Had to set a 6:00am alarm for my watch to allow enough time to drive 1 hour and 15 minutes to Victor Harbor for an 8:00am parkrun. There was no accomodation available close to Victor Harbor otherwise I might have booked somewhere nearby, but I was coming back to Murray Bridge anyway.
The Victor Harbor parkrun was one of the few running on new years day east of South Australia, the other option at Strathalbyn was about 30 minutes closer, but the course didn't look as good, and as a bonus this is one of the few "V" parkruns. I was planning to spend a bit more time in Victor Harbor, maybe go across to Granite Island, but it just didn't look there would be enough time when hotel check-out (11:00am) and early check-in deadline (6:00pm which I didn't realise at the time) were considered.
Having not run a parkrun, or any kind of running event, since March 2020 this was a bit of a unusual experience, but I managed to run a bit better than expected in 3rd place about 18:25. My only goal was to finish in the top 10.
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Victor Harbor parkrun
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| The bridge across to Granite Island |
I drove back to the hotel soon after, then packed up and drove to Monarto Safari Park, at least that was only 10 minutes away. Had another encounter with wildlife when some bird that looked like a parrot crashed into the side of the car on the way there, made a big thump but no dent.
The main feature of the safari park is a bus tour, not ideal during these coronavirus times and on a very warm day. There was about three stops along the way where you could get out and walk around, but I didn't want to line up for the bus each time so decided to do a full loop to start with.
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| Giraffes don't like the sun either |
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| Zebras were too far away |
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| Lions all sleeping |
There was a good selection of animals in each of the fields, but you don't get particularly close to most of them, although there was a few lions right outside the bus at one point. After getting back to the start and having some lunch I walked over to the two closest locations with the chimpanzees and wallabies.
There is some kind of walking track that seems to follow the bus route, but the problem is if you walked to the first spot and then decided to get the bus, you'd have to go back around the entire loop again and see everything a second time - they don't run in both directions. It's a pretty substantial distance between each stop, like 1-2 kilometres, so I decided that was enough for the day. In summary, it was good, but would be better if the walking option was a bit more practical.
So back in the car for the afternoon drive, stopped at Tailem Bend and then a long session until about half way between Keith and my destination Naracoorte, started to get a sore back again. Made it to Naracoorte before the hotel deadline, got some drinks, then walked over to the nearby Subway. Incredibly they were out of bread, the one thing you wouldn't want to run out of, so had to go the Hungry Jack's beside it instead. While there was another BBL game on TV it wasn't being broadcast, disappointing.
