Great Ocean Rd and Aire River

This is written 10 years later -  mainly with the thought that we could print a hard copy as a possibly less nebulous record of our trip than the online one held by google.

 Driving on from the Coorong and into Victoria, the next memorable feature was the Great Ocean Rd. The holiday break was now in full swing and any scenic feature more crowded.

From Great Ocean Road

We stopped and joined the throng viewing the undeniably spectacular coastal scenery, but were put off by the crowds and the increasing traffic on the road.

That night we made it to the Aire River in the Otways. This is a free camp ground in a beautiful location and so was very crowded. Remarkably there was a koala sitting in a tree just near the camp ground.

We set up camp and the boys and next day the boys and I headed upstream for a spot of trout fishing. Who would have thought? It was a lovely spot and Bro did in fact manage to hook a tiny trout.

That afternoon we heard there were salmon running on the beach and sure enough we were soon hauling in mostly smallish Australian Salmon. Coming back from the beach there were 4WDs taking on steep tracks in the sand hills. We had hear d that the flooding along the Murray River had driven many campers to the coast and that night, as the evening progressed, a group from a 4WD club called Mud Sweat and Beers grew increasingly loud in the otherwise silent camp. Sometime around 1am Maggie and I gathered up all our courage, walked over to their camp and asked them to turn the music off. To our surprise they complied. However it was probably one of the least comfortable moments of our trip.

The Coorong

We didn't, as one larrikin suggested, walk home from Kangaroo Island. I guess that's what you get for leaving the posting so late. In fact we got a nice early ferry and were able to drive all the way to Long Point on the Coorong, crossing the Murray by punt at Wellington.

From The Coorong

Long Point was un-signposted, difficult to find, and once found, fairly windswept and uninviting. we stayed the night and pushed on, stopping to view some of the pelican nesting Islands from the bird hide at Policeman's point.

From The Coorong

The photo shows pelicans which have just left a breeding island leaving downwind on the 150 odd km round trip to the feeding grounds near the barrages between Lake Alexandrina and the Coorong. If you get out your magnifying glass, you can also see a line of hundreds of pelicans flying just above the water at the end of the upwind leg back to the islands. That night we camped at 42 mile crossing, the crossing being across the Coorong to the ocean beach. In the afternoon, a steady stream of 4WDs drove past on the track to the beach. Most didn't return till next day after a windy probably unrewarding night spent trying to catch a monster Mulloway. I tried for some salmon, but had no success either.
That night we had to tick off a campload of Venturers (grownup? scouts) for playing loud music in a national park campsite "Aww, but it's the last night of our trip". At least they turned it off at 10.30pm.

Next day we kept driving along beside the Coorong, stopping to walk to an historic site where wells had been built to support Chinese immigrants walking from South Australia to Victorian gold fields because South Australia did not have the large tax on chinese immigrants that Victoria had. 

Kangaroo Island

Kangaroo Island
23 dec to 3 january
The battery couldn't start the car when we went to leave Cobblers Hill camp ground in Deep Creek Conservation Park and I didn't like the idea of having to push start the car when it came time to disembark from the ferry to Kangaroo Island, so we drove back to Yankalilla and bought a new one.
Finally at the ferry terminal, we pulled up beside my brother Peter with wife Polly and their children, Reuben, Katherine and Jessie. The big excitement for our three kids however, was that they had brought our dog, Cypress. Also waiting for the same ferry were Polly's Parents, Leo and Ellie, whose shack we were going to stay in, Polly's sister Diana with husband Peter and son Dan, who were staying next door and Peter and Polly's friends Greg and Jenny with their two kids.
The ferry trip takes about 45 minutes and gets a bit rough sometimes but not for us.

From Kangaroo Island

Then there was another half hour driving to Leo and Elle's shack in the sleepy hamlet of American River.
That night, the fishing fest began with a bit of jigging for squid from the jetty (unsuccessful). From then on it was almost all successful. The lucky chosen few would drive down to the boat ramp with Leo for a morning or a day fishing on the American River.

From Kangaroo Island

Most days they would come back with about 10kgs of fish – Tommie Rough and salmon trout caught on lures in the channel, King George whiting from sand patches amongst the weed, squid (which mostly got used for bait), and snook caught on lures trolled across Leo's special snook spot.

From Kangaroo Island

Even Christmas and new year couldn't stop the fishing. Then there were the trips to catch Garfish on still nights with spotlights and nets. With a ''Batter'' on either side wielding a net and a spotlight or two waving on each side, we attempted to scoop up the unsuspecting garfish swimming on the surface in the night. One night yielded 83 garfish – a delicious feast.

