PORT VINCENT TO PORTLAND


Sunday was another lovely day but we didn’t do very much except watch the Super Bike races and the cricket.

Hany from Coast Plans emailed me with some questions about our plans and I phoned him with some answers and I have to get him some other answers from Supaloc and Chris Currie.

Melissa rang to say that Greg and Darren were going to clean out the little boat shed and burn most of the timber stored in the shed. I think they think I won’t throw out as much as they will so that’s why they are doing it before I get home.

Monday another day in paradise and another quite day not much happened.

Tuesday morning we left Port Vincent and went to Port Julia on our way to Ardrossan to pick up our GPS/ Street Pilot at the Post Office. We then drove to Hahndorf that is situated south east of Adelaide. We stayed at the Hahndorf Resort Caravan Park (not one of the best Parks we have stayed in).

On our way we were following two caravans until we came to an overtaking lane where we put on our blinker even before the double lanes to let the car behind me know that we were going to pass the caravans in front of us. As we were half way past the first caravan it decided to put its blinker on and move out into our lane without looking, we had to brake hard and let him go but I also had to move across into the oncoming traffic lane to miss him, luckily there wasn’t anything coming the other way. He didn’t even have extended mirrors on his car. Bloody Idiot!

Wednesday we went into Hahndorf and walked up and down the main street taking photos and checking out the shops. Hahndorf was first established by German Immigrants in 1839 and is the oldest surviving German settlement in Australia. Many of the original building are still intact and in good condition. The streets are lined with Elm and Plane trees. We had lunch at the beautiful old hotel in the main street and then went for a drive into Adelaide to find a Coles to do some shopping; we were nearly at Glenelg by the time we found Coles. After shopping we decided to have a look at Glenelg before we went back to Hahndorf.

On the way back we also had a look at the old flour mill in Bridgewater and passed through several small villages all similar to Hahndorf.

Thursday morning we packed up and drove through the Adelaide Hills on our way to Moana which is on the coast south of Adelaide. On the way we passed through some very lovely and very hilly country the Landcruiser certainly knew it had a load on it today. We went through Mylo, Longwood, Cherry Gardens, Happy Valley and Reynella.

We stayed at the Top Tourist Caravan Park that is situated right on the beach and has lovely grassed sites, the first park in a long time with grassy sites. In the afternoon we went for a drive north up along the road adjacent to the beach, the ocean was like a smooth lake and looked beautiful. The Suburbs we went through were Seaford, Robinson Point, Port Noarlunga South, Port Noarlunga, Christies Beach, Curlew Point and O’Sullivan Beach. On our return Diane had a lay down and I met Peter and Tanya Lofty from Goolwa who are staying across the road from us. Peter and Tanya said that we will enjoy Goolwa but to be prepared for how low the water is because of the state of the Murray River.

Friday we thought that we would have a look at McLaren Vale situated in the McLaren Valley which is South East of Moana. We looked at McLaren Vale and McLaren Flat and the surrounding areas, there are grape vines everywhere, and every property is growing grapes. We stopped at Woodstock Winery at 10.30am and after sampling their wines we purchased half a dozen bottles.

As it was still only just after 11.00am we decided to go for a round trip of the Fleurieu Peninsula. On the way south to Cape Jervis we passed through many small quaint little towns and we went into Second Valley and Rapid Bay two little beach villages in lovely settings. Rapid Bay had a lovely camping area (No Power) right on the beach. When we arrived at Cape Jervis we stopped at the lookout and took some photos and then headed down to the jetty where the Kangaroo Island ferry departs from. While we were looking around we saw a Sea Lion sunbaking on the rocks and four Seals playing and sunning themselves just near the shore.

We went to the Cape Jervis Hotel for a counter lunch which was nice before we left for the return trip. We went back the same road to Delamere and then turned right and travelled along the crest of the Hills for a few kilometres where we could see the ocean on both sides of the Peninsula. It was about 58km from Cape Jervis to Victor Harbor. As you come down from the hills into Victor Harbor you get a magnificent view of the whole area it is just beautiful.

As we will be in Victor Harbor next week to get the 150000km service done on the Landcruiser we went straight through town. It was another 48km back across the Peninsula to Moana. After Diane had a rest we went down to the beach in the late afternoon for a swim (Ian) and a lay on the beach. Diane read a book and I read a couple of pages after my swim before we went back for dinner.

Saturday and the temperature today reached 39 degrees outside and 31 degrees in the caravan with the Air-Conditioner on. Yesterday was a hot one also and tomorrow is supposed to reach 40 degrees.

