MANNUM TO VICTOR HARBOUR

From Mannum we continued following the river through Taillum Bend and Williamtown. Although we didn’t stop, Williamtown looked fascinating and the ferry there is the oldest continuing service in Australia. The buildings, particularly the old court house built of stone was fantastic. We arrived in Goolwa and found the caravan park after missing a turn that took us firstly across the Hindmarsh Bridge onto Hindmarsh Island. A quick turn around put us back into Goolwa and into the park. Even though school holidays had begun it was very quiet, in fact we were the only van in the park when we arrived.

We travelled across to Hindmarsh Island again to explore and to reach our goal of following the Murray to its mouth. It is from Hindmarsh Island that you can view the Murray Mouth (or what is left of it). Hindmarsh Island is 15 kms long and 6 kms wide and is unique as it faces fresh water on one side and salt on the other. For some years (since October 2002) they have had to continually dredge the mouth to keep it open as there are NO flows coming downstream. You can see the dredge in one of the photos. However even though there are no flows coming down, the landscape is so green down here.

Goolwa is such an interesting town with such a colourful past. It was surveyed in 1840 and settled in 1841. Goolwa was one of Australia’s most important river ports with paddle steamers towing barges from NSW and Victoria laden with wool and other produce and returning with produce and building supplies. The Steamranger Cockle Train runs between Goolwa and Victor Harbour. It is a heritage train, picturesque and historic and only takes 30 minutes between towns and is the oldest public railway in Australia. You get a ¾ hour break before its return journey! Originally it was a horse drawn tram. Why called “The Cockle Train” you may ask? Well in the early days of settlement, local residents would take the horse drawn train to Goolwa to collect cockles from the beaches near the Murray mouth. We had a great day out on this, and it was a cold wet and windy day where there was not much else you could do anyway! Walter had a ride in the engine with the volunteers too! (Big boy’s toys!)

During the week in Goolwa we also took a drive up to Strathalbyn, a lovely heritage town with lovely old stone buildings. We then drove out to Langhorne Creek, tried some great wine and found a winery that also grows and sells fresh horseradish! Walter has been trying for 3 years since we were in Austria to find fresh horseradish here in Australia and this is the first time we have been successful! We then drove home along the edge of Lake Alexandrina through Milang. Now this is where you really get to realise the seriousness of the Murray-Darling basin. Check out the photos of the jetties, the water level is now well past the ends of them.

Another day we drove into the outskirts of Adelaide then down the west coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula. Again lots of rain showers but the scenery is spectacular! And it is so green.! We drove right around into Rapid Bay and to Cape Jervis. Cape Jervis is where the vehicular ferry to Kangaroo Island leaves from. From here you can get good views of the island. We decided not to go over this trip as it is quite expensive. $89 for your vehicle then $1.50 for each 10 cm! Add that up for a one-way trip with a 23’ caravan!!

We also drove out along the Sir Richard peninsula to view one of the Barrages. There are seven barrages that have been constructed in the 1920’s to keep the fresh water from the Murray catchment separate from the salt inflows. These stretch across the rivers and outlets from Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island. Whilst we were out there enjoying the view we viewed our first seal frolicking in the water.

After a lovely week we then travelled a whole 23 kms to Victor Harbour to stay for another week. Now this is one gorgeous town and so much to see and do here. In summer months there would be even more. We have really copped some wet weather whilst we have been in the area though. I would love to come back here again in the warmer months. However, that aside we have been busy seeing and doing so much here. As we arrived to a partly sunny day we didn’t want to waste it, so we walked from our caravan park (facing the beach) up into town. We purchased tickets to go across to Granite Island in the historic horse-drawn tram and off we went. The causeway was built for the port in the late 1800’s and the tram transported goods to and fro from the ships coming into port. Now Granite Island is run by the Parks and Conservation department and has a colony of fairy (or little) penguins that have made it their home. There is a great walkway (1.5 kms around the island) which has great views of Victor harbour, The Bluff and Port Elliot and Middleton. Also when the whales are around it is a prime viewing spot for these magnificent creatures. We decided we would also take in the night penguin tour where you get a chance to view the penguins as they come home after a days fishing! They also have a Penguin Centre there that rehabilitates injured penguins so you get a chance to really see them close up. When we visited this we were lucky again that we were the only ones there so the penguin carer took us to show us a female with 2 lovely little chicks!

We took a drive down to Deep Creek Conservation Park and took the 4WD track down into Blowhole Beach. This is the prettiest area I have seen for some time! It overlooks Kangaroo Island and the valleys were filled with Arum lilies and kangaroos grazed and slept in the hollows. We had packed a picnic lunch so we ate that there overlooking this magnificent view. The Heysen Trail also runs through this place. The Heysen Trail is a walking trail that runs from Cape Jervis to the Flinders Ranges some 1200 kms. After lunch we drove north towards Victor Harbour to find the Newland Conservation park. We had read about a walk from there to a waterfall. It was a 3.5 km return walk and sounded pretty good. We headed off about 2 pm into the park along a wide trail. We had walked about ¾ km when the trail sign pointed to the left and stated it was 800m down to the waterfall. The track suddenly went to rock steps that went straight down for the 800m to the waterfall. Of course when we got down there we had to climb the 800m straight up again! It was a lovely walk but quite strenuous and we both had sore muscles for the next 2 days! Some beautiful wild flowers along the track though, many I have never seen before.

This is a big area for whale watching, nearly as big as Hervey Bay here in the south! Before we arrived there was a sighting of a mother and calf but since we have been here there has been nothing. So we went to the Whale museum instead. Really well done and definitely worth the visit.

One other highlight for Walter here was finding the equivalent to an Austrian Wuerstal Stand – (hot dog stand). Served only German sausage with sauerkraut, cheese and onions!

Tomorrow we will leave the coast and head north to Hahndorf for a few days before going on to the Barossa and Clare Valleys. From there it will be onto the Flinders Ranges. We initially were going to go over to the Yorke Peninsula but we are sick of the wet and cold weather so going north to hopefully have a change of weather.

We hope you are all well and life is treating you gently. We are both well and enjoying this life.

Until next time,

The Happy Travellers
Rob & Walter