Day 17 – We enjoyed a little bit of a slower morning today soaking up the most time we could in our hotel room! We were consulting our map deciding on which direction to move in, and ended up choosing the original plan to go south towards Kangaroo Island. We got ourselves organised and hit the road! The road was sealed the whole way so an easy drive. We saw a HUGE falcon (?) on the road picking at road kill, we couldn’t believe how enormous it was. The biggest bird either of us have ever seen!! We stopped about halfway at a small place called Glendambo for fuel top up and a quick lunch. We’re very happy to see the fuel price reducing as we get closer to the city! We had a quick chicken sandwich each and boiled the billy for a coffee for the road. We continued the drive bound for Port Augusta and passed another couple of dry salt lakes which were cool to see. We arrived in Port Augusta around 5pm and headed to a caravan park just out of town, Augusta Caravan Park. Not our preferred option but there were pretty slim pickings! We set ourselves up and started cleaning out all the dust that had accumulated on/in our set up. We had an easy dinner of chicken salad and left over curry. As it’s now day light savings (we only realized that this morning!) it’s pretty dark early, so we’re in bed very early again. It was getting quite chilly outside so I’m not upset about that!!
Day 18 – Up and at ‘em this morning! We packed ourselves up and headed back to the foreshore in Port Augusta for a run. It was quite windy along by the water so it was a bit of a slog, but we got there! Afterwards we decided to hit up Woolies to stock up for the next few days. After a big shop we had our breaky on the grass by the foreshore. Next was the exciting part – the car wash! Alex did a very good job washing the car and I mostly watched lol. By this time it was around 12.30 and we hit the road south bound. We weren’t really sure where we were heading tonight but in the general direction of Adelaide/Victor Harbour so we could get across to Kangaroo Island. We stopped in Crystal Brook to go to the bakery for one of their ‘famous pasties’ and I treated myself to a gf caramel slice, yum! The town was very cute with a nice Main street and nice little shops, it’s weird after seeing some not so nice little towns over the past weeks!! We drove on from there and ended up finding a good little free camp on the coast at Parham. It was pretty busy so we were lucky to get a good spot. The wind has been quite crazy since we arrived so we’re up in the tent at 7pm! We had a VERY quick cold shower, followed by a nice dinner of halloumi burgers and a glass of wine before packing up and coming ‘upstairs’. We’re planning on an early start tomorrow to get down south so an early night it is!
Day 19 – Today started early and we hit the road bound for Cape Jervis. The drive took us about 2.5 hrs, through Adelaide and down to the coast. It was a really pretty drive once we had passed through the city passing through McLaren Vale and a few cute little towns which we will hopefully pass back through on our way back north! After a stop to fuel/caffeine up and a quick stop at the information centre, we arrived at Cape Jervis to the ferry terminal at about 10.15. We were initially told that we couldn’t get on a ferry til 7pm but then we’re told 1pm and ended up getting on the 12pm on standby which was very lucky! The cars were absolutely packed in and we JUST squeezed on so were very happy with that! The boat took around 45mins and was nice and smooth. We were one of the last cars on so first off which was also a bonus! We stopped first at the info Centre and got a very long winded and intense, but helpful run down from the lady there. We decided to go to a cute little cafe in the town to decide our destination for tonight. We chose Stokes Bay campground for tonight which was about 1.5 hrs drive. We arrived and headed straight for the beach. You walk through a cut out in the rocks to end up on a beautiful white sandy beach. The water was incredibly blue and beautiful. So nice!! And such a great contrast to the dry dusty outback we have been used to for the past 2.5 weeks! We enjoyed a swim, water was fresh and are now lazing on the beach reading and relaxing which is nice. We are both excited to slow down a bit here now as the temperature is a bit nicer than sitting around in the dry dusty campsites! Weather is perfect this afternoon and tomorrow is meant to be even better!! Very lucky! After our swim we headed back to the car and enjoyed a fabulous sunset over the water, so beautiful! We decided to stay in the carpark with amazing views of the water while we had a drink, some snacks and Alex prepared dinner. He made a delicious Penang chicken curry which we ate overlooking the water. After we packed up dinner we drove around to the actual campsite and went to bed! Another very easy night! A great day all round!
