Our Time In Adelaide

Seeing as how we were at our first campsite that charged since Sydney, it was no surprise that it was heaven. We had a camp kitchen, a tv room, a laundrette, a pool, proper toilets and, most importantly, hot showers. We had to leave the campsite because we had to print out some information for the following day, after about 45 minutes we finally found an internet cafe in the CBD. When we got back we put up the tent, both had a nice shower, cooked our tea and then went to bed, clean and fed.

The next day we set off to Glenelg, we were off to go swimming with dolphins as a Christmas present form my family (thanks guys). We arrived just in time for the briefing then left the fancy harbour in a huge catamaran. It didn’t take long before we spotted our first dolphin and we were ordered to get into the sea and hold onto a rope as we were gently pulled along as the bottlenoses swam next to and underneath us. Once they had left the area we all climbed back on the boat (there were about 25 swimmers), we all had smiles even though the sea had been very cold. Fi spent the day getting paler and paler as after she went in the sea, but still kept smiling. She even told me she almost cried when she saw the first dolphins. This kept on going for the next couple of hours, seeing various pods of dolphins, although none got as close as the first ones, we still had a great day.

After we had left the boat, we headed off to a huge shopping mall for lunch. I wanted an Oporto chicken burger and there were only two of them in Adelaide, so that had been why we went to the Marion Shopping Centre. After a very delicious lunch, we had a look around the mall, did a bit of shopping and then headed back to the camp site. The laptop needed charging so I plugged it in on the way home using the cars power converter. Only problem was that I forgot to take it out and the car battery went flat later that evening, whoops. Still, not much I could do, so we had tea (we took advantage of the bbq and had some chicken kebabs and burgers).

The next day we went into the city, turns out there was is a bus stop a short walk from the campsite so we grabbed a bus (also the battery was still dead). We went back to the internet cafe that we found the first night and started looking for jobs in Adelaide. Over the 3 weeks we stayed in Adelaide, we did this a lot! We also found the local library a short way from the camp site and used that a lot too. We did other things too, otherwise we would have gone crazy staring at a screen looking for jobs and applying for ones that we knew would be given to someone more long term than us. One day we went for a walk around the Botanical Gardens and also hired a pedalo and got chased around the river by black swans.

We even took a drive down to Victor Harbour which was an hour south. It’s a small historic town with various attractions. On the day we arrived we found a small market which was a bit like a more upmarket car boot sale, we both got a book each (we have read a lot of books out here), Fi also got some homemade jewellery. Linked to the harbour was Granite Island, it’s connected with a narrow bridge that had a horse drawn tram giving people rides to and from the island. We walked across to have a look at a little penguin sanctuary. We also saw a couple of sea lions soaking up some sun while floating just off a jetty. When off the island we visited a whale museum, was quite interesting and showed a short film about a once-bitten-now-expert guy about shark tours.

Back in Adelaide, we continued with the job search. Fi had an interview at an outdoor clothing shop, however didn’t get the job, well, 270 people did apply for the job. She did however get a trial at a pet shop. It was a 3 day trial, which sounded a bit funny, but it’s better than nothing. The store she was trialling at was the huge Marion shopping mall. I dropped her off in the morning and then went into town to carry on the job search and hand out more CVs. When I picked her up at the end of her first day, she wasn’t impressed at all. She told me how there’s very little professionalism and is more like a doss house than a job. She wasn’t happy with how pets were sold with no questions asked to the potential owner. Cats and dogs being sold like CD or DVD. She was quite upset that night but agreed to go back the next day and see if it got any better. However half way through the next day I got a text saying to come and pick her up.

The next day, as it was a hot one (hit 41 °C), we went to beach for the day. We found a quiet beach just down from Glenelg, we both sun bathed for a while then, when it got too hot, had a dip in the sea. It was quite warm and the water was really clear. Fi actually spent quite a while in the sea (normally she gets cold and gets out after half an hour). We returned to the same beach the following day, but a wind had picked and was creating some big-ish waves and gave the air a chill. We still went in and Fi got to try out her body board for the first time, see managed to get a few good ‘surfs’. Needs more practice. Also the sea wasn’t as clear today as the tide had brought up lots and lots of lovely seaweed.

We were lucky enough to be in Adelaide during Australia Day. During the day, Australia played England in a one day match (I guess, I know sod all about cricket) at the Adelaide Oval. We didn’t go, again, know sod all about cricket, but we did see the masses flocking towards the oval. We instead went to the pub for beer and pizza, a better option I am sure you will agree. In the afternoon there was a parade, it mainly consisted of ethnic groups from all over the world walking down the street. Some made a great effort and dressed up, a few even had floats on the back of utes, however some lazy groups decided not to bother and just walked in a crowd.

That evening there was a free concert with a ‘rock’ band that we had never heard of, and some female singer that we think might have been on some X Factor type show. We got treated to one hell of a sunset that turned the sky a bright orange (Adelaide really pulled out the stops!). When the sun had set, then a pretty amazing fireworks display started, unlike NYE in Sydney, we had a great, un-interrupted view of the display, it was really impressive.

In between looking for jobs, sleeping, eating and drinking, we spent time looking around the shops and markets. One market Fi really wanted to visit was Adelaide Central Market. We drove there in the morning and spent the best part of 3 hours looking around. The place only sold food stuff, but there was so much that every stall had something different to offer. We saw meat from all kinds of animals and fish that I didn’t know existed. We spent a bit, but it was all worth it. That night we had some crocodile and barramundi kebabs followed by some bockwurst sausages in fresh baggettes with brie. Made a pleasant change from pasta, although I think there was a bit too much food as Fi struggled, ahh well, more for me.

As we were hearing nothing about jobs from the CVs we had already sent out, and no new jobs being put online, we spent our last few days sightseeing and doing the touristy things. We took a drive out of the city and visited a botanical garden in the Adelaide Hills area. We had great fun walking around while avoiding the sprinklers that kept turning on as we walked past. We also went to Mount Lofty, which is a mountain that overlooks Adelaide and the sea. It was a bit overcast but we could still make out all the sights. We also spent a day visiting the South Australia Museum and Adelaide Zoo. The museum focused a lot on aboriginal culture but also had sections on bones and fossils as well as random displays from around the world. They also turned an old lift shaft into a display showing a life size model of a giant squid. The zoo was pretty cool, had a wide variety of animals and some pretty large enclosures for an inner-city zoo. They also had a pair of giant pandas that were on long term loan from a zoo in China. The pandas don’t really do much except for eat and sleep, no wonder they are endangered.

On our last day in Adelaide, we went to the Adelaide Aquatic Centre. We saw it on a map so I looked it up online. Had an Olympic pool, a diving pool (up to 10m diving board), two leisure pools (one for small kids, one for big ‘kids’), a sauna, a steam room and two large heated spas. Also it was only $7.10 each, so was a no brainer to have a nice chilled day. We were there for two hours, we spent more of the time in the sauna or spa and leisure pool. I don’t think we did any swimming really. Saying that I would have done some swimming and jumping of the dive boards, but that pool was closed because of a water polo game (some South Australian team versus a Western Australia one). It was good though, and we both felt really relaxed. We went back to the camp site and spent the last night in a tent, both looking forward to a nice big comfy bed at our next port of call.