Coobowie…the other side of the gulf (of St. Vincent)

If you stand at any Adelaide beach and look across the sea you can (on a clear day) see the Yorke Peninsula and that's where Coobowie is.  My Mum's best friend Marie's family have a shack there (think rustic cottage) and we used to go to Coobwie every summer - just the mum's and their children.  (When we started there was just three children between them and by the time we finished there were eight.) 

For a lot of summers the shack had no electricity just propane, no bathroom, just an outside toilet and it was mostly one room with beds divided off by small cupboards.  We ate by lamplight, bathed in a metal baby bath and somebody had to empty the toilet when we left … and it's not as though the beach was the highlight - Coobowie is a gritty-shelly beach with lots of seaweed and long tides.  I can't believe this was the highlight of my Mother's year!

The old shack a million years ago ... I didn't take any photos this time but trust me ... the view is about the same!

But it's 55 years since I first went and at least 30 since I was last there so we offered to take Mum over to meet up with Marie and Alan.  There are two shacks now, and it's been so long that the new shack is now the old shack because the old shack has been spruced up. (The toilet is still outside but it's been spruced up to a flushing toilet and there is electricity - even internet!)  

Greg their oldest son is over to help out - it's tough inside the shack: Marie has dementia, Alan is fighting cancer and my Mum is getting forgetful. We talk for hours  and some of us remember the old times and most of us laugh and Joseph and I walk the 5kms into Edithburgh just like I used to do 50 years ago with Greg and his brother and the flies are still in our faces and on our backs, and it is still a hot walk . At Edithburgh, the concrete salt-water swimming pool on the beach is still there so we have a dip (it's cold!) and then it's an even hotter walk back!  Greg and Alan go fishing together (for the last time?) and catch some King George Whiting and we eat it for supper except joseph who eats the razor fish (that aren't fish) that Greg collected and it's a grand meal!

The pool at Edithburgh

Teeing off at Edithburgh golf course!

The putting green tar!

Inspite of the spiders (I'm sure some were red backs - maybe even funnel-webs!) in the outside toilet and the gritty beach and the seaweed, the stars are amazing and I'm glad we went to Coobowie!

Babysitting …

Something we looked forward to while being back in Adelaide was to babysit #1 grandson.  The second Friday of January 2013 was our first time. (Babysitting at night doesn't count because THEY put him to bed and then WE just sit and watch movies!)   

Unfortunately babysitting during the work week requires us being at the house at 7.00 a.m. - that's 7.00 a.m. in the morning - and even before retirement, when we were "hard at work" running the stores, 7.00 a.m. was not part of our daily routine.   Somehow we are on time and he waves goodbye to his Mum and then its just him and  us...

 Five minutes later the first buise appears … he falls and hits the table as he shows off his brand new walking steps. Of course there were no bruises when his OTHER grandparent babysat on Tuesday - he wasn't walking then!!

Luckily we have Simone's list of his daily routine to loosely follow … But WE have to go the park at 8.30 because it's too ridiculously hot after lunch and so then of course HE falls asleep on our walk for coffee and any other time the noise at the outdoor cafe would wake him,  but this time HE sleeps until 10.00 a.m.!!  So now he's awake when he should be going to sleep and he's hungry for lunch and it's not lunch time and i'm sure you can see where this is going … our day doesn't resemble Simone's list in the slightest.  Still we make it through with just a few injuries to report; a black eye (bruise has morphed into swollen black eye) a small cut and a slight (ever so slight) scalding. (note: the first lot of water out of the outside tap is scaldingly hot!!)  Of course there was no scalding when his OTHER grandparent babysat on Tuesday - it wasn't 39c that day!!  

Still, they have no choice -we get to do it all over again next week!  Hurrah!

Down at Victor ...

Turns out that other members of our Christmas Day celebrations did succumb to the dreaded gastro - but down at Victor Harbor, where we are almost on the beach, we were finished with it before the end of the year thank goodness.  That freed us up to do, what apparently you do, when you are "down at Victor " (certainly what you do, when you stay with the Fritschs'!)!  

If you don't get up to swim across the bay at 6.00 a.m. like Jane does, or surf (or go out to check on the surf) as Barry does then you get up anyway to be company for Simone or Mischa who are up with Jasper, who is always up at that time.  Then when the swimmers and surfers return it's time to go the beach for a swim or walk along the beach into town for coffee.

An unusual photo of Jane and Barry Fritsch - sitting down!

For me the choice is obvious; swim or walk? the reward of a flat white wins. The walks can be either 4kms or 8 kms depending on whether you turn left or right and both are heaven unless you are the balls of my feet, in which case you find the sand just a tad abrasive. The sunburn on the back of my legs is a surprise because I wear a hat and long-sleeved shirt - urgh the sun is vicious - but I do one walk on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday and the coffee is good both times.

This is how far behind the other walkers I am! 

But you can see how beautiful the beach is!

You might sit down for lunch, but after a LIGHT lunch, you either go swimming or if you're not Australian you go birdwatching, or if you are me you agree (why?) to a 12+ km bike ride that is not along the nice flat beach but on roads and bike paths that include the odd hill or two.  I like my bike but I'm still getting used to the gears so the ride seems long… and this time It's not possible for the backs of my legs to get sunburnt but it IS possible for my knees and wrists to burn!  Who has ever had burnt wrists? Urgh the sun is vicious!

So by now I am sunburned or tanned over most of my body and I can't walk because the balls of my feet need to recover and by now the benefits of being at Victor "because it's not only beautiful but always 5-10 degrees cooler than the city", don't count because it's 42c even down here!  Thank goodness Jane suggested we sit out the heat at the movies and I find the movie (Life of Pi) so beautiful and enjoyable but I'm not sure if it's just because I'm relaxing  and sitting in a cool old theatre?

Eating outside on the front deck 

(note: that's not our van in the front - the Fritschs' have two of them!)

Then we did sit still long enough to celebrate the new year - out on the front deck with the other grandparents and  a lovely breeze and the beach just a short (for them) walk away.  Victor is a party town so we have music blaring from nearby parties and an endless stream of young partygoers streaming by in front of us, but we are very happy to be where we are; thankful in one way that 2012 is ended (it was a crazy year) and excited (joe) and curious (jill)  for what 2013 brings, because unlike last year, and other than our camper van trip out west, this year does not have an obvious path at all!

For a change of pace - cockling!  

You pull them out of the sand as the tide recedes (we cheated with a net that caught a lot more than you could pull out - there were thousands of them!).

They (not me) ate them the next day - after they the cockles had spat out sand from their shells - prepared much like muscles.

Happy 2013 - I hope it's a good year. It's going to be warm here for the first while  - that I know for sure!  After that ….