Adelaide 2008

Posted on 15 Nov 2008 | 0 comments

We arrive in Adelaide just in time for Troye & Abby’s wedding. Jon nearly gets a heart attack as Ed is taking for ever to get ready and we are nearly late in the Flinders St church! After church Jon drops the car off and we go to the Art Gallery for food and the party afterwards. Good music, so we are almost continuously on the dance floor…

Troye and Abby in church

Alex, Mark, Jude, Ed and Jon outside the church

Jon and Jude at dinner

Troye and Abby’s first dance

Jude and Troye

Jon and Mark

Jon and Jude on the dancefloor

Very quickly after moving to Adelaide we find a nice house in a great suburb close to the city and close to the hills. A few weeks later we move out of our temporary accommodation and then we finally live in our own house!

We have 3 bedrooms, a big kitchen and living area and a lovely patio at the back. We sell the horrible water feature that was in the back garden and are thinking about adding a garage so we can move our bikes out of the guest bedroom…

our dining / kitchen area

Jon in the hall

the truck starts the unloading

our living room

our verandah

it is filling up

the kitchen

our bedroom, the en suite is through the left doors of the cupboard

the en suite

the living room

the dining area after it is finished

We need storage space!

So we decide to build a shed. Problem with a triangular block is that it is hard to find a convenient spot for a shed. We found one in the corner next to the house and extended the veranda all the way to the fence. Next step is to paint it in the same colour as the veranda and then we (let) build the shed.

the area set aside for the shed

concrete has been poured

the shed it up, finally we can get ride of the bikes in our guest bed room…

Garden Island is a spot north of Adelaide near Port Adelaide. This is a great spot to go kayaking. It has dolphins, mangroves, creeks and even it’s own power station to keep the water at a nice warm temperature all year round. It takes about half an hour to get here, so we generally go here in weekends when we have a bit more time.

Jude paddling the mangroves around Garden Island

Jon in the mangroves

the open waters around Garden Island

it is a haven for bird life here

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tide drops and we have to carry the kayaks over a now-exposed section

hard work in the mangrove mud

paddling the nicer, open areas

dolphins in the waters around Garden Island

On a nice winter day in Adelaide we take the ski’s to the ocean for the first time. The ocean is pretty flat, but there is hardly anybody out there and certainly no kayakers… We are a bit nervous after all those stories and are on the look out for dorsal fins… Within 5 minutes we see some and nearly have a heart attack until we realise they are dolphins! We play for half an hour or so and then paddle along the coast.

our first ocean kayak in Adelaide

out on the water looking for dorsal fins…

we spot the dorsal fins, luckily they are from dolphins!

the dolphins are very close!

foot print of a doplhin right next to our kayaks

gorgeous dolphins

still on the lookout

paddling along the beach

and around the pier

On a beautiful sunny Sunday we meet Mark, Simon and Angelo for a paddle on the ocean. We try to find a wreck that should be in the bay somewhere, but we couldn’t find it. We paddle for a few hours along the coast – no dolphins or seals this time.

we are ready to go…

heading out from the beach with xxx xxx and xxx

heading out from the beach with Mark, Simon and Angelo

Jon paddling out

Jon on the ocean

a quick swim after the paddle – very cold!

We spend a rare weekend in Adelaide and go for a run up Mt Lofty and some kayaking on the ocean again. Luckily we have great weather. No dolphins again, but Jon sees his first koalas in the wild!!

running up Mt Lofty

waterfall on the Mt Lofty trails

views from the top of Mt Lofty

Jon spots his first koalas in the wild!

Karen comes over to Adelaide and I land on the Sunday – back from Holland and KL. We try to fly the remote controlled helicopter and go for a ride in the Adelaide hills with Ted, Jonno and Angelo.

Karen in Adelaide, trying to get the helicopter to fly that I brought home from Malaysia for Jon

going for a ride in the Adelaide hills

stunning views on the ride

We don’t spent many weekends in Adelaide, but this was one. We built a trolley for Jon’s spare engine so it could be moved from underneath a tarp into the shed without braking our backs, we go shopping (can’t remember what we bought, but I don’t think it was very exciting…), watch the old cars arrive in Glenelg before we go for our token mtb ride for the weekend. We explore the single trails of Kuitpo forest for the first time – wicked! There are some fun trails out there! We make poffertjes and generally enjoy a weekend without packing the car.