Day 20 – I had a very restless sleep from about 1am after being bitten by mozzies on my face!! Not fun! We got up around 6.30am and went for a walk along the beach. There were lots of tiny little wallabies around the campsite who weren’t all that shy! Very cute. The was beautiful in the morning and only one or two others there. We scrambled over the rocks and walked right around which was lovely. We started walking back and did a little workout on the sand to start the day! After that we wander back to the rock pool area where we swam yesterday and had a VERY refreshing dip! It was so cold!! We were in and out very quickly before returning to the car and getting our breaky sorted. We decided to treat ourselves to pancakes and used the communal bbq to save washing up. Pancakes were very yum and we sat perusing the map and deciding on our next move! We decided to head back to the beach for another dip and to sit and read for a while. I got a coffee at the cafe and it was nice to sit and relax there. A fair few people had arrived at the beach by then but it wasn’t too busy at all, very beautiful spot and great weather. We then drove to Snelling beach for another quick dip! Another beautiful beach on the north side of the island, the water is so beautiful and clear, and amazing blues! Then we headed for our campsite for the night, Western River Cove. It took around 30mins to drive and the last 10kms were terrible with big corrugating so we took it very easy. We arrived to a beautiful spot by the river and a very short walk to the beach. The campsite again was nothing too special but clean and will do the job! But the location and outlook are very nice and well worth it! We had a quick ham and cheese sandwich and got changed and headed for the beach for another swim and more reading. The water at the beach unfortunately wasn’t very appealing, still nice outlook but lots of dirt and little twigs/sticks washed up on the beach. Apparently it had all come from the river after recent floods. But that didn’t phase us, we decided to skip the swim and just perch up on the sand to read. It was a very relaxing afternoon! Once it started to get cool we decided to try our luck fishing as we had heard this was a good spot! We brought the rod to the river and tried with some cheese (someone had suggested it to us recently) but sadly no takers! We then moved to the beach to try the cheese and then a lure after the cheese was not a success! Sadly we didn’t see any fish, not even any bites!! BUT we did see a seal briefly playing around the rocks so I presume he found some fish! That was a highlight!! After that we were a bit scared that we’d hook the seal so soon decided that was our fishing adventure done for the day! Shame that it wasn’t a success but a fun way to spend an hour. We returned back to our campsite and heated up left over Penang chicken for dinner and sat and played cards while it heated up. I was the winner of switch and Alex took out the gin rummy game! We had our allocated 4 pieces of old gold choc and not long after hit the hay! Early nights are very normal now!! We had such a great day, beautiful weather, beautiful scenery and a nice relaxing pace! Kangaroo Island is a big hit so far!!
Day 21 – Our day started off on a rough note after we decided to take off early from the campsite and head towards Harvey’s Return for breaky, a walk and a swim. The road out from the campsite was bumpy but it was nothing on the road into Harvey’s return – awful!! AND halfway down the 30km road Alex noticed that our water storage on the roof had cracked (RIP)! As in the pipe had almost cracked in half and water was spraying out everywhere. Not happy Jan!!! It had been bouncing around a bit but obviously the repeated corrugations over the past 4 weeks were too much! So we will need to find a fix/another solution for that once we are back on the mainland! Just really lucky we have back up water and are not somewhere really isolated where we can’t get more!! After the incident, we decided to continue on our path to Harvey’s return. It was a nice, secluded spot that you got to by walking down a very steep but short walk over rocks from the campsite down to the beach. Unfortunately it’s very overcast and cloudy today so it wasn’t as great as it probably could be and we also probably weren’t in the greatest mood to enjoy it either! We jumped back in the car and made it safely up the 25kms of terrible corrugations without anymore blow outs and back to the bitumen! From there we headed down to Flinders Chase NP on the southern side of the island. We stopped at the info Centre to pay our fees and make our breaky and a coffee as we had been distracted earlier! A lot of the park was closed due to recent flooding however we were still able to see the Admirals Arch and Remarkable Rocks which were both nice. BUT, the seals at Admirals Arch were the winners of the day! So many of them on the rocks in the surrounding areas, so cute, we could have stayed there for hours watching them. From there we were back in the car bound for Hansons Bay which was a quick drive away. This was another beautiful spot that would have been even more beautiful had it been a sunny day! Even with the cloudy weather the water was so blue, but we passed on a swim as it was too chilly and windy outside! Once we were done looking around we set off to find camp for the night at Vivonne campground (or Vivienne, according to Alex). We arrived and had low expectations based on what some others had said but it was great, and had all we needed! Once we found our spot we set up and headed down to the beach to try our luck fishing again. Unfortunately we were not lucky again, will have to get some live bait and try again!! After we were done we came back to the campsite and had some corn chips and salsa while playing cards. We played switch and gin rummy again with equal wins and losses I think! We’ll need to widen our games soon! Then dinner was a yummy pesto pasta which took such a long time to boil on the communal bbq but was yummy! From there we basically packed up and hit the hay!! It is supposed to be rainy tomorrow sadly but we are very lucky to have had 2 beautiful sunny days here.
