The Stick or a Trip to Innes National Park

It was during a trip to Big Bertha’s Great Wide World of Camping and Recreation Super-Duper-Mega Store (or something to that effect) that David found the stick. We were there to buy the butch equipment necessary for a weekend away at a primitive hut at Inneston in Innes National Park on the Yorke Peninsula. After looking at various models of sticks, David selected a red one with a light on one end.

I asked if he really needed the stick. He said ‘yes’ and pointed out that it was on sale. I said he couldn’t have it.

We then went our separate ways to look at various outdoorsy bits of ephemera – things like Thermos flasks with in-built satellite navigation, unbreakable disposable plates and twin-use signal flare/paintball guns (not safe for under 5s).

Later on we found ourselves back in front of the stick stand. I said he still couldn’t have one and that I would hold my breath, turn blue and fall down if he insisted on buying it. He promptly walked off to the checkout with it, while I duly fell down from self-induced asphyxiation. After being kicked a few times by large people carrying mounds of Occupational Health and Safety glow-in-the-dark lime-yellow camourflage clothing, self-inflating caravan park garden ornaments (I quite liked the pink flamingo model) and the campfire powered lava lamp, I decided that the tactic had not had its intended effect. I would just have to live with the fact that David had bought the stick.


Click on picture to enlarge

Time moved forward (except in Quantam Mechanics where it might proceed in a linear way, but only when you’re not looking).

This last weekend David got to finally use his stick. And he used it at every juncture possible. There are now little sticky prod holes all over the national park designating the peregrinations of our weekend stay.

We left Adelaide on Friday morning, Mini filled to the brim with useful outdoor gear, such as the tarpaulin and sand-sieve combo, and headed north, then west, then south. Just before turning west again we had a look at the Wind Farm at Wattle Point near Edithburgh.

We then travelled on to the national park at the other end of the ‘foot’ of Yorke Peninsula. After dropping all our useful gear at our primitive hut (complete with shower, hot water, gas oven, roof, fire place, in-house mosquitoes) we headed to the Cape Spencer Lighthouse where we had a glass of red and watched the sunset. In attendance was a character-ful Magpie.

The next day we set forth for a big walk from the Brown’s beach car park to Gym Beach 5km away. It’s a lovely walk taking you past huge sand dunes, scrub and clearings with indecisive emus who vacillate between coming closer to have a look or running away and they end up doing a bit of both.

When we neared the beach we were attacked by a crop duster, a la Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s North by Northwest.

The beach itself was quite spectacular. After that we drove off and walked to many of the other coastal features, each one seemingly more spectacular than the last. Pondolowie Bay is just amazing with its islands, bays, huge rolling waves and boiling surf.

On the Sunday we watched the surfers at Chinaman’s and went for another walk, this time to Royston Head. We also had a look of what’s left of the wreck of the Ethel, a ship that sank in the area many a moon ago.

And the stick? It lived up to its potential and behaved in a very stick-like fashion all weekend.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them - Clickification = Amplification!


Don Quixote would have needed a longer lance to tackle these windmills


David in front of one of the windmills at Wattle Point near Edithburgh


Harvey in front of the windmills. See we were both there! Proof!


Just look at the size of the door


At Cape Spencer


The view from Cape Spencer across the bay looking towards West Cape


The character-ful magpie


David recreating that scene from Hitchcock's North by Northwest


David at Gym Beach


Harvey at Gym Beach


One small foot print for a man, one giant . . .


Still life with sand dune, Mini and dead branch


Pondolowie Bay


Roaring surf


Evening vista


The primitive hut - no ensuites


Surfer at Chinaman's


No, not Scott of the Antarctic! David at West Cape Lighthouse accompanied by light rain and occasional gale force gusts


The lighthouse with feature heli-pad. (Note to self: Suitability for installation at The Chateau?)


Harvey on the heli-pad. No lift off in sight - not in that weather


The wreck of the Ethel on Ethel Beach


Just don't do anything - it's too dangerous


Map of the area with places we visited

Here is a link you can click on which will take you to to Innes National Park website. Under the heading accommodation is a PDF you can download which lists the heritage accommodation available.

An Anthropological Study

Let’s look at a typical suburban couple’s behaviour on a Saturday in Adelaide.

We’ll make a random selection, Google Map like. First we see the whole metro area of Adelaide then we zoom in, with a click. We have the eastern suburbs of Adelaide. Another click and another zoom. Now we can see Portrush Road and the fair suburb of Glenunga. Another click and we see a block of 70s units. Let’s choose one and we’ll follow the inhabitants for a while to see what they’re up to. How about Unit 8? The residents call it ‘Chateau Glenunga’ (how pretentious!). Consider our look at life there as an anthropological study.