We left Moana in the morning and went across the Peninsula to Goolwa a trip of about 65km. Goolwa has a population of around 10000 people and is situated on the banks to the entrance to Lake Alexandrina and Coorong National Park. We stayed at the Top Tourist Caravan Park and we were going to stay for 5 days but the water is so low that you can’t launch your boat. There are jetties along the bank that are high and dry. At low tide you can walk across the water to Hindmarsh Island.

As it was so hot we stayed in the Caravan most of the day in the Air-Conditioning. When the temperature dropped in the afternoon we went for a drive to the beach and to the Barrage. The barrage crosses the water to Hindmarsh Island and is to control the water but there isn’t much need for control at the moment. We did a little shopping on the way home and stayed around the Park for the rest of the day.

We left Goolwa the next day and drove down the coast to Victor Harbor and we will stay here until next Thursday because we are getting the Landcruiser serviced on Wednesday.

The day we arrived here (Sunday) it was a scorcher 39 degrees and we are on the coast were it is supposed to be 10 degrees cooler than Adelaide, but I don’t think that it was. Over the past two days we have had a good look around the town, been for some long walks along the beach front and through the town.

Monday being a Public Holiday (Adelaide Cup Day) there were people everywhere, it is only about an hours drive from Adelaide. We went on the Horse drawn tram that takes you out onto the jetty and across to Granite where we walked around part of the Island. The tram is 4.5tonne empty and holds about 40 people. The Clydesdales that pull the tram are between 800 and 1000kg’s but it only takes 80kg’s of pressure to pull the tram. Only one horse pulls the tram at a time and works a nine hour shift 3 times per week, the rest of the time it is out on pasture four km’s away and they are ridden to work when it is their shift.

Granite Island has a resident population of 2000 penguin’s roosting there each night and they have guided tours starting about 7.30pm.

It is now Tuesday the 11/3/2008 and we have been married 36 years today, the kids have been in touch and we have also had emails from Diane’s sisters and a call from Ian’s mum and dad. We are going out to Dinner tonight I said I would shout Diane just because she has put up with me for the past 36 years. We went to the Victor Hotel for a lovely roast dinner, two courses for two for $29.00.

The weather yesterday afternoon turned cooler which was a great relief and today it was cool in the morning and nice this afternoon. I had to unload the boat as they couldn’t put the car on the hoist at the garage.

Wednesday morning and we took the car around for the service and then walked the 1.5 km back to the park. We stayed around the park all day as we didn’t get the car back until 4.00pm. We walked around to pick the car up and then did some grocery shopping as we are leaving tomorrow. I reloaded the boat in the late afternoon ready for leaving tomorrow.

Thursday, what a hot day 40 degrees, we left Victor Harbor and travelled North through Strathalbyn, Murray Bridge to Mannum. Mannum is situated on the Murray River and is a lovely spot the Caravan Park is on the river bank with a boat ramp on site. It is to hot to put the boat in so we are only going to stop here two days and then head back down to the coast where it will hopefully be a bit cooler. I would like to stay here for a week in better weather.

Friday and the temperature is still high 30’s, we went for a walk yesterday afternoon in the cool of the evening (still high20’s) up one side of the main street and back down the other. It is surprising how many house boats are moored along the river just in this area. These boats would be worth $250/350,000 or more.

We decided to go for a drive around the district in the morning before it got to hot, we went up to the lookout over the town and then followed the Murray River to Purnong and then crossed to the other side and came back through Bow Hill to Mannum. The country is that dry that the wind was creating dust storms as we drove back. The river is that low that most of the boat jetties that would normally be in the water are high and dry, I would think that the river is about 2 metres down from where it should be.

We stayed around the van for the rest of the day out of the heat.

Saturday morning we packed up and headed back to the coast, we through Mypolonga on the way to Murray Bridge and then down the Dukes highway to Tailem Bend. At Tailem Bend we turned onto the Princes highway and we stopped at Meningie by Lake Albert for morning tea. Lake Albert is also very low and the jetties and boat ramps are high and dry also, it is a shame to see and certainly about time somebody did something about the Murray/Darling system before it is too late.

We then followed the highway through Policeman’s Point and along the edge of the Coorong National Park. They will lose this great National Park also if they do nothing about fixing the Water problem.

We booked into the Kingston S.E. caravan park for four days; it is situated on the shores of the Lacepede Bay a beautiful spot. We went fishing down on the jetty in the afternoon with a couple we briefly met in Victor Harbor, who have camped next door to us at Kingston, their names are Robert and Kathy who are from Ballarat. Robert caught two squid and the rest of us caught nothing.

As we drove back through the Caravan Park we say Frank and Shirley Maurer and Garry and Allison Fowler sitting around having afternoon drinks and a chin wag. We joined them for a few drinks and we all discussed where we have been and where we are going. They said they were only just talking about our map of Australia I had in my office just before we drove past.

