Vic road trip

After nearly 3 years of promising and failing to deliver on visiting Adele in Edenhope, at last the stars aligned to make it possible! With a car half full of dismembered mannequins (don't ask) JB picked me up from work on friday night and we slowly trudged out of the city and towards Victoria. Stopped for dinner (and a personal apology from the manager for JB's meal being forgotten) in Tailem Bend and finally arrived in Kaniva where I got given the grand tour. Unloaded the mannequins into the front lawn and set out for a night at the pub - love those country beer prices!

Next morning, with the Biz off to get grubby at Lake Hindmarsh, Adele came to collect me and the mannequins. After nearly driving of with Adele's purse on the roof of the car, we decided to do a little exploring of Kaniva's main street sheep art and refuel with coffee before heading for Edenhope. Stopped by Lake Charlegrark on the way for a bit of a look around, then of loaded the mannequins finally at their new home and headed back to Adele's for lunch and some artsy brainstorming. Decided on a plan for the rest of the afternoon, I comandeered the car keys and we were off.

Drove back into SA and cruised through the Coonawarra wine region. Stopped in Penola to buy some delicious treats from the lolly shop, marvel at some of the order pieces in the antique store and checked out the work of local artists in the main street gallery, then onto Mt Gambier. Headed straight for the (not as blue as it will be in a month or so) Blue Lake which was just beautiful. Followed a path all around the crater and had a look at Leg of Mutton lake crater as well. Adele got some blue lemonade to match the lake, and then we had a wander around the pretty cave gardens. 

We were then going to go to Beachport for tea but with it still being fairly early by the time we reached Millicent (and Adele having foolishly surrendered the keys to someone with an insatiable love of kitschy roadside attractions) we decided to continue out to Kingston S.E. Found the Giant Lobster (yay!) and amused ourselves and passing traffic posing for dorky photos, then brushed up on our zombie blasting skills at the world's saddest video arcade (the zombie game was the only one plugged in) while waiting for our take away. Had a lovely dinner down in the foreshore with our very own squad of menacing magpie bodyguards to chase the mooching seagulls away followed by a lovely twilight stroll along the jetty. Then it was back in the car, through Naracoorte, back into Vic and home to bed.

Sunday we spent a quiet morning around the house and at the school working out some logistical ideas for Adele's latest project, and after a quick circuit of the town to try them out, we headed for Mt Arapiles. Got pulled over for my very first RBT (much excitement) on the way, and we drove up to near the summit for a picnic lunch and a bit of scrambling over rocks to enjoy the view from the very top. Drove back down to the base so we could follow a different trail up past where all the climbers set themselves up. did a bit of exploring around the cliffs (bit tricky in the wind) and eventually made our way to another lookout for a quick rest. Took another trail back through the valley with climbers on the rocks on both sides, and indulged in a bit of bouldering when we got back to ground level.

Stopped at the cafe in Natimuk for a well earned cold drink and had a look at the town's mosaic statues, then onto Nhill where we had a last mini picnic at a park on the edge of town while waiting for JB to collect me. Adele headed for home while we returned to Kaniva for a roast dinner, a visit to the horsies and a very good night's sleep. Spent monday out at the farm and had myself a short (and extremely unexpected) ride on one of the horses. Eventually packed up the car and got back on the road. Stopped in Keith to check out the Land Rover on a pole and Andy Caldecott memorial, then on back to Adelaide and all the wild weather at home. 

Marion Coastal walk

With the weather being all sunny and nice for the first time in, well in a couple days but it felt like longer, decided to do some more exploring around town. After getting a beef and veg curry going in the slow cooker (domestic goddess alert!) jumped on my bike and headed for the train. Got off at Marino and rode around in circles for a while trying to figure out why all the roads heading to the coast ended up somewhere other than the damn coast! Eventually got to the Seacliff caravan park and found somewhere to leave my bike. Then the real work began.

Spent a lovely afternoon following the Marion Coastal Walk, a 7.2km trail along the coast (surprisingly) from Marino to Hallet Cove. Lots of nice walking along cliff tops, enjoying the view over the ocean, and lots and lots and lots of climbing up and down stairs. I kept meaning to count the stairs, but I'm easily distracted so probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Eventually made it to Hallet Cove Conservation Park to check out the cool rock and cliff formations created in ice ages 600 and 270 million years ago, which is just a little while.