Day 22 – After a very windy night and somewhat restless sleep, we had a great start to the day today, with a short (but tiring!) run down to Vivonne Bay and Jetty about 2kms from the campground. The weather was quite cloudy but with some nice sun poking through. It was forecast to rain today so fingers crossed it doesnt! Today is my day to control the itinerary! After our run we had a nice hot shower and breaky before packing up and heading back to the jetty to try our luck fishing! We once again had no luck sadly but was nice anyway. The wind had picked up a fair bit so we didn’t hang around there too long. From there we headed to Seal Bay conservation park which we both absolutely loved! The guided tour where you got to walk on the beach was booked out so we took the self guided option which was still fab. The sea lions and seals were so great to see, they were so tired just sleeping on the beach! The females spend 3 days out at sea hunting and then come back to the beach and rest up. We loved watching them all on the beach the little pups were playing and adults resting! We stood there watching them for ages but then the wind was very chilly so we decided to farewell our friends hand leave them to their business. After we were back in the warmth of the car we headed up to the Kingscote area, first stop was the KI spirits distillery. This was a beautiful spot and we decided to do a gin flight and had some yummy hot chips and interesting Mexican pizza-type thing for lunch. We wandered around the nice gardens there before we went to our next destination! We stopped at the Island Beehive honey shop where we got some honey ice cream (yum!) and Alex bought some honey mead, interesting! Next up was Bay of Shoals wines for a tasting, it was such a beautiful spot, even with the overcast weather it was lovely so must be incredible in the sun overlooking the water! We ended up buying a bottle of Rose and Pinot Noir for the road too! To continue the day of eating and drinking we pulled into the Kangaroo Island Brewery for a drink before heading to the campsite. This was a really cool, cosy place where Alex had a beer and I tried a local cider. We were tempted to return for dinner but thought we better save the budget! After all of our wining and dining we drove to Emu Bay campground. We thought it was going to be busy but pulled in and only 3 other cars were here so got ourselves a spot very easily. Once we had parked up we wandered down to the bay and jetty, taking the fishing rod just in case. Again, unsuccessful in our attempts but neither of us are the most patient fisherman/woman and we only have a very old lure to go off so let’s blame that!! Alex attempted to give me a tutorial on improving my casting but I don’t think it worked. After being defeated by the fishing adventure we returned to camp to prepare dinner. We decided that we would just have left over pesto pasta from last night and ended up putting that in a toastie, weird but good! We were not long into bed after that, another chilly night so keen to jump in!!
Day 23 – We got up this morning and did a nice walk up around the area. It was chilly but not too windy at that time which was nice. We returned to our campsite and had breaky, did our allotted push ups and packed up camp. First stop was Clifford’s Honey Farm. This was a nice little farm shop and had interesting info about the bees and honey collection. We bought some honey and some choc honeycomb, yum! We then made our way to American river and treated ourselves to a coffee at the Deck Cafe. Afterwards we got stuck talking to a few oldies who are rebuilding a replica of an old ‘schooner’ boat, Alex and I both embarrassingly thought that they meant a beer schooner when we first heard about it hah. We stopped by the Oyster Farm shop who confusingly weren’t selling oysters that day which was a shame! On our way from American River to Penneshaw we passed the Pioneer Hill lookout and decided to climb to the top. 502 stairs later we had a great view over the eastern side of the island, it was great but would have been amazing in bright sunny weather! We went to the ferry terminal to see our chances of getting a boat back this arvo and after being told of issues with the boats and full schedules we decided to wait til tomorrow! We went to IGA to get a few snacks and importantly, some bait! We booked a site at Antechamber Bay for the night and went fishing by the river there for the arvo. What was meant to be a quick activity became very drawn out after we started to catch a few little bream. I caught 3 and Alex caught 1. On what was going to be the final cast of the arvo I reeled in the biggest bream yet and after determining it was 30cm+ and therefore legal (lucky I took the photo of the fish chart the other day!) we decided to keep it. It was a bit of a comedy trying to kill, scale, gut and fillet the fish, Alex doing a much better job filleting than me! We finally got the fish looking edible and fried him up for dinner. It was actually very delish and we were happy with our efforts, a new skill for both of us!
