It's our second full day at Yondah and as with any god holiday I am only just clearing away the cobwebs of sleep at 10:30am after almost 12 hours of sleep. I was crow-barred out of bed by Bec and Jedi both champing to go for a walk; when I finally did muster the fortitude to rise, the sun ducked behind a cloud and sideways sleeting rain took its place. But now, thirty minutes later, the sun has reappeared and a walk beckons.
I imagine today might now be a carbon copy of yesterday, now that it looks like we'll be blessed with sun for most of the day. Yesterday we spent our time either chasing or hiding from the sun - it was bizarre weather, with a cool breeze that was easily defeated by a blazing-hot sun, but the breeze alone was cold. Even the sun became too strong at times, so we moved between decks as needed. At one stage when a balance couldn't be struck, I gave up on the outside world and retired inside with a Pale to watch The A Team, which was ridiculous but fun.
I did get semi-active once during the day, taking my dodgy ankles and toes down the evil goat track to Yondah's private beach with Jedi. He of course had no issue racing down the insane decline and I could see him hunting for a stick while I was still only half way down to him. The water was ice cold but it didn't stop Jedi racing in there to retrieve his stick - although it didn't take him long to work out that the tide would do half his work for him. The cold, salty water somehow also helped relieve the pain in my feet so we ended up staying until the tide began threatening my bag of valuable electronics (of course I had to take the video camera to record Jedi's frolics; I would include one here but as an appalling video recorder it's both too long and of inadequate quality to justify placing here).
The sun is now beckoning me outside so I shall wind up.
18 October 2010
17 October 2010
Yondah II - The Return to Paradise
His two cents:
I've been waiting for this pretty much since we last locked the doors of this gorgeous place behind us. Bec had purchased the return trip as a Christmas present in 2009 (probably as much to shut me up about it as to secure a good time to visit, given how heavily booked this place is becoming), and I'd been counting down the days since.
If you've got no idea what I'm talking about, Yondah is a self-contained holiday home on the far south coast of South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. I say 'home' advisedly, as to call it a shack would be like calling Bill Gates 'kinda well off'. This place has, to use the cliche, all the mod-cons - reverse cycle a/c, fully equipped kitchen, three bedrooms, a super comfortable lounge room with stupendous views over rocky outcrops that separate lush farmland from Investigator Strait.
Most importantly, it's pet friendly, meaning Jedi gets a week of jovial, bounding freedom followed by nights on his bed in air conditioned comfort. (Sadly for the cats, as poor travelers, it means a week isolated in the Adelaide house, with kindly visits from our good friend and neighbour Rachacia.).
As always, getting here was NOT half the fun. In fact, the getting here contributed almost no real joy to the holiday. In actual fact (what does that mean anyway?), it was a bit of a debacle. We ran far behind our intended departure time as I'd overslept and spent more time catching up on work I should have done in the week prior than preparing, and was still very much in my usual state of morning filth when Bec got home from a very early visit to Buzz (her horse). I pulled my act together, but we still managed to leave almost two hours later than intended. We also had to stop at the chemist (my fault) and bottleshop (my fault) and to get fuel and check the tyres (the car's fault) meaning it was about two when we were finally under full steam. Determined to defeat the night we drove through the 2.5-3 hour journey.
Apart from our usual entertainment at Jedi's joy at seeing farm animals along the way (he reserves a set of special faces for these moments - cleverly referred to as 'cow face', 'sheep face' or 'horse face' depending on the livestock in question) the journey was uneventful. We had the usual consternation over directions, largely because I only saw signs as we passed them, meaning we took the usual, less direct path to get here, but one which maximises the use of sealed roads.
Despite one ill-advised traverse via a dodgy dirt road we made it here in one piece and promptly unloaded our grossly excessive inventory. We took our exploding dog for a walk along the ridge above the beach, where he tried to convince us, despite chilling winds and descending sun, that it was a good time to go down to our private beach. We weren't tempted by the notion of struggling back up the goat track that leads down to our little beach enclave in the dark and instead headed back to a spot of reading, a pumpkin and bacon pasta and a quiet night in front of the TV.
Today is off to a very slow start - for me at least. I slept from about 10 till well after 8 (when Bec set off the fire alarm with steam from the shower) and have managed a measly 15 minutes of exercise. Bec on the other hand has been for a run with Jedi, which entertained him no end no doubt as he would have ran 3km for each of hers.
The day now beckons a great deal of not much; we haven't seen the sun yet, but that allows for a quiet day of reading, eating and sleeping. I can live with that.
I've been waiting for this pretty much since we last locked the doors of this gorgeous place behind us. Bec had purchased the return trip as a Christmas present in 2009 (probably as much to shut me up about it as to secure a good time to visit, given how heavily booked this place is becoming), and I'd been counting down the days since.
If you've got no idea what I'm talking about, Yondah is a self-contained holiday home on the far south coast of South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. I say 'home' advisedly, as to call it a shack would be like calling Bill Gates 'kinda well off'. This place has, to use the cliche, all the mod-cons - reverse cycle a/c, fully equipped kitchen, three bedrooms, a super comfortable lounge room with stupendous views over rocky outcrops that separate lush farmland from Investigator Strait.
Most importantly, it's pet friendly, meaning Jedi gets a week of jovial, bounding freedom followed by nights on his bed in air conditioned comfort. (Sadly for the cats, as poor travelers, it means a week isolated in the Adelaide house, with kindly visits from our good friend and neighbour Rachacia.).
As always, getting here was NOT half the fun. In fact, the getting here contributed almost no real joy to the holiday. In actual fact (what does that mean anyway?), it was a bit of a debacle. We ran far behind our intended departure time as I'd overslept and spent more time catching up on work I should have done in the week prior than preparing, and was still very much in my usual state of morning filth when Bec got home from a very early visit to Buzz (her horse). I pulled my act together, but we still managed to leave almost two hours later than intended. We also had to stop at the chemist (my fault) and bottleshop (my fault) and to get fuel and check the tyres (the car's fault) meaning it was about two when we were finally under full steam. Determined to defeat the night we drove through the 2.5-3 hour journey.
Apart from our usual entertainment at Jedi's joy at seeing farm animals along the way (he reserves a set of special faces for these moments - cleverly referred to as 'cow face', 'sheep face' or 'horse face' depending on the livestock in question) the journey was uneventful. We had the usual consternation over directions, largely because I only saw signs as we passed them, meaning we took the usual, less direct path to get here, but one which maximises the use of sealed roads.
Despite one ill-advised traverse via a dodgy dirt road we made it here in one piece and promptly unloaded our grossly excessive inventory. We took our exploding dog for a walk along the ridge above the beach, where he tried to convince us, despite chilling winds and descending sun, that it was a good time to go down to our private beach. We weren't tempted by the notion of struggling back up the goat track that leads down to our little beach enclave in the dark and instead headed back to a spot of reading, a pumpkin and bacon pasta and a quiet night in front of the TV.
Today is off to a very slow start - for me at least. I slept from about 10 till well after 8 (when Bec set off the fire alarm with steam from the shower) and have managed a measly 15 minutes of exercise. Bec on the other hand has been for a run with Jedi, which entertained him no end no doubt as he would have ran 3km for each of hers.
The day now beckons a great deal of not much; we haven't seen the sun yet, but that allows for a quiet day of reading, eating and sleeping. I can live with that.
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