Port Elliot, SA.

 We set up camp at the Port Elliot Showgrounds for the next 5 days to explore the Victor Harbour and Goolwa area. This place is super busy given that it is only an hour out of Adelaide and it is incredibly beautiful. It is just like an extension of the city, there are that many houses and subdivisions, but then just like Adelaide itself, within 15mins you are out in rolling countryside again. One of the many joys of South Australia.

On our first day we explored the Barrage at Goolwa which is the weir-like place for the mouth of the Murray River. We learnt a lot about our beloved Murray here, with informative plaques about every weird starting all the way up at the Hume and traveling along the whole river. There is also a Murray River flag which was news to us all - with the horizontal blue lines at the bottom representing all the river the join together to create the Murray River system.



We walked out on the bridge over the barrage and said hello to the 2 resident sea lions enjoying the sun.


The weather was a bit wet and wild, so the next day we went for a drive out to the actual Mouth of the Murray. We crossed the bridge onto Hindmarsh Island  - where suburbia is slowly creeping in...and finally found the entrance. It was a little bit underwhelming, maybe it was the grey skies and the cold wind, or maybe it was the 3 dredging machines working to dig the sand out and keep the entrance open. But still very special to see where this river that means a lot to our family enters the ocean.


Port Elliot is a little town between Victor Harbour and Goolwa - but they are expanding now so they all join together. The showgrounds is just a few blocks from the main road and we could walk to town and to the beach. 


One day we spent in Victor Harbour and walked across the bridge to Granite Island and saw a few stumpy tailed lizards. Just like on the Yorke Peninsula, they are all nice a plump. We walked back and all enjoyed an ice cream in the main street.  The kids had been on their best behaviour waiting for this ice cream since we first saw the shop on day one. (No photos of delicious ice cream...too busy eating!!)


One day we spent exploring the Fleurieu Peninsula and all it's beauty - another hidden gem we didn't know about. We drove to Cape Jervis and watched the ferry come across from Kangaroo Island - this made us all very excited about going on the Spirit of Tasmania boat in just a few days.


We drove through some of the national parks, with beautiful stringybark trees and we saw lots of very big kangaroos, and some beautiful yellow-tailed black cockatoos - one in particular that was very intensely eating his pine cone and didn't mind the car load of Wickhams watching him.


Then we came across a tiny little town called Rapid Bay which has a very interesting history. It has an amazing campground right on the beach, and a cool cave to explore in the mountain at the edge of the beach and lots and lots of pretty rocks. We had to get the kids to empty their pockets and pick there favourite 3 rocks each, otherwise we would have had way too many rocks to take home. Half of the town is like a time capsule back to the 1950's, because it is all owned by the company that owns the old limestone mine next to town. Nobody lives in the street but the company still maintains them so they look clean and well kept.


Our last day we spent the morning walking around the town on Port Elliot and searching for Geocaches - we found 4 in the end. We ended up at the foreshore beach and watched a parachute gliding peacefully over the cliffs and then as we walked down towards the beach he followed us and landed gently on the beach. Elsie declared she now wants a parachute kite - it did look extremely fun, I agree with her!!

We found a cute little fairy garden and of course the kids wanted a photo.



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