Adelaide hot

Scattered clumps of green algae float on the surface of the murky river. Out in mid-stream, the deeper water feels colder. On the town side, two charter boats have docked below the Chateau Solar, now the Hotel de Ville. I swim towards them. The current quickens. I increase my stroke rate. Youths are running and jumping off a two metre high concrete wall, in front of the boats, near a flight of stone steps. I reach them and catch my breath.

I swim back across the river. And emerge refreshed, the evaporating water cooling my body. Within minutes I am hot again. The temperature is in the high 30's.

This is just like the oppressive heat we used to experience in waves during the Adelaide summer.

In South Australia, slow-moving high pressure systems over the Great Australian Bight pushed desert-heated air south into Adelaide.

In France, it appears to be a similar phenomenon, with air flows moving north from the Sahara across Spain.

In Adelaide, we had airconditioning. Here we don't. We've done what friends have advised, opening the windows at dawn, then closing the shutters to the blazing sun. We've got frozen water bottles positioned in front of the fan.

In the early afternoons, I've been going down to the river. The Castelmoron bridge looms large over the town's beach, which has just received its summer dump of white sand. This makes it cleaner, more attractive and softer underfoot. River beaches can be muddy and stoney.

Back home, crickets are making a racket outside the door. The neighbour's wheat has turned from blue-green to golden-brown. A distant field of young corn is being drenched by irrigation.

It's Adelaide hot.