Sunday, January 29
What a beautiful city Adelaide is. When it was laid out in 1836, the plan was for a grid city layout surrounded by green space and parks, and that design has been retained. To the north-east are the zoo and botanical gardens. We did not go into the zoo, but we did walk through parts of the botanical gardens — it was beautiful. The informal city parks that complete the perimeter included playgrounds, golf courses, soccer fields, tennis courts, cricket pitches, a high ropes course, several bike and skate parks, a Japanese garden, and a fitness trail. There is a bike/ walking path that takes you through all of them. Very impressive! We walked eight miles and only covered about 40% of the total ring. We also took a ride on the (free) city tram… very easy and otherwise we’d have walked another mile!
We went back to see the bats today. Have you ever wondered how a bat pees? The answer is that they hold on with their hands rather than their feet… logical when you think about it. We saw several new species of parrot today… each as loud as the next but with distinctive yells (oops, calls). We’ve seen 27 bird species so far, about half of them new to us. Not bad for “just walking around a city”! During our city walk we got to see many more older buildings. These are interspersed with new ones. Often we observed apartment buildings built just behind older structures. It’s clear that the planning board wants to keep as many of the old buildings as possible while still providing more modern living spaces.
Pictured: Musk Lorikeet, Crimson (Adelaide) Rosella, 1904 Fruit and Vegetable Market facade, bat demonstration, Adelaide tram
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