Week 2 of our Australia trip was a four night stay in the South Australia capital, for the inaugural Gather Round. The concept was all 9 games for the round being played in Adelaide for the first time, so we thought it’d be a great stop on our journey.
Luckily we booked ahead and got a great little spot about a 25 minute walk from town. We also managed to get tickets to 4 of the games so we good weekend was planned.
Our stay in Adelaide was for four nights, from the Thursday through till Monday.
Thursday, April 13th – (Day 7)
ADELAIDE -We started the morning with a quick table tennis game which was unfortunately abandoned due to a broken ball. That was bad news for Linnie, who led 21-7 and 17-19 before the game ended. Bad luck!
Today’s drive was about 3 hours and we made a little stop in Berry to grab some diesel. We arrived in Adelaide around 2pm to find the caravan park was a lot smaller than we were anticipating. After a bit of dodging and weaving, we got the van parked, only to realise the site was very uneven and we had lost our choc block.
The next hour was spent trying to find a shop that sold choc blocks. Bunnings and Mitre 10 were no good, but surprisingly K-Mart pulled through for us. We got a 4 pack for $30, a bargain!
Gather Round fansite before game 
View from our seat 
Adelaide Oval sure is picturesque
We setup the caravan and decided to walk into town to see what festivities were on. A fansite had been setup with a big screen, live music and a heap of food van and activities. Adelaide had really gone all out for Gather Round.
By now it was time to head to the first game which was Adelaide vs Carlton. Fortunately we bought family passes to each of the four games so we had two spare tickets for each match. Adam’s cousin Lauren lives in Adelaide so she scored herself some free tickets. Lucky for her, as she’s a big Blues fan.
The atmosphere was buzzing, but unfortunately the match didn’t live up to the hype. Adelaide got out to a 7 goal lead in the first quarter and the rest of the match was pretty dull. We left about 10 minutes before the end and made to trek back home.
Friday, April 14th – (Day 8)
Today we had tickets to the Fremantle vs Gold Coast game in the twilight spot. A pretty shit fixture on paper, but the unique thing here was that it’s a suburban game played at Norwood Oval.
We had some time to kill so we walked into town near the Norwood Oval for a look and found a movie cinema that had the Super Mario Movie playing. Surprisingly, the movie was actually pretty good and was a great nostalgia trip.
After the movie we went for a wonder up and down the main Norwood strip which is a really happening place. Then we stumbled upon another fansite setup. Adam got himself a raspberry stout, then we decided to line up and head to the game early as there were no set seats, it was first in best dressed.
Turns out heading in early was a great idea as we got a brilliant seat right at the top of the stairs behind the goals. After an hours wait the game started and it was like watching a country game.
It was a much better game than last night with Fremantle winning a thriller that went right down to the last minutes.
Daytime 
Twilight 
Night
After the game we headed to Grill’d for tea near where the movies were, then quickly hurried home as the weather forecast looked really grim with a ton of rain forecast. The rest of the night was spent in the caravan while it rained pretty heavily.
Saturday, April 15th – (Day 9)
Today we had a free day with no games scheduled. However the Timberwolves play in match was on this morning against Oklahoma City. Yesterday we spotted a bar called the Alva Tavern Skybar.
Turns out we got there just as they were opening, so had the pick of the televisions. Again, we had to watch on mute with 80s music playing in the background.
It was good fun with the Timberwolves winning in a rout and claiming the 8th seed, booking a series against the Denver Nuggets. That series would keep us busy for the next week or so!
Watching Timberwolves vs Thunder 
Our camp kitchen area 
Beer paddle at Little Bang Brewery
After the game and a bit of lunch we did some Geocaching, then found a nice little brewery called Little Bang Brewing Company. Adam got himself a paddle opting for Kiwi Cerveza Mexican Lager, Luxe Deluxe Stout, Sour Watermelon and Coffee Oatmeal stout. All were delicious as expected!
Unfortunately the rain started to come back and got pretty heavy, so that confined us to the caravan for the rest of the day. Not the worst thing, as we had plenty of work to catch up on.
The good news was we were able to sell our two spare tickets for tomorrows games for $200 on eBay. Given they cost us $10, I’d say that is a pretty good deal for us!
Sunday, April 16h – (Day 10)
Our last full day in Adelaide would be spent doing a double header at the Adelaide Oval. We had two games to watch today and given it’d be a long day, we decided to stock up on food at Coles before leaving.
On our way we stopped at Target to pick up a new chopping board after Linnie had a mishap last night with the old one. We also picked up some cheap easter bunny, so easter continues!
Then on the way to the footy we quickly checked out the fansite again, then made our way to the first game – West Coast vs Geelong.
As expected, this game was a shitter with Geelong winning by a ton. Our seats weren’t bad but they were up the top level, plus we were sat next to the people we ripped off with the tickets last night. So at half time we decided to go for a walk around the game.
We found the standing area which was good, then we founded another little standing area near the 50mtr line on the bottom level, so we watched the remainder of the game there.
Geelong vs West Coast
An hour later the Collingwood vs St Kilda game started and we found some ripper seats right behind the goals on the lower level. This game was a lot better than the previous one, but was a typical low scoring Ross Lyon affair.
Midway through the final quarter Collingwood had skipped out to a 4 goal lead, so rather than hang around, we went for a walk and decided to leave a few minutes earlier.
That almost turned into a bad idea because on our journey we could still hear the crowd going nuts, but it didn’t sound like consolation goals. Adam turned Kayo on his phone to see the margin was 6pts with 1m24s left. Doh!
We watched the end of the game by the river and St Kilda bombed it forward and had a few chances to draw it, but ultimately failed and lost by a goal.
By now it was night time and it had been a long day, so we headed back to the caravan and got some rest, ready for another journey tomorrow.
