Day 97 - Wednesday 10th April 2024

And so, another city day. I don't think it's a secret that I'm not a great fan of cities, but this will be the last big city for a while; not until Perth at the end of the trip.

I used the early morning to catch up on all of the stuff I'd not managed yesterday due to the late arrival, and wandered out of the hotel at around 09:00 to have an explore with absolutely no plan. My hotel is in the middle of a shopping area, so I did a bit of window shopping until I came to one of the main thoroughfares. I spotted a park a couple of blocks along, so went to explore that.

I walked not far from the railway station, and not far off to my left I could see the floodlights and stands of the Adelaide Oval, so I wandered over in that direction. Across the river, and I was at the ground, so I thought that I'd may as well see if they do a tour. It was just before 10:00, and a tour was due to depart at 11:00, so I signed up and had my morning coffee (and muffin) at the ground.

The tour lasted just over an hour and a half, and Adelaide Oval really is a ground of two different cultures; the cricket and the Aussie rules football, both of which are played here. We started with the Aussie Rules, and the two AFL teams who call this stadium home .... the Adelaide Crows, and Port Adelaide. Both teams have their own separate changing rooms, and there is a third for any visiting team. We were allowed into the visiting team changing room which is almost identical to what I saw at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

We then followed the route that players take to the playing field and captured some photos and videos there. The ground was under repair after five games over the previous weekend when all the teams had gathered in Adelaide. We then continued around the ground, and visited the traditional scoreboard; a four storey high building on which a load of information is displayed. We were allowed inside to see the workings, most of which is unchanged from when it was built in 1911.

Then onto the the cricket part of the ground. We learned that there are four cricket changing rooms; the international changing rooms used only for tests, one day internationals and T20 games, and then the lesser changing rooms that are used for everything else. We were allowed to see the lesser visitors changing room, and I think I've been in bigger rooms in local cricket!

Then up to the top of the stadium and the written press box where they have a fantastic view of proceedings. At the end of the tour we were invited to go into the Sir Donald Bradman exhibition, which was really interesting; they really haven't forgotten the Bodyline series in these parts. A couple of the Aussie folks on the tour seemed surprised that as an Englishman I knew about Jardine and Larwood as they still seem to be public enemy number one! 

Out of the ground, and I made my way back to the hotel as I had some organising that needed doing. I received a mail yesterday that one of my excursions wasn't going to be able to go ahead, so they'd offered to move it or refund me. I phoned them to confirm that it was legitimate and that I had the right booking ... it was and I had. I said that I had something booked on the previous day, and the following day I was travelling, so I'd try to shift things around. Things were able to be moved, so I still have the two excursions, they've just switched days.

After arranging that, I wandered out again to the information office to get some guidance on my coming trip across the centre. Pam and Paul were able to provide me with a leaflet for Western Australia with distances and fuel stops etc, so I was wondering whether they had anything similar for South Australia and Northern Territories ..... they didn't, but the chap was able to give me some useful information.

Back to the hotel again, and a quick nip out for dinner before returning for the evening to get ready for moving on tomorrow.