PORT WILLUNGA - FLEURIEU PENINSULA SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Monday 12th March  We left Beachport with our next destination 4 hours away at Port  Willunga Big 4 Tourist Park.  We passed though Robe, Kingston (where we saw The Giant Lobster), Tailem Bend and on to Port Willunga on The Fleurieu Peninsula.  The scenery was stunning with a back drop of the Adelaide Hills along the way.  The colours of the landscape were amazing – yellows, browns and greens of the valleys and undulating fields and the striped tiered effect of the surrounding hills.

The tourist park was very big with large sites. There were lots of permanents living behind the casual area.  It was very well maintained with beautiful tubs of flowers on the verandah by the office.  There were 2 peacocks and 4 peahens wandering freely around the park plus a penned area for ducks and geese.  Several times we had to stop the car as there was a peacock in the way not taking a blind bit of notice of us.  They came right up to the caravan, so we had to make sure they weren’t around before we let Sally out.

Our nearest beach was Maslin Beach – a 10 minute walk across the pathway opposite the caravan park to steep winding concrete steps down to the beach.  What a stunning view standing at the top of the steps and looking across the ocean with the hills to one side creating a calm bay.  This was the “clothing optional” end of the beach which was in fact the first unclad beach in South Australia.  We drove further along to the next car park which led on to the dogs on leash area and further along the dogs off leash any time area.  Sally loved it there as there were plenty of stones to throw for her and she had lots of doggy friends to say hello to each visit.

We spent the next 2 days enjoying the sunshine and beaches and going for lots of walks.

Thursday 15^th – Tuesday 16^th  I flew to Sydney and caught up with friends and family and had a wonderful evening celebrating Paddy and Mary Joyce’s 50^th Wedding Anniversary on  17^th March held in The Officers Mess at Victoria Barracks, Paddington.  What a magnificent place with dark wooden paneling and leather chesterfield lounges in the Ante Room.  The dining room had silver place mats and 3 crystal glasses at each place setting.  The tables had silver candelabras which all added to the magnificence of the place.  A perfect historic venue for their celebration.  It was a real honour to be part of their special occasion.

Wednesday 21^st March   We went for a drive around the surrounding areas of Port Willunga, stopping off at Myponga Reservoir.  We went up the winding roads leading to the lookout across the entire valley looking down onto the dam.  It was quite a view and much larger than I imagined. It took 4 years to build and was completed in 1962.   It holds 26,800 megalitres of water and is presently at 71% capacity. It provides 5% of the water needed by Adelaide.  The Dam was searched in the early 1960’s for the missing Beaumont children and 2 other missing women.

We also drove through Sellicks Beach, Normanville and Second Valley, stopping off at Rapid Bay to check out the place as we were going to stay there for a few days.

Maslin Beach our local at Port 'Willunga

A Visiting Peacock

Another stunning view of Maslin Beach

Myponga Resevoir

Peacocks wandering in the park

Rapid  Bay

We were struck by the beautiful coastline literally stretching for miles in front of us and by the intense colours of  the water.  The landscape was also amazing with undulating fields and hills and changing greens, browns and yellows everywhere.  From Rapid Bay we drove to Cape Jervis where the Sealink Ferries go across to Kangaroo Island where lots of people go camping to see all the seals, birds and wildlife on the island.  Dogs aren’t allowed on the island, so unfortunately we can’t visit there.

We took Sally to Aldinga Beach every day which was a beautiful spot  with plenty of doggie friends to play with. 

Friday 23^rd March   We left Port Willunga and headed south with an hour trip to our next destination Rapid Bay.  It’s a big park by the ocean run by the local council where you can stay for $6 per person per night.  It’s got very clean toilets that are maintained daily and the grounds looked after by a caretaker that also collects money from you each evening.  There are undercover bbqs and a playground and its a popular weekend attraction for fishing off the recently built $3,000,000 jetty, boating and scuba diving to see the rare Leafy Sea Dragons a big attraction for the divers.  The beach is mainly fine stones.  When the tide is out there’s flat sand to walk along.  The park is surrounded by pine trees and dark stone hills with a few caves in one corner.  It’s a very peaceful place away from the hubbub as there’s nothing around, except for The Old Mill pub about 15 minutes drive onto the main road. You have to bring in all your own supplies and water.  People still live in the area.