Made it up to Hallet Headland and enjoyed a quick rest before turning aaround and heading back. Took a different path through Hallet Cove which took me past the Sugarloaf (cos it looks like a loaf of sugar) and got startled by a Stumpy Tail Lizard (cos its a lizard with a stumpy tail - brought to you the Australian Committee for Giving Things Unimaginative Names) hiding off the side of the tail. Made sure I checked that it definitely had legs before getting close :P

Eventually arrived back at Seacliff where I treated myself to an ice cream and a nice sit down. Then, having decided that I didn't fancy giving Adelaide Metro too much of my money in the one weekend (wouldn't want them getting spoilt), decided to ride back along the coast via Brighton, Glenelg and Henley, then back along the Torrens back home. On an totally unrelated note, there are now a few dozen inconsiderate and generally oblivious pedestrians who have made my list...muhahaha.

So many stairs!

Black Cliff

well played lizard, well played

The sugarloaf

nom nom nom

Adelaide Zombie Walk

Having managed about a 15 minute powernap and some important lying in the beanbag staring at the ceiling time to recover from Trailblazer, it was finally time to prepare for Adelaide's night of nights...Zombie walk!! After feeling far too low on blood spatter on our last attempt, this year we had doubled the supply and added props. So we began to prepare. I was going as a cheerleader zombie (mainly just cos I wanted a costume that featured sneakers), while JB was going as  zombie boiler maker, complete with a grinding disk protruding from his chest (which looked pretty awesome I have to say). Got dressed, applied the obligatory white make up and dark circles around the eyes (not much make up needed there after such an early start to the day), added the first layer of blood and strolled to the tram.

Met a few fellow undeaders on the tram, but mostly just entertained ourselves with the surprised looks on people's faces as the doors opened. With the tram dropping us in town at about the same time the walk was due to start, we headed back along the route, applying a fresh splattering of blood on the go, until we spotted the hoard moving towards us along Grenfell St. Joined the throng at Hindmarsh Square for the stumble through the city.

Many excellent outfits, some a little baffling...and I'm not sure that the guy dressed as a completely non zombified Wally quite got the point. Plenty of kids and dogs dressed up as well this year, a lot of superheroes, brides (weddings being apparently the most common sites of zombie attacks), celebrities, doctors and at least 2 special appearances by Jesus amidst all the gore. Towards the end we spotted some familiar faces on the footpath and joined Verity, Ryan and Kathryn to watch the rest of the walkers go by for a better look at the costumes. And it was a big, big, crowd too. Everytime you thought they must be nearly at the end, another wave of zombies would appear.

Eventually rejoined the tail end of the walk and finished in Light Square for a bit more of a look around. came to the conclusion that we still didn't have enough blood but not to worry, costume ideas are already being floated around for next year. With half of Adelaide heading to the after party at Fowlers, we instead enjoyed a pudski or 2 at Enigma with many other ghouls before my various aches and pains from Trailblazer forced an early retreat to the tram.

Trailblazer Challenge

After a last minute practice hike up Mt Lofty with Adele on Thursday, got an early start to the day on Saturday and met my fellow Booth Bevy team members (Adele, Verity and Lyndall) at Pinky Flat in the city to get ourselves signed in and pick up our race numbers. After some milling about wishing I'd woken up slightly earlier to have a coffee, we handed some essential supplies to one of our support crew (also known as JB) and joined the crowd at the start line where we, and some very surprised pelicans, got sent on our with the firing of a cannon. After a little of the obligatory weaving around walkers, we soon found space to run in and set a nice, steady pace for the first leg. Ran along Linear Park (with a few drinks breaks and one pretty impressive stumble courtesy of me along the way) for the first 18kms which is officially the furthest I've ever run, yay. Arrived at the first checkpoint in 2 hours 20 mins-ish, where we were met JB and all the yummy snacks we'd given him earlier.

