It’s just a few hours from the SA/Victorian border to the Grampians. We had camped Saturday night a little out of Mt Gambier, just on the SA side of the border. Sunday, some interesting looking shops in towns on the drive over to the Grampians (such as Coleraine) were closed, including another chocolate factory… We stopped for a look at Wannon Falls (not the Grampians NP yet), which would be nice in full flow, but there was only a trickle.

looking back over Coleraine

Wannon Falls

below the falls

above the falls

Driving into the small town of Dunkeld, Mount Sturgeon and Mount Abrupt are the obvious peaks looking over the town from the very bottom end of the Grampians NP.

Mt Sturgeon and Mt Abrupt

Our trip down the Limestone Coast, which refers to the most easterly section of South Australia’s coastline, began in quite rainy and overcast weather. We crossed the Murray River at Wellington, by ferry, as described in the previous post on the Fleureiu Peninsula (pics at bottom of that post).

From Wellington, we took the coastal route down the Princes Hwy. We passed close by Lake Albert at the town of Meningie, a nice green town positioned right on the lake. Lake Albert and the nearby Alexandra Lake are huge, and in sunny weather conditions I suspect the lake and the township of Meningie would be really beautiful. However, it all looked rather grey in the rain….

It didn’t get much better. The coastline most of the way down to Kingston SE, was grey, boring uninteresting scrub, oh and smelly. Yes, in places it absolutely stunk, thanks to rotting seaweed lining the shore. If I’m not giving a very nice impression of that drive, would it help if I added that it was pouring rain, my throat and sinuses were aching, and my head throbbing? It certainly wasn’t the most enjoyable section of road of the holiday for me…..

We stopped for the night at Kingston SE, at a free campground right near the foreshore. Another town that is keen to have people come and stay in the area! Kingston looked OK coming in, and nice the next day (Fri) – there was blue sky, and my aches and pains had subsided a bit (Thurs turned out to be the worst day)! Here are some views from the Jetty, and there are beaches just further south with no seaweed!

I guess the ‘seaweed coastline’ doesn’t sound as attractive? Wouldn’t be fair either, as there are nice sandy beaches just a little further south!

looking back to Kingston SE

out on the jetty, watching a dolphin

Naracoorte was our next destination, to see the World Heritage listed limestone caves just south of the town. We headed inland to get there, through the nice green countryside. The cave tours aren’t real cheap, but we ended doing a tour of the Wet Cave (self guided), and the Wonambi Fossil Centre display, that arvo. For Saturday morning we booked into the Victoria Fossil Cave tour (I think this must have been my main birthday present!), spending the night at the campground there at the NP.

The Victoria Fossil Cave tour was taken by an older guy who did a real good job. It is a huge cave – there are kilometres of it, but visitors only get to see a small portion. In this cave tour you get to see some nice/interesting limestone cave features – such as crystal stalactites and stalacmites, crystal slabs, crystal curtains (also called shawls, or bacon!). These are similar features to what we saw over at Yanchep NP, just north of Perth.

beautiful crystal features in the Victoria Fossil Cave

Having commented about SA seeming like one big wheat farm in the Yorke Peninsula post, I am pleased to advise I was wrong! The landscape found on the Fleureiu Peninsuala is quite different from that found on the Yorke and Eyre Peninsula’s. If you’re wondering how to pronounce the name, then you’re not alone!! However, wikipedia does have the pronunciation (FLOO-ree-oh), or you could just do what one of the info centre ladies on the Eyre Peninsuala does and call it the Flu Whatever Peninsula…. Kind of fitting too given I left the peninsula with the beginnings of the flu…

I won’t continue with that preamble any longer, as I’m doing an injustice to what is a beautiful area. It is a lovely countryside of rolling hills and beautiful coastline. The green grass – quite green in the valleys but browner in the more exposed areas – feeds herds of cattle or [less commonly] sheep or has been formed into neat bales of hay still scattered over the fields. Being SA there are of course vineyards dotted around the place, and the occasional horse stud too.

Following our visit to Hahndorf, we spent Monday night at a dead end road, up high on a hill, just out of Meadows. Our target for the day was Victor Harbor, to catch up with Amanda, Ben and Noah, but rather than take the direct route we detoured over to Yankalilla and travelled down the coastline.

First stop on the coast was Second Valley which is a beautiful little cove. There was a group of school kids (maybe G12) there kayaking and building rafts and the like.

second valley

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The festival capital of Australia, is what Adelaide calls itself. Well, we had a good time, with our festive activities focusing on getting together with family, and enjoying some fine local foods.

Our entry to Adelaide was through the Barossa Valley, Friday 14/11. A beautiful region, full of scenic vineyards currently displaying fresh growth leaves, wineries with grand fancy entrances & buildings, and manicured gardens. It’s not hard to see where some of the profits from those expensive bottles of wine ends up! A quick stop in both the towns of Tanunda and Nuriootpa where we sampled their wares such as sweets and cheeses (and drove through others such as Angaston & Williamstown). Still looking forward to eating the Barossa Triple Cream, and Lemon and Oregano Halloumi cheeses!

looking out over the Barossa Valley

Coming down the hill from the main Barossa valley lookout (on the scenic drive), it is clear that one of the Tour Down Under stages goes through here – I recognised the hill climb after seeing the ‘go Cadel go’ paintings on the bitumen!

Our stay in Adelaide was based at Paracombe, in the Adelaide hills. Continue reading →

I’m beginning to get the impression that SA is mostly a big wheat farm! That might be a slight exaggeration though…..and an indication we haven’t seen enough of it yet!

