Steves Outback Adventures | 4×4 – Fishing – Camping

Off to Port Vincent and Surrounds

Posted on October 17, 2014 by stevie

Unfortunately we had to move from Point Turton as it was booked out. I love this place and we will come back here some time. It is in a very relaxing setting.

We moved to the Port Vincent Foreshore Caravan park. We had heard from a number of sources about this great caravan park. It is situated right on the beach. The park has good facilities and is kept clean and neat all the time. The trip yesterday had established Port Vincent as top pick after Point Turton. As I am writing this content I am very glad that we are here at Port Vincent. We have booked in for 6 days.

Port Vincent Bay from our Caravan

Port Vincent Marina

Port Vincent is just short of half way up Gulf St. Vincent. You can see the Adelaide Hills from here and the lights of Adelaide at night. It is around 230 km from Adelaide by road. It has a small town centre, a very modern marina and some great beaches. The caravan park is right on the beach with the ‘front row seats’ overlooking the gulf. If you are in need of a great coffee in a very friendly environment, the ‘Chill Out’ café in main street will do you just fine. They make good food as well with their bacon & egg roll serving as a good breakfast a number of times. Every day we go for a swim with the Spoodles and walk along the kilometers of beach.

Front row seats

21/10 Yesterday we decided to do a bit of a tour of the middle Yorke peninsula. We headed north from Port Vincent to Port Julia. This is a little village that has a jetty and was once used to ship grain. The main reason I even mention this place is that they have a most amazing road sign; ‘CHILDREN DON’T BOUNCE SLOW DOWN’. How weird! Did they test this?? If so how?? Did they drop a child from 6 foot and measure the bounce? Surely a ‘beware of children’ sign would have sufficed??

How did they get to know this? Did they do some Testing?

We continued to Ardrossan that is part of the Copper mining area. Just south of the town there is a impressive lookout place that has been established on top of a very large mining dump. The views are grand from here. Ardrossan is a nice sized town with good infrastructure, a good jetty for squidding and mining/shipping piers and infrastructure.

Ore shipping facility

Open Cast mining at Ardrossan

Ardrossan

We continued to Maitland that was the biggest centre on this trip. It is mainly agricultural. From there we went on to Port Victoria and back to Port Vincent. Port Victoria, on the west coast of the Yorke, has a great jetty and swimming beach. It looks out over the Point Pierce islands and peninsula which are Aboriginal land. Back here at Vincent the local sailing club had a regatta going. At the end of the day the dogs passed out, they had a huge day.

Pier at Port Victoria

Sailing Regatta at Port Vincent

The only good Spoodle is a sleeping Spoodle

Today we decided to extend our stay by another 6 days.

Categories: 2014 - Oct/Nov South Australia trip, Travel Diary | Tags: 4wd, 4x4, Aboriginal, adventure, Ardrossan, australia, coffee, cool views, cool winds, explore, Fishing, mining, outback, Port Vincent, sailing, sandstone buildings, scenery, sea, sea view, South Australia, squid, Yorke | 2 Comments

Into the Yorke

Posted on October 14, 2014 by stevie

We left Clare for the Yorke Peninsula. The distance was only 180km. The first town we intended staying at was just ok so we went on and ended up at Point Turton. This is a charming place with a modern boat slipway and many new buildings. It is situated at the ankle of the Yorke Peninsula leg and foot, at Hardwick Bay. It is a gem of a town and we are relaxing here. The caravan park is situated in an abandoned quarry. It has been done up beautifully with grassy sites and is protected from the wind on the southwest due to the cliff side of the quarry which has been re-vegetated. These days it looks like an oasis in the landscape.

Point Turton Caravan Park

Point Turton Tavern

Point Turton boat launch

Seascape

The following day we explored the foot of the Yorke Peninsula. We drove to Corny Point in the west and from there 5km along a good gravel road to the Corny Point lighthouse. It is in a great position at the north-west of the foot. There is a good swell running and in contrast to the flat bay it has a reasonable depth of water and rocks. There should be some good rock fishing to be had.

Dune flowers above the sea at Corny Point

Old Schoolhouse from the 1850s

Seascape at Corny Point

We then drove through a number of great little towns like Marion Bay, Yorktown, Edithburgh, Stansbury and Port Vincent, all of them charming. Back at Point Turton I did some fishing on the pier and ended up with some squid that I have frozen and will use as bait for some fishing later in this trip.

Point Turton Pier

Categories: 2014 - Oct/Nov South Australia trip | Tags: 4wd, 4x4, adventure, australia, Boat launch, cottage, explore, historic buildings, off road, old buildings, old schoolhouse, outback, outback adventure, Point Turton, Touring, wild flowers, Yorke Peninsula | Leave a comment

Off to Clare Valley

Posted on October 11, 2014 by stevie

Old farmhouse amongst the vines

Packed up and drove some 400km to the Clare Valley to do some serious wine tasting. We have been to a number of wine regions before, but never to the Clare. We drove via Renmark and Kapunda, much of which follows the flow of the Murray. We were surprised by how fertile the region is with massive distances being cultivated and under vines, grains, fodder Lucerne, hay, citrus, olives and more. All this makes the countryside easy on the eye and a pleasure to drive through. From time to time, when we opened the windows, we were overwhelmed by the fragrant smell of the orange blossoms. We booked into the caravan park at Clare and settled down for the evening. The park is a bit pricy at $ 39 night for a normal powered site. There is also a minimum of facilities for a place of such size and expense.