Had a good break at Athelstone to refuel, change from running to hiking shoes and treat some blisters and various other aches and pains, then set off on the second leg. Left the river behind and headed up a narrow rocky path into Black Hill Conservation Park. Hiked up over Three Sugarloaves, then had a nice flat and downhill section before tackling the very long and steep Chapman track which took us up to the top of Morialta Conservation Park for some really spectacular views over the city, not that we could really stop to admire them because the trails were so narrow and crowded with the others who'd struggled up the big hill alongside us that anytime you stopped you would have to wait for about 15 people to overtake before starting off again.

Took the steep descent (poor, poor knees!) into Morialta and finished up with the less inspiring trek through the carpark to finally cross the finish line for the 34km event 6 hours and 6 minutes after setting off. Got our bibs scanned (so they could make sure we hadn't fallen off a mountain along the way) and collected our medals which was pretty sweet. Then Ryan drove us all back to the city for a relaxing afternoon of eating too much and hobbling around the house.

Big thanks to everyone who donated to Operation Flinders and helped motivate us, and extra big thanks to our fabulous support crew David, JB and Ryan for keeping us hydrated, fed and not making us walk back to the city again afterwards! So...who's up for the 50km next year then??

At the starting line

 

Refuelling at Athelstone

Tackling the Chapman track

Enjoying the view from above Morialta

At the finish line!

City to Bay 2012

Having thankfully recovered from the exhausting croquet tournament the day before, woke up nice and early on Sunday. Enjoyed a nice light breakfast, double checked the back pack for race numbers and safety pins, then JB and I rode into the city and joined the 39000 others (well a lot of them would have been at the 6 & 3 km starting points but whatevs) lining up for the 40th City-Bay fun run.

And we lined up for a good long time too. Didn't get across the start line until 8:31 (made sure to check that in case my timing chip stuffed up like last year). As always spent the first 2kms dodging and weaving to find a clear space to run in, then going through the same process again after hitting the 6km mark, although our later start this year meant that most of them had spread out by the time we arrived so that helped.

Got lots of motivation from the supporters, bands, and one group of Morris dancers along the way. Surprisingly kept pace with JB the whole way, and the last 500m when the end was in sight and the rain had just started, I managed to find a little extra reserve of energy and just snuck across the finish line in the lead (he may be injured but it still counts). And despite lack of training, my jetlag and his seperated shoulder we still managed to finish with 2 personal best times. Go us!

Found the Booths and later Ana for a celebratory brunch before bracing the traditional crush of a tram ride home. Now to get training for the 34km Trail Blazer in a few weeks :-)

Croquet at Chateau Tanunda

With still 2 more official days left of my holiday (back to work on Monday), decided to head up to the Barossa to use up a few of the vouchers I always seem to have on the side of the fridge. After a realxing morning watching Sophie's swimming lesson and cuddling tiny Annabelle headed to Sarah's place along with Maggie and the three of us headed for Chateau Tanunda.

Indulged in a spot of wine tasting to get into the spirit, then picked up our gear (and a set of instructions on how to play, cos its been a loooooong time for me) and headed for the lawn. Then we headed back in when we realised that we were missing the hoops but a short while later we were actually ready to go. Spent the first round trying to get the hang of things (except Maggie who nailed it right off the bat). Picked up an audience when the tour buses started rolling in so then the pressure was really on. Maggie won the first round easily. I got the hang of things after that and claimed round 2.

After that (and lots of exhausting posing for photos and chasing each other arond the lawn with croquet mallets) we packed up, returned the gear and eagerly awaited the arrival of our cheese platters and sparkling Shiraz. Sooo many delicios goodies on the cheese platter, and yet we still found room for plenty of sampling when we migrated to Maggie Beer. Wandered around the beautiful farm and the lake, then found  a spot on the balcony for brownies and icecream to round off the day.

 

 

The journey home

Well folks, guess that just about wraps it up for this year. Had a very long trip home from London, via Frankfurt, Singapore (didn't find out about that one until I arrived in Frankfurt) and Sydney and finally home to Adelaide yesterday morning. Managed to stay awake all yesterday so hopefully jet lag may not be too horrific (maybe?), so now it's just the always fun getting back to reality  and planning the next trip. Thanks for following along all :-)