South Australia part 2 - Coast Once More

It’s a blog post bonanza… Three at once! We were so busy in South Australia that we didn’t have time to post all the cool stuff all at once. Here’s part 2 of our SA trip - We finally make it back to the coast, and finally make it to the mechanics to get the van sorted. Plenty of ups, one or two downs, and lots of time exploring Adelaide.

Tuesday 22nd: Port Pirie to Yorke Peninsula

Today’s adventures are aiming for the Yorke Peninsula. We hadn’t originally planned to come to it but it looked too good to miss in the end! We started the day with a little flat tyre so took a wee trip to the gas station to pump it up.

About an hour into our drive we stopped in Locheil not just for a toilet stop but also to visit the Locheil Monster who was made to look like the loch Ness monster. It was a lovely short stroll across the sand lake to see though and a good stretch of the legs. We also accidentally pulled up next to a butchers so took a lil peek and walked out with some tasty sausages and pork chops for dinner!

We finally got hold of Let’s Go Motorhomes (we have had a warning light on for the best part of 900km and they just told us to keep driving…!) and booked to see a mechanic on Thursday just outside of Adelaide so we felt we had made some progress on getting the van fixed!

Our first stop on the peninsula was in Ardrossan: a lovely beachy village with a jetty. We filled up with water and made some sammies which we ate in with a lovely view out to sea. the sun was shining but the wind was pretty chilly still, and then headed down to the jetty. Lots of reviews online said you can see stingrays but we weren’t so lucky. We think there had been some stormy weather along the coast though because the beaches were truly covered in rocks and seaweed!

Our next stop was the Pink Lake. the pictures don’t really do it justice but the water is really pink due to the algae which live in the high salt content water. The signs say it is best in winter when there is more water but it was still pretty cool for us to see.

Our next stop was Marion Bay and Willyama Beach. The wind was still pretty brutal so no chance we were going for a swim, but we had a lovely walk along the sandy beach and especially enjoyed not having to worry about the crocs! The sand was super soft and I paddled in the water which was surprisingly not that cold - still not swimming though!

We managed to grab the last camping slot in the whole national park so we stayed at Stenhouse Bay Campground. It was quiet and the long drop toilets were actually very very nice. It even had a BBQ so plum pork chops with rice and veggies was our dinner. Mike has really got the hang of BBQing on hotplates and reheating rice actually went surprisingly well! We ended the day with a lovely walk down and along the jetty with some beautiful red hues in the sky. A chilled out end to a good day.

Wednesday 23rd: Yorke Peninsula

Well, we woke up to a flat tyre again so we reckon we have a slow puncture -.- Unfortunately our rental companies policy is that you can’t do any repairs to a car without permission, our call to their helpline didn’t get through, our call to their 3rd party road side assistance said it was still in warranty so needed a Renault approved garage, and the Renault number we were given said it would be 3+ hours until someone could reach us. (They also took a pretty dim view on our rentals idea that we drive 1000+km with a warning light on…!)

Fortunately, our camping neighbours had an air compressor, and so we committed to blowing up the very slow puncture and continuing with our journey and heading to Adelaide for repairs tomorrow.

We made sure to visit the bottom of Yorke Peninsula while we could: we called in at the Cape Spencer lighthouse; visited Lake Inneston and saw the remains of the old Gypsum and chalk community; saw the rusted shipwreck remains at Ethel beach; and spent some hopping around the rock pools at Shell beach. We even saw a emu and it’s chick cross the road in front of us!

After lunch we drove back out of the national park towards Corny point, where we say some noisy pelicans getting fed fish carcasses and the occasional fight with a seagull. Continuing up the peninsula we called into Minlaton to stop at the Watsacowie brewery (cowie means water, you’re welcome). Some tasty beers down we headed to Moonta RV park for the evening.

Thursday 24th: Yorke Peninsula to Adelaide

It turns out that Moonta is a lovely little town that we didn’t have enough time to explore! After a quick wander around we drove to Adelaide and finally took the van to the mechanic, some 1000km after the warning light came on. As it happens, a pipe coming off the turbo had split, all but killing the extra power from it, and was tricking the engine into burning dirty. This in turn choked up the particulate filter.

