41°

I arrived at my brother’s in Adelaide earlier this week after a wonderful 2,100 km drive along the Pacific and Southern Ocean coasts.

What a treat!



I ventured along unmarked tracks (don’t tell the car rental company),





hiked into rain forests,









and climbed down to secluded beaches.

Wonderful!


Adelaide is a quiet, slow paced city, the fourth largest in Australia. Barry and Kay live 10 km from downtown in the seaside suburb of Semaphore.

They’ve put me up in a self-contained pool-side unit at the apartment building they own. It is a bit like “Melrose Place” here with all the tenants gathering around the pool after work for drinks and a swim and not uncommonly sharing a meal.

The beach, with a ten km boardwalk and broad, fine sand, is a three-minute walk away. Fellow tenants have cautioned me about swimming in the ocean, however, because there have been three shark deaths on this stretch of beach over the last year. I figure the Aussies are pulling my Canadian leg but I’ll abide by their advice. I've swum with enough sharks over the last few years and feel no compelling need to do so in the Southern Ocean.

I’ve been doing some reading but generally am having a bit of a problem not having an agenda guiding my every waking moment . . . . Barry assures me I will get over this!

I've added to the list of links on the right of this page two Australian newspapers -- "The Australian" is the equivalent of our "Globe and Mail", "The Advertiser" is a cross between "The Sun" and "The Star."

By the way, it reached 41° here today. Trust me, 41° is hot! Even the Aussies admit that it! Stopped for a short black (espresso) and the guy behind the counter said, "Hey ya mate, hot, no?" Photos of surviving the heat in South Australia with my brother Barry, his wife Kay, their dog QT, and extended family . . .