Kite Festival

Yesterday we paid a visit to the Adelaide Kite Festival, with our grand-daughters. The girls were pretty excited; I think they will be making or buying a kite of their own tomorrow!

Many kites of all sizes and shapes were on display; some real works of art - a far cry from the paper ones I made when I was younger.

The Adelaide Kite Festival is an annual two day event, with local, interstate and overseas' kite flyers participating.

ABC Wednesdays - P for Pools

This is a recent photo of Adelaide's new State Aqautic Centre being built at Marion. The new centre will offer pools for training and special events; swimming, diving and water polo. There will also be a leisure section including polls and water slides. Construction started in October 2009 and is scheduled for completion early in 2011.

Here is a link to a brochure about the Centre.


The ABC Wednesday meme was initiated by Denise Nesbitt. To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions click here.

Australia Day at Aldinga Beach

Today we joined hundreds of others to celebrate Australia Day with family and friends on Aldinga Beach, 45 km south of the City; one of the few beaches where you can drive your car on the beach.

Australia Day is a public holiday throughout the nation; a day on which we celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian. On this day in 1788 the first settlers from Great Britain arrived at Sydney Cove.

In Adelaide on Australia Day, like elsewhere in the country, there a lots of community events. On returning home from the beach, I travelled into the city to watch an Australia Day parade followed by a free concert and fireworks display. I will be posting photos of these events later this week.

Coca-Cola Bottle Blast

This free community event courtesy of Coca Cola is touring the nation; it was here at Glenelg last weekend.

Three activities were on offer; Jump ‘n Dunk, Trapeze Air and Spring ‘n Bump. The queues were long, but the patrons looked pretty happy after the experience.

Largs Bay beach

Largs Bay is one of Adelaide's northern suburban beaches. You may remember my photo of the Largs Pier Hotel. Last Tuesday evening we returned there for a meal and then took a stroll to the end of the jetty. This is a view of the beach from the jetty.

My retirement home!

I hope it doesn't really come to this with the recession!

Not quite 5 star accomodation, but comfortable enough for a couple of days. This was our accomodation at McLaren Vale a few weekends ago. The tent is erected on an ensuite powered site, meaning we had our own shower and toilet and the convenience of electricity for lighting, heating and charging the netbook computer!

Mobile blogging

My new toy; a Dell Mini 9 Inspiron Netbook computer which weighs about a kilogram.

Now I will be able to keep on blogging even when I am cycle touring or cruising in my yacht. The computer has an SD card slot so I can load and edit photos for uploading. The device plugged in is a 3G wireless modem, so I can access the Net anywhere there is a phone network.

Modern technology! I continue to be amazed.

Fishing

What a way to relax on a beautiful autumn day; fishing near the mouth of the Onkpararinga River about 30 km south of Adelaide. I have no idea what (or if) they were catching. I had spent the day nearby on the surf beach at Southport.

More Womadelaide

As well as listening to great music, patrons at Womadelaide had a big range of merchandise they could purchase, and then buy some food and drink and relax a while in an open air "restaurant".

ABC Wednesdays - F for fish measurement

Is your catch legal? There is no excuse for anglers on the Glenelg Jetty to bag undersized fish as this Fish Measurement Station lists all the local species and and has a metric ruler included.

The ABC Wednesday meme was created by Denise Nesbitt. To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions click here.

Theme day: Paths and Passages

I love cycling and I especially like it away from the traffic on cycle paths like this; not only is it more peaceful it is safer too. Fortunately Adelaide has a growing number of cycle paths and marked routes on side roads.

The ever present dangers of cycling on main roads hit home last week with a report of a cyclist being hit and killed by a drunk driver; sadly he was a friend and past member of my cycling group.

This photo was taken several years ago in September in a southern suburb of Adelaide. I daresay it would look slightly different today; the trees would have grown and at present the grass would have dried off from our sweltering summer heat.

This month's City Daily Photos' theme day topic is Paths and Passages; Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

The Beachouse Ferris Wheel

Opened on Saturday December 6th, this is an Australian first; a single arm ferris wheel. Glenelg has waited two years longer than planned for this to eventuate, and the almost $1.8 million cost of building it was over budget. Unlike other traditional ferris wheels you get a continuous ride; people board and disembark while it moves.

Morning stroll

This is a familiar scene along our metropolitan beaches; while I was out riding the other morning lots of other people were getting their exercise walking along the beach.

I took this photograph from Somerton looking south. Barriers of bagged sand have been placed along the beach to limit the sand drift. Also each year millions of tonnes of sand are carted in an effort to preserve our beautiful beaches. (See this previous post)

Tranquility

Another river shot; I took this at dusk today at Renmark. We are are our way to Canberra for a short holiday, so over the next week or so my posts will be of places further afield than usual.

Canberra is about 1200 kilometres from Adelaide, so we have quite a drive ahead of us tomorrow; we have only driven 250 kilometres towards our destination.

Back on my bike

Due to cold and inclement weather I have not done much cycling over the past couple of months and my waistline is telling the tale. This morning I made amends and rode up into the Adelaide foothills (about a 200m climb from home).

This is point where you get a reward for the effort; a great view and lots of downhill back home.
This is the start of Flinders Pass, a shared cycling/walking path that connects the suburb of Bellevue Heights to Flinders University.

Horsing around

One of the activities available at Narnu Farm is horse riding. Some of our members went on a leisurely trail ride. For many it was the first time on a horse, but on hearing their comments on their return I am sure it will not be their last. Why was I not riding? .... Someone had to take the photos!

Lake Bonney

The township of Barmera, about 200 km NE of Adelaide, is built on the shores of this lake. I took this photo one morning a couple of years ago from a youth campsite about 15 kms from the town.

Barmera depends on the lake for tourism, not just for the views, but also for the many opportunities it affords for water activities; canoeing, sailing and water skiing.

Model railway display

The Kangaroo and Cockatoo Railway layout was one of about ten on display at a local multi gauge model railway show this weekend. It is a G gauge layout, which has a 1:22.5 scale.

This particular layout featured lots of very detailed objects; birds, animals and people - very Australian and a credit to its creator; most objects were hand made. Here's a close up of two bush walkers soaking their tired feet in a pool.

We took our granddaughters along and they were enthralled by the whole event; but the Kangaroo and Cockatoo Railway kept them occupied for quite a while trying to find about 20 objects on a list that they were given. At one display they were able to control a train and at another, select which of about a dozen trains they wanted to see running.

Now I think the pressure might be on their father to resurrect his layout; in storage in my shed!

A Motley Crew

Another day sailing off Glenelg. During the week I generally find retirees to crew for me; on the weekend - bikini babes? These fine "young" gentlemen are also members of a group that I cycle with. The chap on the right is in his eighties and still enjoying life to the full.

Popeye at Elder Park

This is Popeye's departure wharf at Elder Park. Upstream you can see the Adelaide Bridge; the main connector between the centre of the City and North Adelaide. The owners of Popeye also own a fleet of pedal boats, some of which you can see near the fountain.

A ride on Popeye or in the paddle boats; a must for tourists and residents alike!