Author: drewandgab

6th October

The Limestone Coast runs from the Coorong in the West to the Victorian Border in the East, and inland to Mt Gambier. It covers some very interesting geological regions!!

The weather was not great when we were heading through this part of the country, so we pretty much just drove through. But we got a good, general overview and know that we’d like to come back and explore more another time.

The Coorong, where Storm Boy was filmed is a unique area of saltwater lagoons, separated from the coast by the Young Husband Peninsula. It starts at the end of the Murray and runs about 200km east, to Kingston.

 

Kingston, where we stopped for lunch, has a lovely green foreshore park.

 

Robe, looks like a funky little town, full of cafes, restaurants and craft beer places. In town, the foreshore runs along the rocky bay. To the west, you can see a long sandy beach for miles. It’s actually called Long Beach and is 17km long!

 

Beachport has a long beach lined with pine trees. Drew and Matt got a great little surf on our way through.

 

At the end of the day, we ended up at Southend – and camped in the National Park.

 

The following morning we explored the rugged coastline in this area

 

We later headed back up to Beachport and to explore the beautiful scenery around the National Park up there.

 

We then moved up to Mt Gambier for 3 nights, before meeting the coast again at Port MacDonnell.  I’ll do these as separate post.

 

 

 

4th October

Drew’s mum flew down to join us for our last 3 days with mum and dad. We stayed at at a lovely beachside caravan park at Moana Beach, about an hour south of Adelaide.

The beaches are lovely and there’s a beautiful Coastal walkway that runs alongside the beaches and up over the clifftops along the coast.

 

It’s also just 5 minutes to McLaren Vale, so of course, we sampled a few of the wineries. We also enjoyed seeing the old building and a yummy bakery stop in Wilunga.

 

One day, we took a day trip down to the South Coast. The weather was much nicer than when were staying down there last week. We had fish and chips at Goolwa and enjoyed seeing the steam train roll in.

 

Back at Moana Beach we’ve enjoyed the fish and chips from the local cafe.

And afternoon sundowners on the beach.

If only it hadn’t been so, so cold at nights!!!!

While we’ve been here, we also been able to catch up with our friends from here. The boys have enjoyed hanging out with their mate and checking out some of the local skate parks. And a night out on their property was a great way to spend our last night on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

 

30th September

From Victor Harbour, we went to Rapid Bay for a night. It was a beautiful campsite, right on the beach, surrounded by beautiful headlands. Once again, the only problem was the cold!!

The lavender on the hills behind was gorgeous!

 

Neighbouring Second Valley, was also very pretty. It was interesting to read about the old tramway and causeway that was once here – and how they actually managed to build it around the rocky cliffs. We also enjoyed watching a seal play with a fish he had caught, while being chased by the seagulls for it.

 

Cape Jervis, where the ferries go across to Kangaroo Island was nothing special, but the view looking out over the farmland and wind farm, toward Cape Jervis was lovely.

 

Deep Creek Conservation Park also had beautiful scenery. Tall forest, big green fields, full of kangaroos, and stunning coastline. I’d like to come back one day and stay on the park and do some long coastal walks you can do.

 

The drive from Rapid Bay, back toward McLaren Vale Coast was also nice today, passing by Normanville Beach and up over Myponga Reservoir, before descending back down to the coast.

We have spent the past 3 nights based in Victor Harbour, exploring the southern part of the Fleurieu Peninsula.

The afternoon we arrived, the boys got great waves at Middleton, so were pretty stoked.

Lucky, because the swell dropped off and it got pretty windy after that, so they only got one more surf the whole time we were down here.

On the way home, we stopped in at Port Elliott and Horseshoe Bay.

 

The weather was pretty horrible the next morning when we went out to the Murray River mouth and Goolwa.

Shame, because Goolwa seemed like a lovely little town, with a nice harbour area with parklands and waterside cafes. The only photo I took was Matt playing the piano outside the tourist information centre.

