Day 13 The 'burbs of Adelaide

A second day in the artistic Eden of Australia

The wind overnight was quite astonishingly loud.  Possibly we were in an exposed situation - I suspect the next thing higher than us to the WSW is Los Torres de Paine - but I was beginning to wonder about roof tiles sailing by, or indeed through, the window!

We got reasonable sleep despite the tempest and went for a wander South from the house.  This is a path which goes along the clifftop and eventually up and down a few of the gullies.  I have run along along here and it seems to be well used by the citizens.

The gardens facing the sea were, not surprisingly, fairly heavy on succulents to survive the very exposed location.  

These triffid-equivalents were particularly impressive.

After that Frances went shopping with her sister and Tammie and I went for a walk along the Torrens outflow (which now seems to be called Breakout Creek and has had a lot of work done on it).  This was quite good for birds of various sorts including:

Great Egret;

White-faced Heron; and 

Little Black Cormorants.

One garden had a eucalypt (possibly E. citriodora) covered in blossom.  The blossom was in turn covered with Musk and Rainbow Lorikeets.  I don't think people in that area slept long after sun up.

In the afternoon Frances and I went for lunch at Glenelg.  This took the form of a serve of garfish and chips from the Bay Fish Shop and was up to their usual high standard.  A visit to the Hahndorf Sausage shop (in Jetty Road Glenelg followed to get some good stuff for later.

While Tammie and I were outside the shop  a lady bustled up, and I was expecting grief for having a dog too close to the shop.  Not so: she was another Tenterfield Terrier fan!  Such persons of refined tastes are everywhere!

We then took ourselves for a walk from the Northern side of the Patawalonga Creek to West Beach Marina.  At one point another dog exerciser appeared to be fidgetting with something in the wash.  It turned out he was trying to return a puffer fish to the sea so that dogs wouldn't eat it (his concern was the poisonous nature of the fish, not piscine welfare).  

On top of the dunes 4 small propellers were working away: all different designs.  According to a sign which Frances read this was a formal experiment to assess the generational capacity of the different models.  

We then returned to the house where I packed the car including the usual array of space munching gifts provided by the sisters.  To my astonishment I still had some visibility through the back of the car!

We then passed an evening of family celebration of a birthday!  I imbibed in a restrained manner, and was pleased it finished early in view of the drive ahead.  It was also good that I found the road I planned to use as a short cut in the morning was closed due to roadworks!

Bird of the Day:                 Great Egret

Plant of the Day                 Eucalypt with blossom

Interesting sight of the day  Turbine trial

What we learnt today          Seacombe road is closed for roadworks!

The three's dogs mouths are opened wide,
their tongues are hanging out;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
all this food will make us stout!'

Back to Index page
Read on