I had always been a bit wary about visiting Australia. One hears stories about deadly spiders and snakes. Not to mention the heat and the forest fires.

And then there are all those bronzed, athletic Aussies putting pasty northerners like me to shame.

However, the solution proved to be a visit to Adelaide in the winter (July).

In fact, Adelaide had quite a familiar, European, feel. It reminded me of Manchester, only with better weather and parakeets (both plusses, in my book). 

Like Manchester it has several universities, an excellent shopping centre, a rather good Art Gallery, a major sporting venue, free city centre buses and a tram. There is also some quirky sculpture. Manchester has a giant Vimto bottle. Adelaide has bronze pigs roaming Rundle Mall. “A Day Out” by Marguerite Derricourt is one of the more casual pieces of street art that I have come across. It comprises four bronze pigs who look completely at home – one of them is even rummaging in a litter bin.

The artwork was commissioned as part of an upgrade to Rundle Mall in 1999. A public competition led to each of the pigs being named. Horatio is the sitting pig, Oliver is the one rootling in the litter bin and the other two are called Augusta and Truffles. They are quite a popular attraction – it’s quite difficult to take a picture of them without some other photographer getting into the shot. But it’s also a good base from which to take a side trip to Kangaroo Island and meet some native wildlife that you definitely won’t find in Manchester.

Owing to a cricket-mad husband, our very first stop after checking in to our hotel was the recently-redeveloped Adelaide Oval, where he wanted to visit the Don Bradman Collection museum. We found Adelaide Oval easily enough, but finding the entrance to the Bradman museum was a bit harder. There was a surprisingly relaxed attitude to allowing public to wander around inside the stadium. No one seemed worried about two random visitors looking around.

Once we actually located the entrance we found a small but interesting exhibition about the life and career of Don Bradman, the Australian cricketing legend who made Adelaide his home. It includes items from his personal collection of cricketing memorabilia spanning the period 1927-77. Bradman’s career coincided with the introduction of radio commentary. He was an amateur and earned a living from journalism and stockbroking (although I suspect probably only had many of the opportunities because of his cricket). 

Not far from the Adelaide Oval is Elder Park, a pleasant park by the river Torrens. There are some interesting water features and sculptures – I particularly liked the sculpture that resembled paper boats. The birds are also fun to watch – I watched as a pelican managed to get some food, then waddled to the waters edge where all the ducks and other waterfowl queued up expectantly beneath, waiting for him to drop it.

From here you can take a trip in ‘Popeye’ – a 40 minute cruise, with commentary, which goes as far as the weir in one direction, than back and along as far as the zoo. Our ride was slightly more eventful than we anticipated as the boatman had to stop to come to the rescue of someone who had fallen in the river (not one of the passengers). Fortunately, he was OK.

As a park-lover, I also enjoyed Adelaide’s Botanic garden. Although we were visiting in the winter time, when the gardens were perhaps not at their best, they were well worth a visit. I’m just sorry that we didn’t get to see everything.

The Amazon Waterlily Pavilion houses the massive Victoria amazonica waterlily. I had seen these giant lilypads before, but not with information plaques describing the lily flowers as a ‘nightclub for beetles’, complete with an hour-by-hour description of the goings-on. At 5.00 p.m., as darkness falls, the lily fills the air with heady scent (a mixture of tuberose, banana and pineapple) which is “guaranteed to attract beetle business” apparently. By 8.00 p.m. the beetles are arriving on the easily visible white flowers, and proceed inside for “food, drink and dancing.” I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

Another pleasant outdoor space to explore is the Himeji Garden, which commemorates the agreement on 19 April 1982 between the cities of Adelaide and Himeji to become sister cities.

The garden blends two classic styles: the ‘senzui’ or lake and mountain garden and the ‘kare senzui’ or dry garden where rocks and sand evoke the presence of water. Look out for the bamboo deer-scarer. This is a bamboo tube which gradually fills with water until it is horizontal and then tips up and empties itself, causing one end to hit a rock, making a noise. 

It also happened to be on our way to the chocolate factory, but more on that another time.

I visited Adelaide in July 2014