The Fleurieu Peninsula

The main reason we have fast tracked our way to South Australia is to meet my mum, dad and Jake for a pre-booked week in the Fleurieu Peninsula, which is a spectacular little gem of a place to the south of Adelaide, but I will get to that shortly.

The drive from Robe towards Adelaide runs alongside the Coorong National Park and The Coorong itself. When we undertook this dive 5 years ago, it was uninspiring to say the least. The lack of rain had left the water levels dreadfully low and the view saddening. This time, it was a completely different view from the car window. The Coorong was full of water, birds, plants and just life in general. It was an estuary manager's dream come true (for those of you back at the office, you would have loved it, it was a text book example of.. well.. everything good).

Jarvis finally with his grandparents. At the Coorong National Park
overlooking the Murry Mouth (which was open)

We arrived in Goolwa prior to check in time at the motel and so we had a bit of a look around town. Just as we were wandering along the wharf and starting to think about where mum and dad might be, we spied them through the window of the brewery; surprise, surprise. We joined them for few samples of the local brews before settling into the apartment which was to be home for the next week. A week of no thongs in the shower, an indoor kitchen and walls that don't blow around in the wind, yay!

Goolwa is a very cute, somewhat sleepy town on the banks of the Murry River on Lake Alexandrina just upstream of the point at which The Murry meets the ocean. We took a ride on an old steam paddle boat around the waterway, explored the mouth of The Murry and Hindmarsh Island, saw seals and travelled along the coast on the Cockle Train, the oldest train line in SA. Goolwa was a fabulous place to base ourselves to see the area but the highlights were really what was around Goolwa in the greater Fleurieu Peninsula area.

The highly controversial Hindmarsh Bridge replaced the cable ferry in 2001. The bridge was built to service a marina development on Hindmarsh Island and subsequent housing developments, which we can confirm is horrendous. There was significant objections from the local community and environmental groups but the bridge was approved by the L&E court. The community still remains divided over the issue.

The Peninsula is made up of a rugged eastern coast looking out over a deep blue ocean, with cute towns, spectacular beaches and even whales passing by. The western coast is slightly more protected and so the ocean has a much calmer feel about it (but is still fightingly cold and can be very windy). We visited the main coastal town, Victor Harbour and went for a walk around Granite Island. We followed the coast further south through the national parks and took the 4WD track down to Blowhole Beach. The east coast is visually striking, the cliffs that run along most of the coast climb up above white beaches and are topped by green bushland, farms and vineyards. The best vantage points we discovered for viewing this spectacular coast were at the Victory Hotel overlooking Sellecks Beach and the surrounding vineyards and the fish and chip shop situated on the cliff top at Port Willunga. At the very tip of the Peninsula is the somewhat lacklustre town of Cape Jervis. From what I can tell the primary function of this town is to serve as the port for the ferry which goes over to Kangaroo Island. Which brings me to a very annoying part of our trip; we didn't get out to Kangaroo Island. The main reason for this is quite simply the cost. It was going to cost $250 each way on the ferry to be able to take our car and camper over to the island and then there are huge national park fees for entry and camping. It was just too much for our little teeny tiny travel budget and with so many other places we want to see, we didn't end up making the journey. So it has been decided that we shall return one day to do the island as an isolated trip.

Although the coastline of the Peninsula is divine, it is the heartland of the Peninsula that really struck a chord with us. The standout for sure being the McLaren Vale wine region. Prior to Jake's arrival, we all piled into Big Reg with dad at the helm (thanks for driving dad) for a tour of the wineries. Rob and I have now been to McLaren Vale, Hunter Valley, Margaret River, Barossa Valley and the Clare Valley and would say without a doubt that the McLaren Vale region has impressed us the most. Whilst, the wines were lovely but perhaps not our favourites, the cellar doors and the scenery around were simply divine. To give you some idea of how gorgeous this area is, the first and last place we visited really say it all. We started the day at an organic, single origin vineyard called the Battle of Bosworth (Jamie, thanks for the tip). The family running the vineyard also live on site. The home and cellar door are both restored 1840's stone buildings which look through the gum trees over the vines below (simply divine). We then finished the day at Samuel's Gorge. The cellar door is in an old olive press house and instead of lining up at the counter to get a taste of the scrumptious wines your glass is quickly filled and you are sent outside to enjoy the view over the national park or take a seat on the veranda with a promise that they will simply come and bring you with the next wine, which they most certainly do.

In addition to the wineries, the Fleurieu Peninsula is full of the cutest little valleys and towns. Willunga is not far from McLaren Vale and is home to the oldest growers market it South Australia. We stopped in here on one of our last days in the area to stock up on fresh fruit and veges, breads and other yummy treats.

Due to the fact that we had enjoyed our time in the Fleurieu Peninsula so much we decide to stay on for the long weekend after mum, dad and Jake had left. This didn't turn out to be such a fabulous idea. With the onset of the long weekend and SA school holidays we were suddenly set upon by the crowds. We managed to get the last space in a caravan park at Port Elliot on Horseshoe Bay which had over 250 camp sites and I swear everyone of those 250 tents contained at least one child. It was chaos! And Jarvis loved every second of it. One good thing did come out of hanging around for the weekend, we caught the Goolwa Alive Fair. It is the big event of the year for Goolwa and between the fire engine, steam train, markets, baloon animals and street performances, it was a great day.

Kids Galore at Port Elliot Caravan Park.

Breakfast on Horseshoe Bay before the mobs woke up.

But the crowds were simply too much so in an attempt to avoid some of the school holiday chaos we have headed north to Adelaide for some supplies and then on north to the more remote areas. But that's for another blog post.