Adelaide

16/11/11-20/11/11

On my first full day in Adelaide I carried on from where I kicked off yesterday by visiting the migration museum in the morning. While I was in there a group of Australians were also looking round at the same time, it was interesting to listen to the stories of how their families came to be down under – most certainly seemed proud to have convicts in their families! During the afternoon I strolled to the Oval cricket ground before enjoying the sun while wondering next to the river, following its course till it took me to the botanical gardens while I stopped off to read my book in the afternoon sun.

The next day I jumped on the tram and rode it till the end of the line to Glenelg, which is situated right on the western coast. Whilst there I took a stroll along the beach, after the warm seas I experienced in Asia its back to the cold ones unfortunately. Glenelg turned out to be quite beautiful, it was I shame I hadn’t brought a towel along to enjoy the beach further.
Another day another location as I went to visit Port Adelaide, despite being a heritage zone almost no money has unfortunately been spent on the area, though finally the local government is starting to invest in the area. Although the area is full of historic buildings there really wasn’t a lot to see, so after visiting the maritime museum and climbing the lighthouse I decided to head back to the city centre.

Saturday turned out to be a shopping day. I spent most of the morning in and out of the shops along Rundle Mall and those inside the Central Market. I treated myself to an early Christmas present – a Kindle. As with everything in Oz book prices are almost three times the price of the UK, even second hand books cost more than brand new ones back home. Added that selections in hostels are poor I just wanted to be able to read something that I would enjoy hence purchasing a Kindle – plus saves me having to carry bulky books around! In the afternoon with the weather being slightly cooler I decided to take a proper hike along the river. With one eye on Taz and New Zealand I need to start getting ready for doing some tramping, so I blew a few cobwebs out of the system by challenging myself to walk at my usual fast pace. I was happy to find out that I was still up to pace.

My last full day in Adelaide turned out to be sunny but with a cold breeze. With it being a Sunday I took it easy and just visited some of the areas I hadn’t seen before whilst stopping off to relax in different locations. Tomorrow I would be jumping on the Overland to make the 10 hour trip to Melbourne. Unfortunately due to there being no availability on the Ghan for two weeks I couldn’t head immediately up to Alice Springs as I had planned to. Rather than wasting time waiting for the train in Adelaide I instead booked flights to visit Tasmania from Melbourne during the gap. This would mean I would have to head south before heading north to once again head south – not ideal but with an unlimited rain pass I was stuck with what was available with that company. One thing was for sure I would be clocking up the miles over the next three weeks.