Going West Tour: Day 13 Wandering Adelaide

By the numbers

18,712 steps

14.11kms

 

I did wake up early, but didn’t move for a bit. When I did end up outside two buildings down, another hostel was having issues. Their smoke alarms were going off and some people were waiting outside, but some were walking back in. Two fire trucks turned up and one group were walking in when I crossed the road. I don’t know if someone was cooking or not, but I didn’t see smoke anywhere. I ended up with a coffee and something for breakfast and decided to walk random streets towards the railway station as it was around a 10 min walk. One was Leigh street named after William Leigh, who never came to South Australia. He was just an overseas investor in the 1800s. There was information about some of the surrounding buildings and who owned them. They were all on two light posts on either end of the street. I used the loo in the train station and I could hear snoring coming from the cubicles, I wasn’t going to disturb them.

 

I wasn’t catching a train this time, but using the bridge behind the station to make my way over the Adelaide Oval. What I was doing was going to visit the Bradman Collection, which was about the life of Sir Donald Bradman.. I managed to arrive 2 minutes before the museum opened, but I was allowed to take pictures of the stadium, but not allowed on the oval. While I was doing that one of the ladies told me it was now open and said sorry she was late as she was chatting. I was not worried in the slightest. There was one rule, I was not allowed to take pictures of the collection. No one said anything about writing notes. Part of the Adelaide oval display was about the history including in 1977 Feetwood Mac were the first major band to play, and in 1949 the first woman’s test match was played. The Bradman collection included quite a bit about his career as a cricketer including the Bodyline tour in the 1930s. Around the same time as Bradman was playing happened to be important events like the Great Depression, which peoples spirits were uplifted due to his playing, and the rise of mass media like wireless radio. Radio meant the cricket could be broadcast ball by ball, which was first done by Adelaide. Then after the ABC was created, they broadcast the Bodyline tour during the 1930s. Bradman was from Bowral and had played cricket as a youngster and later on in Adelaide. It was interesting as he was well liked by people, and liked other sports too. They had bats from the 1930s and about a song he wrote. I was literally the only person there the entire time and it probably came across that I was a cricket tragic.

 

I found there was a statue outside of him and I found where it was in Adelaide, which happened to be just outside. I visited it before I had to leave for the Discovery tour I was meant to do at 11am. I ended up walking along the river front until I crossed a bridge that took me through Adelaide University, where I was wondering why I was basically going uphill or felt like it. I couldn’t really stop and become distracted as I was going to be late if I had stopped for a look. It wasn’t long before I found the Australian Space Discovery Centre. It was run by the Australian Space Agency, which is pretty cool that we actually have this. I had around 20 mins before I could go inside and I was happy to sit outside in the shade, and I could feel the day starting to get warmer. I had my ticket on my phone ready for when they scanned them and a lady behind me started complaining about the internet crashing because everyone was using their phones. There were plenty of kids around and everyone seemed to end up in the interactive area. One machine showed you the real time location of a satellite like the NBN Skymuster and a few others, A map showed you where the Ground stations tor tracking satellites, launch sites and so on, I had never seen a list of future rocket launches before. While I was looking I listened in on a kid who was upset, telling his dad that another woman, who wasn’t his mother basically push him off one of the machines for her kid to use. On a whim I went for a look to see if it was the grumpy lady from earlier who was complaining and since I didn’t see her, I think she took off if it was her. One computer showed you all the space junk in orbit around the Earth. As an adult even I enjoyed the simulations. There were team stories like how there is a GPS guided cane being made up to make life easier for vision impaired people. There was a short lecture basically about separating fact from fiction like we received some of the moon landing. There was a mission control centre behind some screens, but they couldn’t be lifted as there was apparently sensitive work being done not for public viewing.