Day 24 – We were up early this morning back to the ferry terminal to try our luck for the 7.30am boat. We made it on easily and started planning our next stop. Poor Alex was not feeling great on the boat as it was pretty choppy! Once we were on solid ground again we drove 10 mins or so from the terminal and found a spot to pull over and have some breaky. Unfortunately when we opened the canopy it absolutely stunk and it didn’t take us long to realize the smell was coming from SO MUCH possum poo and wee all through the canopy! Gross!! AND we found lots of mouse poo too, not the discovery we were hoping for! So, on the side of the road we pulled everything out of the canopy and gave it a good clean. Not the start to the day we were hoping for! Especially as it was beautiful weather! Luckily all the food is sealed up and unable to be accessed by pesky animals!! After we cleaned everything top to bottom we decided to drive to Second Valley just a few mins away to enjoy our breaky by the beach. This was a beautiful spot and the water looked very inviting but we kept the swim for later. We continued up the coast and drove past Mirrin Cove (?) and Pulled up in Normanville. This was cute seaside town with a beautiful white sandy beach with crystal clear water. It was a bit warmer by this time so we got changed and hit the water. It was very fresh but felt so nice especially after two days without a shower! We swam out to a little pontoon and back which was nice. I then decided that I should reward myself with some hot chippies so we sat on the grass behind the beach and enjoyed a delish snack. We lazed there for a while before jumping back in the car. We drove via Myponga Beach which was absolutely beautiful but when we got out of the car it stunk like rotten eggs! There was a reservoir leading into the beach and I think that’s what it was, so we didn’t hang around long! From there we drove to Victor Harbor which took about 25 mins. Victor Harbor is quite big which neither of us expected! First thing we saw driving into town was Aldi! Haven’t seen one of those since Dubbo, ha! We fueled up, thankfully fuel is much cheaper now ($1.94/l today). We then drove down to the foreshore and had an ice cream before walking across the bridge to Granite Island. There is a horse drawn cart that goes along there but we decided to walk instead. The island was good but sadly the main attractions, little penguins were nowhere to be seen! After leaving Victor Harbor we drove to Breakaway farmstay about 10kms away to camp for the night. We set ourselves up, had a shower (thankfully!) and cooked up some yummy baked beans and eggs for tea. We were sitting down after dinner and it was so cold that we opted for a cuppa with Alex’s honey mead. It was yum! But still freezing outside so we got into the tent to watch Netflix and hopefully we will warm up!!
Day 25 – We had a nice easy morning today and took our time reading, getting organized and relaxing. We still got up around 7 but it felt much later! After a leisurely start we decided to drive to Port Elliot for a look around. It is a really cute little town with nice shops and a country town feel. We wandered around the Main Street for a while before wandering down to Horseshoe Bay which had been recommended. It was pretty overcast but a nice place to look at and we walked up around the hills there for a bit. We are a few phone calls and checked in with everyone which was overdue! Alex decided to hit up the bakery for a ‘chicken parcel’ and hot cross buns. He was very impressed! After he had eaten we jumped in the car and headed to Goolwa. This was another cute village with nice shops and cafes and we wandered the Main Street. We then headed to Hindmarsh Island where the ‘Mouth of the Murray’ is, and meets the sea. This was a nice spot and interesting to learn about the system there – they dredge the sand in Lake Alexandrina to ensure water flows through from the ocean to the river. After a look there we headed back to Woolies to get me some food as I was getting a bit hangry! With a full belly we hit it to Mitre 10 to start the hard work of getting the water storage sorted! Alex took the water off the roof while I attempted to find us somewhere to stay over the weekend! Being Easter and the busiest camping weekend of the year it probably wasn’t too wise of us to not plan ahead! Oh well, we’ll sort it out! We had a guy approach us in the carpark, Ian, who saw us working on the Ute and offered for us to use his driveway if we needed a place to do more work. After chatting for a while he then offered for us to park up and camp in his front yard if needed, very kind! After we were chatting him one of the Mitre 10 staff came over to see if we needed a hand and ended up helping us out and taking us to a few guys in the store to get their thoughts on best way to fix it. They were all super helpful and willing to think about the best solution. We ended up being helped by a young guy, Michael, who got us all the gear we needed, lent us tools and came and helped Alex do it all! So kind! He probably spent 1.5hrs with us fixing it all up, we were SO appreciative. We got chatting and he told us that he had done a lot of travels around Aus too and had been helped by people along the way so way more than happy to pay it forward. After a mammoth effort by Alex, we cut out the broken pipe and reconnected new bits and glued it all into place. Once we were done we whizzed up to the bottle-o and bought Michael some beer as a thank you. When we took it back and gave it to him, he was stoked and said it made his day. So nice to have such great help, made our lives much easier! After a big afternoon, we returned to Breakaway farm stay for another night, this time, bush camping. It was great to be able to go back there after realizing that literally everywhere else in the region is booked!! We pulled up, set ourselves up (including annex as it was starting to drizzle), put our sheets on for a wash and cooked up some pasta for dinner. We sat and enjoyed the Pinot Noir we bought from Bay of Shoals winery the other day and polished off the last of choc honeycomb too! We are still waiting for our sheets to dry after a long awaited wash, so might sit and watch a movie while we do. Thankfully it isn’t quite as cold as last night so we can sit out without freezing!
