Mount Lofty

Over the weekend I hiked from Waterfall Gully to the top of Mount Lofty... It is about 600 meters up in about 4 km. Monday and my calves are still tight. On the way back down I stopped at Cleland Wildlife Park, essentially an Australian wildlife zoo, with free roaming animals and get your picture taken with the koala... see the photo log below. Afterwards I went to Paul's house for dinner. Karen, Paul's wife, was there so we finally met. It was a lovely meal and great socializing. Dennis, from Pirnie's PHO office, arrived on Saturday and he and I drove to Mount Lofty's peak on Sunday. We went for a hike around the peak and saw a wild kangaroo, but no koalas... It was a pretty good weekend for my last in OZ (for the time being). I'll be flying home on Thursday. Here is a photo log:

Christmas Pageant

Adelaide had a Christmas parade on Saturday (they call it a pageant). It passed right in front of my building. For a moment it began to rain, but the clouds lightened and the parade went on unwetted... Of course it ended with Santa arriving, but would not have been complete without an appearance from Santa's best helper, the Christmas Koala!