The park has a replica anchor set in a stone monument to commemorate the first landing by Captain William Light on 8^th September 1836.  He landed in the bay in his ship “The Rapid”.  He stayed in the area for a few days and planted a garden plot that flourished.  The soil was very rich and supported many of the new settlers to the area.

The first white male child to be born on mainland South Australia was at Rapid Bay on 7^th November 1837 and the first while female was born on 2^nd January 1837

In the1950’s the area was a flourishing limestone quarry where 150 men were employed and it was necessary to work two shifts each day to ship the 60,000 tonnes of limestone that the quarry produced, until 1981 when it closed.    It’s sad walking up the street to the quarry and looking at the deserted houses where the quarry workers used to live.  It’s almost like walking through a deserted film set.

We’re really enjoying our time here and chatting to other people staying here.  There are about 12 other caravans and campers around.  Richard’s been fishing a few times and caught a few squid that we’re going to have for tea tonight..

Next Week:  We’ll be going to Victor Harbour for 7-8 nights, then on to Snow Town where bodies were found in vats inside a bank a few years ago (should  be an interesting visit).  We have to go there as it’s Easter and everywhere is fully booked/overly expensive with a 4 night minimum stay/don’t take dogs over Easter (after Easter they’ll be very glad for us to stay!!!).  

Thanks for reading our latest blog.  Hope everything’s going well in your lives (email us and let us know) and that you’re not working too hard.  Bye for now Marian, Richard and Sally.

PORTLAND TO SOUTHEND TO BEACHPORT

 

Monday 5^th March  We left Mount Gambier heading back to Portland for a 2pm appointment with Victoria Roads to get the caravan registered in Victoria. We stopped off in Dartmoor to see the wood sculptures.  What an amazing little place.  We were really quite taken aback by them all.  We parked in The Avenue of Honour and were quite awestruck by the sculptures done by chainsaw artist Kevin Gilders who created a row of masterpieces from the remains of 9 atlantic cedar trees planted in 1918 as a memorial to those that served in WWI.  The trees were going to be cut down as they were a safety risk, until Kevin worked his magic turning them into permanent memorials.  They were all sanded by hand and depict a nurse, soldiers, grieving mother with a telegram in her hand, guns and are a very impressive feature of the town and now a popular tourist destination.  They are so smooth that they look as though they're made from marble.

Further along on the village green Kevin created another masterpiece with his nursery rhyme tree, featuring over 20 fairytale characters which is just stunning, along with smaller sculptures of animals on the posts by the bridge and on the grass verge of the village green.

We also checked out a free stopover listed in the Camps 6 book.  It’s a huge area at the end of the town by a river and it was pretty busy there.  We were told there’s a freshwater spring on the other side to fill up your water tanks and that there’s no restriction to how long you camp there.  Most spots are 24-48 hours maximum stay.  We will definitely keep that spot in mind if we’re that way again.

We got to our appointment in Portland and everything went very smoothly with very friendly and helpful people in Vic Roads.  Our caravan in now registered in Victoria for $38 per year instead of the exorbitant $650 in NSW.  With our saved money we headed straight for Aldi to stock up on beer and wine as there aren’t any Aldi stores in SA or WA.  Richard’s very happy with their Smith and Clyde beer at $29.99 per carton and I’m equally happy with their Precious Earth range for $2.49 per bottle.  We’ve saved heaps of money being in Victoria.

We had time to spare and went to visit the Botanical Gardens in town that we’d missed on our previous trip.  There were rows and rows of gorgeous roses and dahlias of all sizes and colours.  It was really quite a spectacle.  We didn’t know there were so many varieties and colours, some very vivid and others magnificent two-tone. The town was hosting a Rose Dahlia Festival that weekend and it was great to see them in all their splendour.