 

In the afternoon the weather was nicer and we had a lovely walk around Granite Island. It is connected to the mainland at Victor harbour by a long wooden causeway. We walked across, but you can take the horse drawn tram if you choose to.

The scenery on the island is lovely – and similar to the coastline along the south of Western Australia

For me, there was much else of appeal in Victor Harbour itself – no nice beachside cafes or pubs, no live music on the weekend – a little disappointing for a major tourist town.

The area, however is quite pretty, with green farmland reaching right down to the ocean.

The surrounding valleys are also quite stunning – and so green! I loved the little black-faced sheep.

 

The weather has been so cold while we’ve been here, but it didn’t stop the boys from having fun on the waterslides. We don’t often stay in Caravan Parks with stuff for the kids, so they took advantage of it – and had a ball!!

29th September

We had a nice little overnighter in Greenock in the Barossa Valley on our way from Renmark to Victor Harbour in the south. It’s a cute little town with lots of old buildings.

 

We had a relaxing afternoon at our little free camp ($5 donation) – enjoying the sunshine. The kids had a great time playing footy on the oval.

And later we went to the local pub for dinner and had fun at Trivia night.

We didn’t do any sightseeing or wineries in the Barossa, but as we drove through the towns, they appeared, like Greenock to have lots of old building and big beautiful trees.

The drive south from there, through the Adelaide Hills was a bit of an adventure, as Google decided to take us on all the little back roads. But it meant we saw some beautiful scenery along the way!!

 

25th September

The past 3 nights we have been exploring the Murray River region, and camping on the banks of the River.

Our first stop was Morgan, a wide section of the river, where there is a beautiful grassy foreshore. The perfect spot to enjoy the view and have a game of Finska.

 

While here, we took the car ferry over the river, and drove out to Caudo Winery. It’s a beautiful setting on a steep grassy hill, overlooking the river. We camped just near here on New Year’s Eve 2 years ago.

 

Back in camp in the afternoon, the little bit of rain we had didn’t matter too much, as it gave us a beautiful rainbow.

Just still so cold!! Lucky we had a nice communal fire place to sit around.

 

From Morgan we went to Renmark. We found a beautiful free campsite, right on the river, just 5 minutes out of town. A beautiful spot to relax and enjoy the scenery.

 

Renmark is a really pretty town, with lots of grassy park and beautiful big green trees.

 

There are lots of lochs on the Murray, which we didn’t know about. It was interesting to see one and read all about it.

 

We took a drive out to Heading Cliffs. A stunning, and very different part of the Murray to what we’d seen before.

 

And not too far from there, a great little brewery overlooking the river and houseboats.

The boys had heaps of fun playing with the dogs, while we had a few beers and yummy alcoholic lemonade.

 

On the way home we stopped in to try the gins and vodkas at the local distillery.

 

Back at camp in the afternoons, relaxing by the river – and a nice campfire at night to keep us warm. It was a great little stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22nd September

Wow – it has been cold the past few days!! The weather started to change the day we left Yorkes Peninsula to head to Clare. Howling northerlys – which would normally indicate warm weather?? But instead it just created the biggest headwind we have ever driven the van into, and then a cold change that has seen us freezing the past 3 days. And, unfortunately, the cold change coincided with mum and dad’s arrival from the Gold Coast. A bit of a shock to the system for them!!

But, we have still managed to get out and see a few things – the beautiful old buildings in the area, and a few wineries. And ultimately the weather doesn’t effect too much when you’re sitting in front of a fire, with a beer or wine in hand.

Sevenhill’s winery is one of the oldest in the area and had beautiful grounds and old buildings…

 

We had a fun afternoon, and kept warm by the fire at the Clare Valley Brewing Company…and later that night went went to the pub for Chinese.

 

We also took a drive out through the green valleys and out to the pink lake at Lochiel.

 

Although the weather has been yuck, it’s been a nice time for us just to hang out with mum and dad. And we also took some time to have a bit of a catch up and clean up  – do some washing and get rid of some of the red dirt from the van.