Day 26 – We (mostly me!) had a slow morning, I slept til 9.30 while Alex tinkered around. We then spent most of the morning trying to fit the new and improved water storage to the roof, washing clothes and some life admin! Once we’d come up with a solution for the water we headed to Horseshoe Bay for a picnic by the water which was nice. Alex had a swim but it was too cold for me! The weather was really bizarre, after a sunny morning this weird fog settled and became very overcast and cold. We sat there for a while then made our way back to Victor Harbor and found a tap to wash out our water pipes. Disaster struck when the new and improved design for the pipe started leaking!! Not a fun time. After much frustration we decided we deserved a drink and headed to the pub. We had a drink there before ordering some fish and chips (Good Friday!) and sat and ate them by the water which was nice after a crappy few hours! Unfortunately it got worse! We were headed back to the campsite and were pulled over by the cops who told us we had illegal headlights and gave us a written warning for a defect!! UGH. We think the officer was just clearly had nothing better to do with his Friday night. Very frustrating as he wasn’t even really sure why he pulled us over and gave us the defect notice for what he guessed rather than knowing 100%! A crappy end to a crappy day!! We pulled into the campsite in the dark and jumped straight into bed and watched our show. Better luck tomorrow!!
Day 27 – We had a nice start to the day today, got up at 7 and went to Victor Harbour for some exercise. I walked and listened to a podcast while Alex ran. The weird fog from yesterday was still hanging around but still a nice morning once the sun poked through. From there we drove to Port Elliot on the lookout for a shower. We found a beach shower, very cold and outside but made the most of it, jumping in our cozzies and soaping ourselves, being on the lookout for passers by so we didn’t look too strange! Certainly an experience lol. Once we were clean and dried we put on our Sunday best for a day in McLaren Vale. But first, Coffee! On our way to McLaren Vale we decided to go to Willunga to check out the farmers markets as I had read they were very good. The markets did not disappoint, we bought lots of yummy things! It was starting to warm up by then and the day was turning out to be perfect with sunshine and blue skies. We then stopped by Port Willunga on Dad’s recommendation which was absolutely beautiful. If we weren’t already dressed up we would have definitely had a swim. Back in the car, we headed to McLaren Vale, to another one of Dad’s recommendations, Coriole winery. It was so beautiful. The old stone cottages on the property were so cute and the grounds were so nice. We did a tasting out on the balcony which was very enjoyable and walked away with two bottles of Sangiovese, yum! We hadn’t decided what to do from there and ‘settled’ on having some food and a glass of wine out on the lawn at Coriole. A great decision!! The outlook was beautiful and we found a nice shady spot. We had some delicious food, sponsored by Bianca’s birthday gift. What a great afternoon! After we had outstayed our welcome there, we headed back to the campsite, via Aldi for some supplies. Unfortunately we had a squeaking/creaking noise in the roof racks which is driving us both insane so Alex was attempting to find the source of the noise while I went shopping. Sadly, no dice!! We are now sitting at the campsite a couple of hours later and we still can’t figure it out, going to be the death of us!! We had some leftover pasta for dinner and will no doubt hit the hay soon (it’s 7.30pm ha!) and try and figure out this nuisance tomorrow.