We were thrilled to learn that The Endeavour came into Portland Harbour the day before and we went down to the harbour to admire her.  It’s a recreation of the original ship sailed by Captain Cook and is doing a tour all over Australia.  Tours were available from 1 – 4pm.  We arrived there after 4pm and were disappointed not to be able to go on board.   We couldn’t imagine anyone having to climb the rigging to unfurl the sails as it’s just so high up.  Not for the feint hearted.

We also learnt that the Queen Mary had sailed past Portland the previous day.  What a busy place Portland is at the moment. 

We stayed overnight again at Henty Bay Caravan Park and Sally was in her element chasing rabbits straight away.

Tuesday 6^th March  - We left Portland for a 2 ½ hour trip to our next destination Southend-On-Sea Tourist Park.  We couldn’t wait to get there to compare Southend in Australia to the one in England (we knew there would be many differences) and it was a bit of a giggle that we just had to stay there to tell all our pommie friends and share the humour of it all with them.  We knew it was going to be pretty laid back when Richard had tried to book it a few days before we got there (it was a long weekend in Vic/SA so we thought we should pre-book).  The owner said “no worries mate don’t bother we’re not that busy – just rock up when you’re ready”.  We did just that and what a character the owner was – very chatty and friendly and told us straight away “we get a lot of you blokes here taking photos by the sign”.  He also told us the owner of the caravan park in England had emailed him jokingly wanting to swap beaches.

It was a fairly small caravan park with a standard $26 per night flat rate all year.  We had a choice of either the caravan park with power or the foreshore grassed area opposite the park with no power for $16 per night.  We loved the foreshore area as there was a terrific, unobstructed view of the beach.  We booked in for 2 nights and went to the far end of the foreshore area and parked the van looking straight out onto the ocean with an access walkway opposite us.  It was like our own private oasis and it was just gorgeous.  I could lay in bed and watch the ocean!!!

A sign we passed by on our  way into the town told us the population of Southend was 283!!!

We went for lots of lovely beach walks admiring the clear turquoise water.  There was absolutely nothing at Southend except for a general store cum post office/garage on the corner of the road.   We absolutely loved it there and will definitely go there again.

Thursday 8^th March  We left Southend for our next destination Beachport Caravan Park.  This was our shortest drive between destinations so far.  It took us a total of 20 minutes to get there.

Beachport is a pretty big caravan park, facing the ocean and is very popular with golfers as the golf course is the other side of the road. It has a few shops, cafes and a pub at the top of the hill.  We were hoping to find some live music or entertainment over the long weekend, but were disappointed. The cafes and eateries offered very basic menus so we cooked at home every night and saved our money for the next place we visit. 

There are some lovely coastal walks by the light house and a cycle path to the surf beach.  There are also 2 very pretty coastal drives with stunning scenery and lookouts.

Beachport has the second longest pier in South Australia and took about 15 minutes to walk along it.

This caravan park also had the $26 per night flat rate and takes dogs year round.

Next Week:  We will be going to Port Willunga about 4 hours drive from Beachport.  This is 45 minutes drive from Adelaide Airport.  I’m flying back to Sydney on Thursday for a 5 day stay with Hayley, Karina and Adam to go to our dear friends Paddy and Mary Joyce’s 50^th Wedding Anniversary celebration on 17^th March (also Paddy’s 72^nd birthday and St. Patrick’s Day).  I’m really looking forward to being there.  Port Willunga is near a beach where “clothing is optional”.  I’m sure Richard and Sally will keep themselves amused whilst I’m away.

