6 days in Adelaide - Part 1

 

Goodness I've been too busy doing things so I'll have to split this post into two. First of all, Judy - the lady running the airbnb I'm staying has been away most of the week, so for the price of only a little more than a dorm room per night at the YHA in Sydney, I have had the house to myself, it's a very nice house, and guess what - she has two Maltese Terriers! Anyone who heard the previous Maltese Terrier experience may think this is a bad sign, but these two dogs are absolutely lovely, completely different and I would be very happy to dog sit them! So there you go, it is all down to the owner.

Judy told me about Tour Down Under was happening right now in Adelaide, this is the equivalent of the Tour De France, this got me up and out the house quickly the next day as the next stage was starting 2 buses across town in Norwood. I got there in time for the start and afterwards walked slowly back through Norwood, across the parkland and through the city back to Ashford, where I was staying just south of the centre.


Santos Tour Down Under village back in the city

Glass tunnel sculpture at the Botanic Gardens

Rain storm Rundle Mall

It had been pretty hot and in Rundle Mall, the pedestrian shopping street, a heavy rain storm occurred. It hammered down. Later in the paper I read a man had actually been killed by lighting out of town during that storm.

There are bicycle lanes everywhere, the people in charge of cycle lanes in Wellington should visit to see what a cycle lane is. The CBD is small and very walkable, public transport is good and I never saw a traffic jam or much traffic at all, some main city roads at regular office hours had no cars at all. It reminded of Vancouver, it's amazing how much nicer a city is without hordes of cars everywhere. Wellington is really falling behind in this respect.



Central Markets

The next day I took the bus with Diane who I'd met on the Indian Pacific train to Henley Beach.



Henley Beach

Diane was a really easy person to talk too, meeting people like her are part of the joy of travelling. She was off to Alice Springs on the Ghan train the next day with a quick tour to Uluru and Kings Canyon before flying to Brisbane to continue her world trip.

Josie had written a list of things to do in Adelaide which included Morialta Conservation Park on the edge of the city to the East, again I took the bus. Inside the park it doesn't feel like it's near a major city at all. I did a loop walk up to some falls which were dry and then up the top and around, blackberries were ripe everywhere and totally delicious, I picked them while walking around.

At the end near the carpark area was this chap:

Morialta Conservation Park