We ended up bumming around the mechanics for most of the day. It was about to be ANZAC long weekend, and the rental company didn’t have a replacement van, so the mechanics blasted through the van that day for us. They did their best to keep us entertained, showing us a camel-collision campervan, a huge “meet-the-fockers” style RV, taking us along to pick up some parts for 3 jobs, and even taking us for a “rag it!” test drive in the van when fixed. Borgys Mechanics - you legends!

We finally got to our campsite early evening, although the van stunk of clutch from the problem-diagnosing earlier. To end the day on a high note we bimbled down to the Little Bang Brewery for some delicious beers, a brisket burger, and a BBQ chicken parm!

Friday 25th: Adelaide

After a morning of planning and chores we headed out to the European-style village of Hahndorf to the east of Adelaide. The cute town is full of chocolate and sweet shops, arts and crafts, German restaurants, and of course tourist bric-a-brac. We could tell it was a long weekend!

We then headed over to Adelaide Hills to visit the Melba Chocolate factory and the Woodside Cheese Wrights. There are some super tasty treats to be found there and we walked away with some slabs of cheap “seconds” chocolate and a goats cheese that even Chloe found tasty! Oh, and we had a decadent hot chocolate to share between us!

Our next stop was Mt Lofty to get some stunning views over all of Adelaide. We saw a bandicoot in the carpark and, thanks to the information centre lady, we went on a loop walk where we saw our first wild koala! It was great to see the sleepy little fuzzball after a few months of searching!

We finished our evening by driving down to Glenelg beach to cook up some burgers for dinner and watch the sunset. A great way to end the day, if you disregard the possum that gave Chloe a scare back at the campsite!

Saturday 26th: Adelaide

Today we headed into the CBD. We started with a lovely walk along the river towards the central market. It was a pretty dirty river by Aussie standards but thankfully it wasn’t smelly. It was a busy walk, but everyone was friendly and said good morning.

The central markets were heaving but they were as good as everyone had said. We walk round got some fruit and veggies that were cheap and then got some lunch for ourselves. I had a ‘Purple Pita’ which was a toasted pita with an omelette, beetroot houmous and tatziki, with a lonely Falafel! Delicious it was but I would have liked another falafel!! Mike got a Hog Roast and Coleslaw roll, he was the real winner because that was blooming delicious. We the got a drink each, I got an ‘edible Latte’ which was interesting, I really thought the cup was made of biscuit but it was actually an oat and grain almost cracker but the coffee was yummy and the chocolate coated section of the cup was also really good, without the chocolate it did taste a bit like cardboard though XD Mike got a honeycomb milkshake from the Fleurieu Dairy shop, it was a proper thick shake creamy milkshake which was delicious but he was stuffed by the end!

Our next stop was Saint Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, it was a beautiful cathedral and due to the popes passing was very busy with people saying prayers. Our next stop was Rundle Mall to see the 4 cheeky piggies, they are just on the street as art work but each one has a name and is doing different thing!

Our final stop of the day was the South Australia Museum. This was my kind of museum, lots to see and walk round but very little to read so you don’t have to stand around for ages while Mike reads everything XD There wasn’t a huge amount about SA apart from the Opals but there was lots about the Papua New Guinea culture and also aboriginal cukter which was nice.

We followed the river back to the Campground which was about a 30 minute walk. A lovely quiet walk this time with some random sculptures which we came across. We also started chatting to a lovely old couple who lived close to our campsite. They had done the opposite to us when they got married and travelled to Europe for 3 months in 1974! They were lovely to chat with we walked with them for the last 10 minutes of the river.

We had planned to go and do our supermarket shop for the next week this evening, but it turns out the supermarkets in Adelaide close at 5pm on a weekend. Good job we managed to get some veggies at the market to have for dinner! There were also some noisy possums in the tree next to our van, and we even noticed one eyeing up our dinner!

Guess what? Part 3 is already available to read! Go check it out!