Friday 15th March 2019

Another glorious day. Warm sunshine, clear blue skies, 27 degrees. Another city, so we walk! Our hotel is really central, so armed with maps we set off! Having checked out where we need to be for our pick up tomorrow we decided to head towards the river and then to the Botanical Gardens. This took us past the State Library, the South Australia Art Gallery and the museum, which we had a quick look in. It is so easy when it is free entry and you can look at whatever interests you and leave, and go back again later if you want!

Adelaide Oval in the background!

From here we went down to the river and followed this to the gardens. We were really impressed with the gardens. Big, lots of mature trees, glasshouses with tropical rainforest and Amazonian lilies, clearings, areas for cacti, cycads, dahlias, roses. All very peaceful, other than in the trees where the fruit bats were hanging! Hundreds of them! They have only been here since 2010 when some moved from the east coast and established a colony. They are noisy and I have to say, a bit spooky!!

After a bite to eat in the gardens we moved on to have a look at the 2 big sites of the Adelaide Fringe. We were told about this at our random evening meal with the wedding party in Hobart and thought it was worth a look. There are 2 big venues, The Garden of Unearthly Desires, and Gluttony! Plus plenty of other much smaller venues around the city. We thought we would try and sort out something to see but the choice was huge and it was all a bit confusing so we left with no decision made. We rectified this later once back at the hotel and sorted out a comedy gig. This was to see a British guy, Dan Willis, who now lives in Australia. It was called Australia: A Whinging Poms Guide, and was pretty funny. We kept a low profile, just in case, although there were a lot of Brits there to take the brunt of the jokes!

The city centre was heaving tonight. One of the main roads was closed to traffic and the bars and restaurants had their tables and chairs spread out onto the road. There were people of all ages, families, street entertainers and everything very chilled and relaxed.

We were therefore really saddened and shocked to hear later of the shootings in Christchurch. It felt such a safe and gentle place to be when we were there just a few weeks ago.