 

I did get myself some souvenirs and they told me that there will be some more being included pretty soon. Somehow I think I would be back to Adelaide sometime just for that. They do even have a careers board too where you can ask questions, although I wasn’t that game to check it out when someone was standing there. My next walking journey was a walk to the Botanic garden, which wasn’t too far away. I wandered through the Botanic Garden and even filled up my nearly empty water bottle. I was heading towards the cafe, but I found the cacti display and they were actually flowering. I was also on the hunt for the corpse flower that had bloomed recently, but there was not just one botanic garden location in Adelaide, there were around 4 and it wasn’t at the one I was at. I made it to the cafe and one guy started talking to me right off the bat. He knew where I had gotten my shirt and he was from Wellington. We had a Lord of the Rings chat and found he had a few friends who were an elf and a Hobbit. I still want the quite on my shirt as a tattoo as it means a lot to me honestly. ‘Not all those who wander are lost’. I ended up with a drink and a pie before wandering off again. I had a quick look in the garden shop next door to the Botany museum, which I didn’t visit. I ended up with the rose garden down one end of the gardens, and I was looking at some of the test gardens and one I liked. The rest outside of the testing area were established and had names. The building the roses were next to were the old tram sheds that had been repurposed.

 

While I was getting sunburnt, I took a walk towards the National Wine Centre of Australia that apparently had a little discovery centre of its own. It was part of the university of Adelaide. I walked inside and was happy it was nice and cool. The discovery centre was open and I was able to walk up the ramp to the top where there were story boards along the way telling the story of wine growing in Australia, which started in 1788. I looked over the rails and I seen the wine cellar underneath and it was large and full of wine. The top floor, I found how to make two wines, both red and white and the processes that were used to make them. There was a wall of the different variety of grapes used for the many wines we grew in Australia. I stuck around for a little bit and then decided I should wander back to where I was staying.

 

Once I ended the gardens again as I was going to get through and see the cathedral on my way past. Turns out my phone was overheating, which I knew about the entire time I have been away that its been getting overly warm, and maps went black and white as a message said the phone needed to cool down. Not really something that should be happening, but I do need a new phone this year. As I was wandering, I came across a patch the Gardens were using to save threatened and endangered species of plants. They had a list of the three they were growing and what was going to happen once they had enough. Nearby there was something called a deadhouse on my map and I soon found it. It was an old mortuary from when there was a hospital on the grounds. It was an asylum to begin with and later for diseases.. Wandering o7ut of the Botanic Gardens, I headed to the zoo, no I wasn’t going to visit that as it had been a long enough day. I ended up walking across the little foot bridge I had used earlier between Adelaide university and the Oval side. A monument I thought to be a war memorial was to do with John Howard Angas, who was a pioneer and philanthropist when he died in 1904. He was religious and rand a good business. I had a quick look at the Cathedral before heading back to the train station and the hostel, where I kinda needed to get backed before I left the next day in the early hours.

Going West Tour: Day 12 Distracting Adelaide

By the numbers

1 museum

1 Pier

21,533 steps

16.32 kms

 

I allowed myself to sleep in just a touch this morning before venturing out into the wide world. Being a public holiday, I was half expecting every single shop to be closed. Most were and it looked like shopping centres too. The roads were really quiet with few cars The same shop I frequented the morning before was open, so I went in and got a coffee, curried egg sangas and a chilli kransky. That was when my plan to head back to Port Adelaide fell apart.

 

Adelaide seems to cover its history well as I found the Town Hall and went for a walk. It wasn’t open for the obvious reason, but looking up at the balcony, were pictures of The Beatles waving back. Wandering further on, I ended up being next to the General Post Office, which was built in the 1870s and had not long ago been vacated by Australia Post, who basically moved next door. I soon found statues of Charles Sturt and Queen Elizabeth in a park. I wondered what the three other buildings were, so I walked to them and found one was the District court and the other building was the Supreme Court, and the nearby Sir Samuel Way building, which was at one stage a department store build around 1916. It is now law courts so that would have been a huge change. I think it was around an hour I was exploring Adelaide inner city, although I was not that far from my destination as I then headed back towards the train station.

