Michael Perry Reserve and Willowbridge reserve walk 6/2/18

Today was a warm day and our planned walk with the group was cancelled, so we decided to do a local walk a bit later in the day.
We hopped on the Walking SA website and found the walk along second creek that goes up into Michael Perry Reserve from Hallett Rd as far as the fence into the Boral Quarries.

Walking up as far as we could go to this fence we passed an old pump and stone shed used for pumping water in the old days, before turning around and heading down the hill.

In the warm day the running water and shady track were rather pleasant. Finding a geocache along the way made it even better.

We enjoyed looking in the back fences at the yards, and dreaming about what it would be like to live along a creek like this.

There are still some lovely old properties (with large yards) in this part of the suburb. We looked in the gate at Ivymeade (built in 1850) and lived in by Captain Hancock (of Moonta mines fame) at one stage, with fancy driveway and with arcaded lower verandah. (Thanks to google we could see what the house looks like from below)

From the road you can see the back of the house and tell it is quite grand. Only 16 rooms with 3 cellars and 6 bedrooms. (and a studio) 

We've discovered this old building below  (Now the "Ruth Tuck Art School") on Hubbe Court, but didn't realise that it was partially built from the walls of an old irrigation tank which was part of the original property "Undelcarra" and used for watering the orchards to the west.

It was apparently later used as a swimming pool before being adapted for it's present use. I'd love to see what the building is like inside. The reserve it sits on is beautifully kept (by Burnside council I presume)

The old Undelcurra house still stands on a huge allotment at 58 Lockwood Rd and sounds like it is still pretty fancy.

Other sights of interest along this pretty walk were:

Tunnel under the road

pretty metal cutouts on the information sign

An unexpected grave.  Apparently this unreadable stone is for a child,  Maud White, who died in 1841.  There used to be wattle and daub huts along this part of the creek apparently.  Hard to imagine now in this fancy, leafy suburb. 

A really cute and friendly guy along the way

An old gum tree entwined with an even older fig tree (see above and below) 

yes - that thin gum base is the one supporting that very tall tree which disappears above the fig through the branches in the photo above.

These people have shared their yard (or annexed the reserve) so that lovely green lawn and pretty garden borders the path here. What a lovely sight. 

Rock Oyster, River and Scenic Hills Feb 3/2/18

Manu had offered some training at Rock Oyster, near Mannum, so we were keen to go. We took our standard route along the Onkaparinga Valley drive to Mt Pleasant on the way there. We even arrived a little early!! (Not bad, after getting to bed after 1am that morning)

Rock Oyster is called that because of the many fossilised oyster shells on the ground there. A very slippery side slope coming out of the many parallel creeks, just to make more of a challenge. 

The first training was a middle distance training - with a choice of distances - I took the shorter distance, and Trevor the longer one. The challenge here is always to find the best route choice, and alleviate danger and climb, while managing to stay in touch with where you are on the map.  If you leave the creek systems it is really easy to lose touch and hard to figure out where you are again,as everything looks the same.

As you can see the terrain is rocky and pretty dry at the moment.  I didn't hear about any snakes seen.  The mallee country has its own charm and I couldn't resist taking a picture or two on the way around. 

Manu used these small hanging controls and SI units so we had timed legs and an accurate time for our courses. 

 The seed pods on the ground catching the sun were stunning.

 After the first run we all gathered, had a good drink and a snack for some. At this point I called it enough as I had been feeling sick before we left home and was not any better for the exercise.  I took advantage of the peace and quiet and sat down by the car and enjoyed some quiet reading time, while Trevor went out on his next course.

 I would have loved to have done this course as it had all sorts of tricky challenges where Manu had formed corridors you had to stay in (control 1-3) ,windows you had to navigate to (12-15) and a contour only section (9-12). Beats me how the kids (who have less experience) can still whip around these types of courses while us oldies struggle.  I guess it is all about the rate of brain development and how good they are at picking up new information.

After a good sit down and recuperate (and sharing of spare water with those who hadn't brought enough) we headed to the Swan Reach pub via the ferry at Swan Reach. 

South Australia provides a number of ferries as part of our road network.  They are free to travel on, and save building bridges.  I've always enjoyed the fun of a ferry ride, and you just have a little time to park the car and hop out to enjoy it before you have to hop back in and be on your way. 

Trev and Zita enjoying the ferry ride and view of lovely Murray River cliffs

 The pub sits overlooking the river and you can sit out on their deck and watch the ferry coming back and forwards.  Very relaxing , but a bit warm for doing that for too long .
The white cockatoos screeched and partied in the big gum tress by the river.
We moved inside and took advantage of the pub air conditioning for a while and then were on our way. 

We headed home on the Swan Reach side of the river, following along as close as possible to the river itself.  There are some great viewing spots (lookouts) where you can pull off and admire the mighty Murray.

Big Bend from the lookout

Trev, Al and Zita enjoying the view.  Soon after this we parted ways with Al and Zita when they stopped to buy fruit at a roadside stop. 

Trev and I made our way down to Walkers Flat, where we crossed again using the punt, and then meandered our way as closely as we could along the river again to Mannum.

