South Australia – Part 4 – Flinders Ranges

Our last stop in South Australia was in the “outback” up near the Flinders Ranges.  It was really our first experience being in the outback since coming to Australia.

We weren’t sure what to expect – we have been in a few deserts in our time, and we considered that the outback could either be quite beautiful or… quite boring. It turned out to be amazing. It was our favorite stop on the trip.

We stayed in the town of Port Augusta. It is called the “crossroads of Australia” because it is intersected by the main north-south highway and the main east-west highway. Although it is in the “outback”, the town sits on an inlet so there is a bit more greenery than would otherwise be the case. It even had its own “arid” botanical garden – seen below – which we decided looked a lot like the roadside shrubbery we had just seen during the last 5 hours of driving.

Here is an old water-tower lookout in Port Augusta.

We spent our first evening in town just exploring the area. Earlier in the day we had passed a Chinese restaurant, which we decided sounded good for dinner. I wouldn’t ordinarily bore you with such details except that more traffic enforcement drama ensued. As we approached the restaurant, we saw that it was closed. We weren’t  sure what to do next, and at the last second I decided to turn down a side street so we could reconsider our plans. Just after I made the turn, I saw flashing red and blue lights behind me.

We pulled over and waited for the officers (there were two) to approach. They pulled me over for failing to indicate a turn. This is one situation where it is very nice to have a California drivers license. It seems everybody knows, and loves, California. I mentioned that we were on holiday from CA, and the officers immediately started asking me about how we were liking the area, what we had already seen and where we were going next. They even started giving us ideas on where to go. I told them my Chinese restaurant story, and the officers told us that place was dodgy anyway and they gave us directions to a better Chinese restaurant nearby. They then gave me an official warning about using my turn signals. We kept it as a souvenir.

    

Our next day, we left Port Augusta and headed further into the outback towards the Flinders Ranges National Park. We stopped at the Yourambulla Caves on the way, which are home to some aboriginal cave paintings. We had never seen anything like it before, and it was quite spectacular.

These collages are tiny, so I recommend clicking on them to see more detail.

In the Flinders Ranges Park, we started by hiking into the Wilpena “Pound.” This is basically a section of the Flinders range of mountains that makes a perfect circle with a flat prairie in the middle. The picture above is of the outside of the Pound. The top-right picture in the collage below is on the edge of the Pound looking down into the center. We also spotted some more wildlife on our walk up, which was cool.

To access most of the beautiful scenery, we had to take dirt roads. That wasn’t anything new for this trip, but we ended up on one 38-mile long scenic “road” that I’m sure was actually a 4x4 track. It was pretty shocking in parts. But, our little Nissan made it all the way through without getting stuck or (noticeably) damaged.

Did you notice the picture of the brick house in the Wilpena Pound collage about half-way up? It was a restored homestead of a family who lived there and farmed/ranched the Pound during the late 1800s. There were some plaques telling the story of the family, and their lives were a tremendous struggle – never enough water and therefore never enough food. It was kind of a sad tale, but what was more impactful is that it was also the untold story of thousands of others who tried and failed to make a living in the outback.

As we drove throughout the area, we saw many, many houses that looked like the one below. There were never any markers or plaques on these, but I couldn’t help but think about the families that once lived there – literally in the middle of nowhere. The entire family surely worked endlessly trying to eke out an existence, but they almost certainly never achieved much success. And now their stories are all but forgotten; the only remnants of their time spent in the outback are these ruins.

There are still some people who try to make a living in the outback as pastoralists. They raise cattle and sheep on vast areas of wide open land, constantly herding their animals from place to place.  These “stations” as they are called (like really large ranches) are often hundreds of square miles in area. The current largest in South Australia is the Anna Creek Station, which is over 13,000 square miles. That is the land area of Maryland + Delaware + Rhode Island + a bit more.

Our travel agent told us that South Australia was underrated, and I would say that we agree. It was a low-key trip, but it turned out to be an amazing experience.  All said and done, we thought the outback portion of our trip was the most interesting. Our scenic drives and hikes in the Flinders were particularly spectacular. Thanks for reading along with us!