 

I didn’t have long to wait for the train as I had around 20 mins and the train was happily waiting at the platform for people to board. A guy behind me was making weird phone calls asking if the borders were still shut and if there were restrictions for interstate travel. Whoever he was talking to on the phone was a government type person and he had to give his details to them. I have no idea where he ended up as I got off at Port Adelaide and it wasn’t the last train encounter I had. I was this time heading to the South Australia Aviation Museum as a third strike in the four museum in the port area. I was given a map of the hangers and shown which planes I could enter like the Douglas Dakota and the Orion. They did have a huge amount of aircraft in the two hangers and there were even stories about when they received them too. I don’t know what I was expecting when I was looking at the F-111, but I had at first thought the FA-18 was that plane. It was the first plane you seen when entering the building. There was a guy signing books that he had written about the Australian aircraft history and he tried tempting me into getting a copy and said I would order online as I am flying out on the weekend. The displays covered little bits about World War 1 and II including war in the Pacific, and there was a little about well known pilots like Kingsford Smith.

 

I came across an oddity as there was a little about space travel and made mention of an Adelaide Space Discovery centre. Out of curiosity I Googled it and ended up finding out there were tickets available for Friday as it was still school holidays. It was near the Adelaide train station, so I was lucky. The tickets are the best price too, free. Its all about the technology they use with exploring space so could be interesting. They even had missiles they had tested at Woomera as it is restricted area in South Australia. The aircraft like the Fokker Friendship and Wessex Helo were machines you could look inside, but could only go so far as they had blocked off the cockpits. Though some like the helicopter I just had enough room to stand. Though it said to watch your head, but not your feet when you step inside. Aircraft were not the only things they had as there were also displays on ANSETT like what was required of their hostesses and what food came with your seat. One of the planes even had the vehicle that drove the stairs once owned by Qantas. I had actually been in the museum for several hours before I left. The museum wasn’t really very busy unless everyone assumed that it had been closed for the day.

 

Once I left, I got distracted again and went looking for some of the artworks that were around Port Adelaide. I doubt I would ever see them all, but one was called Wonderwall and was several stories high and pretty obvious. I was wondering about the brewery with the name Pirate Life and it was pumping music. I ended up finding the little roundals that gave the history to some of the buildings along the waterfront like the old banks that were either now a random business, or residential. I ended up heading to the train station to visit a place up the line called Largs. The maps said it had a pier and I was thinking it was like St Kilda or something from Melbourne. The entertainment started once I walked to a platform with a 20 minute wait and a twitchy guy with his bike. He was stretching, which included lying down on the seat beside me. He then tried selling a guy he seemed to know Raybans sunnies for $50. “You can google them and it will tell you they are $200”.

 

I kept my music going ignoring him and then his mate said something about drugs of sorts. I look up any my mate had appeared on the other platform. Last I had seen he was sitting on the edge with his legs hanging down. Next minute on the other side. It was impossible to get to the other side as it was an above ground platform with zigzag ramps. The guy then attempted to cross over again until a voice on the station speaker told him to go around. It would have been someone watching from control and they knew what was happening. Twitchy had to walk all the way around down and then back up the ramps. He then admitted to his friend his prosthetic needed to be worn in as it was new. He had lost it when he tried to jump onto a freight train when he was 5. Not learning really and I wanted to be far, far away from him.

 

The train arrived and it was something like a 10 minute journey to Largs. To even call it a station was an understatement. It was a platform and that was it, nothing to say when the next train was. It was around a 5 min walk to Largs beach and there were people everywhere. The hotel was pumping music out and I found it had been a fixture in the area since the 1880s. It was a huge building with several floors and nothing like the simple little rooms you get today. Across the road was the pier and I crossed the road to look at getting an ice cream or something and there was a line inside and outside. I thought better so wandered to the oldish pier. According to a nearby history thing it had opened in 1882 and was used for anchorage for deep water boats, where ferries would take them to the pier. It had likely changed since then. I walked part of it and was blown away by the wind. I had expected something like in St Kilda or anywhere in Melbourne. I basically did a loop before heading back to the station. Largs didn’t interest me that much and I did see there was another pier several kms down the road, but didn’t want to walk there.

