YORKE PENINSULA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

From Adelaide we drove to Port Wakefield and pulled up at a little area beside the local caravan park for lunch. It was difficult to see where the “port” was as the only area of water we could see was a small lagoon which had been created by building a concrete wall across the local creek. The caravan park seemed popular though and the bowls club was right across the road. We also noticed that there were no less than four bakeries in town. Obviously everyone travelling to and from Adelaide stops in Port Wakefield for lunch.

Since the folks who bought our old Bushtracker lived in Kadina, we decided to go straight there so that we could get the local rundown on the best spots to visit on the Peninsula. Neil and Sue made us feel right at home and straight away, John was off down past Moonta catching crabs using an unusual rake to scoop the up from the shallows. They got a lovely lot of crabs so of course chilli crab was on the menu.

We decided to travel down the western side of the peninsula first and arrived at Moonta in time to try one of their famous Cornish pasties at the Cornish Country Kitchen. The pasties were delicious but the PR skills of the lady serving us left a lot to be desired. We have since heard of other encounters with the same lady which reinforced our opinion. Don’t let her put you off the pasties though. Moonta is full of Cornish history as many miners came to the area in the 1860’s to work the nearby copper mines. Moonta is famous for the Kernewek Lowender, the world’s largest Cornish Festival which is held every second year in May. And yes it’s on this year.

From Moonta we drove south to Maitland and Minlaton. Driving through this area, one gets the impression that Yorke Peninsula is just one huge wheat field. Everywhere you look, are huge expanses of wheat/barley.

Seeing this smoke in the distance, we hoped it wasn't near where
we were headed. We had had enough of fires in Tassie!

Every field has its own rock pile – the farmers here must hate rocks. However, they have certainly learned to put them to good use. It is not unusual to see long stretches of rock wall and every farm seems to have an old fallen down house built from stones nestled amongst the many grain silos. You will also come across the ruins of many lime kilns on the Peninsula, which provided the lime to construct the stone buildings. I was also quite taken by the number of old wooden-wheeled wagons which people had placed at the entrances to their farms. Judging by the excellent condition of these wagons, there mustn’t be a white ant problem down here.

One of the many impressive rock walls we saw.

Renovater's delight!

There are several camps just to the south of Moonta but John had seen them when they went crabbing and they were pretty ordinary – unless you want to chase crabs of course. We were told Port Rickaby is nice but the camp there is a caravan park so we continued on to Warooka and then headed north-east to Point Turton, which was a surprise to us with lots of brand new houses along the beachfront. The road then turns to dirt but it is not rough and it follows the coastline on a very scenic drive. There are only a couple of camp spots along the top of the 'boot' which is Yorke Peninsula and most are either on rocky coastline or are back up off the beach.

Coastline along the top of "The Boot".

 

At Corny Point we stopped to have a quick look at the lighthouse and the lovely view east and south.

 

Driving south again the road turns east again at Point Annie and meets the main road to Marion Bay. All of the camping spots along this road are well signposted so it was easy for us to find the turnoff to Gleesons Landing where we ended up spending three lovely nights. What a glorious spot.



Gleesons Landing

I noticed these unusual native grasses used very effectively
in landscaping down here.

This lovely beach is just over the headland and accessible via steps at this end.

If the weather is good then the headland is great to pick up a breeze but if it gets windy, which it did on our second day you can move down beside the beach where there is a bit more shelter. There are toilets and bins there if you need them and it is cheap at $10 a night or $35 a week. That $35 covers you for any seven nights in any of the council run camping reserves on the southern peninsula.

Leo loved it at Gleesons too!



 

The bay at Gleesons Landing is part of a lobster breeding reserve but you can go just over the headland if you want to dive for crays, or put pots in if you have a boat. Most of the other campers there were locals from other parts of the peninsula and they were all chasing crays as well at the lovely snapper which you can catch down here. John managed to get a nice cray for us as well as a couple of black lipped abalone, so we felt pretty spoilt that night as we sat down to crayfish, crab and abalone for dinner.

The stretch of beach in front of our camp was a haven for several types of waterbirds so of course I spent a lot of time birdwatching. I was lucky enough to see red-necked stint, banded lapwings, red-capped and grey plovers, terns, pied oystercatchers as well as ruddy turnstones which gave me a real thrill as I hadn’t expected them here. There was also a large flock of chestnut teal and two resident pelicans which appeared as soon as anyone looked like they might be cleaning fish etc.

 

The sunsets here were absolutely stunning and again I just couldn’t stop grabbing for the camera. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Gleesons Landing. It will be top of our list if we ever return to this area.

I first saw these strange fluffy seeds on the Great Ocean Road. Don't know that tree they come from. Reminds me of the kapok from the flowers which are the floral emblem back in Bowen.

Can you spot the little white snails on the leaves? They are
everywhere on the Peninsula as well as up near Adelaide. At the
Seppelts winery we were told they can become so prolific that the
top of the grape vats were saw can be totally white!

From Gleesons we went down to Marion Bay and parked the van in a vacant block beside our friends’ beach shack so that we could leave Leo there and take a drive into Innes National Park. There are plenty of camps in there but being National Park most are well back from the beaches. However, the park itself has some lovely scenery and many areas of interest so it is well worth making the effort to go in.

