
My first visit to Adelaide occurred on 22 April. After settling into our new home over a few months, I thought it was about time to pay a solo visit to Adelaide with my camera. As it transpired, this was to be the first of a few visits since then, so the following is a bit of a compendium of photos from a few outings.
My first visit
Not only was it my first visit to the city, it was also my first time travelling on the Adelaide Metro (although this involved driving for 40 minutes to the nearest station). The station is adjacent to the River Torrens, various medical buildings and some of the university facilities. These offered a lot of scope for clicking away with the camera.
The weather was perfect, clear blue skies and not too hot for walking about. My route took me across the river towards the Adelaide Oval and back again towards the Convention Centre where I rested with a welcome coffee and muffin. From there I walked along the river front and along North Terrace as far as the main hospital, before returning on the opposite side of the road to the station and back to the car in the train.
On my wanderings, I took a mixture of photos, close up of the buildings and wider shots that are probably more worthy of being on postcards




On my return I decided to collate some of the images into an A/V (audio visual) – this can be viewed at https://youtu.be/aFM6ybEYo1Y. The first public viewing of this was positively received at one of my new camera club meetings.
Adelaide Zoo
On my bucket list for a number of years was to experience a Cirque Du Soleil performance. We had bought the tickets for a Sunday late afternoon show two months previously and elected to book into a hotel for a couple of nights, making it into a bit of an outing.
To make the most of our visit to the city, we left early on the Sunday to give us plenty of time to visit the zoo before checking into the hotel. Being members of Zoos Victoria, we enjoyed free entry. I was very impressed with the zoo – although it was small and compact, it was well laid out with a diverse range of animals to see.
The first of two highlights were the pandas. Soon to be returned to China, Wang Wang and Fu Ni were moved to the zoo in 2009 at the ages of four and three respectively. Unfortunately, they have not produced any baby pandas. Although they are leaving, China will replace them in due course. We were fortunate enough on our second visit to their enclosure to see them.

The second highlight was a Lyre Bird. It was in full voice in one of the aviaries. I have uploaded a video of this amazingly versatile bird with its range of calls here: https://youtu.be/vXcPsZIaUNE

Although we could have spent longer at the zoo, it was time to leave, check in to the hotel and drive to the Showgrounds in time for the start of the show.
Cirque Du Soleil

Tickets to see Cirque Du Soleil are not cheap, one of the reasons I had been put off previously. However, we decided that there may not be another opportunity and found ourselves waiting expectantly inside the big top for the doors to open.
The two hour Luzia performance was totally captivating. The acrobatics were quite outstanding, at times with a number of different gymnastic activities going on simultaneously. The strength and agility of the performers were unbelievable. The only performance that we were not that keen on was the contortionist – the positions he managed to get into were quite unreal and, at times, grotesque.
However, we thoroughly enjoyed it and understood the reasons behind the cost of tickets. The combination of the creativity of the choreography, the range of incredible costumes and props and the infrastructure required (including a 6000 litre water tank) all come together at a significant cost.
Adelaide City
On the Monday we caught the courtesy hotel minibus to the Torrens River with the plan to walk back via the city centre and central market. This took us along the main shopping precinct, Rundle Mall, into a couple of malls, and through one of the many arcades.


Although Monday is not one of the market days, we were pleased to see a number of the stall open, so our walk through wasn’t totally wasted
With one more night’s stay at the hotel, we walked round the corner to the Elephant and Castle for dinner. We were not sure about the castle, but there were plenty of elephants in evidence. A popular dinner destination with an enjoyable meal.
After an appointment the following morning we set off for home
One more visit
We recently had occasion to drive back to Adelaide. We used our time to walk to the State Library. This was reputedly an interesting building and interior. We were not disappointed. The old section of the library, the Mortlock Chamber, is quite spectacular. Over three levels it contains 40,000 books and offers a series of quiet spaces for study.

These various visits have only whetted our appetite to see more, so I am sure there will be a few more day and overnight trips to the city of Adelaide.