19th September

We spent 5 days exploring the beautiful beaches and rugged cliffs of the Yorke Peninsula.

Our first few nights were spent at Corny Point with friends from South Australia, who we met on out last trip. It was great that they could show us around.

We spent our first day searching for surf in the area. There was either no swell or it was too big. But we enjoyed seeing all the surf spots and the beautiful scenery along the way.

 

Eventually we headed down to Pondalowie in Innes National Park. It looked promising, but was way bigger than it looked. The shore break was so powerful it just knocked the boys off their feet, and getting out, our mate broke his leg rope. So after trying all day, they still missed out on a surf 😦

But nonetheless, it was still great to catch up with our friends and the boys had a ball hanging out together.

From Corny Point, we moved to Gleeson’s landing for a couple of nights. We had the most magnificent oceanfront campsite, with not another sole around.

The sunsets were beautiful and the stars amazing! We saw some of the best shooting starts we’ve ever seen.

 

The boys also eventually got lucky with the swell. Cam and Drew got to surf Pondalowie and they all had a fun little surf at Berry Beach.

 

Our last night we camped inside Innes National Park and explored all the bays and headlands.

Ethel wreck Beach was my favourite, especially with the colours of the afternoon sun.

 

We also saw some beautiful wildlife during our days down here – in particular, the dolphins and emus…

 

And another beautiful location and sunset back at camp, at Stenhouse Bay for our last night at Yorke’s.

 

Although the weather has been cold and windy a lot of the time, and the boys only had a couple of days when the surf was good, we really liked the Yorke Peninsula and we would definitely come back again!!

 

 

14th September

We had a lovely few days exploring the Flinders Rangers. The scenic drives were stunning!!

First, we headed to Parachilna Gorge and camped in a beautiful free camp next to the dry riverbed.

 

We took a drive around the area, and up to the town of Blinman, with lovely old buildings. The drive coming back down the gorge was beautiful!

 

Our next stop was Trezona Campsite, inside the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National park. Another pretty campsite! And nice views out over the ranges.

 

The drive from Parachilna and through Brachina Gorge was really beautiful – but one of the worst roads we’ve ever done with the van.

 

The following morning, we did the beautiful Bunyeroo scenic drive – just stunning!!

 

We then headed south, and along the Moralana Scenic Drive, finishing up at Merna Mora Station, on the west side of the ranges. It was a lovely campsite, with a fabulous view of the ranges. It was a great place to watch the sunset turn the ranges a beautiful red colour, while the full moon rose behind.

12th September

Marree lies at the junction of the Oodnadatta and Birdsville Tracks – and has a really interesting history. It was a great stop, with a cool old pub, and free camping out the back. We had a fun night having a few beers with fellow travellers.

 

We loved learning about the history of the Afghan Cameleers, the Old Ghan Railway, and Tom Kruse and his story of delivering mail in this remote area in the early days.

 

In the late 19^th century Marree was a major railhead for the cattle industry, and in the 1920s when the railway was extended, it became part of the route of Ghan railway.

 

In the 1980s the section of railway either side of Marree was closed, when the Adelaide to Alice Springs line was built. These days Marree is mainly just a stopover point for tourists doing the 4WD Birdsville and Oodnadatta Tracks.

 

Remnants of the old railway can be seen along side the road as you head south.

 

The railway closure not only had a major effect on the town of Marree. Today, many towns that were busy and bustling hubs in the day of the Ghan are now just a pile of ruins. Farina, to the south, is one of those towns. Many of the building are currently being restored and it was interesting to wander around the old ruins and read about the history.

 

Further south, Parachilna, a gateway to the Flinders Ranges, was also once an important railhead.

 

We’ve learned so much interesting history over the past few days along this route! Much better than having taken the tar road from Cooper Pedy to Flinders Rangers. Often it’s the getting there that is as much of the adventure as the destination. This has been on of those times!