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Yorke Peninsula to Copper Coast to Crystal Creek

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Today – Wednesday, we moved on to complete the Yorke Peninsula.   The bad roads continued and then we entered the Copper Coast area.   Port Broughton had a brilliant water play park for the children at the end of the caravan park which was next to the beach (looked tidal) and a lot of the mansions on the beachfront looked similar to those you would find along the coastlines in Perth except here they had mega staircases to get up to the front of the house!...Heart attack material for sure! Lots of country towns we visited across the east are suffering like those we have visited in WA – the loss of banks, businesses and people means they lose the value in their homes and have no other option other than to stay, or leave, commit to work into their 70s or 80s to pay off another mortgage and hope they can survive it all. Lots of places were run by volunteers from trains to information centres and other sites including shops! Not everyone can live in cities, especially if
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Yorke Peninsula

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We left Gawler this morning to journey around the Yorke Peninsula and sadly we did not enjoy most of it in terms of scenery as the roads made you feel as if you had to hang on for dear life as if you were on a rodeo bronc and you certainly could not travel as fast as the road limit as the highways were atrocious in levels, potholes, cracks dips, bends or whatever . Each town we visited was beautifully presented, clean and many drivers waved which was great.  Most towns had limited evidence of life and we thought most of the exotic residences were vacant and were the holiday homes of SA people.   Not a lot of marine or bird life was evident and it reminded me of the days where cotton chemicals seemed to wipe insects and fauna from the area for decades!   Lots of signs about stopping mining and leaving the area to remain “natural beauty" although most of the land was cleared, windswept, stony what little number of trees were present were bent forward as badly as those in Eneabba
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VH to Cape Jervis to Gawler

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Left Victor Harbor today   and thought I should take a pic of the brilliant gear for the kids from water play, bouncing mat, tracks for riding and huge water slide.   There was also a games room to keep children entertained!   We wanted to visit Cape Jervis (as we were only 56km away) but we knew the weather forecast was not great which then influenced our decision not to go to Kangaroo Island, although we have been told by relatives and friends who have visited there that it is lovely!   It was a drive reminiscent of the mountains in Tasmania and the views.   We were a tad disappointed with the little hamlet as it was a bit like squatter fishermen’s houses to a large extent and it all appeared haphazard.   There were no welcoming signs to the town or anything that would encourage me to go and catch the ferry.   However, I had read somewhere just before our trip that they were offering free return fares over this winter period. As the weather was patchy, very windy and squally w
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Steam Train, Pt Elliot, Middleton & Goolwa

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Today, after we made the decision to stay another night as we were enjoying exploring Victor Harbor (albeit on foot) we made a judgement call (in between showers) to walk back into town and kill time before catching the Cockle Steam train to Goolwa.   Originally it was a service between Goolwa to Port Elliot originally in 1854 as a first line to the colony as an outlet for the Murray River trade(food produce, meat livestock etc)   in the 19 th Century. Port Elliott was a bad choice due to lack of shelter, shallow anchorage meant seven shipwrecks between 1853 and 1864.   The railway was extended to Strathalbyn to Adelaide and later to Victor Harbor.   You can catch the train from Mt Barker for the day and catch the train back at around four. It was amazing to see how many people caught the train with us and how many carriages there were.   It was also a romantically nostalgic thing for passersby, kids playing near the line and people w
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Victor Harbor

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We have spent our first ever night and day so far on the Fleurieu Peninsular in Victor Harbor and we have fallen in love with the place.   It is very similar to Albany in position, climate, beaches, feel and vibe without the ANZAC museum and mountain views of the ocean, but it is trendier, has heaps of businesses, tourism aspects and historical events re-enacted including the horse drawn tram, just as it occurred in the early settlement days, where you can purchase a ride to the granite island where there are lots of sculptures.   We have purchase tickets for the Cockle train to Goolwa tomorrow which does the return trip by steam!     The caravan park is quite large and no longer a Top Tourist park but we did not know til we arrived! We will travel around the peninsular on Monday and probably head to Mt Barker.
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