Here we stopped for a while at the riverfront reserve, where we admired some of the swanky riverfront architecture and read about Captain William Randell and his amazing riverboat adventures.

At the reserve

Instead of coming home the usual way we decided to take some of the less travelled roads, winding our way home via Lobethal and Uraidla. 

It had taken us all day, but another excellent retirement adventure. 

walking around Gawler 2/1/18

Doug McMurray invited us along to take part in a walk that the Four Seasons walking group were doing around Gawler.  We decided we would go along..

A small group of eight walked for 11.4km following mostly along the edges of the River on fairly flat ground..  We were the youngest by far.

The group were an interesting assortment and have lots of knowledge about history, walking and life, so were good to talk to and happy to share their thoughts as we strolled along.

The walking was leisurely - at a pace of about 4km/hour which made it very easy to keep up.

We started at 8.30 and finished about 12noon. We deviated from the river tracks to venture through some of the old parts of town, travelling past some of the lovely old churches and cottages. 

Tea break - regulation 20 minutes. 

old bridge

ACT Retirement Adventure - Day 11 - The last day.

We left Tooleybuc at 9.30 via the usual route - Piangil and the Mallee Highway. 

This was a great day for sharing our thoughts and we had a wonderful conversation about the things we love while driving along this stretch of road.

Lunch was at Pinnaroo.

Lameroo had Christmas table decorations on display on the picnic tables around town !!  Also bows on the trees and stobie poles.

We stopped off at Tailem Bend for a cuppa, stopping down by the river , so that we could watch the ferry lazily cruising back and forth while we relaxed. 

Apparently there are now lots of painted sheep in town (inspired by Mem Fox's "Where is the green sheep?" that we will need to keep an eye out for next time we come through town.

We made it home at 3.15pm. 
Total distance for the trip: 2958km. 

We have time to shop for food so that we have something to take to the Diment Family Christmas show tomorrow. 

While we were away we both downloaded the "Wunderlist" app which we are able to share. 
On this we have compiled a long list of things that need to be done to prepare for Christmas, Thom and Laura's visit and to get life in general into a better order. 

We will slowly start working our way through them as we head into this new phase of life.

Finishing the blog for the trip allows me to tick off one more item from that long list.

ACT Retirement Adventure day 10 - 7th December

This morning we left Canberra and drove for 708km to reach Tooleybuc. 

When we left at 9.30am the sun was finally shining.  We stopped at Wagga for lunch at the "Pig and Pastry" in the old mill buildings.

A cuppa stop at Darlington Point gave us a chance to check out a possible campspot along the river there (just out of town past the Recreation Reserve) .

We stopped briefly at Jugiong for cheap fuel ($125.9 / litre for diesel) before heading on towards a brown smudge on the horizon.  Grey skies also showed ahead and it wasn't long before we hit a dust storm, then high winds driving heavy rain.  At one stage there were thousands of rolling "grass seeds" about 20cm in diameter which looked like translucent rolling spheres all travelling across the road driven by the wind in the same direction.  It was like seeing an army of fantasy creatures invading. Especially when coupled with the sudden spooky darkness of the day that went with it.   Trevor did a wonderful job of driving on through this in difficult circumstances as both visibility and ability to easily stay on the road were compromised.

One of the strange fantasy grass seed warriors

We grabbed the last room at our favourite Toolybuc Hotel and settled in to eat pasta and drink red wine. Very comfortable beds and lovely bed partner too.

ACT Retirement Adventures - Day 9 6th December

We have given up on waiting for a decent day for the National Arboretum, so took our chances today.  It wasn't ideal for walking a lot, but we did enjoy seeing the views from Dairy Farmers Hill

and tricky nest sculpture, before driving on to the Wide Brown Land Sculpture (in Dorothea McKellar's own handwriting) -did you know that the famous verse is actually verse two of the poem?

We even found a cache down in the Himalayan Cedar Forest.  

We headed to the Telstra Tower to see even more spectacular views, reminisce on Telecom history, watch a very dated film about how the tower was built , and have some lunch.  

Still raining, but we headed on to the National Library to see Peter Dobrovskis' photos of Tasmanian wilderness which were currently on display . These are wonderful and we were glad we stopped in to see them.. The stained glass windows in the library are also quite beautiful with the light coming through them. 

With just a little time up our sleeve, Trevor weakened and we drove the short distance across to the National Art Gallery to see the Hyperreal exhibition.  This offered some Patricia Piccinini sculptures, which I was keen to see, amongst some other lifelike and not so lifelike experiences.  

The very lifelike nude man and pregnant lady who were at least twice normal size (!) were a little challenging, but others were very amusing.  Imagine walking into a room full of old men in wheelchairs driving them around the place randomly!!

We also took part in a virtual reality experience with goggles and earphones , where you drift through space. 

After a quick look at some of the other art in the gallery we headed to Andrew and Vic's place having exhausted our cultural sides well and truly.  They were heading out to graduation dinner and disco with Kate, so we had one last chance to say goodbye before we headed out for Vietnamese at the local My's at Weston Creek.  Great food.