After a good night’s sleep we were up just after 8 as we had an activity booked for 10 this morning. We left just after 9 and walked down to the river grabbing a takeaway drink and croissant whilst we went.

By 9.45 we were at the Adelaide Oval home of cricket and AFL, with a capacity of 53,000. We were here to do the roofclimb over the stands, approx 50 metres up. 

There were only 7 of us on our tour, 2 from New Zealand, 3 from Glasgow and ourselves. After passing the breathalyzer test we got dressed up in an all in one suit and harnesses. Our guide took us up in the lift and then outside, he then clipped our climbing mechanism into the guide rail and we were off. It was a one way walk and we climbed over the western stand first before going inside the roof of the south stand. It had actually rained whilst we had got changed and was actually pretty slippery up there. Whilst on the south stand we had the opportunity to actually lean out over the pitch, we all managed it and then we had a chill on the seats there, listening to the tour guide give us lots of facts. We then retraced our steps back to the start, went back downstairs, changed and said bye to everyone.

We then walked along the river and cut across a park and at first we heard and then saw hundreds of bats just hanging in the trees. They were Flying Fox bats and they were huge, there were quite a few just flying around, very strange bearing in mind it was the middle of the day. We then continued and had a stroll around the Botanic Gardens (Park 11)  visiting the palm house and the water lilies amongst other things. 

Feeling a bit peckish we headed back to the city and had a steak sarnie with a beer of course in The Exeter Hotel. Historically, South Australian liquor laws required pubs to provide accommodation to hold a license, leading to many having Hotel in their name. 

Next it was a quick trip to see Adelaide state library, currently voted 2nd most beautiful library in the world. Yep it was pretty cool, all dark wood and iron work.

With a bit of time to kill we thought we’d better address our little problem of how to get home. We did visit a travel agent, who said they would help but to try contacting Emirates first as they had heard they were re-booking people’s cancelled flights. So we went back to our hotel, grabbed some free drinks from the mini bar and phoned Emirates. Eventually we got through and the gentleman confirmed both legs of our journey had now been cancelled but he could look to book new ones. He was extremely helpful and we finally agreed to fly back 2 days later than originally planned but now on 3 connecting flights as opposed to 2. 

Feeling slightly better that we now had flights home again we changed for dinner and went downstairs for a beer and to plan tomorrow’s itinerary. Distracted by the food menu here we ordered kangaroo and barramundi and we can honestly say, this was some of the best food we have had whilst in Australia. 

Dave had another music evening planned so at 8 we set out for Memphis Slims where there was a blues jam night. For the first hour or so it was Dusty Lee’s Blues Jam, then we had a medley of amazing musicians some definitely sporting a very heavy 70’s vibe.