South Australia – Part 3 – Barossa Valley

Our next stop on our South Australian tour was the Barossa Valley - one of Australia's best known (and best regarded) wine regions. We have missed wine tasting since we moved from California, so the Barossa was a very nice treat. For reference, the Barossa Valley is about 50 miles northeast of Adelaide.

We stayed at another bed and breakfast. The only bad thing about staying at B&Bs is that now our expectations are set too high for future trips! This B&B was just outside of one of the little towns in the Barossa up a gravel road and situated on 15 acres of private wooded land. Here is a little picture from our first evening.

We spent three nights and four days in the Barossa, and the weather was beautiful pretty much the entire time. We visited a total of 15 wineries over the course of our stay.

Most of the wineries had elaborate properties - it reminded us somewhat of the Napa Valley.

Down the hill from where we stayed was a reservoir and dam that is referred to locally as the “whispering wall”. The ladies at our B&B told us about it, and we checked it out. Through some accidental feat of engineering, the dam wall is built so that a person at can “whisper” from one end and the sound is carried perfectly along the wall to the other end where those gathered can hear you clearly. It was quite interesting.

The valley happened to be celebrating the “Vintage Festival” while we were in town. There were several art shows as well as cheese and wine pairings (the food-related events were our personal favorite!)

All the towns along the Barossa were quant and beautiful. Unfortunately, they also strongly enforce speeding laws. The town nearest our accommodation used an unmarked police car as a mobile speed-camera. As we passed through town on our first evening, there was a bright flash as I drove by. I was “gutted” (as the Aussies would say).

I was even more gutted when it happened in the exact same place the next day. On the third day, I drove 10 kph under the speed limit all the way through town. As we passed, I commented to Kristi that I was relieved to get through town without another ticket. I must have been feeling a little too relieved, however - just on the other side of town I was blinded by yet another flash! Unbelievable.

I don’t really like it when people make excuses as to why they shouldn’t have gotten tickets…. BUT, I would like to reiterate my frustrations about Aussie speed enforcement: (1) the speed limits here are crazy low (ie, 48 mph on the freeway!) and (2) the speed cameras, which are everywhere, only allow a 1.8 mile-per-hour margin of error (3 kph)!!!! I find it maddening.

The good news is, it has now been several weeks since our visit and no tickets have arrived yet. So, all’s well that ends well I guess!

The picture below is at a little look-out just outside the valley. We actually stopped by here during one of our evenings and did some star-gazing. I mentioned before that there are several signs that we are becoming accustomed to life down under. Here is another: we now look up at the night sky and can spot the Southern Cross constellation as easily as we once spotted the Big Dipper. (We see different stars now that we are on the bottom side of the Earth.) I do kind of miss the Big Dipper though – weird, huh?

The very last winery we visited was one of our favorites. It’s called Seppeltsfield, and is one of the oldest in the region. They specialise in fortified wines, and we particularly liked their Torquays and Sherries. I had never tried anything like them before. Apparently, Australia is somewhat famous for these types of wine. We bought a bottle of Torquay that tastes like sweet iced tea. It sounds random, I know. But it actually is delicious.

Of course, after purchasing a bottle at pretty much every winery we went to, we remembered that we had to fly home and we hadn’t allowed for any extra luggage space. Plus, the airlines now are very strict on weight limits (they actually don’t mind if your bags are overweight – in fact, they are happy to charge or the privilege!). We originally considered finagling the carry-on rules to try to get everything on board, but we quickly decided that wasn’t a good idea. So, we ended up shipping our wine home. That worked out well – in fact, our wine actually got home before us!

So we very much enjoyed our Barossa trip, and our wine rack is now full again for the first time since moving to Australia. Our last stop on our South Australia tour was probably our favorite – part four is coming soon!

South Australia – Part 2 – Limestone Coast

The next part of our trip in South Australia was a road trip along the Limestone Coastline (see red pin below). For reference, if you keep driving East, you’ll end up in Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road (you may remember our GOR blog post). You can also see Kangaroo Island on the map just South-West of Adelaide.

There are many signs that we are slowly becoming Australian. Here is one: When we used to see a kangaroo warning road sign we would think “Ooh! I hope we see a kangaroo!” Now, we think “Oh crap. I hope a kangaroo doesn’t jump out in front of me.”

