Holidaying With Friends (part one)

Hi There !!

We have just returned from a wonderful 10 days away, and I thought I might share what we have been up to, along with quite a few photos (I guess if you click on any photo, it will enlarge it to view it better) ... here goes ...

We left home at 4.30am on Friday 30th September (we, being Connie, Baron and Elisabeth), along with our dear friends, Jack and Melinda.  We were heading to South Australia to spend a week at a resort in Goolwa, which is near the mouth of the mighty Murray River.

The scenery along the way was beautiful, as always (Australia is such an amazing country, there is rarely a place where you cannot find something of beauty or interest !).

On driving near Horsham, near the Grampians, in Victoria, we passed by a wind farm in the distance.  These ginormous windmills have fascinated me for quite some time.

After a couple of stops for toilet breaks, morning tea and lunch, we arrived at our resort, the Marine Cove Resort, in Goolwa around 3pm, where we unpacked, relaxed briefly, then headed into the shops to do a bit of food shopping, and got some fish and chips for dinner.

View from our Balcony, Unit 4, overlooking the resort

Next morning, we decided to explore the local area, starting with Goolwa Wharf.  There is much history there, and some interesting vessels.

 

We then headed over to Hindmarsh Island, which used to be serviced by a ferry, but now has a wonderful bridge.

We heading across the island, searching for a view of the Mouth of the Murray River ... where it reaches the sea ... it seems there was a better view from another area, but this is the view we got !!

  

 Jack, Baron, Melinda and Elisabeth in front of the Mouth of the Murray

After exploring the island awhile, we decided to head out to Victor Harbour, which is a coastal town on the South Australian Fleurieu Peninsula.  It is a pretty town, with a horse drawn tram, which usually takes people out to Granite Island ... unfortunately for us, due to building works, the tram was out of action.

We went for a drive out to The Bluff, a hill not far out of Victor Harbour.

  

View from the top, looking down at our cars

  

View of the coastline from The Bluff

 

From there, we went to Blowhole Beach, in one of the National Parks.

  

Next day, the 2nd October, we headed off into the Adelaide Hills, to a lovely little town called Hahndorf.  Once again, a town with lots of history, and a town with a big German heritage.  One of the pubs was celebrating Oktoberfest, and there was a band playing "oom-pa-pa" music.  We explored all the shops, spent a bit of money, took a few photos.

  

  

From there we drove on to the Toy Factory, which has a wildlife park attached.

  

Our next 4WD and caravan !?!

 

We detoured via a Cheese Factory, and a Chocolate Factory, before heading into the National Motor Museum.  We only had an hour before it closed, so made our way through quite quickly.  As is the norm, Baron took lots of photos of cars and motorbikes ... I only took a couple.  The following car really took my fancy.

Then we headed home for dinner, and some relaxation time !!

The next day, Monday, we had an early start for a drive down to Cape Jervis to catch the ferry over to Kangaroo Island.  It is a 45 minute ferry ride, and there was a bit of swell, which I just thought was great fun !!

Our first stop on the island, after the obligatory Visitors Information Centre (these are great places, with loads of free brochures, and the staff are usually a wealth of information), we headed over to Cape Willoughby, where there is a beautiful lighthouse.

Whilst at Cape Willoughby, we also explored the cliffs.  Unfortunately, I had a bit of a mishap, which could have been very serious (deadly, even) had I of continued slipping.  I tried stepping down closer to the cliff's edge, and my foot slipped on some gravel, I landed very heavily on my butt and hands, very panicked, thinking I was going to go over.  Everyone came running, I think they thought I was a goner, too.  Very frightening, but I'm ok, and all's well that ends well.  Made me think alot more about where I placed my feet, from then on, though !!

From here, we went over to the other end of the island, to the Flinders Chase National Park, and visited the lighthouse there.

Admiralty Arch was beautiful, but the sun was in the wrong place to do the photos justice.  There were lots of seals there, but in the photos they just look like rocks !!

  

A short drive took us over to Remarkable Rocks, which was my main reason for wanting to go to Kangaroo Island.  These rocks are just spectacular.  We hung around waiting for the sunset, to catch the changes in colours on the rocks ... but of course, it clouded over just before the sun set !!  We waited all that time, in howling wind !!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

From here, it was a fairly long drive back to American Beach, where we had booked our accommodation for the night.

The next morning, there was a beautiful sunrise, which only Baron ventured out to photograph.

  

Once breakfasted and re-packed, we headed out to Seal Bay, which houses a very large population of Australia Sea Lions, which look somewhat like seals.  We took a tour onto the beach, but couldn't walk far, as there were seals everywhere, and being a conservation park, we weren't allowed to disturb them.  There was also a whale skeleton in the dunes.

  

  

  

  

After Seal Bay, we explored a bit more of the island ... Little Sahara (which is an enormous group of sand hills, where people can use boards to slide down), Emu Bay Lavender Farm (where we, of course, bought some items), and various other places ... before heading back to the ferry for our trip back to the mainland.

After a well earned sleep in and lazy morning, we decided to head back to Victor Harbour ... I had seen a Quilt / Patchwork shop there I wanted to visit, as well as visiting Granite Island.  As mentioned earlier, the tram to Granite Island wasn't operational, so we walked.  It was threatening rain, but the sky was kind to us !!

We didn't see any penguins, but they obviously live on the island !!

After Granite Island, Elisabeth and I decided to go on one of the rides in the small amusement park ... the Cha Cha, it was fun, we laughed a lot !!!  Then we went shopping, and headed back to the Resort, where we ate, drank, had a swim and spa, and had a good time !!

Next morning, the 6th October, was our last night in the area.  We decided to drive into Adelaide ... we thought we couldn't be this close to Adelaide and not go there, so that's what we did !!  We drove through town ... it's a lovely city, not as high-rise as what I am used to here in Melbourne, but very beautiful ... lots of churches and gardens.  We drove through to Port Adelaide, where we booked onto a Dolphin Cruise ... a good bargain for $18 each for 2 hours (including a yummy lunch !!).

From here, we took a trip into Murray Bridge.

We then headed back to the resort in Goolwa for dinner, then to pack and get ready for our trip home.

On the road back to our resort, we came across a family of swans ...

I might leave it here, and continue the rest in another post later on, as I'm afraid of posting too many photos, in case it gets lost in cyberspace somewhere !!

Thanks for reading / looking thus far ... plenty more photos to come !!!

Take care,