8am - Nothing’s stirring - both asleep. Oh no, a trip to the toilet.

9am - Not much movement at all.

10am - Still nothing’s stirring.

11am - Ah, here we go. They’re up. Subject 1 (white, male, 42, named Harvey) is making coffee in the kitchen. Subject 2 (white, male, 44, named David) is sitting on the couch reading a book on 1950s and 60s architecture and decor. They drink the coffee - Kenyan 3/4 roast as a latte.

Noon - They’ve gone their separate ways. Subject 2 appears to be cleaning the tiniest spots of mould off the bathroom wall. Meanwhile Subject 1 has gathered everything he needs to go for a run and has headed outdoors. He has headed north on Portrush and has then, via the Blockbuster car park jogged off into the back streets.

1pm - Subject 2 has put some washing on. He appears also to be getting ready to go out. Subject 1 is now at the linear park near north Adelaide heading towards Bundy’s Road. His heart rate (he’s got a monitor on, is at 140 beats per minute).

2pm - Subject 2 has headed to the carport and has headed off down Portrush and then turned onto Greenhill Road heading west. By a serendipitous coincidence he sees Subject 1 as he runs up Greenhill Road in an easterly direction. They wave. Subject 1’s heart rate is now at 150 bets per minute. It will top out at 160 as he heads up hill towards home.

3pm - Subject 1 has had a shower, puts some washing in the dryer and is now taking photos of a few items around the ‘Chateau’. Subject 2 is in Ikea, near the airport. He’s looking intently at homewares. His Ikea bag has just a few items in it at this stage.

4pm - Subject 1 is on the computer. He’s failing to get it to connect to the internet and the email is also down. He downloads the photos from his camera, sizes and manipulates them in Photoshop and also continues with the clothes washing. Subject 2 has left Ikea and has visited several other stores.

5pm - Subject 2 is driving back towards the ‘Chateau’. Subject 1 has a drink of a new bevarage bought a couple weeks back that is yet untried. It is Blue Tongue Alcoholic Ginger Beer. Subject 1 is surprised to discover it tastes more like beer than non-alcoholic ginger beer. Or is the suragy biscuit (baked by Subject 1’s mother) he ate before tasting the ginger beer interfering with his palate?

6pm - Subject 2 returns with his day’s ‘hunting and gathering’ spoils. Subject 1 initially disapproves of the amount bought but then enthusiastically inspects the ‘catch’.

7pm - Subject 1 & 2 get in their car and head towards another suburban couple’s home for a dinner party.

This is where we leave our subjects for the time being. I’m not sure you can conclude much from a reporting of a single day’s events. Perhaps we’ll have to visit the ‘Chateau’ again some time.

Pictures - Elargification happens upon clickification!!

Here's what he bought . . .


Frames and tape and mats and backing board and stuff ready for framing work to go in the exhibition


The brand of ginger beer with decorative background


David has been busy making his own stock for cooking - chicken, veal and pork. He has also been making slow-roasted capsicums which he places in oil

Running Performance Analysis

The simple maths involved in this took me ages! Doh!

The Run Around II

A couple of weeks ago I went running and as usual I listened to music via an iPod, - my relatively new iPod Shuffle, the one that’s about the size of two 50cent pieces put together. I had the iPod clipped onto my running shorts and I was also wearing headphones. After my run I ripped off the headphones and poped them away as I sweated my way indoors looking for a drink.



I then decided to have a shower, so I tossed everything I was wearing into the dirty wash basket.

A few days later I took a load of washing out to the line to dry. It was a load that contained my running shorts. I pegged the shorts on the line only to see that my iPod was still clipped onto its waistband.

It was then that I realised my iPod had been through the wash, deep rinse, spin rinse and spin cycles.

With great trepidation I showed David the drowned iPod and told him what had happened to it. After alluding to my intelligence, negatively, he suggested we let it dry out for a while.

That night we attempted iPod resuscitation. The diminutive machine was duly turned on. It failed to work. David then decided to see if it would re-initialise on the computer.

He took it upstairs to perform the necessary procedure. I waited downstairs pacing nervously.

After a short quiet period he walked down the stairs and announced that the operation had been a success and that my iPod had returned to functioning order. It was alive.

Although I wouldn’t suggest any of you put your iPod in the wash, it didn’t seem to harm mine. Even so, it’s not going in there again any time soon - not without a floatation aid anyway.