The jetty at Stenhouse Bay was once used to ship ore.
It now forms part of Innes National Park.

This salt lake in the park had little salt pillars all around the waters edge.

After Marion Bay we set off across the southern end of the peninsula along the coastal road which is all dirt but again well formed. We decided not to go into Butler’s Beach even though we are told it is a very nice spot. At $22 a night we thought it a bit expensive especially since you have to drive back to the homestead to have a shower.

The rugged coastline on the southern side of the Peninsula.

We visited most of the other camps along this road but the beaches were generally uninspiring until you get to Troubridge where there are some nice camps nestled in behind the beach. You also have brilliant views from Troubridge Hill and drive right past Wattle Point Wind Farm. One thing I did notice along this road was the abundance of bird-life. So if birds are your thing you would enjoy this area.

The unusual red brick lighthouse at Troubridge Hill.

One of the many old deserted houses.

Arriving at Edithburgh, we were really happy to discover an easily accessible water tap on the foreshore not far from the local jetty, so we stopped for a bit to hose the fine white chalky road dust off the car and van. If you need to top up water tanks, this would be an ideal place to do it. The town itself is very picturesque and it was obvious from all the ink stains that there were plenty of squid to be caught from the jetty. There was also a great walking track running right along the foreshore so I took the opportunity to take Leo for a walk while John was busy.

That night we pulled in at Port Julia Oval which is a very pleasant camping spot maintained by a local community group. Again it was very reasonably priced at $7 a night with toilets and plenty of shady trees about. I spent a lovely morning strolling along the foreshore and the bushy residential area where I saw at least 10 different species of birds.

After Port Julia we headed up to Ardrossan and then inland through Arthurton back to Kadina and out to Wallaroo where we spent two days at the caravan park near the SeaSA ferry terminal so that John could do some testing on our van batteries which didn’t seem to be holding a full charge. Wallaroo is a lovely old town. It is like the whole town is one big museum. Almost all of the buildings are very old but still being utilised. I really enjoyed a leisurely stroll up the main street to the Shire Hall and back toward the huge silos which store the grain which is shipped from the port. The ferry operates across Spencer Gulf to Lucky Bay but at $400 one way it is hardly something we would contemplate unless we were in an awful hurry.

A ship loads grain at Wallaroo harbour.

We then spent three more really enjoyable days in Kadina with Neil and Sue who have now been entered on our list of wonderful new friends, along with Kim, Rob and Angie. Kim and Rob are two  Kadina locals who we just happened to meet at the pub in Dunalley, Tasmania. John managed to drain all of the batteries down and recharge them twice, which brought them back up to speed. Apparently if you are too kind to these batteries, which John was, they develop a “memory” and stop fully recharging. While in Kadina the boys also headed out hunting crab again. They got a lovely lot of crabs so we had crab soufflé for dinner (thanks Joel) and then cleaned the rest and pickled them in vinegar. It will be interesting to taste the results.

 

Crab souffle complients of Joel at right.

It was a real treat for us too when Neil took us for a drag in his lovely old Ford sports car. What a hoot it was cruising down to the fish & chip café at Wallaroo. The fish & chips were great too, eaten overlooking the harbour. We were rather sad to leave Kadina and hopefully will be able to repay the hospitality to all in the near future up in North Queensland.



There were ten of these little New Holland Honeyeaters taking a dip in the garden pond. Too cute!



How cool is this car?

On our way north to Port Augusta, we took a side track into the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, turning east at Port Germein and heading up through Port Germein Gorge.

The little town of Port Germein boasts the longest wooden jetty in Australia. It's not hard to work out why it needed to be.

The beacon light looked pretty ancient. Don't knnow if it is still used.

We were surprised to see Broome Pearling's name down here.

Neil had advised us to take this much more scenic route. The coastal road is rather flat and featureless but there were some lovely vistas across the wheat fields.

 

Again there were also some amazing old buildings!

We were going to stop overnight at the showgrounds at Melrose but they didn’t look too flash. There is a stand of gnarly-trunked old gum trees though just north of the town which is quite extraordinary.

 

Artificially contoured hills in the southern Flinders Ranges.
The ridges prevent erosion in heavy rains.

We continued on through Wilmington, where we saw two huge trees absolutely covered with little corellas. I hadn’t seen anything like it since our trip up through the Gulf and these were right in the middle of town. They must drive the locals crazy.
 

We decided to take a punt and go off the beaten track to the camp at Hancock’s Lookout, 13 klms west of Wilmington. It was a very good decision. The view from the Lookout was spectacular. What a wonderful spot to camp for the night. We could see all the way to the north of Spencer Gulf to Port Augusta, south to Port Pirie and right across the Gulf to Whyalla.  They say that on a clear day you can see right out to Iron Knob. What a view!

I would recommend this drive to anyone coming from the east to Port Augusta. The road down through Horrocks Pass would be awesome on a bike and there are magnificent old gum trees all along the route. It is easy to see why so many landscape artists fall in love with the area.



Looking back to the ranges as you come down toward Port Augusta.