From Kangaroo Island

Of course all these fish needed to be cleaned but Leo was, of necessity, very fast at filleting and he soon taught us a few tricks. After a couple of days, we also assembled his folding boat so there were two boats out fishing. One day yielded 31 whiting 5 snook, a squid and a few salmon trout. Another day we got 18 squid, 8 whiting and 2 snook. There were 16 people for dinner most nights but there was always much more fish than we could eat and the store in the freezer kept growing.

It wasn't all about fishing though. We all made the 2 hour walk out to ballast head to search for little penguin chicks in the burrows. Most of the burrows were empty but about 10 chicks were found.

From Kangaroo Island

On another day, we drove to Pennington Bay for a surf. We also made the long drive to the other end of the Island to see the Australian fur seals at seal bay

From Kangaroo Island

and the New Zealand Fur Seals at Admirals Arch. Stopping off at Remarkable Rocks, we completed the main tourist stops of KI.

From Kangaroo Island

Being the festive season, there was lots of eating and drinking and singing. Also Millie and Katherine sewed their own party dresses with the help of Polly and Ellie. I was pleased to be able to fix up the navigation lights and radio on Leo's boat, and to do some paving out the back. Probably the most memorable part of the trip was the wonderful generosity of Leo and Elle, who served up magnificent meals each day for up to 21 people.

From Kangaroo Island

It was with some regret that we came suddenly to the end of our stay, packed up our camper trailer the night before and got up at 5.30am to drive to the ferry back to the mainland.

Adelaide and Deep Creek Conservation Park

Adelaide and Blowhole Beach
22 Dec to 2 January

As we entered Adelaide, apart from navigating our way to the Caravan Park, I was also on the lookout for a 4WD place to buy a new VSR (see last post). So when I saw a sign ''dual battery specialist” I didn't hesitate to swing out of the peak hour traffic and into the small yard. On hearing my problem, the proprietor began a long story with pictures, the short version being that the type of controller I was using was no good and ruined batteries and that I should buy a $500 device he stocks which is fantastic. I was convinced, but also thought it unlikely the next buyer of Twiggy will be. Anyway he agreed to install it for a minimal cost so we proceeded to operate. Unfortunately the fantastic device, once installed an hour later, didn't work. Another 2 hours on and two more fantastic devices tried and still no joy so we raced off to try to check in to the caravan park before the office closed, with the non-working device on board but not paid for, and a promise we'd sort it out in the morning. Of course it was a simple wiring mistake and the specialist rang up to tell me so while I started cooking dinner in the dark and the boys put up the tent.
Next morning we picked up the girls from the nearby airport, did our shopping and were looking forward to a relaxing day when we found out that the caravan park had put us on a site where we couldn't extend. Not feeling like packing up just to move site, we had a frantic morning getting everything done and packing up to leave. Maggie and the kids packed up while I drove back to the dual battery specialist to have the magic device correctly wired and to pay up. All done, we picked up few a few more supplies and wended our way south out of the city, down the Fleurieau Penninsula to Deep Creek National Park.
After pitching our first camp as a reassembled family on cobblers hill, we drove the 4wd track down to blowhole beach.

From Blowhole Beach

Back at camp, Bro got relegated to the floor and Fabe had to get used to sharing the floor with his siblings.

Innes National Park

Innes National Park
17 – 20 December

Innes National Park is on the tip of the Yorke Peninsula West of Adelaide, and that was all we knew about it, but the lady in the tourist information at Port Broughton said it was lovely. Yes, Port Broughton had to be visited, although the town is named after a different Broughton from our Bro's direct ancestor.

From Spencer Gulf

Our recent string of one night camps was designed to allow us to stop in one place until it was time to pick up Maggie and Millie from Adelaide and Innes National Park was the chosen place. We looped right around the park checking out most of the camps until we reached Browns Beach at the very end of the road. Backed by a large sand dune and situated behind a famous salmon beach, it clinched the deal by being empty save for one campervan. We managed to tuck our camper trailer in between two low Mallee eucalyptus and bunkered down against the blustery wind.

From Innes National park

For the next couple of days, the cruise degenerated into a fishing camp as the weather degenerated into 60kph wind and rain. Firstly an unrewarded effort from the beach the first night, and again next morning but later that day we got a feed of herring from Stenhouse Bay Jetty, teaching the SA locals the WA technique of catching them on a piece of drinking straw.

From Innes National park

The following morning Fabian caught a salmon on a lure from Browns beach and I got a couple of nice squid on Marion Bay jetty. On the next couple of mornings Bro and I also managed to land a couple of Salmon.

From Innes National park

We did take a couple of bushwalks, but mostly it was about the fishing.
After a couple of days, I was surprised to find the car starter battery flat when we went to leave. Luckily the boys were able to get twiggy moving at the snails pace required to successfully bump start it. I thought I must have flattened it by accidentally leaving it connected to the fridge but when it repeatedly failed to start the car after longish drives, I realized something was wrong. A bit of research with the current meter revealed the VSR (the black box which should disconnect the starter battery from all the other things which use power) wasn't working. Then to add insult to injury, I managed to run over the solar panel as we were trying to push start the car on another day.