 

Once the train arrived and I took it all the way into Adelaide, I thought that I wasn’t going to explore any more of the city and walk back to the hostel after getting something to eat. While there were events going nearby, I just wanted to spend the afternoon relaxing as it was just after 5pm. I found my local IGA and got a meal out of them, which I was really happy to see they were open. I did some washing too as I thought my clothes might be a little bit stinky in my bag and maybe heavy with sweat. Just a job that needed to be done again.

Going West Tour: Day 11 Port Adelaide

By the numbers

Too many times distracted

3 museums

25,903 steps

19.64 kms

 

I had the aircon running all night and I felt really great this morning although I did get up a little later than I had been in Perth. I was ready to roll out and my goal at that particular time was to get the train out past Port Adelaide to the pier at Largs on the beach before any of the museums opened and return as soon as they are. The plan did not turn out to be so straight forward as that. The plan bent and broke, spinning off into the far distance before returning with a scream.

 

The all intent was until I got distracted after finding a coffee and sandwich. The lady laughed after calling my coffee right as I was trying to take a bite from my sandwich. It was funny, you had to be there. I took off walking following my map to Adelaide Railway Station that was around 10 mins from where I am staying. I stumbled across a plaque on a building on King William Street that was about Charles Sturt leaving from around that spot to explore central Australia. Then came a wander through Rundle Mall as I seen some buildings that caught my interest. While distracted I nearly bumped into a random guy who got upset with me. I don’t know exactly what was said as I had music going, but he was yelling at me as he walked off. I remembered reading something online about an Adelaide mall that had a Beadle. That random thought turned into a location after Googling, and was nearby in Rundle Mall. I came across street art like big shiny balls, an elephant on stilts that was a Salvador Dali design and a giant pigeon. Adelaide Arcade appeared and it had been built in the 1800s and included tea rooms. They still exist, but are now closed off to the public with a viewing platform. There was also a museum with the original flag mast, items like shoes found under the floorboards. The whole Arcade was full of things I couldn’t possibly afford from underwear that were silk and handmade to books that were pretty rare, and expensive.

 

I had actually forgotten part of my sandwich that was still in my bag and I was wandering past Nike and wondering what the crowd was doing standing out front with some that had shoes. No idea what this was about, but I didn’t actually care apart from happy guys with shoes and security hanging around. One of the random escalators I took looking for a loo took me straight into the heart of a Coles store, and I had to ask the fateful question and I got an answer. I found the fateful place before I wandered off. I found the South African memorial outside Government House. Government House is where the governor of the state is and not sure if you can just wander into the grounds at any time. The railway station was actually nearby as it was beside Parliament House. I walked into the Railways station and explored that before doing anything else. It also has a casino in parts of it, but I thought there was so much space it wasn’t funny. I scanned my card to go through the turnstiles and I was refused entry. I wondered why until I looked at my card, and I had tried scanning on with my hostel door key. Explains why and everything. The correct pocket this time and the card worked and I was through.

 

The train didn’t take long to get to Port Adelaide and I knew going to Largs wouldn’t help as I wanted the museums especially since I was going to be distracted once again. I started walking towards the Maritime museum and ended up finding the wharf area as Port Adelaide is a historic heritage area and I was looking at some of the older buildings like the Town Hall. There was also a lighthouse that had been standing nearby, but they had moved it. I soon founds my way to the maritime museum, where I paid for entry, but I got a card where I can get a discount on entry to the other three museums in the area, which were the Railway, aircraft museum and the Clipper ‘City of Adelaide’. The maritime museum had kids everywhere as part of some school type group and it was funny when every now and then they had to say things like Yo ho ho when their guide requested it of them. The museum itself was interesting as it had figureheads from a few ships and how they came to be in the museum collection. They had a big collection, although there were some about the local shipwrecks and the impact on South Australians like the wreck of ‘Star of Greece’ that had even spawned views from local artists in the present time. They did have artifacts from the wreck, although the ship hadn’t been underwater for a long time as most of it had been salvaged. There was the history of the navy and a ship called Protector that had been ordered by South Australia, which had been sent to the Boxer Rebellion in China, I think it even provided escort work during WW1. There are still things from the ship that survived like the bell. There was a display about the vessels known as the Windjammers that would basically go from the Baltic sea to Australia and back with South Australians learning skills on the ships. They picked up cargos of grain in the southern summer and returned again. I did find the museum of interest.

