left in the bar bag. Adelaide cityfrom Mt Lofty on a rainy day. I helped Roger move into the next house sit. We'd done this one before: no pets, just a slightly leaky house backing onto the River Torrens linear park and 6 minutes to town via the O-Bahn which, I might add, was the only O-Bahn in all of Australia. "Let's have dinner in town," said Roger on my second-last night before I was due to bus back to Renmark. "If we catch the O-Bahn there and back in less than 2 hours total it'll only cost me $4:60."  I ride free on the O-Bahn because I'm an old woman now and have a Senior's card, something I may or may not have skited about as I gaily tapped my card onto the O-Bahn. Off we went. Vroom zoom. We had a very nice dinner in a pretend American Diner. Outside the city heaved with football fans in town for Gather Roun...

Morning on the Murray at Renmark. While in Loxton I bought a packet of snow peas to feed my vegetable-deprived self. It was rather a large packet and when came time to leave Loxton I tucked the uneaten snow peas into my bar bag for snacking during the day and promptly forgot all about them.  Hotel Renmark in the morning. Now remember the conniptions I had while trying to find accommodation to work in Renmark? I had to work in Renmark because I then needed the full 5 days to pedal my way through the wilds north of the river to get to the next suitable working town. Renmark was full up with Easter revellers and families enjoying the school holidays, and prices for accommodation had risen accordingly. It all got too much when I was quoted $140 for a measly powered tent site where I couldn't work anyway, so I threw up my hands in disgust and said, "I'd be better off catching a bus back to Adelaide for Easter!" I confirmed that the Hotel Renmark would allow me to park my b...

Leaving Loxton. A path led along the river from the Riverside Caravan Park to downtown Loxton, and along the way I met Loxton's big pelican. First introduced to Loxton in the Mardi Gras of 1979 , it appeared in subsequent Mardi Gras atop a houseboat before being abducted by a heinous gang of youths and floated down the river, an outing which destroyed its paper mache body. In 1985 it was resurrected and attended the Adelaide New Years Eve parade celebrating South Australia's 150th jubilee. In 1998 local businessman Peter Mangelsdorf successfully lobbied Council for funds to reconstruct the pelican with fibreglass and, after much debate as to a suitable resting place, parked it down at the waterfront. He even had an axle added, to facilitate rescue in inevitable future floods. I love a good Big Thing. I headed northward on Bookpurnong road, expected a pleasant pedal along a country road but nope: trucks roared and all the riverland was determined to take the shortest route pos...

 I spent a thrilling two days in Loxton, locked in my cabin with my nose against a grindstone. I didn't go into town at all and only got down to the river, all of 50 m away, on the evening of the second day. I found the stairs up to the lookout. From the top: houseboats on glass. And from the bottom. Reflections. Wood and water. Colours of cliffs. I repeated the puffer jacket fashion statements of Mannum, but the style fitted right in to the mores of the Loxton Riverside Caravan Park and no one blinked an eye as I paraded back and forth to the laundry. I rearranged furniture and repurposed kitchen appliances into office nicknacks. Phone holder for video calls. I was disturbingly proud of this piece of creativity. Dont worry, I unplugged it first. Loxton office. After two solid days sitting at a keyboard my back was sore and I was grumpy. My bicycle was getting antsy at being cooped up in the bedroom. No you can't go out to play at night. There are signs all around the park war...

  I have a confession to make. I was pedaling along the road, bursting for a wee and looking for a suitable private pee spot with somewhere to lean my bike.   Coming to the conclsion that I would have to lean it at a property gatepost and disappear into the bushes, I picked a gatepost with a sturdy pole and a suitable thorn-free approach, trundled to a stop, and leaned my bike. The whole thing fell over.  I kid you not, the deceptivey sturdy post was in fact a hollow shell, eaten out by white ants and just waiting for a heavy bike to cause collapse. Disaster!  I hauled my bicycle from under the log and looked around.  A family of white-winged choughs laughted at me.  There was no one about to whom I could confess my sin.  I mounted my bicycle and pedaled away in the fastest slow motion possible on a fully loaded bicycle.  a few kilometres down the road I found a sturdy stone wall and attended to all necessary needs without further destruction...