We arrived at the Yorke Peninsuala Wed arvo (12/11/14) for a quick trip – leaving Fri for Adelaide. We began by heading across the top to Wallaroo, and down the west coast. There was something weird about the town of Wallaroo, and it didn’t take long to work out what it was. A high percentage of houses have these tall towers beside them, about 2 – 3 houses in height, with TV aerials at the top! I didn’t take any photos, but the gave the suburb a very industrial look!

We stopped Wed night in the town of Maitland, and didn’t leave till late Thurs morning. Not because it is an exciting place, nor did we have vehicle troubles, but we figured it would be a good location to sort out my drivers license stuff. No, I’m not loosing it or anything like that…. it is up for renewal at the end of November. Unfortunately my current one is from an older era, so they can’t just send a replacement. Instead I had to go through this rigmarole of printing and filling in forms, declarations as to why I wasn’t in QLD, get proper photos done, and then get it all witnessed and signed by a JP and send it all off with a money order to QLD! I originally planned on doing this in Adelaide, but walking down the main street of Maitland Thurs morning, we realised I could probably do it all here a lot easier – the township, and everything I needed, is within a 200m stretch of road! Ended up having to shop around a little for a JP, but found one without too much difficulty (council office). So that’s that task all done and dusted! Nicole wasn’t keen on doing all the driving back to QLD!!

A quick stop and look at Port Victoria on the way down the west coast.

Port Victoria

Innes National Park was our goal, though we only spent one night there – at Pondalowie Campground. Another nice national park, not dissimilar to Port Lincoln NP, which is only one peninsula across (to the west). We did a number of walks and had a good look around.

heading into Innes NP

Having left the Flinders Range National Park, I really enjoyed the drive from Quorn, through Wilmington to Melrose. The scenery was incredibly beautiful, but not in a natural/wilderness kind of way. We were driving through fields and fields of gold – of the wheat kind – but also grass and other crops. The wheat, having turned golden in colour, blended in nicely with the golden brown grass on the hills in the distance. The paddocks, some harvested, some not, formed a beautiful golden mosaic, punctuated only by ribbons of trees between them. We observed lots of harvesters in motion, easily spotted by the small cloud of chaff blowing out the back.

something other than wheat…

We pulled into a nice large free campsite on the edge of Melrose, surrounded by fields of wheat on one side and grass on the other. A little further to the west, Mount Remarkable towered over the plains, just waiting to be included in photos of one of the most spectacular sunsets we’ve seen so far. Continue reading →

Heading north from Whyalla (following our tour of the steelworks factory), a large mountain range begins to dominate the distant horizon. It has been quite some time since we’ve come across such a range – all the way back to the Pilbara I think! Sure, there are hills and the like in southern areas of WA, and they are probably classified as a mountain range, but they don’t have that same impact of tallish mountains rising up starkly from the surrounding plains.

Initially, I wasn’t sure what this range was, thinking that the Flinders Range is 100km’s or more to the north. Well, the national park part of it is up there, but the range is a lot bigger than the NP and it was indeed the Flinders Range we were approaching. It’s a pity I didn’t take any pics at this stage, as all later pics showing the mountains are from an already elevated height. Following a stop in Port Augusta for some info, a quick look around, and a bit of shopping, it was time to head off to Quorn – the first town on the range.

The road up to Quorn is quite pretty – its a windy scenic road that weaves it’s way up the mountain. As per most of SA at this time of year, the country side is dry and brown, but nonetheless scenic. A nearby train track followed a similar route up the hill, being rather steeper than most tracks I’m not sure if it is still used.

Quorn itself is a little old town with old buildings. Nice enough, but we didn’t stay long, heading off to the next town Hawker. Having climbed up onto the range, there are a lot of flat plains up here to drive along. However the range still protrudes out from this plain, along the left edge as we head north.

Flinders Ranges (from atop the range already)

Hawker is another little country town on the plains, the final one before the National Park and the tiny Wilpena Resort that is at its southern end. The terrain becomes hillier as you get close to, then enter, the NP. Continue reading →

It’s a relatively short trip from Coffin Bay to Port Lincoln, which is a nice regional town. If you’ve read the previous post on Coffin Bay, you won’t be surprised to hear that Port Lincoln is also very sea industry orientated, with Tuna farming adding a twist previously not observed.

Port Lincoln foreshore

Tuna farms. The rings further out in the deep are surrounded with yellow markers, presumably so boats don’t drive through them!

We chanced upon a very helpful lady at the info centre, who provided us with lots of info and thoughts on different areas in SA in general, which we’d been lacking till then. We purchased a 2 month SA wide National Park Pass. I like SA’s arrangement for NP passes – how does $80 sound, for a 2 month pass that not only covers vehicle entry, but also all camping fees? Bargain I reckon! I haven’t read the fine print, but on face value it seems you could live in SA’s National Parks for just $40 per month (or less if you buy an annual pass)!

Making sure we didn’t waste our $80’s, we headed off to Port Lincoln National Park, around 15km’s south of the township. The terrain and vegetation is not dissimilar to Coffin Bay NP, but there is a wider range of campsites to choose from and because of this we found it a nicer place to stay. We ended up in a quiet spot with a beautiful view overlooking the bay.

Engine Point

Engine Point at low tide

Initially we detoured over to Wanna, for our first sightseeing stop in Lincoln NP, before heading up the Peninsula to Cape Donington. Continue reading →

We headed down the scenic coastal route of the Eyre Peninsula Thursday arvo (30/10), having spent Wed night out in the sticks (the Nullarbor). That evening, for our return to sleeping in civilisation, we stopped in at Smoky Bay. This is a small, pretty, but not stunning place – perhaps somewhat overshadowed by the cloudy inclement weather. The main feature here is the Jetty!

Looking back to Smoky Bay from the Jetty

swimming enclosure. Not sure why its needed?

Continue reading →