We love Adelaide, a well-designed, leafy, cultured city set between the Adelaide Hills and mile upon mile of stunning beaches. This was our fourth time in the city, staying with our friends Joan and Don, and as always they had put a lot of thought into planning some new ventures for us.
The Adelaide Festival was about to start, and as a precursor there was a Fringe festival in one of the (many) parks, called The Garden of Unearthly Delights. There were dozens of shows to choose from, all an hour or less, taking place in a variety of venues ranging from tents to buses to wooden boxes to circus style big tops. The atmosphere was lovely – there were food stalls, bars, cafes, and stalls selling all manner of unusual goods. After a delicious Turkish meal we selected a comedian (quite funny but very nervous) and then what can only be described as a piece of performance art in a metal container, called Track. 15 minutes long, the piece consisted of a crazy Dutchman and an only slightly less crazy lady from Sydney simulating a train journey using an old sewing machine, some film, a model train and a video camera.......for 5 dollars, we weren’t about to complain as they promised we’d be entertained and we were.
Adelaide Zoo is lucky enough to have recently acquired 2 pandas, a male and a female, with the aim of attempting to breed from them in due course. We visited the zoo with Joan and Don and of course the pandas were a real highlight. We’d never seen any before, and they lived up to expectations. Wang Wang, the male, was very active and spent all his time wandering round his large compound looking for treats the keepers had hidden for him. Fanu, the female, was fast asleep but right at the front of her compound, by the glass, so we had a great view of her.
The zoo is beautifully laid out with lots of lush greenery. I always like to see the Australian animals and was really delighted to find they had a breeding programme for the endangered yellow footed rock wallaby. Pete, Stuart and I spent a lot of time in the Flinders Ranges last year scouring rock faces for this animal, always described as ‘shy and elusive’ – aptly, as we never saw one! They really do have yellow feet, and a very attractive ringed tail.
When Don and their Cambodian friend Sreng suggested we go crabbing that evening off Glenelg jetty, I imagined we’d be catching tiny crabs in little nets, just for the fun of it. Not at all! Sreng set up no less than seven large nets (made by Don) baited with carp, tied them to the pier railings and threw them over. While Pete went for a run and Sreng went on an errand, Don and I kept hauling in the nets, checking them and throwing them back in. In the space of an hour and a half we caught 15 blue swimmer crabs – beautiful to look at and delicious to eat, as we discovered later. Six had to be returned to the sea as they were too small and there’s a fine for taking them.
It was definitely a combination of Sreng and Don’s expertise and my beginner’s luck, because I pulled in lots of them, much to the disgruntlement of some of the local jetty regulars who weren’t best pleased to see a Pommie FEMALE having such success.
Don cooked our catch later at home – the blueys turned pink and we all got really messy as we tackled them – great fun.
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