Walk Adelaide and fill in the square
FOG hides the entire world under fog and clears only what you walk. Adelaide's city centre is a flat mile-square grid inside a ring of parkland, which makes it unusually satisfying to complete.
The grid Colonel Light drew
Adelaide's centre is the most legible city plan in Australia. A square mile of grid, laid out on a north to south, east to west pattern, with five public squares set inside it and a continuous belt of parkland wrapped entirely around the outside. North Adelaide sits across the Torrens as a second, smaller grid on the rise. There is almost no ambiguity about where a street goes. You can walk it methodically and know exactly what you have and have not covered.
It is flat, which helps. The land only starts climbing once you head east toward the Adelaide Hills, and by then you are out of the grid. Within the centre, King William Street runs down the middle, Rundle Mall cuts the retail spine east to west, and North Terrace holds the museums, the library, the university and the hospital in one long civic row. The laneways between the main streets, around Peel Street and Leigh Street, are short and easy to sweep up.
An afternoon route that closes blocks
Start at Victoria Square in the middle. Walk north up King William Street to North Terrace, then east along North Terrace past the Art Gallery and the university to the Botanic Garden. Cross the Torrens at the footbridge near Adelaide Oval, walk up into North Adelaide and comb the streets around O'Connell Street and Melbourne Street, which are compact and go quickly.
Come back south over the river, then instead of retracing King William Street, work east to west across the grid: down one street, along a block, up the next. It looks obsessive and it is, but this is exactly how the fog clears in solid rectangles rather than lines. Finish by walking a section of the Park Lands ring. Two or three hours gets you a large, visibly complete-looking block of map.
Why Adelaide is good fog territory
Most cities punish completionists. Adelaide rewards them. The centre is small enough that clearing the whole square mile is a genuinely achievable project over a few weekends, and because the streets are straight and regularly spaced, the cleared area reads as a filled shape rather than a scribble. FOG shows what percentage of a city you have lit, and in Adelaide that number climbs at a rate that feels fair.
The catch is everything beyond the Park Lands. Greater Adelaide sprawls a long way north and south along the coastal plain, through suburbs built entirely around cars. Walking those is slow, repetitive work with low reward per hour. The honest advice is to treat the centre and North Adelaide as the project, and let the suburbs fill in as stripes along whatever you happen to walk.
Summer is the other constraint. Adelaide gets genuinely dangerous heat in January and February, days well over forty degrees. Walk early or leave it for autumn and spring, which are close to perfect. Winter is mild and wet in bursts, and perfectly walkable between showers.
Practical notes on the app
FOG keeps revealing streets with the app closed and the screen off, so you do not need to stare at your phone while walking. There is no account, no sign-up and no cloud. The map stays on your device and you can export your data.
Exploring is free. A single purchase of USD 5.99 unlocks unlimited ranks, every character and history import, with no subscription. If you have Google Timeline history or GPX files from runs along the Torrens Linear Park, importing them will paint in years of walking in one go.
Ranks run Wanderer, Scout, Pathfinder, Explorer and Voyager, rising with the area you have covered. There is also a collection of 241 countries, 3,390 regions and 7,342 named places, and every one of them has to be earned by standing there.
Questions people actually ask
Can you actually walk the whole Adelaide CBD?
Yes. The centre is roughly one square mile of flat grid inside the Park Lands, so covering every street is a realistic project over a handful of long walks.
What time of year is best?
Autumn and spring. January and February bring extreme heat, so walk early in the morning or not at all on the worst days.
Does the app drain my battery walking all day?
Background exploring is designed to run with the screen off. It uses location, so expect some drain, but you are not keeping a map rendered on screen for hours.
Can I add walks from before I installed FOG?
Yes, with the paid unlock. FOG imports Google Timeline exports and GPX files and reveals those routes on the map.
Does FOG include Adelaide walking routes?
No. FOG has no curated routes or guides in any city. It only shows what you have walked yourself.
Start with a dark map.
FOG is free to explore. No account, no subscription, and your map never leaves your phone.
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