cold down here

It went down to 8 degrees last night. Felt like Ontario, but with a plus rather than a minus temperature. It was actually quite nice for sleeping.

Yesterday I had gone for a 55 km bike ride out to the Adelaide Hills. See the picture, along the way.

When I got to the top (or at least as far as I was willing to go, I took this picture



Then home again, which was more downhill, so a bit easier. And then to the market, to buy food for the night. A quiet night, reading Naomi Klein, and fuming about capitalist society. But, as I said, I slept well.

This morning, went to the Rundle Mall again (the razor I bought needed repairs already), and to the native crafts gallery and store. Took the car back to Libby, and walked back home from there (about 2 miles=3 km). Of course, I then had to stop for lunch at the local pub which serves a "curry-of-the-day" (lamb today) with a pint.

It's a hard life, but I'm managing.

Robe

Saturday had been a quite nice day in Adelaide. The weather was a bit cool, but that was fine for me. I went walking in the morning, partly to find a part for my Crocs, which had broken. And partly just to explore another area of the town. And it was wonderful, seeing all the different architecture, and exploring the big and small streets.

One of the houses I found was only eight feet wide, and had been built in the 1890's, at that time in a slum part of town. Of course it was now gentrified, and had a two-storey addition on the back of it, as well a a fair-sized garden plot beside it.

In the afternoon, Joel and I went for a bike ride along the Torrens, this time upriver. We went about 10km, with some difficulties (the trail was not always marked well; at one point we had to walk with knees wobbling across a suspension bridge over the river). But it was a fine ride, and we treated ourselves to a beer and some food when we got home.

Then Sunday was to be our time to drive to Robe and be there for a few days. It had been my desire since first seeing the town about three years ago to return for a longer visit. So I was pretty excited, and anxious that it would not be what I had remembered. The weather was not promising: cool and grey. But we decided to go anyway. Joel and I being who we are, it took until about eleven before we actually got going. And we stopped on Mount Lofty for a view of the city before hitting the road in earnest. I was doing the driving, since we had borrowed Libby's car and it was s standard. Fortunately, the road was easy, and the traffic was light.

We stopped in Talem Bend, a smallish town just over the Murray River (the largest river in all of Australia, even though it is not too big right now), for a coffee and a bit of food, then went straight through the Coorong all the way to Robe. The Coorong is a long and narrow, marshy lagoon, fed I think by fresh and sea water, which is protected from the sea by a long and high series of sand dunes. When it is wet (which is not the case right now with the drought), it is full of wildlife, and a favourite hiking area for people from Adelaide (I gather). For us, we saw a lot of dry ground, with some salt flats as well. A bit of livestock being farmed along the side of the road (sheep and cattle both). But pretty barren at this time.

Getting to Robe felt like a relief, and felt as warming as it had three years ago. As we drove through the town, I could remember most of it from before. But we did need to stop and look at the map at the Information Kiosk to find out where our motel was. Got there okay, and checked in. Martin talked to us a while, and showed us with some pride a Canada pin and a Trillium pin he had been given by previous guests. He says there are a number of people who come down here from Ontario. So we're not the first, I guess.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/robertjames08/Blog1

We walked down the main street from the motel, which is at one end of the town, to the far end of town. (not that far) to check out a place for supper and to also see what was there. We went into a few shops, including a gallery which had some spectacular artwork. Decided on the Caledonian Inn for supper, and booked a reservation. Then walked further back and stopped to view the ocean by the town beach. Joel had forgotten his swimming suit, and I wanted to check the water for swimming, so I went down to the beach and put my feet in the water. It was cold, so I think Joel is not going to worry about swimming, and neither will I. But the beach is fabulous, and when it is warm, a nice place to hang about.

Supper was great, as expected. I had crocodile for the first time, and it was very interesting. Joel had salmon. After dinner, we went back o the motel to see if we could watch a movie on the TV. There was nothing on, so we read and then to bed.

Monday (yesterday) began as a cloudy day, and got progressively better. As I lay in bed, I listened to the very different bird calls. Some are raucous, and some are polyphonic and quite wonderful. I then got up early and went for a small walk along the wide of the beach (although I didn't quite make it all the way along. When I got back to the motel, Joel was up, and we went out for a breakfast at one of the cafe's in town. Then for a lazy day: I decided to go and read in the sun in the yard area of the motel (they have a place with three picnic tables and a BBQ for the guests). I thought I would get some sun exposure, so took off my shirt and rolled up my shorts. After about thirty minutes, I got out of the direct sun. But I found out later that even this was too much, and look a bit like a lobster at this point (and am a bit sore).