All this is in preface to the major theme of today’s story, which is yesterday’s race, in which I wore Lazarus the Shuffle. Lazarus worked fine, and I did better than I expected too.

The race was a half marathon – 21km. It’s the longest running race I’ve taken part in. It started at Athelstone Primary School in the Adelaide foothills. The route took in most of the eastern portion of the linear park next to the River Torrens. It then took us through the city and to the Brewery corner on Port Road and then back into the city to finish at Pinky Flat just behind Adelaide Oval. See maps for route outline. Click on them and they get bigger!





Apart from Lazarus the iPod I was also wearing my trusty heart rate monitor, which mysteriously doesn’t work in the car - it can't pick up my heart rate. During training runs I usually try to keep my heart rate down to 130 to 140 – doing this is supposed build up fitness. Running at a rate higher than this level all the time is meant to be counter-productive.

David dropped me off at the race and took a few photos. We set off at 8am. Great conditions, coolish (about 16 degrees or so) with no breeze. I put myself in the middle of the pack and tried to keep pace with people that looked like they might run at the same pace I do. Within a few kilometres my heart rate was up to 140. I kept it there for a while but decided I had the fitness to go out to 150 for the rest of the race. However, even slight inclines and hills bumped it up to 160.

At each water stop I took a glug of glucose syrup for energy, which really helped. By the 10km mark my pulse rate was up to an average of 160 but I was running a bit faster and feeling pretty good. With only two kilometres to go to the finish, there were markers every kilometre, I decided to really pick up the pace - stride out and speed up. At one point my heart rate hit 177 and I backed off. I suspect my peak heart rate is just a few beats per minute further on from there!

The run to the line was mainly downhill so I put on a bit of a sprint towards the finish and ran through the finish line. I had completed the 21km run in 1 hour and 50 minutes according to my watch. I was hoping for less than two hours, so I was very happy with the time. I had told David I’d take two hours so he didn’t arrive in time to see me finish.

I still want to see what the official time will be as, by my watch (which is wrong), we set off several minutes before 8am.

A couple of people I know did the race - Gavin from JT Cycles who sold me my bike and Bridget Murphy-O’Neil a former Murray Bridge-ite.

Click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.

Fresh(ish) and ready to go.



The start. These are the fast people. See me? No. That's because I'm back with the slow/slower people.



Here I am. Only 21.1km to go.



The end. Hot, sweaty but fine and very pleased with the time.




Pinky Flat, where the finish line was, is home to a number of black swans - ones that don't mind a gentle pat.



From the SA Road Runners Club website, May 9

The Greenbelt Half Marathon and 10 km last Sunday was held on a lovely morning and was very well attended. Ian Roberts reports there were some 379 finishers with the majority, 270 plus, entered in the half marathon. Hoping for results and a race report shortly.

Official Results

I didn't do as well as I thought. I completed the 21.1km in 1 hour 55 and 37 seconds (169th). That's 5 minutes more than I thought. Perhaps I should learn how to use the timer properly on my heart rate monitor. It's still under two hours, so my goal was achieved. Of the people I know, Gavin Nugent frm JT Cycles did it in 1.36.16 (57th); Lorraine Tyler, a one time member of our swimming group did it in 1.53.00 (152nd) and Bridget Murphy-O'Neil completed the course in 1.49.54 (124th).

Take a detour

It has been a busy time at the Chateau recently.

Although the triathlon season is over I'm still doing a fair bit of training - swimming in the mornings somewhere between one and three times a week, riding to work up to Crafers (usually twice a week) and going for runs. I've been lengthening the runs lately as on Sunday I'm going to attempt a half marathon - 21km. I've already done two training runs of about that length so I should be able to make the distance.

I'm also preparing work for another exhibition. This time the exhibition is of just my work and it will be held at the White Cedars Cafe & Gallery, run by our friends Francis and Putu, in Burra. The exhibition opens on June 17 and concludes at the end of July. I've put togeher a poster and an invitation and I'll take that over to the printers tomorrow to get them made up. The poster is shown below.

Clickification = Enlargification



Also in a conspiracy to ensure that I never lose fitness or gain weight, David bought me a static trainer for my bike so that when the weather is less than perfect for cycling (eg winter) I can still huff and puff at fitness and sweat away any superfluous calories. David said he might even use it too.



My brother Neil is in Adelaide for a conference this week too and we hope to have him over for dinner before he heads back to Queensland. No doubt he'll be served a numerous course banquet created by the Chateau's chef David.