Whyalla, Fitzgerald Bay, Chinaman Creek

Whyalla, Fitzgerald Bay, Chinaman Creek
14 – 16 December

From Spencer Gulf

After we saw Asher off on the 6am bus to Adelaide, I paid up for a second night at the Caravan Park and set about camp duties – two loads of washing, shopping, and servicing the car. I had notbbeen able to find a mechanic who could service of Twiggy that week, but the Caravan Park Manager agreed to let me use his yard (you can't do mechanical work in caravan parks). I went and got new air, fuel and oil filters, engine oil, a few tools and a sump oil catcher and set about the service. A few hours later, the job was done, and the Manager rewarded with beer and the sump oil catcher to keep. It was free to dispose of the used oil at the local rubbish tip, but I had to pay $1 to tip the empty plastic container I took the oil in! Meanwhile the boys had fun bouncing on the huge air balloon in the playground and riding trikes for which the manager waived the usual hire fee. Although I had paid up for another night, there seemed little point staying in Whyalla as we had done all we needed to do, and were keen to keep moving. Well, except that Bro was keen to have a go at raking for crabs. So we hired some crab rakes (free again) and Bro headed out onto the Whyalla mud while Fabe and I packed up.

From Spencer Gulf

Eventually we all went out and managed to rake up some crabs but even the biggest was just under legal size.

In the late afternoon we drove up to Point Lowly which is a place you can catch snapper from land and is the breeding ground of giant cuttle fish. We were keen to catch snapper but the free camping area was pretty plain and already held a few campers. Heading further up, we checked out a couple of camps at Fitzgerald Bay and found a spot by ourselves on the edge of the bay. By ourselves, that is, until another cruiser and camper trailer arrived. They politely came and inquired if we minded them camping near us and weren't put off by the threat of some trumpet music in the evening. The next carload who arrived even later managed no such niceties and after spending an hour trying and failing to erect first a tent, and then a tarp in the failing light, all six of them piled into their troop carrier for what must have been a fairly uncomfortable night. At least they turned their music off before midnight. The wind was less merciful and kept our tent flapping all night.

Next morning, I was surprised by 4 claws waving at me as I passed our wash basin. The polite campers had departed early and left us the crabs they caught last night!

From Spencer Gulf

We kept the crabs in a bucket in the car and headed off around the Spencer Gulf, through the surprisingly pleasant Port Augusta, and out by mistake past Wilmington thinking we were heading for the campground of Mount Remarkable National Park. Realising our mistake, we backtracked to Wilmington and paid $4 to visit the Toy Museum, the creation of a man who appears to have managed to play with toys (and collect them) for his whole life. On a side track to Hancock's Lookout, we spotted some goannas apparently fighting beside the road. After watching them for a while, we realised it was more like nuptial cuddling.

From Spencer Gulf

Always keen for a fish, we dropped in on Chinaman's Creek which we had been told by a port Augusta Local was a place you could catch King George Whiting. It was deserted but nice enough, and we discovered had a basic camping area. Good enough for us, and while the wind blew and no fish edible fish were caught, there was noone around to disturb with the trumpet playing.

Coffin Bay NP

Coffin Bay
10-12 December

There was a general feeling amongst the troops of wanting to stay put somewhere for a while and Wangi Beach Camp at Coffin Bay National Park looked like the place it would be. We found a secluded spot at the opposite end of the beach from the only other campers and the boys set up camp while I cooked dinner. Wangi Bay itself is small and shallow but the boys managed to wade out and have a swim anyway next morning. Then some volunteer bush regenerators turned up and commenced to cut down all the brightly flowering yellow daisies around camp. When they left after a couple of hours, we continued where they left off removing every plant we could find around the camping area.

From coffin bay NP

That took up most of the rest of the day, although we found time for a short fish from the Coffin Bay Jetty late in the afternoon as showers swept across the bay. I caught a whiting and Bro caught a couple of herring (called Tommy Roughs in South Australia) but that was all.
Next day, Asher drove twiggy up the 4WD track to 7 mile beach as we had heard it was a good place to fish for whiting. Bro insisted we stop at  a nice sand dune along the way.

From coffin bay NP

The boys each caught another whiting as well as some Salmon which we erroneously thought were undersize and threw back. Still, we were able to have a feed of fresh fish that night.
On the way out, we visited Almonta beach where Fabian and Asher enjoyed a body surf in the biggish waves while Bro and I watched from the sand dune.

From coffin bay NP

Then it was off to Whyalla so we could get Asher on the 6am bus to Adelaide the nest morning.