On Friday we headed towards Victor Harbour, but on the way stopped at another little coastal settlement called Point Elliot. This is a lovely little village with fantastic views of the ocean. Went for a walk around the coastal track and I think the tide must have been coming in, as the waves were enormous, crashing into the rocks just under where we were standing. Have decided to come back another day to check the area a bit closer.
We then headed over to Victor Harbour on Friday and had a walk around the town. It is really a busy coastal town with a bustling shopping precinct. Slipped in to the Information centre and decided that we would go across to Granite Island. That is an island that is only about 400 metres from Victor Harbour, and you can either walk across the bridge, or catch a ride on the horse drawn tram car. Of course, being tourists, we had to catch the tram. It was an exhilarating journey, as at one stage I think the horse got up to about 2 kph. It is actually overtaken by the pedestrians.
On Granite Island we took a stroll around the island checking out the local animals and sights. The ocean constantly belting the island is just awesome and of course took heaps of photos. After our 1.5klm walk around the island we got up the courage eventually and took the tram ride back to the mainland. After that just had to have a coffee to settle the jangled nerves.
Continued our tour of the area and checked out an area called the bluff. From there you can see a lot of the coastline to the west. It is a very popular area, but extremely steep. There were even some idiot cyclists riding up these hills. From there we checked out some of the other tourist sites before heading back home. Cant have too much excitement in one day.
Had a fairly quiet day on Saturday, which included a ride on our bikes along the bike trail in the town. We had to save ourselves up for the excitement on the Sunday. Ok, it is now Sunday and we are catching the local tourist train from Goolwa to Point Elliot. How disappointed were we when they cancelled the steam train, and we had to settle for the diesel train. We will probably never get over the disappointment. Anyway we still took the trip and had a walk around the town of Point Elliot. I took a lovely photo of one of the churches there, just as God was sending a stream of lightning at me. As can be seen from the photo, it was absorbed by the top of the church.
Some fantastic old buildings in the town, including the original police station and court house. The townspeople and obviously the National Trust obviously take great pride in the town, and it shows, as it was a credit to them.
Got up Monday morning and just couldn't believe our luck. The sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. We decided that we could go for a drive down to the south on the Fleurieu Peninsula. We headed off bright and early, OK, so at about 10.30. Our first stop was the little town of Myponga. Not the best of names, but not the biggest of towns either. Drove to the lookout over the top of the local reservoir and it was such a great view.
From there we headed to the town??? of Carrickalinga. Drove through a bit of a residential area but decided there was no town. No shops, No Service Stations, No nothing.
Undaunted on our journey, we next found ourselves inside the town of Normanville. Decided there wasn't much there for us either so we continued another 1 klm to the town Yankalilla. This was lovely little town with probably no more that about 1500 residents. Stopped at the local Information Bureau for all the gossip. The man working behind the counter was extremely disappointed that we did not check out his local Museum, which was attached to the Information centre.
Stopped at the local Anglican church, (can you see a bit of a link here) and went into the church. Several years ago, some of the parishioners had a vision of the Virgin Mary on the wall inside the church. It was fairly huge news at the time, although I must admit I cant recall it. It is a really beautiful church inside, and outside there is a shrine to the Virgin Mary, obviously erected after the visions, which attracts visitors from around the world.
We continued our expedition, with the next stop being a tiny little place called Second Valley. There were only a few houses in this place, but they were all magnificent old stone buildings. We took a walk along the pier, where there were several fishermen. Just to show them how its done, I jumped in to the water and wrestled out a huge squid, and threw it on to the pier. Yeh, maybe in my dreams. Had a walk over rocks, to reach the furthermost edge of the area. The landscape is all made up of basalt type of rocks, and you can just imagine the earth, millions of years ago, bursting out of itself to make these great designs. The rock face is really awesome to look at with all of the different levels, obviously of great meaning to a geologist or similar. I would never have imagined us looking at rocks with such interest, but it was awesome.
Needed a bit of a relax after that excitement so it was off to Cape Jervis. This is the place that you catch a ferry over to Kangaroo Island. We had a bit of a drive around the place but it was really a bit of a disappointment. Very few shops or other activity, apart from the ferry. You could bet if that was in Victoria, there would have been a satellite city built around it, with Bunnings and Maccas as the first occupants. Could see some wind turbines in the distance, but I don't think we could handle the excitement of getting a close up of them.
With Cape Jervis in our mirror, it was off in the direction of the Ingalalla Falls. It was on the way back towards home with Deb in charge of the Map, we found it with ease. She only scares me when she turns the map around. It must be a girl thing. It was only about a 500 metres walk to the falls and, even though it wasn't huge, it was still a very pretty site.
From there it was towards home, but of course, we saw a sign 'Glacier Rock', so we had to stop to investigate. After spending about 10 seconds looking at a rock, in the waters of a creek, and then looking at each other, we decided we had seen enough. I also decided that I am no longer a geologist.
As unbelievable as it is, the weather today was great. Probably about 18 - 20C with very little cloud. Wasn't enough to get our washing dry but pretty close.
By4now as it is Revenge time.
Barry & Deb.
Its a tough life. You only live once so gotta make the most of it. Deb
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