Stay tuned to hear all about the 50^th   

PORTLAND TO MOUNT GAMBIER

The Petrified Forest

Cape Nelson Lighthouse

The Gannet Colony

The Blue Lake

Mount Gambier Rose Garden

Umpherstons Sunken garden

Looking up from Umpherston's Garden

Another View of the Garden

Portland Harbour





Tuesday 28 February   We left Port Fairy at 9am.  Our next destination was Henty Bay Beachfront Caravan Park in Portland, Victoria.  It was a very quick 55minute trip to Portland.  Henty Bay is located 15 minutes from town and was a small park, part of the Family Parks Group.  When we pulled into our spot there were only 2 other caravans already set up.  We had a beautiful beach view from our front door.  There was only a small area of sand to walk along as the water reaches up to the big stone break wall.  It was a very pretty spot with a grassed walking area behind the rocks.  The area was full of rabbits and we lost Sally many times scurrying off into the bushes in pursuit of bunnies. She was having fun and enjoyed chasing them and sniffing around their scents.

Once we had set up and had lunch we went into town to look around the harbour and visit the Tourist Information Office to find out the local attractions.  We got some maps and drove around to Port Danger to visit the only mainland Gannet Colony where you can see over 6,000 pairs nesting in the colony.  You really need binoculars to view them as close access is restricted by a fenced area with guard dogs on the other side.  There were lots of birds perched on the point.  The first thing we noticed was a very strong smell which wasn’t particularly pleasant. Gannets have a big wing span and make quite a ruckus all together.

We then went to Cape Nelson Lighthouse.  Its 32 metres tall and dates back to 1883.  It’s still in operation today and offers daily tours inside.  There were many revamped cottages that you can rent out. There’s a 5km coastal walk around the lighthouse.  We stopped at Isabella’s Café which was quite an experience, like a time warp.  It’s run by an elderly very camp theatrical type man.  The walls were adorned with old musical show posters and the background music was very “Broadway”.  Very quirky, but fascinating.  I had the best prune, apple and coconut home made cake (minus the recommended cream and ice cream).

On the way back to Henty Bay we stopped off at Portland Strawberries to buy a 1kg box of freshly picked strawberries for $13.  We also sampled strawberry wine that tasted very much like sherry.  They also have a range of local chocolates and products.  The strawberries were yummy and sweet and we couldn’t help ourselves pigging out on them on the way back to the caravan.

Wednesday 29^th February   It was a really windy day and we drove to Cape Bridgewater hoping to see the fur seal colony by boat, which was the major reason we wanted to visit Portland.   Inflatable boats go out to visit the seal colonies.  As it was such a windy day with big swells we decided against taking the trip.  You can do a walk down to the colony along the cliffs going to a viewing platform 70 metres above the seal colony  This takes 2-3 hours return and there’s no guarantee the seals will be there.  Yet again, reluctantly, we decided not to do the walk. The weather forecast was the same windy conditions for the next few days.

We took a drive out to Bridgewater Lakes which was very pretty.  It’s used for water sports and fishing.  We had morning tea overlooking the lake accompanied by two Aylesbury ducks.   We also stopped off at Tarragal Caves and took a 50 metre climb up to the main biggest limestone cave.  There were lots of smaller caves beside it – quite an unusual sight.

Thursday 1^st March (first day of autumn)    We went to The Petrified Forest. At first glance it looked like rows and rows of stone statues.  In fact it’s the remains of tree trunks that have a fossilized appearance over time.  We commented that it looked like the moon surface full of craters or a set from the movie Mad Max.  It stretched for a long way and was a different local attraction, quite eerie really.

The Blowholes are beside the Petrified Forest and are similar to the ones at Kiama where the sea foam spurts up through the rocks at high sea.  Although it was a very windy day, they weren’t spurting very high.