Day 28 – We woke up early this morning after a very windy start to the day!! We got up to a visit from the Easter Bunny who left us some choccie each. We did a quick workout which meant that we (I) could eat more treats! After the workout, Alex continued to try and find that pesky noise while I cooked up a nice breaky. We bought some local trout gravlax at the market yesterday so had that with poached eggs, tomato, avo and rocket. Yum! I realized it’s the first time I’ve had eggs for breaky in 4 weeks, unheard of! Once we’d enjoyed our breaky we continued searching for the sound in the car for a while with no luck! Eventually we hit the road to Mitre 10 to sort out the water storage once and for all. On the way we found the source of the rattle!!! It was the front roof rack being tightened too much! Alex loosened it off slightly and the noise is gone! Hooray, fingers crossed that’s the last of the roof rack issues!! We saw our friend again at Mitre 10 who helped us get what we needed and we went on our way! We tested the water again and this time, no leaks! Woohoo! By this time it was pretty dreary and started to rain so rather than return to the campsite and sit in the rain we treated ourselves to a coffee at a nearby coffee roaster and a delicious GF chocolate brownie, great coffee and very yummy treat – great stop! After that we pulled up in a park for a sandwich for late lunch. Once we were refueled we returned to camp. We had a bit of down time this arvo and started planning our next stops. We treated ourselves to a hot shower in our shower tent by boiling water, it was so nice, especially as it had started to rain so a cold shower would have been very chilly! The rain didn’t last too long and we sat under our awning nice and dry. As we had a late lunch we had a couple of nibbles then honey sandwiches for dinner! And into bed before 7pm!!
Day 29 – We were up and packed fairly early this morning to say goodbye to Breakaway farmstay, destined for Adelaide! We took the long way around, detouring first through Strathalbyn. We treated ourselves to a coffee there and wandered around the cute town and enjoyed cookies in the park. This was a great stop before jumping back into the car to Murray Bridge. Not much happening there, we went by the Murray river but it was pretty cold and crappy weather so we had a quick sandwich and were back on our way. Next stop was Hahndorf! Whilst there we realized that we had visited Hahndorf 7yrs and 1 week earlier! It was super busy as it was a public holiday so we kind of just wandered down the Main Street, looked in a couple of shops then headed on towards Adelaide. We arrived at the Adelaide Caravan Park and set ourselves up. We don’t love caravan parks and this one was relatively expensive but it will serve it’s purpose! We can walk into the city from there, it feels safe and secure and it has nice clean bathrooms! We didn’t waste much time and headed for a nice hot shower before venturing into town for dinner. Because it was a public holiday lots of things were closed but we were both craving some Asian food, so we headed towards Chinatown. It was about 45mins walk but we ended up finding a cool little place with a line out the door, Hot Spicy kitchen. Luckily we didn’t have to wait for long! We had a delicious meal of fried rice, kung pao chicken, sweet and sour pork and shallot pancakes. We also brought a bottle of wine with us from Coriole which was great. Fab night all round! We walked off the dinner (kind of) on the way home and then hit the hay!
Day 30 – After a restless nights sleep listening to possums fighting (ew!) we were up at 7.30am. We went straight out for a run and I struggled!! I must have slept funny and have a very sore neck so my efforts were lacklustre, so I let Alex go ahead! We returned to camp and put some washing on and filled up our new and improved water storage! Sadly we sprung a leak again which was not ideal so handy man Alex was back on the job! Fingers crossed he is successful! Among all that we showered, had breaky and sorted our washing before heading out for a day in the city. First stop was a cute coffee shop just around the corner from the caravan park. It was so great and coffee was delish! We took our coffee to go and headed towards the city. First stop, Adelaide Central Market. This did not disappoint!! I only wish we weren’t staying out all day because I would have bought lots of yummy things to take with us. We wandered around the markets for ages looking at all the delicious offerings and deciding what to try. GF empanadas caught my eye which were so so yummy! After another lap, Alex also wanted empanadas so we went back for round 2! He also added a churo with dulce de leche! I spotted GF donuts and couldn’t resist a hot cinnamon one which was incredible, so yummy! Final stop was the aptly named ‘bread bar’ where Alex treated himself to a cheesy garlic naan and I bought a loaf of GF bread. We left the markets and walked to the state library for a look. It was a beautiful old building and had us both thinking about returning to study! Not just yet!! From there we walked to the botanic garden and spent a while looking around there, it was great, I really enjoyed wandering through all the different gardens and Alex was my tour guide. It started to cool off by this time so we decided to wander back into the city and find a drink and something to eat. We found ourselves back near Chinatown and ducked into the ‘Metropolitan hotel’ which was a cool old school pub. After one drink there we went to find a good spot for dinner but after multiple failed attempts (places being closed that said they were open!) we opted for an old faithful, Vietnamese! We walked to Adelaide Pho and it was packed which was a great sign. Alex enjoyed a yummy crispy duck and noodle dish and I had a chicken stir fry, both very yummy. After a yummy dinner and drink, we started the long walk home! We took a few detours and arrived back to the caravan park 1 hr later. It is meant to rain over night so we brought the washing in, packed away the awning and shower tent and filled the water (again!) to test the leak before showering and heading to bed. Big day, was great to explore Adelaide! I’ve racked up a total of 41069 steps, I’ll sleep well tonight!!