Great South Australian stone building

For the next two days we set about exploring the region. I have been familiar with labels like ‘Annie’s Lane’ for many years, but there are many less known labels around. The area is green and beautiful and Clare is a great little town. There are visible remains from a prior German era with some buildings displaying their heritage, see pics. I loved the architecture and the look of the sandstone in the buildings. Everybody knows of Hahndorf, but it is clear that there are many more towns where buildings have a German flavour. We saw this in Blythe where one local church building was marked by the sign ‘Kirche’ (church).There are many lookout points that offer panoramic views from vantage points. Other little villages have arenas for ‘Pony Clubs’ and other rural pursuits. Every now and then one runs across charming old cottages in vineyards.
You can see below

Old German Church Building

You can see 4ever

Old Farm Building

Cut Barley

Categories: 2014 - Oct/Nov South Australia trip | Tags: 4wd, 4x4, adventure, Agriculture, AgriScnery, australia, Clare Valley, cottage, explore, Fishing, historic buildings, outback, scenery, Touring, Vineyards | Leave a comment

Lake Mungo

Posted on October 10, 2014 by stevie

I got up at 6am to get ready and drive 120km to Lake Mungo. This visit has been on my bucket list for almost 10 years now. Mungo is a site of substantial archaeological and anthropological significance in Australia. Just over 90 km of the road is graded and sand. The road is surprisingly good, so one can drive at a decent clip. Unlike major roads, there are no stop-offs or ‘Rest areas’ along gravel roads. So I was amused to see the following rest area that had been built by someone with a sense of humor, see pic.

Outback Rest area

Reminder of how easily Skids happen on gravel roads

This place (Mungo) is World Heritage listed as being the oldest burial place of modern human man outside Africa. Mungo man walked the shores of Mungo Lake before man roamed Europe. The remains of several skeletons have been radio carbon dated at 41000 years ago. This includes the now famous Mungo Man and Mungo Lady. It was special for me to have our aboriginal tour guide speak to us about the customs and survival skills of his ancestors. Some of these skills and practises have survived to this day and had been passed on from one generation to the next. The trip back to Mildura happened faster that I had expected.

Sunrise over Lake Mungo

Lake Mungo centre

Back in Mildura, after mucking about at and in the river we decided to find some pizza in town. Boy did we find a great pizza place. At the Grand Hotel they have the Pizza Café that simply makes the best pizza I have eaten for many a year. They have a few great local brews as well.

Categories: 2014 - Oct/Nov South Australia trip | Tags: 4 w driving, 4wd, 4x4, ancestry, anthropology, australia, australia aboriginal, australian icon, camping, explore, Humor, Lake Mungo, Mildura, Mildura Bound, outback, outback adventure, Travel | Leave a comment

Mildura

Posted on October 9, 2014 by stevie

We’re off to explore the Mildura town area. The walking track along the Murray River is well developed and passes through grassy parks with lawns and plants that are well watered. I guess you would expect this along the Murray. We were passed by a few paddle steamers that seemed to drag us into an era of 100 years ago.We ended up in town on Deakin Street where we came across an eating/coffee strip that offers al-fresco service. The coffee was great and we will have another one before we leave Mildura. The people at the table next to us also had a Spoodle so the dogs did some catching up as well.

The Boss Spoodle

Later in the afternoon we had a swim in the river next to our caravan park. Along the Murray there are pockets of clean beach sand on the banks. There are even flocks of seagulls. The only thing missing is the crashing of the surf, but we will get heaps of that when we hit the Yorke Peninsula later on this trip. In the evening we had a slow barbie at the caravan. The sizzling of the sausages and patties was interspersed by sips of beer and a yak with the ‘good lady’ and doleful looks from the pooches psyching me into giving them a sossy as well. All in all, a great day.

Center map

Categories: 2014 - Oct/Nov South Australia trip | Tags: 4wd, 4x4, adventure, australia, beer, camping, Caravan Park, explore, Fires, Mildura, mildura beaches, outback, paddle steamer, pizza, swim Murray | Leave a comment

Mildura Bound

Posted on October 8, 2014 by stevie

, We left Winterwood and traveled along the Calder highway to Mildura. 500 km later an exhausted family reached Mildura. The country side improves remarkably as you get nearer this lager rural center in NW Victoria. As you get closer to Mildura, the number of cultivated properties bursting with budding vines, mandarins and oranges, increases and the landscape greens up beautifully. Grain and fodder crops abound, all the way into South Australia.

We booked into the Apex caravan park which is situated in a National Park along the banks of the Murray River as it snakes lazily through the landscape. The park has good clean facilities and is run by friendly staff. For us it was great to understand that they are pet friendly as our two Spoodles, Zack and Lexie are on holiday as well. We could not miss the lunar eclipse that night. It was awesome, but hard to get a decent picture of as there was some cloud in the sky

Hole-in-one tree at Apex Caravan Park

Wheat-fields everywhere!
From Victoria to South Australia

Paddle Steamer on the Murray

Categories: 2014 - Oct/Nov South Australia trip | Tags: 4wd, 4x4, adventure, Apex caravan park, australia, camping, crops, explore, fields, grain, Mildura, murray, outback | 4 Comments