Waking to new sounds: 2011

Monday, April 4, 2011

Adelaide

Belair National Park

27th November to 1st December, 2011

We left Mt Remarkable amidst rain and fog, glimpsing at grain farms, a huge wind farm and a pink salt lake on our way to Adelaide. It felt a bit strange driving through a city all loaded up with our camper trailer in tow, but it led us to our campspot up in the Adelaide Hills.

We ventured out out to historic Glenelg and checked out the city, but highlight #1 was our day exploring the Adelaide Hills. We headed to Woodside, home of Melba's Chocolate Factory alluring us in by the scent of bubbling chocolate wafting through the air. Not only were we able to watch these delicacies being made but we were spoilt with samples of choc buds, fizzers, traffic lights, choc coated coffee beans, liquorice toffee etc ..... mmmmm! As if our cholesterol levels hadn't risen enough, we headed in to the neighbouring cheese factory for some more delights. A pretty drive north we made it to Gumeracha, the home of the world's biggest Rocking Horse. We enjoyed checking out the gorgeous wooden toys in the toy factory and spent some time in the animal farm. A stopover in the old German town of Hahndorf topped off a great day!

Highlight #2 was our day down in Victor Harbour. A beautiful pine tree lined bay with a path that ran along the water's edge. It continued on until it it reached the Horse Drawn Tram that took us the 700m over to Granite Island. We had lots of fun exploring Granite Island, always on the lookout for the little penguins. Poor Blake had a rough day being stung on the foot by a bee and losing his wallet - double whammy!

We would highly recommend Adelaide and surrounds for a holiday and will definately be back! Next time !!

Beautiful peacock at The Giant Rocking Horse

Animal farm at Gumeracha

Blake not so sure about these hungry birds!

Amber not so sure about this hungry alpaca!

Darcy sure about this not so hungry goat!

More at the farm

Gorgeous alpaca

James thinks he is one of the 3 Billy Goats

Rock wallaby

On our way to the top

Horse drawn tram to Granite Island

Adventure in Granite Island

View from Granite Island back to Victor Harbour

Too cute!

Looking back to Victor Harbour

More adventures around Granite Island

A rare family shot

Heading back to Victor Harbour via Horse Drawn Tram

Flinders Ranges and Mt Remarkable

24th to 26th November, 2011

The beautiful Flinders Ranges was like driving into a feast of more varieties of green that we have ever seen. We spent our days circuiting the ranges and gorges, checking out all the lookouts and admiring the wildlife. Plenty of emus, galahs, kangaroos, cockies and a few massive wedgetail eagles. The unmistakable scent of pine lingering in the air was a sweet reminder that Christmas isn't too far away and we weren't too far from home.

Our own little superheroes

Friday, March 18, 2011

Fitzgerald Bay

22nd to 24th November, 2011

We left Port Gibbon in search of the elusive sealion. We eventually found a huge Grandpa one after trekking up, over and around mammoth sand dunes - a treat for us all! Happy in that we set off, through the heritage town of Cowell and made our way to Lucky Bay. We checked this out as a possible campspot, but decided to keep going to Whyalla. After checking out the township of Whyalla and having some lunch on the foreshore, we headed out to Fitzgerald Bay Bush Camp. We were greeted very warmly by friendly fellow campers and were impressed once again by the quality of SA's free camps. The bay was so so flat and at lowtide you had to walk 1500m to get to water that shallow it would only cover your toes. It was really hot here so we needed the water to cool down, a huge contrast to just having been in Port Lincoln!! The best fishing here was the blue swimmer crabs and the razorfish. The blue swimmer crabs were so abundant all you needed was a bucket, a pair of tongs and a keen eye and you had dinner sorted. The razorfish are a type of shellfish, with a massive shell, that once you get to the part you can eat its a lot like scallop. The scenery around here was stunning with two peninsulas almost landlocked, it was pretty special!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Port Gibbon, SA

21st November, 2010

A big day of sightseeing as we headed up the east coast of the Eyre Peninsula. We stopped in at Tumby Bay where the kids enjoyed a play in the park and we enjoyed the views of this quiet, historic old wheat port. We pulled in at the shanty town of Arno Bay, population of 250, to look for sealions. No luck, so we drove onto Port Gibbon to find a great overnighter. Flat campsites with a flushing toilet (luxury), a bush shower (a corrugated iron changeroom, with a hook to hang your thermal shower bag - another luxury), water from a tap and a site that we could leave the trailer hooked on. We set up and went for walk along the beach, finding lots of seagrass, a few pufferfish on the shore and loads of old sea urchins. The bay of Port Gibbon was surrounded by rugged orange cliffs that had been undercut after years of having been ravaged by the elements - pretty spectacular!

Grandpa sealion we stumbled across, it was huge!

James and Darcy taking over where the sealion left off

Need to get to the top so we can run back down - too much energy!

And again and again

The red cliffs of Port Gibbon

The undercut was a big scary

More sandhills, a bit smaller this time ...

But the same idea !

Pluto the donation dog at the free camp at Port Gibbon.

Great idea for an old jetty

Port Gibbon from afar

Never trust a snake with a small head.

Bearded dragon - stunning colour

Port Lincoln National Park

September Beach

16th to 20th November 2010

We left Coffin Bay and headed into the township of Port Lincoln, stocked up on groceries and water and made our way out to the National Park. We checked out camps at Surfleet Cove and Fisherman's Beach before settling on the spacious campsites and beautiful bay, that is September Beach. We spent our days here either in the lazy seaside port of Lincoln itself or enjoying the many spots that the national park had to offer. Lots of fishing, surfing, wildlife, swimming, rockpool exploring and bushwalking opportunites. You can tell by the pics that not alot of swimming went on when we had to resort to thermals at night!!