Adelaide

We spent a year in Adelaide in 1988 so we were looking forward to revisiting a few known places. 

We arrived at Brownhill Creek.
It's a beautiful little park in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. How cool that there's a koala in the trees above us!

That afternoon, we went for a walk around the local Mitcham area, a lovely suburb with some beautiful houses and historic buildings. One thing hasn't changed... we reckon you could show anyone a picture of an Adelaide suburban street and the style of many of the houses, as well as the ubiquitous gravel verges (as opposed to grass) are a dead giveaway that you're in Adelaide, or at least South Australia.

We went for a drive and a walk past the schools we worked at that year, in Norwood and Payneham, as well as our old house in Magill.
That night we went for dinner with an ex-colleague of Robyn's. Was a good catch-up.

The car was due for a service, so on the Tuesday we left it with a mechanic for the day, relaxed and read by the van and went to lunch with another former colleague of Robyn's at the school where he's the principal.

That night we caught up with other friends.

Yes, the budget is blowing out this week!

We spent a day wandering the city (enjoying the free city transport as interstate senior tourists - wake up, Sydney) including walking into the Botanical Gardens.

Wednesday we went to the beach and had lunch at Glenelg Surf (!!) Life Saving Club overlooking the beach, where kids were playing school beach volleyball and having surf (again, !!) lessons

We went into the city on Thursday night to catch up with friends and caught a Fringe Festival show.

Friday we drove up into the hills for the day.

Stirling

Coffee and morning tea at Hahndorf.

Have absolutely loved Adelaide.

We left there to travel south towards where the Kangaroo Island ferry travels from at Cape Jervis.

Sellicks Beach, stopped to make a sandwich.

Port Noarlunga, south of Adelaide.
It was a hot day; there were plenty of people swimming and jumping off the jetty.

Camped at Wirrina.
It's been dry, and with the extreme heat today and winds, while tempting to stay right under the trees, we camped a little away.
There's a few good sized branches that have come down recently.

We're on a 9am ferry tomorrow morning, so went south to Wirrina, leaving an easy 30 minute drive first thing tomorrow.

Coffin Bay, Port Lincoln, Cowell, Whyalla, Port Pirie, Clare, Yorke Peninsula

Coffin Bay. Permanent population of 650, swells to over 4000 in the summer.

Friendly little park by the water.

Coffin Bay is famous for its oysters.

Very peasant afternoon by the water.

Donation sausage sizzle one evening, with wine tasting :)

The wind found us again at Coffin Bay!

While at Coffin Bay we headed to Port Lincoln for the day. We were impressed.

The tuna poling boats are huge and need to be refueled by tankers like this.

We bought chips.

Tumby Bay, between Port Lincoln and Cowell

North of Port Lincoln having left Port Pirie, we had lunch by the water at Tumby Bay. Cute little town... the locals are very proud of their jetty :)

Tumby Bay jetty

A few painted silos along the way.

Robyn had heard of a mangrove boardwalk at Arno Bay, so we ventured out to the end.

Like many KGAs, Cowell has a council sponsored cheap stopover spot for people who are self contained. (On board toilet, shower, grey water captured etc.) We stayed in one at Cowell, just a short distance out of town.

The town itself has a fantastic water park for kids and young people. Water play, slippery dips. Just great. We were there after school. I think the whole school was at the park... any children not doing basketball practice were getting wet and staying cool.  

We stopped in at Whyalla on the way through. The beachfront has been pretty well done, and they have a unique new wharf to cater for the many fishing and crabbing folks.

When all is said and done, it's difficult to make a steel making town look sexy from the lookout.

We called in at Point Germein for lunch. Probably don't need to call in here again. Ever.

 

We stopped a night at Port Pirie, a lead smelting town (ore is trained in from Broken Hill).

Another cheap night, but it was HOT! 40 degrees at 630 pm, Still 33 at 11pm. Without doubt, the hottest, most uncomfortable night of the trip.

The park was adjacent to one of Port Pirie's three AFL clubs, so we nursed a couple of drinks and sheltered for a couple of hours there in the afternoon when it was 41 outside.

And so to Clare, about an hour and a half north of Adelaide. Wine region.

We treated ourselves to a caravan park with a pool and power to run the AC.

41 degrees on arrival, and still 40 at 630 pm, but high 20s the next day.

We called in at Sevenhill, the Jesuit's winery. Had to, really, having learnt and taught at Jesuit schools.

So many small towns on the various tourist loops. Lots of places to stop for a coffee or more.

We left Clare and headed further east to explore the Yorke Peninsula for a few days.

More wheat and barley. Golden fields as far as the eye can see. The paddocks are absolutely enormous out here.

One surprise we had right at the top of the peninsula were these igloos in the middle of paddocks.

There's a dozen small towns on the Yorke. We stayed at Coobowie in a caravan park by the water.

It was windy, of course, and the beaches weren't overly attractive for swimming.

We explore the area, called in at a few spots, visited some painted water towers.

Normally, local sheep don't have too much to worry about come shearing time.
These poor buggers, however... hundreds of pelts on fences. The local ugghbootsRus factory perhaps?!

Port Turtin

Edithburgh, a larger than most town near where we camped

Coobowie has a caravan park and a shop. Along with holiday homes, that's pretty much the whole town.

 

Wow! Carrying more than 100kgs at a time.

At Port Victoria. The sign talks about the myxomatosis experiments on the island off here

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On to Adelaide, a couple of hours away up and over the top of the Gulf of St Vincent.