Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Still concerned!

This morning I was contemplating where the COG (the C stands for Canberra) Wednesday Walkers could go.  I thought about Belair National Park, which the WW have never visited or perhaps Brownhill Creek.  Then I twigged that I was conflating my next birding outing here in SA with COGWW.  To quote Homer Simpson:
Our first outing was around the North Glenelg area, starting with a crossing of the Sturt River(possibly more properly known as the Sturt Stormwater Drain!
Getting back towards the house we detected a smell of cooking.  It turns out we were approaching Meals on Wheels Central!  I have always thought of the meals being cooked in some industrial setting rather than a converted dwelling!
 A pretty creeper on a fence.
Today was slated for an explore of the Northern parts of Adelaide.  We started by going to the Central Market where various goodies were acquired and then headed for Gaganis Bros in West Hindmarsh, purveyors of ethnic foodstuffs,  While Frances went in to stock up on spices and the such like Tammy and I headed for a cemetery at the end of Bacon St,
 It was on the Torrens Linear Park.  At this point the River looked very unappealing.  I recall someone once saying they didn't mind green water, at least something's living in there: it was the black water they didn't trust!  This looked like many of the klongs in Bangkok: equal parts of water, sewage and spilt fuel!
My eye was caught by the word Gallipolli on this headstone.  I then realised this poor bloke died on the first day of landings.  A better motto might be "For King, Empire and Kitchener's ego."
 Here is the total headstone.  There appear to be 8 members of the Shaw family commemorated on it: the soldier (presumably buried somewhere on the Peninsula); his parents (who both lived quite long lives); their 4 other children (who died at 2 years, 2 of them at 9 months and 6 years) and a lady called Samantha (presumably the wife's mother) who lasted until 101!
 After our family regrouped we headed off to Port Adelaide.  We had been told that there were a lot of old houses still standing in the Semaphore area and went to have a look at them.  As with Glenelg there were indeed some nice old houses around as well as some new ones.  Generally the area looked quite prosperous.  Continuing with the theme of concern about my mental health, I quite liked the area after 10 minutes exposure.  I'm not sure that we'd be allowed to live there however as I can't pronounce the phrases "John Cahill" or "Russell Ebert" without chundering.  (For those non-Croweaters reading this, they were star players for the Port Adelaide Australian Rules team, and thus worshipped in the area.)

The Port Visitors Information Centre was in the former Police Station.  A very nice building with a very helpful lady therein.
 We did a short walk around this area, where a lot of the old buildings still exist.
 The window designs in that one were intriguing.
There is a lot of artistic 'stuff' around the area.  This alley went into an  area behind the VIC, which seemed to be the hub of the Port Adelaide Festival.
 Judging by the rainbow pattern on the face of the person being carried in the following graffiti I'd hazard a guess that this is something to do with marriage equality!
The next few images are of works inside the VIC.  This first one is the "Port River Ceramic Healing Mural" and was created by 30 members of the local community for Sorry Week in 2001.
 The Ship's Cats date from the 2015 Port Festival.
 I don't know any more about this statue of a dolphin (these animals seem to be big business with tours on the River to see them).
 Here's the River.
 This area on the banks of the River is where buskers gather on a Sunday afternoon.  I haven't worked out the meaning of the graffiti!
We returned to Semaphore where Sotos Fish Shop was (IOHO correctly) advised as the best source of fish and chips,  Another serve of Whiting, taken and eaten looking at the dunes.
 It appeared this is a popular strategy as several other folk were seen carrying parcels of butchers paper, and the nearby garbage bin had a lot of this material in it when I added ours!  The most organised were the folk in the next car to us who had brought along a squeeze bottle of tomato sauce!

We walked along the beach and up and down the jetty.
 The war memorial at the land end of the jetty.
 The lady at the VIC had commented about the Palais which is adjacent to the jetty.  A nice looking building but note the sign advertising "Pokies": no wonder various politicians in SA have made a reputation campaigning against these blights.
 After a brief pause at the house I dropped Frances off for some more sister-nattering and went for a walk to Hallett Cove Conservation Park.
 The cliffs here are pretty good and show much evidence of folding.
 A bonus was finding a pair of Nankeen Kestrels roosting on ledges on another cliff.  This is the female ..
 ... and here is the male.
 The Park is based around an eroded amphitheatre with the Sugarloaf as the best known feature.
I'm surprised that the victim industry (or the boardwalk building industry) haven't demanded that the boardwalks be made wheelchair friendly!

A more panoramic view of the amphitheatre.
 A very pleasant meal with the sisters.  As we drove into Alison St we were surprised to see road works.  A group of guys in his vis and reflective vests doing something to the road blocks which reduce speed in the street,  About an hour later there was a strange mechanical noise, which initially raised concerns about the house infrastyructure going pear shaped.  However it seemed to be coming from outside.  The road works had moved down the street to a hump outside our place.  They seemed to be painting the kerbs white!

And another day ends.

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