Trains, trams and another birthday on the road
We were quite sad to leave the comforts of Southend with its camp kitchen, tv and couches, but it was time to move on as we make our way further into South Australia, this time to Port Elliot on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
We chose the showgrounds for our next stay and it proved to be a popular spot. As we find with many places we go we’re often surrounded by caravans and are the only camper trailer, and here we found that as well. We strategically chose a spot while looking at the wind forecast on BOM (a necessity for this trip unfortunately!), and while it was predicted to be windy most of the time, it was mostly coming from the same direction so we set up accordingly.
Port Elliot is a nice little town, which we spent an afternoon wandering around, but Victor Harbor, just down the road is a bit bigger and we found a little more interesting. Everything we needed was pretty easy to find there, and we’d chosen this location with that in mind as we knew we needed to do a bit of birthday shopping.
After the greenery of Victoria, the dryness of South Australia is taking a bit of getting used to. It still rains of course (we’re here after all), but clearly not as much as the whole peninsula was quite dry. We took a spin down to Cape Jervis and watched the ferry to Kangaroo Island leave while we had our picnic lunch. It’s a 45-minute ride on the ferry over to the island on a vehicle barge. Long ago we discounted going to Kangaroo Island because it would cost us $800 return for the ferry which is pretty steep (apparently one of the most expensive ferry rides in the world based on distance). To compare, usually when we go to North Stradbroke Island (albeit without a trailer), that 45 minute trip on a very similar looking barge costs around $180 return.
Anyway, we could see that Kangaroo Island looked just as dry as where we were standing so didn’t feel too hard done by not going there.
On another day we decided to catch the steam train from Victor Harbor to Goolwa, about a half hour trip. The kids have been on a steam train before in NZ but I don’t think they remembered it. I took them one way while Jim drove to pick us up. From Goolwa it was a short drive out to the mouth of the Murray River. This river has featured in much of our trip so far, right back to week one in fact, so it was great to say goodbye to it at its mouth.
While we waited for the train ride back which Jim and the kids took this time while I drove, we stopped in for a couple of the local beers. Of course, it was windy and cold, so we didn’t need much encouragement to get out of the elements anyway.
As if steam trains aren’t exciting enough, on another day we took a ride on Australia’s only horse drawn tram. It only takes about 15 minutes from Victor Harbor out to Granite Island, but that’s probably far enough for the poor horse to have to pull the tram, and all of us. It then turns around and comes back, but we got off, had a quick look from the island’s lookout then walked the 600 metres or so back across the bridge to the mainland.
I also had to visit the dentist in Victor Harbor. After trying a few places to find somewhere that both was in the right spot and available I’d finally managed to land an appointment. I’m not usually a fan of the dentist, but these guys were fantastic and sorted me out with all the things I needed for both my annual check and the issue I was having with one of my teeth. Highly recommend if you’re ever in need of a dentist in Victor Harbor (Encounter Bay Dental).
On this same day, Jim drove up to Mount Barker, to one of the regional offices of his old work. We’ve been slowly ordering and sending supplies there as things broke, and had a couple of birthday presents to pick up so he went up there to collect them all. We now once again have working struts on the back of the ute so I don’t crack my head all the time, and I have a new second screen which is already improving my productivity. We also ordered about 20 Anderson plugs because we seem to go through a lot of those.
While Jim was up there, I took the kids to the “world famous” Port Elliot bakery (pretty sure every town has a “world famous” bakery or “world’s best pie/vanilla slice/lamington…”). We each had a ridiculously large donut (or part of one, saving the rest for later), and I bought the monthly special “Vietnamese Coffee donut” for Jim which he kindly shared with me that evening for dessert.
Finally though, the main event had arrived. Heidi’s 10th birthday. Her choice had been sushi, and I thought I’d nailed it by researching where we could go in Victor Harbor, but on closer inspection it was just one of those shopping centre sushi joints, not a sushi train restaurant. So the next closest option was about 50 minutes away, halfway to Adelaide. It was worth the drive though as the sushi there was some of the best we’ve ever had. Jim and I had our fill of octopus, eel, kingfish, prawn, duck etc, while Heidi had her favourites (tuna and avocado and salmon and avocado). Hamish was a trooper and while disappointed that he couldn’t just order a bowl of plain rice, he could have deep fried calamari and some spring rolls – two things that he actually will eat that have a modicum of nutritional value.
When we had Hamish’s birthday on the road we were staying with friends in Hobart so had use of their oven to whip up a birthday cake. No such luck for Heidi so Jim selected a rainbow cake from Woolies, and it was so loaded with sugar it nearly killed me. It didn’t seem to bother anyone else though so I had one piece and then they finished it off over the course of the next couple of days.
Because we don’t have a lot of space, Heidi’s presents were mostly small and practical, although we did get her a snazzy new bike (which we had to hide in the back of the ute for four days). That meant we also had to go to the dump to get rid of her old one as we don’t have room to carry more than three bikes.
That was pretty much it for our stay in Port Elliot. We almost completely packed up the night before we left as the next day we had a 4.5 hour drive, through Adelaide and out the other side, and down the Yorke Peninsula to our next stop, Daly Heads.