Friday 2^nd March   We left Portland at 9am.  Our next destination was Mount Gambier – 2 ½ hours further along the coast and into South Australia.  We stopped at Nelson for morning tea. It was a beautiful small town along the river where you can hire out huts right on the water.  5 minutes on from Nelson, we crossed over the border into South Australia and had to get rid of any fruit and vegetables we had left into the collection bins.  There’s a fine of $5,000 if you’re caught so it’s just not worth taking the risk. When we got into the town of Mount Gambier we stopped at the local Mobil garage to try and get a site at The Showground.  They don’t take advance bookings, so it’s a case of first come, first served. They were fully booked that day as the town was hosting a big rodeo show on the weekend.  Powered sites are only $20 per night, so it wasn’t hard to understand why they were booked out.  (We later kicked ourselves as Richard forgot to ask about unpowered sites as we now have a generator). The Showground is within walking distance to town.  We booked in at Kalganyi Top Tourist Caravan Park, supposedly 4 stars, 15 minutes from the town centre.  We were right on a main road, next to a dusty building development and we weren’t very impressed.  We were thankful we were only staying for 3 nights.  The park was quite small and laid back with older style accommodation, painted in dark, drab colours.

We came to Mount Gambier specifically to see The Blue Lake.  It’s one of the lakes in the three craters of a volcano that last erupted over 5,000 years ago.  We thought it was a bit of a beat up that the lake is supposedly so blue and were very amazed by the vivid azure blue crystal clear water that we looked down on from the viewing platform.   Our first impression was that someone had dropped tonnes of “blue loo” into the water.  Each November to late March the water mysteriously changes from a darker steel blue to the bright blue we saw.  It’s thought to happen because of special algae that grow in the lake.  We were very grateful to see it before it went back to its darker colour.  The lake is about 70 metres deep and holds 36,000 million litres of water, enough for at least 10 years water supply for the city.

In the centre of town we saw The Cave Garden.  It’s a sunken garden that’s floodlit at night.  It’s a popular picnic area and has a beautiful rose garden around it.

Saturday 3^rd March  We visited Umperston’s Sinkhole.  It’s also known as The Sunken Garden.  It was owned by James Umperston, a local grazier and his family in the 1880’s.  When he retired in 1886, he started the massive refurbishment transforming it from the lake that he used to take his family on, to a beautiful sunken garden.  It fell into disrepair and about 30 years ago volunteers from Friends of Mount Gambier uncovered some of the tiers that James had started and set about the daunting task of completing James’s vision.  There are huge hydrangea bushes planted throughout the garden and the top walls are covered with long dangling blankets of ivy.  Going down the steps underneath the canopy of hanging ivy, there’s a lookout platform with spectacular views over all the terraces of magnificent hydrangeas and tall tree ferns.  There is even a bbq and eating area at one side with a small waterfall running to the bottom.  It was definitely worth visiting and staggering to imagine how the workers actually transformed the area into such a tourist attraction.

At night the gardens are floodlit and you can come and feed the possums.

We had intended going to the rodeo in town but the weather turned really cold, wet and windy and we decided against it.  Shame as I’ve never been to a rodeo before.

Sunday 4^th March   We visited Englebrecht Caves.  There are tours of the caves every hour for $12 per person.  They are a series of caves under the city and were first explored in 1884.  Until 1979 the area was mainly used as a rubbish tip, until the Lions Club restored and beautified the site.  There are floodlights and viewing platforms inside the two chambers that are open for tourists.  The caves are visited by many cave divers and the Cave Divers Association helped to map the cave system.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes and was very interesting and informative.  The caves are surprisingly big inside and very quiet and cool.  It’s hard to distinguish where the water level starts as the water is so clear.  They are “dry” caves so don’t have any stalagmite formations growing.  They are too cool for bats to live in or spiders.  Many fossils and artefacts have been unearthed there.  It’s quite interesting to see the different colours in the strata levels inside and the number of “solution holes” of varying sizes formed by acid water eating through the limestone.

Next Week:  We’re heading back to Portland overnight to register the caravan in Victoria for $38 per year, as opposed to $700 in NSW (the difference being Government taxes!!!).  Then we’re back in South Australia at Southend-On-Sea for 2-3 nights (for all you Pommies reading this blog that will be interesting to compare the differences to Southend On-Sea in England).  After that we’ll be heading to Rapid Bay for 5 nights free camping.   Stay tuned for another interesting blog.  Love Marian, Richard and Sally