We adventured into Adelaide City today, primarily to visit Adelaide Oval!
The day started with a walk down to Glenelg Jetty and the start of the tram line – about a 25 minute walk from our place. But we headed out to the Patawalonga River and walked along there to get into the centre of Glenelg, including past the beautiful marina. The tram leaves every 10 minutes from Glenelg heading into the city, so we didn’t have to wait long to jump on one and head in. It was about a 40 minute ride through the south-western suburbs of Adelaide.
We jumped off at Adelaide Railway Station, and headed toward the River Torrens, and across the Footbridge. It was cool to imagine the huge amounts of football supporters walking across that bridge as they head to Adelaide Oval for a Showdown!
We arrived a bit early for our tour, so after a bit of a snack outside, we headed into a little information centre they have in the foyer, and even started to have a look at the amazing Bradman Collection – a small museum with plenty of information, stories and memorabilia for the Don.
Our tour kicked off at about 11am, and we headed off with our guide, Mike. He was super knowledgable about the Adelaide Oval – as he chatted through different things, it was clear that he still works as an events staff member on some days. We headed anti-clockwise around the main concourse level of the oval, which meant it wasn’t long before we arrived at the famed scoreboard. It was incredible to just stand beneath it and hear Mike tell us a few interesting facts about it. But then we were able to go up inside and see how it worked! If you’ve never been to a cricket game at the Adelaide Oval, or paid attention to it when it might be briefly mentioned on the TV coverage, the scoreboard is one of the most informative ways to keep up with a game of cricket – I’d go as far as to say you actually know more about what’s happening in the game by being at the ground looking at the scoreboard than you may do watching the game on TV. It apparently takes about 6-8 people to operate it during a test match, but up to 10-12 people during a Big Bash game due to the speed of the game. It was incredible to stand inside that score board and just realise that not only is it essentially exactly the same as it was in 1911 when it was built (aside from a few minor bits of maintenance), but to just think about how much hot and hard work it would be in the middle of summer.
We kept on walking around the ground, past the beautiful Morton Bay Fig trees that line the northern end of the oval – that whole northern end of the ground is still just so spectacular. While it’s amazing to look at the MCG when it’s at capacity and see 110,000 people there, you can definitely see that it’s perhaps lost a bit of soul. And while the Adelaide Oval is always going to hold far less people, I really hope they retain the hill and those trees on the northern end and don’t remove or change it just to fit more people in.
We continued around and got to see the cricket change rooms, and then head out onto the ground. They’re obviously very precious about the ground given it’s AFL season, and so there was absolutely no going onto the grass – but we were at least allowed on the artificial grass that surrounded the ground. We came down onto the ground near the AFL benches, and looked back up at all the AFL coaches boxes and members dining rooms.
As we kept moving around throughout the tour, it’s quite clear that SA is a state that is very proud of their own – their own cricketers and their own cricket club, but also their own SANFL players and history there. There were so many cricket and AFL players with statues and plaques throughout the ground that, slightly embarrassingly, we’d never heard of before. And that was because they really were SA heroes, not national heroes. Whilst the Crows and Port Adelaide in the AFL are of course biggest ticket in town, they have definitely not forgotten about the local clubs that make up the SANFL – both today, and all the history associated with it.
Our final main stop on the tour was the AFL change rooms. Because the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide both share this ground as their home ground, and because it was essentially purpose built (or rather, purpose renovated) in 2013 with that intention, both teams have their own “home” change room that they make their own. And both those change rooms then have their own race out on to the ground! There’s then a third change room which is for the visiting AFL team with its own race onto the ground. Three change rooms and races is something unique to this AFL ground! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed into the Crows or Port Adelaide’s change rooms – but we did get to see the visiting change rooms. It was all very blank at the moment, but Mike mentioned that probably tomorrow or Friday, the St Kilda staff will arrive and start putting up their team logos and sponsors ahead of their clash with Port Adelaide here on Sunday.
We also were able to drop into the main media centre at the ground where over 100 journalists generally take up residence during international test matches – an amazing view of the ground!
All up, apparently we walked about 3.5km around the ground and up and down stairs. And we were on the tour for just under 2 hours. The kids were amazing – yep, it sure helped that it was so interesting, and it was about sports that they at least have an interest in (or obsession about, depending on the child and the month of the year), but it was still a huge amount of walking and listening, and so we were super proud of them at the end.
We headed back across the River Torrens and into the city. We decided to just wander through the city for a while in search of something tasty for afternoon tea, and essentially headed for the Adelaide Central Markets. So many amazing stalls and fresh food! And while a lot of them were closed (we assume they might only open on the weekends) and a few starting to wind down by mid arvo, we still managed to find some delicious baked goodies for afternoon tea. Can only imagine how busy the Central Markets would be on a Saturday morning!
This evening we headed down to the Glenelg foreshore to watch the sunset and enjoy some fish and chips. The idea was to eat the fish and chips while watching the sunset – but we were a bit late getting down there, and so we did it in reverse: watched the sunset, and then went and fetched some fish and chips and ate it under lights. The kids loved the playground down on the foreshore, and so all up, it made for a lovely end to our time in Adelaide.
We pack everything up again tonight and tomorrow morning, and shift into the next phase of the trip – starting to head north. After finishing what you could probably call the “southern & coastal” phase of the trip, we’ve so far covered 5987km, and used about 620L of petrol. Those kilometres are about to increase exponentially with a few of the really long drives ahead!