 

Soon I decided that I wanted to visit the railway museum for the trains and it wasn’t that far from the Maritime museum. I had two of my bars that I basically had for lunch on my walk there. As soon as I had entered, I somehow ended up on one of the little trains that go around the museum. That was actually fun as we went around twice. I ended up sitting next to a lady with her son, who I think was autistic who kind of wanted out once the train stopped and he knew how to unlatch the door. Somehow I don’t think he liked having a stranger sitting near him, I had made sure to sit next to his mum. I had just wanted a seat as I had walked around the maritime museum and not really sat down. There were plenty of trains and they had been built in South Australia. They were bigger than I had expected and you could walk beside them. I found a model of one that looked like a shark as it was sleek, and I found the same train later. The good thing is you can Google the number on the train and say where it is located, and you may get more information. Thats what I did and came across some information on the train’s history and where it was located before the museum got it. It didn’t have an info sheet on it like the ones inside. They had a few carriages too and some of them had been used as overlanders that went between Adelaide and Melbourne. I will say I enjoyed the museum more than I did the Maritime museum, but maybe that is just me. I came across a safety / infomercial about trains like getting the tickets punched and a kid waiting for the train to pass before crossing the line. There were all sorts to do with trains in South Australia and beyond including the railways through the centre of Australia being used by The Ghan or even the Indian Pacific. At one stage there were many towns after Kalgoorlie that were before Forrest that serviced the railway until it ended up being only Cook that did that. They had uniforms of the different people who worked on the railways like the guards and even the tea ladies.

 

It wasn’t long before the museum closed for the day when I left and decided to walk past the aviation museum on my way to check out the clipper ‘City of Adelaide’ that was in a dock area. Turns out there was no short cut along the river to get there and it was in an actual dock area that had fences and everything. The City of Adelaide had been bought to Australia after being purchased from overseas before it had been scrapped. It had been built in 1864, and had made voyages between the UK and Adelaide. It was basically on a dry dock and a hulk with nothing to it. You could do tours on it, but only if the temperature wasn’t over 36C. Nearby was one of the Mosquito fleet otherwise known as Ketches that were used for cargo. There are only two of the Ketch left and the museum has one of them with the Clipper ship remains. It does look like they are trying to make the whole area into something about the vessels, but I would say that would be a few years off. I had to walk back when I realised there were no shortcuts to return to the Port Adelaide.

 

I headed back to the train station, where along the way I had something to eat as by that time I was starving and didn’t want to wait until I was back in the city. It didn’t take long to get back to the city, which was good and I still had a 10 min walk back to the hostel. I found a subway under the main road that I could use to get across and head towards where I was staying. I was still feeling pretty good and it was actually pretty easy walking to get to the hostel. I would say that Adelaide must have been made for walking.

Going West Tour: Day 10 Adelaide arrival

By the numbers

1 train

19,087 steps

14.46 kms

 

I woke up early to find that my phone had internet updates and I then made sure I included the check in for the hostel I was staying in as that was one job I had not done. It was around 3 am when I was doing this and then went back to sleep. The plan for today was to get off in Adelaide while others would either be staying to do tours or getting off like me. The light breakfast was just that and I was happy to have whatever the little cupcake things were with coffee before making my escape. I had also learnt how to put the beds up and that was really easy. I just hope they checked after I left. We could depart from every door in the carriage and once we had done so I ended up in the gift shop where the girls at reception started calling me to find out where I was as they thought I would end up at the hotel without my bag. I thanked them for what they had done as I was the only one left with my bag as the others had taken off. No one called me crazy for going to take a half hour walk from the station into Adelaide.