Sunday morning we went for a short drive to look around the area, we went out to Cape Jaffa and were surprised at the major Canal development going on there, it is huge. Cape Jaffa itself is a sleepy little fishing village with only a shop and service station there and a few homes.

As it was still reasonably early we decided to go and have a look at Lucindale and Naracoorte. They were cleaning up at Lucindale after a Field day just on the edge of town. Lucindale is a small country town. Naracoorte is another 40km’s further east and a much larger town. About 10km’s out of town is the Limestone caves in the Naracoorte Caves National Park. We had lunch at the Caves, I had a rabbit and bacon pie and salad and Diane had a rump pie and salad.

After the caves we fuelled up at the Woolworth’s service station and then drove back to Kingston. Robert Kathy and I went fishing for squid again down on the jetty; Robert out fished us again catching two and the rest of us nil again.

Monday morning we toured the Lighthouse that is situated next to the Caravan Park. The Lighthouse was out on a jetty 6 miles out to sea off Cape Jaffa, built on Margaret Reef, 54 boats have been wrecked on this reef in total. The lighthouse was standing on the jetty that was 20 feet above the water and the lighthouse stood 40 feet above the jetty. It was manned by families in the early days and women and children went out to the lighthouse as well as the men as it took two too run the light.

The first light was powered by oil and then it was powered by kerosene. It only used 18 gallons a week when powered by kerosene and was started half an hour before dark and shutdown half an hour after daylight; you could see the light for 25 miles.

Once they had built the lighthouse at Robe they decommissioned the Cape Jaffa lighthouse as it was too costly to run because of the wages and the Robe lighthouse was fully automatic. After much debate as to what to do with the Cape Jaffa lighthouse it was decided to dismantle it and rebuild it at Kingston where it now stands. We had a guided tour through the lighthouse and the gentleman that took us through it was 75 years old and gave us a great insight into the workings and history of the light. It was a great morning that we all enjoyed.

For the rest of the day we went shopping for groceries and then stayed around the caravan reading, I have now finished my 24th book. Robert and Kathy went fishing on the beach and Robert got a hook stuck into his finger so he had to go to the doctors to get it out.

Tuesday we went beach fishing in Robert and Kathy’s car up at the Granites about 18km out of town the wind was blowing and it was overcast so it wasn’t very pleasant, it was fairly cold and we didn’t even lose a bait. On the way back we drove along the beach and saw a dead seal and a dead Wobbegong shark.

We went out to dinner with Robert and Kathy to the hotel, we had a nice meal for $9.00 each I had a seafood basket and Diane had Salt and Pepper Chicken.

Wednesday morning we left Kingston and ended up at Beachport that is situated south of Robe and a beautiful part of the coast. The scenery is great with some rugged coastline and Bombie’s everywhere. We went for a drive along the coast and travelled along a 4wd track until we got stuck so we decided to turn around and head back. We rang Rachel and Melissa and Melissa said that they have an appointment for George’s MRI scan on 17/4/2008. We will be home by 14/4/2008 so that we can look after Riley for them.

Robe is a small coastal town in a lovely setting and has a big marina with some expensive boats moored there. We drove around the town before leaving for Beachport.

The Beachport caravan park is across the road from the beach and has lovely grassed sites a nice change from a lot of the sites we have been on lately. We went fishing in the afternoon but had no luck again.

Thursday we thought that we would have a quick drive around the area, 200km’s later we arrived back at the caravan park. First we went to Southend that is about 22km’s from Beachport and it is also were we are going to stay for Easter, Southend is situated on Rivoli Bay and Cape Buffon, they have a fleet of Cray boats that fish out off the coast. It only has a population of 298 people.

After Southend we headed to Millicent which is a much larger town on the Princes highway about 48km’s from Mount Gambier, at Millicent we turned left and travelled through Mt Burr to Penola. Penola is a pretty little town servicing the Coonawarra Wineries and surrounding areas. We had lunch at Penola before going to visit Wynn’s Winery and sampling their Red wines, buying two bottles and a bottle of Samuel Port.

After the winery we went back to Southend and arrived at camp at 2.30pm in the afternoon. We had happy hour with Robert and Kathy as we are leaving tomorrow and they have another day there. We had to move there caravan about six o’clock has their site was double booked. Robert and Kathy have asked us to call into their home on the way through Ballarat.