Day 31 – We woke up to a wet and rainy morning today as it had rained quite a bit overnight. Very glad we packed up last night ! We had a quick bite of breaky then hit up the cafe down the road for a coffee and a brownie for later (it was SO good!) We hit the road Barossa bound. Unfortunately it was a crappy day, rainy, windy and pretty cold but it made for a good driving day at least. We weren’t planning on doing any wine tasting at the Barossa but wanted to go and have a look at Rockford. It was really nice to see the old buildings and how they process the grapes, it was pretty cool they had a guy shovelling grapes out of the bed of an old school Bedford truck into a chute onto a conveyor belt and a machine pulled the grapes off the stems. It was cool to see because it all looked very quaint and old school with a small steam engine powering it all. Not sure how much is for show, but cool to see either way! We tried to do a tasting but after we were informed of a long wait we decided to jump back in the car and continue on our way. We stopped in at a little town called Angaston and treated ourselves to a cheese tasting which was yummy and we bought ourselves a couple of goodies to take home! Next up was Nurioopta where we visited Maggie Beer’s farm shop which was nice. We bought some yummy salad dressing then enjoyed our leftover Chinese from the other night in the carpark (lol) before hitting the road again. On the way we drove through all the little towns up towards the Clare Valley. There was not much happening around the towns closer to Clare as it was getting to be late arvo but was still nice scenery to drive through. We decided to pull into a campground at Farrell Flat, just outside of Clare for the night as we didn’t want to keep driving and arrive somewhere in the dark. It was a basic campground just at the local oval but had good facilities and was well kept and felt safe. We had an easy dinner of eggs, mushrooms and left over baked beans – yum! It was very very cold and expected to get down to 6 degrees overnight (!!) so we went upstairs (to the tent or as I call it the mezzanine hah) early to do some research on the Yorke Peninsula where we’re headed tomorrow.
Day 32 – We got up this morning and did a quick workout on the fitness equipment at the campsite, very handy! We weren’t breaking any records but good way to start the day nonetheless! We had a quick breaky and attended to a few bits and pieces moving things around in the canopy and off we went! We had an impromptu stop in Clare to stock up supplies from Woolies and for Alex to go to Mitre 10 (again!) to sort out the water situation. After the stop we were on our way, bound for the Yorke Peninsula. We stopped at Lake Bumbunga on the way which is one of the pink lakes in SA. Unfortunately it was not the right time of the year for the super pink colour to be visible but it definitely had a light pink tinge! We had a snack pulled up there as well so it was a good stop. Back on the road we made our way to the coast and the sun started coming out from behind the clouds, yay! It was a really beautiful drive down along the coast with lots of farm land surrounded by beautiful blue oceans. Alex said that this is the kind of landscape he wants to live in and is his fave! On our journey down the coast we pulled into a few little towns including Ardrossan, Tiddy Widdy beach (hah), Pine Point, Stansbury, Wool Bay and Edithburgh. There was some really beautiful scenery as we drove through and Alex was fascinated by enormous grain processing facilities/ports by the water with huge jetties with conveyer belts, very fascinating. We arrived at our campground at Wattle Point beach campsite late arvo and set up before sitting to read and enjoy a drink while the sun was still up. This is a great spot tucked away behind a few sand dunes from the beach and then on the other side is a giant wind farm. The turbines are really quite amazing and sound like the distant noise of planes in the sky, very soothing. We prepared some hamburgers for dinner and enjoyed them just as it was getting dark, we tried to beat sunset but the sun was too quick! They were very yummy and it wasn’t long until we jumped into bed.
