Checking out the Torrens to Torrens road project 23/9/18

 Today we went and took advantage of the "one time only" opportunity to investigate the T2T project on foot.

This felt like a unique opportunity that we should take advantage of (like the time when we walked through the tunnels of the freeway before it opened)

Trev had noticed in the paper that we would have a chance to walk the new lowered section this morning and he was prepared to get out of his sick bed to do it.

There was pretty sketchy info available, and things went a bit astray initially.

We followed instructions and parked at the Entertainment centre and waited for the shuttle bus.... and waited, and waited.  After 20 minutes it was clear that there was no one else waiting and there was no shuttle bus at the moment, so we paid for our carpark(!!!) and drove down to a street close to Susan St, which was the start of the walking route.  Then we walked from there. It was about 6km return trip.

Our track

We were able walk pretty much the whole length of the works in the hour or so that we had remaining of time allocated before vehicles would be allowed on the roadway. 

We were interested to see the difference in the section which used to have a big kink in it near Torrens road. Now there is some drainage area which we assume will be landscaped.  They must have reclaimed quite a few homes to make the changes.   Here is the map section from out old UBD of the same area. 

We did see a few vehicles, but these were there preparing for the big celebration with free sausage sizzle etc which was starting from 1130. We assume that the crowds and the shuttle buses were going to be in place for that event (not the walk) 

We also ran into our friend Bob Smith, who was trying out the track on his bike.  

Trev with Bob

We disregarded this sign today

Bridge carrying piping for power etc across the road. 

Why are these poles not aligned straight? All the OCD people in Adelaide will cringe as they go past them. 

Display of machinery 

Walking track over the road

Parents and kids were out enjoying a beautiful day.

One big group of bike riders

signage just for us. 

Inspection plates in the road already!!!

Why do we have so many of these in Adelaide?? And why are they in the roads in random places?

Yes - we are on a road with roadsigns.

The difference between the smooth surface of the off ramp (left) and the more open surface of the lowered road surface (on the right) . It almost looked porous. 

Food trucks ready for the onslaught at 1100

Stage and tables and chairs ready for fancy guests??

Trevor and I finished our walk and then headed across to Love On cafe at Mile End for juice and a yummy brunch.  Our son Ben was working there so we got to say Hi to him and to Rashed, the owner of this fabulous establishment. 

They gave us a quiet corner table so that Trev wouldn't spread his germs too much.

Our Ben at work.

Myponga Orchid walk - 5th September

Trevor saw a facebook post offering a free walk at Myponga to look at native orchids.
Since we don't really know the first thing about orchids and we had a bit of time that day we thought we might sign up and go along.
The walk was run by the Normanville Natural Resource Centre along with others that week.

The 20 Acre Nixon Skinner CP was gifted in 1948 by Mrs Lucy Page in honour of her two grandfathers.  We saw the stone in the park commemorating the gift of the land.

location of the park

We turned up to Nixon Skinner Conservation Park, met some other people and wandered down the track looking for orchids.
None of us were experts, but some were more experienced than others.
We found out about a book "Start with the leaves" written by Robert Lawrence which identifies common orchids in the area and that is just what we did.
We started looking for the heart shaped leaves on the ground which give away some of the orchids, but also found the ones with the upright stems and no leaves on the ground.
Here are some of the orchids we found:

Nodding Greenhood - Pterostylis nutans

Maroon-hood - Pterostylis pedunculata

Fire Orchid - Pyrorchis nigricans
Apparently these flowers turn black when flowering is finished but keep their form. The  flower is supposed to only come after fire and pollinator is unknown.

Spotted Donkey Orchid- Diuris pardina
These were plentiful at the time and we got good at seeing them.

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Mayfly Orchid - Acianthus causatus 

Winter Gnat Orchid - Cyrtostylis robusta (I think) 

I'm trying to learn the names, so I have bored you with the botanicals as well as the common names. 

We found this exercise very interesting and were keen to go out orchid spotting again soon.

Luckily the following week we had a walk planned in Hardy's Scrub (near Blewitt Springs) , which yielded more of the same plus a couple of new ones for us.