Friday morning we packed up ready for our big journey of 22km’s to Southend. We arrived there at 10.00am and after setting up camp I unloaded the boat as we will do some fishing in the Bay here and it will possibly be our last time we will take the boat off before we get home. I met Simon who is staying in the cabins opposite our camp and he invited me fishing, we were leaving at six o’clock and guess where we went, back to Beachport to the Salmon hole where we were fishing the day before. We were spinning with lures and Simon caught seven legal size fish and the rest of us caught undersized ones. Simon only had 4kg braid and was able to get out further than the rest of us which proved to be the difference. We fished till dark and then went home.

Saturday I went for a walk for 35 minutes at 6.45am and then had breakfast. After breakfast we went to Beachport to have a look at the markets and a coffee after. We then went for a drive and took some photos of Cape Buffon, the Jetty and the coastline.

In the afternoon Diane and I went for another walk for 20 minutes before we had happy hour. At 6.30pm we went to the Community club for a lovely dinner, we both had a sirloin steak and a nice salad.

Easter Sunday morning we got a text message and video call from Skye, Greg and Jett. I went fishing in the boat out in the bay; I caught 5 flathead but only kept one that was legal size. I rang Melissa and Daren and the boys while I was out in the boat, Melissa and the boys were down at their new house unpacking, Daren was having a sleep as he only got back from Broke at 7.00am where he was helping Shaun move furniture to the new house.

Simon gave us a Lobster that they had caught this morning. For the rest of the day I read a book while Diane caught up on some sleep that she missed out on last night, she was still awake at 1.00am.

Monday morning Diane and I went fishing out in the bay, we went over to where they told us we would catch some whiting. Well as usual Diane caught the first fish a 38cm King George whiting then I think she went to sleep while I caught a small shark and then 3 yes 3 snapper (no bump) but two were 41cm’s and the other was 45cm’s long. We got back to camp about 12.00pm and then after cleaning the fish I packed the boat back onto the car.

We ate the lobster for dinner that night after going for a walk along the beach and around past a house that has been built with rough faced besser blocks that Diane likes. The rest of the day we read.

Tuesday we packed the caravan and headed towards Victoria not knowing where we were going to end up for the night. We went to Mount Gambier to see the Blue Lake and then shopped at Woolies as we were pretty low on supplies. We then went south to Port MacDonnell, a pretty little spot on the coast with a man made marina and a lovely coastline.


We crossed into Victoria on our way to Nelson which is situated on the Glenelg River, we had lunch out at the river mouth and then realised that you would need a week to fish this river so we decided to go on to Portland were we are staying at the Henty Bay Caravan Park.

I met our next door neighbours who happen to be from Harrington, they are Garry and Sue who leased the Council Caravan Park until 2004 in Harrington. They have been to Robe and are on there way back to Harrington and will be home on 24/4/2008.

During the night it started to rain and by Wednesday morning a chilly lazy wind had also come up, it was that lazy that it went straight through you. As we only had today to look around we braved the conditions and went to the Information centre first of all were we watched a video of the area. We then went out to the Portland Aluminium smelter for a look and on the way back into town we stopped at the Botanical Gardens where Diane took heaps of Photos of Flowers, some she is going to send to her uncle Andy.

South of town is Cape Nelson and the Cape Nelson Lighthouse, there is nothing there except the Lighthouse and three Lighthouse cottages an old school and the stables. The stables have been turned into a restaurant, only seven weeks ago, so we thought that we would have a coffee to warm ourselves up, when we approached the counter the gentleman asked if we were going to have lunch, we both looked at each other and then looked at the time, it was 12.45pm so we decided to have lunch there as well as a coffee. Lunch was lovely it consisted of salad and a Phillo pastry wrap filled with cheese, spinach, mushrooms and whatever else. The lunch was reasonably priced also; it was a nice addition to the day.

We then drove west to Cape Bridgewater which is about 20km’s from Portland; it has a very nice bay with a café on the beach. There were only about 20 homes there. We drove through town and out past a new Wind Farm that is under construction to the Petrified Forest and the Blow Hole which are both situated on the headland. The Petrified Forest is not a forest at all it is old sink holes that have been exposed by the shifting of the sand to expose these cylindrical shapes that look like tree stumps. The sea was putting on a great exhibition for us.

After the Blow hole we took a different direction back to Portland, we went past the Bridgewater Lake where they have a ski club and at the turnoff to the ski club is the Tarragal Caves that are visible from the road.

Back in town we parked in Gawler Street and then did part of the Portland Historic Buildings Walk around the streets of Portland. There are over 200 buildings from the 1800’s remaining in Portland, it is a 2 hour walk and as I said we only did part of it because of the weather and rain was ominous. It was very interesting and most of the buildings are still in good shape even today. We arrived back at camp at about 4.00pm after a good day in spite of the weather.