Day 33 – Despite the cold, we both slept well last night with the hum of the wind turbines in the background. It was quite chilly and overcast when we woke up so we had a quick breaky, packed up and hit the road. We headed for Dhilba Guuranda – Innes National Park on the south western point of Cape Yorke. It was an easy drive across through a few small towns and down the coastline, even though the roof rattle is back and we are fighting endless battles with the water storage! We arrived at the park mid morning and stopped by the info Centre where ranger gave us some great tips. The park is just one road, not quite a full loop, so we headed to the furthest point and decided to make our way back. Stop 1 was Browns Beach, which was really beautiful. Even on an overcast day the scenery out over the beach and beautiful blue water was amazing. We also looked at Shells beach which had more of the same beautiful views. Then, on the recommendation of the ranger we did the Royston Head Lookout walk, which took us 5ish kms round trip out onto the cliffs over looking the incredible rugged coastline and more beautiful beaches. It was really amazing and definitely worth it. The sun even started to poke through which was a bonus. Such incredible views, we were stoked! There were even 2 people swimming down below the cliffs which was tempting but the walk up the crazily steep sand dune to get back up was a deterrent. I don’t know how they were going to get back up!! After our walk we stopped in at Pondalowie Bay and had some lunch overlooking the cliffs and more beautiful white sand and blue water. After lunch we walked out to the lighthouse there too which was another great lookout. The sun fully came out mid afternoon which was nice and we tried to make the most of it! We looked at West cape lighthouse, Ethel shipwreck, the Inneston town Centre (ruins), Cape Spencer lighthouse and Stenhouse Bay jetty. The stop at Stenhouse Bay was very short and sweet as it was absolutely blowing a gale and so cold. We decided not to camp in the park after reading so many comments on WikiCamps about mass numbers of mice around (we’ve dealt with enough of that already!) so drove on out of the park bound for the Western coast of the peninsula. We found a great camp at Gleesons Landing, another council site that had so much space it is crazy. We drove around for a while to try and find a somewhat sheltered spot and grabbed a perfect spot set back away from the water a bit, but with some shelter, just what we were after! We set ourselves up and got dinner started before ducking over to the water with a drink to watch the end of sunset. Such a beautiful spot. We enjoyed a yummy vego nacho dinner followed by a tea with honey mead to warm up before we tucked up in bed for the night. I’m a little concern about mice here (Alex already saw one earlier) so fingers crossed they don’t get in again!!
Day 34 – We had a great morning this morning, starting with a walk (with a coffee!) out to the point to watch the sun coming up. It was a really beautiful morning with the sun shining. Back to our camp Alex was tinkering with the water storage so I decided we would have a slow start with a cooked breaky! I cooked up some bacon and poached eggs and we enjoyed taking it easy. Once we had gotten ourselves organised we jumped in the car and headed towards Point Turton. We took the scenic route and had a couple of stops to check out the beaches on the way but the tides were really low so the beaches weren’t all that exciting. We jumped out at Point Turton and took a quick walk down the jetty but almost blew away so that was short lived! The wind had really picked up and so after a quick visit to look at the Magazine Bay caves, we were back in the warmth of the car, headed to Minlaton. We pulled into the Main Street and saw that there were markets on so went and had a look. After a quick glance the markets were really weird so we left ASAP. We kept wandering and found a cute shop with lots of local arts, crafts and food items. We bought some tomato chutney, Anzac biccies for Alex and quince paste, delish! We also saw a flyer for a local brewery there so swung by for a look. It was really cool and being a Saturday (and long weekend!) they had a band playing and a food truck out the back. Alex had a tasting paddle (he didn’t love any of them really, too crafty apparently!) and I had a delicious cider. The band was great too, it was a really nice place with a cool vibe. From there we headed to the petrol station to fuel up and then I jumped in the drivers seat to Maitland. There wasn’t anything happening there really so we just pulled up by a park and made a quick sandwich and coffee for a late lunch. We then drove to our campsite ‘the Bamboos’ about 20 mins from Maitland. It’s a really nice spot nestled in behind sand dunes with a beach on the other side. We found a spot and wandered over to the beach before returning to set up. We then headed back to the beach for a spot of fishing but by then the wind had picked up again and it was pretty miserable so we were only there very briefly. We came back to our campsite and started cooking dinner when I spotted a mouse, then more mice!!! YUCK, there are heaps! But it was too late to try and go anywhere else so we had a very nervous time eating trying to scare them off. We decided to head to bed straight after dinner and packed everything up so we could make a quick escape in the morning!! We are both very nervous we will have a mouse visitor in the tent over night!! Let’s pray we don’t!!!
The Adventures of Alex and Alicia 