South Australia: Part 1

As we left Adelaide and headed towards less built up areas once again we made a quick pitstop at Belair National Park.

We’ve found North Adelaide, where we’ve stayed over the last few days, to be really green and full of life. The national park was a perfect example of how lush the area was.

On our way round we found a play park and decided to put a pause on the walk in favour for returning to childlike roots.

For me though, the most impressive part of our stop in the play park was when I managed to (for the first time in probably 15years) complete the monkey bars!

Having spent most of my childhood climbing anything I could, it was rather exciting to manage just a tiny part of that again.

Leaving the park behind we headed further south towards the coast once more and were treated to some pretty fantastic views on our journey!

Our initial idea of camping on the coast near Cape Jervis fell through when the campsite was busier than we had hoped and so we decided to move further along the coast snd explore more east.

On our travels we managed to make a wrong turn and were faced with some of the steepest roads we had come across.

After we managed to find our way back onto a sealed, and less vertical road, we headed further along to Hindmarsh Island at the mouth of the Murray River.

Upon arrival and check in, it became quickly apparent that we had made the right choice in stop for the evening when we were presented with a small surprise.

When we eventually managed to pull ourselves away from the Kangaroo Jumper we decided to walk it off and explore some of the waterfront next to the campsite.

We were rather taken with the small areas of manicured land in between wilder grass along the waterline.

The walk did a good job of putting our feet back on the ground again and also building up our appetite and so next on the agenda was dinner!

After dinner we still had a little light left and so, upon the recommendation of the locals, we took the short drive to the mouth of the Murray River.

Interestingly the mouth of the river is quite mobile having only been in its current place for a few thousand years. It is also threatening to close due to over extraction of water from farms, towns and businesses all the way along the river and so two ships have been posted at the river mouth to constantly dredge the sand from the mouth of the river.

Heading home we felt well ready for a good nights sleep.

The next day we travelled further along the coast to Meningie and Lake Albert. On our way we decided to make a couple of stops and make the most of the flexibility having our own car provides.

Murray Bridge was between our A and B for the day and so we took a quick detour into the town and enjoyed a walk along the riverside.

After a while of some walking the path seemed to peter out a bit as nature began to take over again.

After a while we came to the end of the line, literally, and so turned around and headed back to the car for a spot of lunch and to continue our journey.

One last surprise stop was by a salt flats. We had driven passed a lot of these on our journeys across and this one had a little pullover spot that allowed us to explore further.

We finally reached our camping spot for the evening and found a spot right next to the calm lake.

We had arrived here fairly early, for us anyway, and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and trying our best to avoid the ants nests that seemed to span the entire site.

The next day the Northern wind had picked up, which in southern Australia terms means its windy but very very hot. The lack of air conditioning in our Scandinavian car meant none of us were having a fantastic time. So we decided to take a break by taking a walk at one of the crossings onto Coorong National Park.

We parked the car in what little shade we could find and embarked upon the short 1.4km walk to the beach. That’d be a nice relaxing stretch of the legs right? Wrong!

What felt like hours but may have only been 5minutes later we were nearly out of water, feeling very hot and getting really tired with flies that don’t respect your personal space. However we could hear the sea and the thought of getting to dip our toes in and cool off was enough to keep us going.

After spending some time cooling off and enjoying the spoils of our efforts (and wishing we could drink sea water) it was time to head back to the car. We decided the best course of action would be to take the more direct 4×4 track back to the car park. This made the walk back quicker but still just as hot.

We were all happy to be reunited when we reached the car (and our huge stash of water) and so we hit the road once more with the hairdryer heat of the wind following.

I was researching the next place to stop when I discovered the weather at our next stop, not more than 30 minutes drive away was telling us it was about 17 degrees cooler. We were laughing at the possibility as we were driving when suddenly and within about 1km the temperature really did drop to a much cooler 25degrees!

We arrived in Kingston SE and enjoyed a lovely lunch at a little cafe/soft furnishing store before finding our campsite. Tonight’s stop came complete with beachside spots, a lovely little camp kitchen and lovely camp staff. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the complementary wifi!

As the sun began to set we took a walk along the beach and were provided with breathtaking views.

As the light faded, we headed back to our campsite. Fulfilled from another day and ready to rest for the last stretch of our roadtrip.

Hatti x