Then went for a rather long walk over to the Obelisk, which is on a limestone point south of the town. Took the roads down, and walked back through a bush trail that followed the coast more. At this point in the landscape, there are cliffs rather than beaches. And the vegetation went from sand and low-lying tough plants to what I would guess are like alders, and scrub trees. It was a long, but quite wonderful walk.

Home to read some more, then shower and change for supper, which we had at another local and good restaurant, the Gallerie. (I had a bouillabaisse, which they pronounce buillybase.) On the walk home (about three blocks), it was clear, so we looked at the stars. Although there was a lot of ambient light in town, there are still a lot more stars than we get at home.

Today is Tuesday. It being noon, we have been up for a few hours, over to the Wild Mulberry Cafe for a breakfast, and I bought an Anna Curtis print at the Gallery (Wilsons at Robe) of a Eucalyptus. And then I had to mail it to myself, which I did. So it's winging its way to Canada. Weather is again sunny, and I am happy. (I also looked at the outside of a neat cottage which is for sale for "only" 300,000. Not this year.)

The day unwound slowly and lazily. The sky was blue and almost cloudless. Temperature was cool, but without the wind, it was plenty warm. I read and sat around until almost 6:30 PM, then decided to go for a walk along the beach at sunset. Found a path that led along the beach about 1 km, then went back to the main road and back into town. By now it was about 8 PM, and Joel and I went for supper: this time, we had a nice pizza with some wine at the local shop, and then came home. However, it was clear, so we drove out to the obelisk and looked at the stars, and they were amazing. o much more to see than what we get in the city (either here or in Dundas).

Is this really Australia?

After I wrote the log yesterday, it rained twice more! Once for about 15 seconds, and the other time for almost three minutes! There was even a little bit of water on the road. And the skies got dark and blustery. Felt like September back home.

When Joel got home, we decided to go to the market, and have supper out. The market, as you might recall, is about two blocks from here. Friday nights it goes until 9:00. So we had a pleasant supper in a little Italian restaurant across the street from it (we skipped the one called "The Buddha Bar", as well as the Thai, Chinese, Indian, and so on, restaurants), the went over and got some veggies and fruit. Since we still don't have the fridge problem completely worked out, we decided not to get a lot of veggies, as they might get frozen. We're testing the fridge repair to see if it freezes things, and if not, will buy more stuff.

Speaking of frozen, my Palm died yesterday, so it was a sad day. More important, this machine now has all my passwords and things on it. So I spent some time on eBay and bought a used one from a guy in Markham for $150. He should be sending it pretty soon to the old office, and it will hopefully get to the PO Box that way.

I will send some more photos for you. One is the bike trail on the way to the beach, one is the Adelaide skyline from the area of the beach, one is the plaza at Glenelg, and the last is the "front" door of the apartment. I tried a different way to get them into the blog, and it didn't seem to work as I had hoped, so if you can also go to the website http://picasaweb.google.com/robertjames08/AroundAdelaide?pli=1, you'll see some more.

Must get going. It's almost 10 AM here.

Today it rained

This is somewhat of a trial to see if I can get this blogging thing going. I would hope so, but you never know.

Yesterday was a wonderful day here: sunny and about 28. I went for a long bike ride down to the beach, along the beach for a while, then stopped at a cafe and had a glass of wine and a snack sitting outdoors, watching young children playing in a fountain. It was great. I will include some pictures of the day, so you can see what it was like (sort of). And, unlike the previous attempt, I did not get a flat tire and have to get a ride back.

In fact, I rode back a different route, through the city suburbs, and into town. Got kind of lost at the end, but found my way with the help of another bicyclist. I felt quite self-righteous afterwards.

Of course, I did not get out of the house until almost noon. The mornings just go, with checking email, surfing the web, puttering around, etc. Is this how the retirement is going to go?

(Interestingly, I have received two offers of locums from my former group already. One I turned down, and the other I might do.)

Anyway, as the title of the post says, it rained today. Pretty hard, for all of about twenty seconds. After another two minutes, you couldn't know that there had been rain. That seems to be how it is here. Dry, dry, dry. And today it is "only" nineteen degrees. The locals are all bundled up, and I'm in shorts and short sleeves. Seems strange.

So, since this is a trial, I'll stop until it is clear that it is working.

The other pictures are of the beach. Enjoy.