A walk in the parks (and cemetery) encircling Adelaide

Today I decided to walk around the cities parks, which completely encircle Adelaide in a greenbelt. The parks are each bordered by major road and rail links fanning out fro the city centre but all have pedestrian crossing points and there is enough to see on the way round that it is not boring! To walk around the parks will take the best part of a day (but if you want to do this in less time it is possible to hire a bike for FREE with ID at the SA cycle centre near to the central YHA and use the excellent network of cycle-ways to circumnavigate the city). Along the route you will see cricket ovals, lots of wildlife, the Torrens river, botanical gardens and the West Terrace Cemetery.
The West Terrace Cemetery is an interesting place worthy of a stop on route to visit with its sprawling graveyards separated into faith zones and lined with gravel. Little disturbs the atmosphere here with rare visitors walking through on the pavement between flanking parks. However, if you take your time here it is possible to read some of the personal stories of the people buried here and view some beautiful sculptures (particularly within the Roman Catholic areas). There is also a war cemetery here with its perfectly uniform rows of sparkling white headstones sheltering under the Australian flag. If you have a small group it is possible to hire a guide to take you around the site ($5.50 each) but if you are on your own, take time out and let history take you for a ride ;)
Going back into the city there is an opportunity to explore the museums along North Terrace - here you find the Museum of South Australia which is FREE and contains a good range of art work and sculpture which will keep the visitor amused for 1-2 hours. My favourite image was the darkly beautiful painting of a visionary seer ’Fate’ sitting on a lion foot chair above a volcanic sulphurous smoking vent but check it out and make your own judgement. Next door to the museum is the State Library, which is one of the few places with FREE wi-fi internet access and flat white coffee for $3.30. The library also contains exhibitions within the fading grandeur of the ‘old building’ which is musty and wonderfully filled with old Geographical books on three terraced levels inside while a statue dedicated to Robert Burns stands outside the entrance where students settle onto the benches enthralled with their electronic notepads and laptops.