We were greeted by a beautiful sunny day with little puffy clouds and by an Aussie Band playing lively folk tunes… so much fun to listen to.
Aussie Band
As we move westward along the southern coast of Australia each port we stop at seems to be farther away from it’s city. It took our bus 45 minutes to arrive at the city from our ship on our morning excursion.
On our way into the city we saw more of the “iron lace.”
Adelaide Iron Lace
Our first stop was a park overlooking the city of Adelaide with a statue of Colonel Wm. Light the surveyor general who, in 1836, fixed the site and laid out the city plan for Adelaide.
Colonel Wm. Light Pointing toward His City
His decision to place the city inland from the port on the river was disputed at the time.
From Colonel Light
The fertile river valley was inhabited by the Kaurna Aboriginals who were pushed out to make way for sheep ranching and wheat farming and, more recently, wine vineyards.
Back on the bus we passed by the University whose art building had a very imaginative sign.
Adelaide University
We also passed the first church in Adelaide, a beautiful memorial to the Veterans of WWI, by Scots Church, and by beautiful Victorian buildings.
WWI War Memorial
Square One: The First Plot In Adelaide on the Road from the Harbour
We made a stop at the large Botanic Gardens of Adelaide. We only saw a small portion of it, the Australian Forest with some of the most ancient of tree species and plants, and the Bicentennial Conservatory with its rainforest plants from northern Australia.
Bottle Tree
Ancient Plant
The last stop on our tour was the South Australian Museum which housed an aboriginal cultural exhibit some of which was hands-on. The guide described and let us handle many aboriginal artifacts and explained their design and use. Not too far outside we saw a settler’s church on the way back to the bus.
Settler's Church
Back to the ship for lunch and then Hanson & I took the shuttle back to Adelaide with our computers to find a free Wi-Fi hot spot. (It seems that outside of Sydney, no one has heard of Wi-Fi.) There were none evident so we settled on finding an Internet cafe in the Adelaide Arcade. Lots of fun statues and street performers there.
Public Art in Adelaide Arcade
Before the cafe we decided to look into the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute which had an aboriginal art exhibit with free entry. The gallery attendant was an aboriginal woman about my age who was from the Narrinyeri group southeast of Adelaide. She showed me a book that had several of her cousins who are artists in the Tiwi Islands. It was the only time during our trip that I got to interact with an aboriginal and I was glad that I had the opportunity. The art in the exhibit consisted of totem-like poles that are used in burials, carvings of birds & paintings in earth tones with lots of dots that are said to be part of the dreaming. We only had an hour at the museum before it closed but I was glad we had found it. (We were not allowed to photograph the aboriginal art either here or in Sydney but this sidewalk outside of the museum hints at the dot technique.)
Dot Art on Sidewalk
Back to the Arcade we found an Internet cafe. It was about a quarter of the cost of Internet on the ship and also about 4 times faster. It always feels good to hear from family and friends, and be able to send some communiques too.
Too soon it was time to get back to the ship for our sail-away. We had an Aussie BBQ on the Lido deck complete with the same Aussie band that had serenaded us on our arrival and Aussie beer.
Aussie BBQ