Summer beach walking – Saying good-bye to 2018

So it looks like the summer weather might be here to stay in South Australia.  We spent Christmas Day in a town 4 hours north of Adelaide and it reached 38 degrees (100.4 degrees fahrenheit).  Three days later it hit 46 degrees there (114.8 degrees fahrenheit).

I’ve never considered myself a real beach person (gasp…an Aussie that doesn’t live at the beach 🙂 ) I think it’s because I spent my younger years in small outback towns and the beach culture always felt a little foreign to me.

The last couple of weeks I’ve hit the beach to get some walking in though, which has been a beautiful break from heading to the hills. Swapping the dirt for the sand.

Semaphore Jetty to Largs Jetty

My youngest son is into fishing, so whilst hubby and son tried their luck from the end of the Semaphore jetty early one morning a couple of weeks ago I took the opportunity to walk from that jetty up to the Largs jetty and back.

Largs Jetty

Henley Beach Jetty to Grange Jetty

This morning I did the Henley Beach jetty to the Grange jetty and back. What I loved about this walk was that I did it with a group of 14 awesome ladies from a walking group. I’ve walked and even camped with this group before, but it was a different mix of people. So I didn’t know anyone. It was organised as a way for everyone to end 2018 on a positive note and to metaphorically leave behind any “rubbish” from the year that we wanted to get rid of. There were women from all corners of Adelaide, from up at Gawler down to Hallet Cove. I think just the fact that everyone got up early, drove themselves out there and took a chance to spend several hours walking on a beach with (mostly) strangers was pretty great.

Meeting under the Henley Beach jetty, waiting for everyone to arrive

I got to speak to women who had trekked in Nepal, Japan, Spain, other parts of South Australia and New Zealand. I spoke to a lady that spent 45 years living in South Africa who did a lot of long distance hiking there with her husband. One woman wanted to complete a marathon before she turned 50 but due to foot problems had set her sights on training for and completing the City to Bay run without injury.

This end of year walk would be a great tradition to participate in every year – I hope I get the opportunity to keep it up.

Both jetty walks were just under 4km return. Just enough to clear the head and breathe in the fresh air for a bit. Good for the soul.

Sarina