10 December 2011 - Belair National Park Caravan Park, Adelaide, South Australia

Friday morning arrived, the nights drizzle turned into steady rain and soon there were puddles all about. The second cricket test between New Zealand and Australia was scheduled for play at Hobart and so we decided to hang about and watch that, given that it was that sort of day. It wasn’t much better than the test the week before and my initiation into cricket watching was not going well; this seems to be a game for masochists unless you are an Australian supporter. Aside from watching the box, I dealt with administration matters on the computer and checked on the koala from time to time, he who did not seem at all perturbed by the rain, however watching koalas in action is a bit like watching paint dry. We caught up with Larissa and the kids on Skype and I engaged in idle chatter with a couple of other women in the camp outside the loos, as one does. The afternoon brought improvement to the weather but the sausage casserole in the crockpot was already making us think about dinner so it was decided to remain at home for the rest of the day.

When I awoke this morning, the rain clouds were down low over the National Park; I could barely see to the caravan park boundary. But by the time we had breakfasted the day was looking altogether more promising, so once more we set off toward the rail station at Glenalta and caught the 9.39 train into the city. We had a single destination in mind: the Art Gallery of South Australia.

There is free admission to this as there was to the Museum and the Parliament, and everything else we have enjoyed investigating so far here in Adelaide. This art gallery is both wonderful and expansive, housing Australian works, a collection of European work, an excellent exhibition of South East Asian art (including artefacts and beautiful woven fabrics from Burma, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia) and a rather bizarre interactive exhibition by an Indonesian artist by the name of Eko Nugroho. This last display did absolutely nothing for us and we could not imagine how anyone but the artist could get excited about it, but then what would we know? We joined the free tour at 11 am and spent almost an hour being walked and talked through the Australian art wing with the guide, absolutely fascinated by the insight and history of several selected works. Including this and a short break to eat our lunch outside in the lovely park like entrance, we spent more than four hours there.

We can now tick that off our to-do list, which incidentally seems to be growing rather than shrinking. This evening we will have to assess the time we need to remain here and which attractions and day trips we will undertake before checking out. Decisions, decisions!