“But it’s full of churches, and everything shuts down early!” quipped a friend after I told her I spent a week in Adelaide. It’s true — I did spot plenty of churches and walk down deserted streets at 8 p.m., but that’s symbolic of a small-town culture that I’m rather fond of.
My introduction to Adelaide, however, was more of its deep migrant culture and food, both of which grew significantly after World War II. Tim Do, a young Vietnamese architect, starts off my explorations on an eco-caddy, part of his environmental-friendly startup that is a great way to zip down broad roads lined with monuments and narrow alleys full of gorgeous artwork by the likes of Lisa King, an internationally known mural artist who lives here.
Divergent palette
I meet Tim outside the 150-year Central Market that I’ve walked and explored with Cheryl who leads food tours here. From some of the finest Aussie restaurants like Line & Label selling their signature Ocean Jacket ‘snout snack’ at a little pop-up shack, to green ant gin among other aboriginal food sold by the unique Something Wild, and Lucia’s, the Italian family joint that first introduced pizza to the town over 20 years ago, the food at central market is a reflection of the town’s divergent palette and culture.
Wine has also earned itself a distinctive badge in South Australia. Every fourth bottle of wine bought in India is a Jacob’s Creek. Barossa Valley, not far from Adelaide, is home to the brand that is the town’s most famous export after Rupert Murdoch. The biggest crowd-puller back home, however, is the Adelaide Oval, which is also one of the most picturesque stadiums in the world. With the India-Australia test match round the corner in December, Adelaide is all set to see hordes of cricket fans from the homeland.
Colleen McEwen, an ex-Sydney Olympics officer and one of the few female volunteer guides at the stadium, takes me around on a fabulous behind-the-scene stadium tour. We walk into the historic scoreboard which is still manually operated, the locker rooms of players and ultimately the suave Body Line bar. Colleen’s passion for sport not only comes from being a sportsman’s daughter and a coach’s wife, but it’s not just sport wherein women have had active roles here. South Australia was the first ‘free’ settled colony of the country without any convicts, and the first to grant full suffrage in 1894 ahead of the rest of the country. On a global level too, it is also second only to New Zealand to grant women voting rights and standing for office.
Oldest German settlement
Barely a half-an-hour’s drive from Adelaide, Hahndorf, the oldest German settlement in Australia, conducts the Pioneer Women’s March every May to honour women who grew and supplied food to the region when there was a dearth of it in the newly established South Australia. The earliest Lutherans arrived here in 1838 to escape prosecution in erstwhile Prussia, and women who had never been on their own took the onus of carrying fresh produce that weighed up to 27 kilos and marched nearly 35 kilometres barefoot to the Adelaide markets thrice a week. Singing hymns in the dead of the night, they walked to provide food to a hunger-struck area and brought not just money into their own economy, but also two bricks each time they came up. The St. Michael’s Church in Hanhdorf is a testimony to the fortitude of its women who ferried bricks for its construction for over two years. The annual walk commemorates pioneering leadership and contribution of women in the formative years of a new country. It’s hard to unearth this past as I wander past shops selling cuckoo clocks, Christmas nutcrackers and pork hock bites, but Sharon’s voice is heavy with emotion as she narrates her favourite story from the walking tours she conducts in her hometown.
As my week in Adelaide draws to a close, I begin to see the town’s many layers. I drive down with John, my riveting guide through the week, to the small seaside suburb of Glenelg where he grew up. We board a boat to sail into the sea a bit, catch the sunset, and hopefully some dolphins that come in from the Antarctic ocean. We’ve spoken and exchanged so much, but as the boat’s sailing steadies and we leave the shores behind, we recede into a silence only interrupted by the exchange of a heartfelt smile now and then. There are many beautiful things I have seen, but a southern hemisphere sunset is a first. As the sun comes out from behind the clouds and the water reflects the orange skies, the dolphins emerge too. But only briefly, like my stint in Adelaide.
Born and brought up in the Himalayas, the writer is an adventurer who derives great joy from napping under the mountain sun.
