13/11/21 The Really Adventurous Inspection of the Network: Adelaide Metro

What do you do when the weather turns riding a bicycle into a lottery between freezing, getting soaked, or being burnt to a crisp by the midday UV?

Well, you don't ride your bicycle, silly.  You catch the train instead.

Armed with our Adelaide Metro cards, we sallied forth upon the Metro with the express intention of riding every suburban line as far as we could go.

Alberton, our local train station on the Outer Harbour line.  This line was not part of The Really Adventurous Inspection of the Network (TRAIN) as we have already ridden it numerous times in the course of our other adventures.

 

 

 

We also snubbed the Gawler line, given that it is currently replaced by buses due to upgrades.  This left Seaford and Belair so here we are, embarking on TRAIN to Seaford.

 

Unlike the diesel-powered rail carriages on the Outer Harbour line, the Seaford line is electrified and the trains are smooth, quiet, and fast; not having to stop at a station every kilometre probably helping with the overall speed of things.  We zoomed down to Seaford with beautiful views of the sea once we were south of Brighton.

From the train, south of Brighton.

Onkaparinga River from the train between Noarlunga and Seaford Meadows.

 It would be easy to get confused by the names of the railway stations along the Seaford line.  There's Marino and Marino Rocks; Hallet Cove and Hallet Cove Beach; Seaford Meadows and Seaford. We didn't get confused because we were riding the train line to the end, and at the end of the line the train stopped and we all had to get off.  

See?  No more train line.

We just had time to run (OK, we walked very briskly) down to the shops, go to the toilet, and power-walk back to the station to catch the train back to Brighton.  We got off at Brighton because it was past lunchtime and although the original plan was to have lunch at the end of the line, one glance at Seaford told us that Brighton was probably a lot nicer place for lunch.

The train station is close to the foreshore at Brighton, and there's lots of cafes which helped with lunch plans.  Everything was happening in Brighton: sailing boats were racing off shore, and closer to the beach the Surf Lifesaving Club was providing hypothermia tolerance training to small children and teenagers.

We chose a lunch spot based on protection from the wind.  It was still cold and windy.

Our eyes got the better of our stomachs and we finished off our lunch with way too much ice cream.

Waving those Metro cards like pros, we navigated three train changes all the while in the company of two ladies and a little boy with a voice like a fog-horn, proudly practicing his train station announcement skills.  Thankfully he didn't end up on our destination train because we had a 40-minute ride up the hill toward Belair and we were still too full of ice cream to be able to tolerate a fog-horn boy.

Views back to the coast from the train as we wound up the hill. Adelaide Metro does not prioritise window washing.

Three stations below Belair the train was invaded by muddy mountain-bikers, which made sense because if I was a muddy mountain biker I would catch the train for the uphills too.  We went through two tunnels and one little mountain biker tried as hard as he could to hold his breath all the way through each one.  Well, that worked quite well for the shorter tunnel but he went rather blue in the longer tunnel, and his Dad had to provide some judicious poking to ensure he stayed conscious.

Belair was interesting for a variety of reasons:

1. It's the end of the suburban train network.  Freight and interstate trains continue on.

2. Dedicated in 1891, it was the first National Park in South Australia, and the second in Australia.  This entry is at the railway station.  As you can see, it may have been the second NP in Australia, but as far as SA was (is?) concerned, it is 'The" National Park.

3.  The Governor used to come up to Belair to escape Adelaide's allegedly brutal summers.  Government House even had a plunge pool which was quite cutting-edge at the time as the whole swimming thing was considered rather risque.  The Governor doesn't over-summer here any more (presumably he/she now has air conditioning in the current Gov. house) and old Government House is instead open two days/week for tours. 

We went for a walk around the Lorikeet Loop at Belair NP.  We didn't see any lorikeets.

Just ducks, plovers, water hens, and pigeons;

lots of pretty pathways,

and beautiful avenues of trees.

By the time we had finished the Lorikeet Loop it was time to walk all the way up the hill to the train station to catch the train down the hill to the city.  A little gang of mountain bikers jumped on with us and caused some serious bicycle envy from a trio of policemen who were also catching the train. 

Time to go home.

We caught the train back to Port Adelaide, walking in our front door just as raindrops splattered across the roof and feeling very satisfied with our inspection of the Adelaide train network.