Semaphore - Adelaide

29th Nov – 2nd Dec

A couple more days in the Stansbury caravan park, we had driven and site seen everything within a substantial radius of this fishing village, on one day we drove a circuit that included a town called Minlaton and known as the “Barley Capital of the World”, understandably so when you see the grain fields extending forever in all directions, we enjoyed coffee and cake at the information centre that also housed a nice little art gallery. Minlaton’s other claim to fame is the “Red Devil” this is a vintage Bristol monoplane painted brilliant red and housed in a glass display on the outskirts of town, Captain Harry Butler flew this ex-RAF, oversize toy from Adelaide across the gulf to Minlaton with the Royal Mail in 1919.

Wednesday 1st Dec we’d had enough of the constant blast of cold wind at Stansbury, fishing was out of the question and although the intermittent sun was trying valiantly to pacify us, it wasn’t enough to entice us to delay our departure. We weren’t due in to Adelaide until Friday but once on the road a quick phone call confirmed availability for an early arrival so direct to Adelaide we went. Great no sooner had we arrived at the caravan park (when we eventually found it) a series of thunderstorms struck. A wet set up followed, then rain having stopped decided to go for a short site seeing drive, didn’t get far and the sky turned black again so the site seeing was cut short to batten down and it bucketed down, water every where but at least not in the van thank goodness.
Thursday, awoke to the promise of a better day the wind had dropped and there was at least a watery blue sky making an effort. About mid-morning by car and tram we ended up in the CBD for a look around and a visit to the city central markets (produce). Thursday’s weather turned out to be perfect, clear sky, warm and no humidity and without the promised thunderstorm. Later in the day we drove to the seaside suburb of Glenelg with its blend of modern well to do residences and early settler’s homes and cottages, most of them built in stone and very attractive. Similarly the churches are all attractively built in stone and look so old, some very small and others huge suggesting the local wealth at the time they were constructed.
Beaches on this side of Adelaide are beautiful, long wide stretches of white sand with the occasional jetty poking out into a clear water sea, no surf so when the wind drops the sea is flat like a lake.
Huge Norfolk Pines line an esplanade that runs along Glenelg beachfront, no doubt there are other areas to Glenelg but in this locality where we were the tram terminates at the end of the main street in what has now become a paved mall abutting the esplanade. A citizens band was playing Xmas carols in the very popular mall, entertaining numerous people eating out, relaxing with an ice cream like us or just casually wandering around looking at various small shops and listening to the music, 7:00 pm broad daylight and a warm barmy breeze drifting in from the sea.
Walking out on the jetty we watched locals catching Garfish and people walking their poodles, looking back towards the esplanade the beach on one side was being used by swimmers while on the other were dozens of people playing volley ball on numerous beach courts. Many people obviously enjoy daylight savings in this part of the country, a place where English settlers have certainly put their stamp.