Blogs from South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 242

2006………6wks-4th CYCLING TRIP-Gujarat & Southern Rajasthan, INDIA........... Well I have been home a week now and have generally been enjoying it. My bed is really comfortable and it’s the same bed every night! I can have cereal for breakfast ('Cunflacks- yes!) and the coffee machine is appreciated. The train to work is unbelievably comfortable and empty. The garden is lush and full of flowers and produce ready to ripen. It’s nice to have a shower instead of a bucket and with hot water. The toilet doesn’t stink. The streets are organised, clean and quiet. The air is clean. It’s good to reconnect with friends and family. Cooking and cleaning is a bit of a drag although I enjoyed doing an Indian meal and using my new Chapatti rolling pin I got from a village in Kutch ... read more

Our return to Cairns was filled with less scuffling than our previous encounter, this time our decision to seek out the local caravan park echoing a point Lucy had raised at the Parkview Guesthouse only a week earlier, ‘I’d rather sleep on the floor than in this s*#t hole!’ After pitching our tent we were shortly followed by Clare, Matt and James who were brandishing spanking new Didgeridoos that to the displeasure of the rest of the campsite were used to make an array of continuous noises synonymous with the outback. Dave’s valiant attempts that only managed to create noises synonymous with farting were applauded, but sadly he was left in the shadows by two-hour veteran didgeridoo players James and Matt. Although Dave prides himself in gaining a Degree at University, his technology based course had ... read more

As we were a little short of our planned first stop at Lyndhurst we left early, to go up the Strezlecki track, aim to get to Innaminka for the second night and get back on track. Unfortunately we are obviously supposed to be learning something we have missed and 180km up the track we slowed down to help a broken down road train (after he tried to stop a previous 4x4 with no success!!!!!). We had at the same time noticed an odd noise and were also stopping to investigate. Trucky had blown a water hose - no probs as we are carrying a spare 50litres (unlike another car which stopped and only had 5 between two - hope they don’t have a problem). We got trucky back on road, he and Steve worked out the ... read more

Introduction A couple of weeks ago we followed Ania's recommendation and headed to Chamber's gully for our walk - see . When we checked with her later, she said that she had seen our blog, but that we had gone on a different track than she normally took at Chamber's Gully. Apparently we needed to go out of the gully and up to the ridge top to get some good views and exercise (and avoid the bikes). We decided to give it a go. How to get there ... This walk is at the top of Greenhill Road - but for more information refer to our earlier journal entry . What happened ... This was a delightful walk - taking just over three hours. It combined some familiar areas but also added the climb as an ... read more

Introduction Adelaide has a lovely walking path-come-bikeway that runs for 35 km along the River Torrens from the hills, through the city and on to the sea, called the Torrens Linear Park. Dan and I joined Andrea, Julia, Brinya and Ania for a day of bike riding along the Linear Park, starting in the city and heading to the hills. You can find out more about the Torrens Linear park at Wikipedia. Bicycle SA supply a map of the path we took. Interestingly, the Park is url=http://www.planning.sa.gov.au/go/overview/legislation-and-regulations/practitioner-information/river-torrens-linear-park-act-2006 protected from future development. How to get there... We travelled to the city by train and cycled to the Adelaide Botanical Garden... read more