 

The walk was not too bad at all and kinda enjoyable. I wasn’t worried about the train being 15 mins late on arrival to the station as I wasn’t going on any of the local tours. I was doing the Brad tour and making my way from there. I ended up at the hostel without too many problems apart from nearly rolling my ankle when I wasn’t watching the footpath, and getting distracted by the street art. Someone has painted random Bin Chickens with some of the art. Not something I can explain for sure. The guy at reception told me that I could check into my room at 1130 and I said I would hang around and do the washing as I waited. Somehow the card I was given vanished and I cant remember if I had picked it up or not as I followed someone into the laundry. By the time I got my washing done and dried, I could go to my room. I had been suggested to get a metro card if I am going to some of the museums that are on the dock areas. That is my plan for tomorrow, so that would be interesting. Besides for inner Adelaide there are free bus and a tram that travels in certain areas.

 

Then I dropped off my bags to my room not long after the washing had been done so I was basically ready to leave. I did some housekeeping in my room as I moved the desk from one side of the room to sit next to the powerpoint so I could use my laptop without issues. When they service the room they will see that. How I pay for the washer and dryer is via bank card with tap and go. I had similar in Europe and that was different. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I went to find a convenience store first and I ended up with an egg sandwich as well. So now I was loaded to go on a trip. The next location on my list was to find where I catch the airport bus on Saturday as its an early flight. I found the correct stop and I did my go to location on this trip and found the closes IGA for a hot meal for later if I need to be there. Its basically the next block over from where I am staying, which is a close walk. I was distracted by some of the street art again and even wandered through China Town to see what was there. I did make it to West Terrace Cemetery, although at the time I had the beginnings of a headache. I hadn’t put tablets in my grab and go bag apart from filling up with water that I had nearly forgotten to do between the convenience store and the airport bus stop. Not sure if the little sleep on the train the night before came back as I was sorting out my booking with the YHA when we came back into mobile phone service with data.

 

I sat in the shade of the cemetery thinking about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. Looking at the map of the walking trails, there was so much you could go see as the city was surrounded by parkland from the looks. Very different from many other cities in the planning. Water had taken the edge off the headache. I ambled through the cemetery and was really impressed with what I found. The cemetery had signs about various areas of heritage or the natural environment with arrows pointing towards the locations on metal posts. I knocked on one to check. Information panels about the people who had significant impact towards Adelaide were around and even social history like about funerals and the death of children as examples. An example of the natural history included olive trees that were planted everywhere as they were good for hedges. The cemetery was even the location of Australia’s first military cemetery. Even the Afghan cameleers were in the cemetery and I thought it was pretty interesting since they were the original Ghan. While I was enjoying myself I was feeling a little run down as I think it was from the train and the headache was saying hello.

 

I didn’t stick around the cemetery for too long as I had spend an hour or so there and I wandered off following part of the park I had walked through earlier from the train. I knew where I was going, which was lucky. I made a bee line for the IGA and headed back to the hostel. At that point I quickly ate my black noodle pork as the IGA seem to stock alot of Japanese foods, which I will try as they are made in store mostly unless they will have roast or something tomorrow. I went back to my room as my headache was at the point it was hard to function even though I had a caffeinated drink. A headache tablet was taken and I had to lie down. After a short sleet, I was able to function again. I have to remember to take stuff with me when I go walking, but I really think it was the lack of sleep and the early start. Maybe if I had a lie down once I checked into the hostel, I might have been alright and not crashed. I was alot better after a shower and got them to turn the aircon on as its controlled down stairs. The hostel is only two floors, so its not huge like some are with massive amounts of room, but I have gotten lost trying to find mine. My head is fine at the moment. Tomorrow we shall see.