There were many kangaroo warning signs on our South Australia trip. I (Anthony) drove nervously through each of these stretches since I didn’t take the extra insurance option for our rental car.

Kangaroos mostly come out at dusk –and it happened to be dusk as we made our way down towards our first stop on the Limestone Coast. I was driving and rambling on about something to Kristi when a kangaroo bounded out from the opposite side of the road and right into my path. My heart stopped, I slammed on the brakes and I swerved to the left – in about that order. Half way across, the kangaroo also realized the err of his ways and performed his own late brake-and-swerve maneuver.

The kangaroo contorted his body in a spectacular way, such that he missed my front right fender by about one inch and still managed to miss my driver’s side mirror. He held this perfect pose for a second before losing his balance and falling sideways in the middle of the road behind me. He then picked himself up and bounced back from where he started – apparently, whatever was on the other side of the road wasn’t so important after all.

I was completely horrified. Kristi missed the whole thing.

So our trip started with a bit of adventure, and I drove about 20 mph slower for the rest of our holiday.

* * * * * * * *

We stayed in our first ever Bed & Breakfast in the town of Robe, our favorite town along the Limestone Coast. The accommodation was wonderful and included a huge jet spa in the bathroom – the best part! Robe is a quaint little beach town filled with interesting shops and restaurants. It reminded us a bit of Seaside, OR.

Robe has some interesting historical sites, including the ruins of the old gaol (note the classic Australian spelling of “jail”).

Here are some pictures of Long Beach in Robe. Just like Long Beach in Washington, you can drive on the sand! Anthony was a little nervous since we didn’t have a four wheel drive, but it was worth the risk…very exciting!

We stopped briefly in Beachport, another small town along the Coast. The jetty here is over 2,500 feet long, but what’s even more interesting is that it was originally planned to be over a mile long when it was first constructed in 1880!

We also drove through Tantanoola, which is home to the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere. We picked up a self-guided tour map at the local info center and went on our way. The map was poorly documented (says Anthony) and we ended up taking an accidental detour onto a dirt road. After spending 20+ minutes turning down a variety of un-named dirt roads, we finally admitted we were lost and called back to the local information center for directions. The guy at the info center said we shouldn’t be on any dirt roads. Oops. But we made it back okay – and we did get some up-close views of the windmills!

Mount Gambier is one of the largest and most popular towns along the Limestone Coast. The most interesting thing to see here was this “sunken cave”. It was originally an underground cave, but the roof collapsed creating a giant hole in the ground. The City has since turned it into a beautiful garden.

Blue Lake, a crater lake just outside of town, was another beautiful site at Mount Gambier. In the Spring/Summer, the lake turns a bright blue color and in the Autumn/Winter it turns grayish-blue . There were a few different lookouts around the lake that were great photo opportunities, as you can see below.

Valley Lake was just a short drive from Blue Lake, but was much more accessible with picnic facilities and boat ramps for water sports.

We had a great time travelling along the Limestone Coast. Our next stop was the Barossa Valley - stay tuned for Part 3!

South Australia - Part 1 - Kangaroo Island

Sorry we’ve been lax about posting on our trip to South Australia! It’s been a bit daunting sorting through all the photos and stories, so we are going to blog in sections to keep it straight forward.

For clarification, South Australia is actually a state (albeit with a boring name) – not just a region. We started by flying into Adelaide, which is the state capital (unlike in the US, the capitals of Aussie states are the largest cities in those states). We rented a car and spent one night in Adelaide before heading on to Kangaroo Island – a large scenic island about 12 miles off the coast.

They say Kangaroo Island is like a zoo without fences. We did see a fair amount of wildlife, including a handful of kangaroos, a couple of echidnas, lots of pelicans, several bush-tailed possums and one peacock (we’re not sure about the peacock, but it liked the front porch of our cabin).

   

The more interesting thing about the island was how laid back the whole place was. Most of the island is a national park and most of the rest is unpopulated. The remainder is sheep farms. The majority of the roads were dirt (which tested the off-road prowess of our small Nissan Tiida). The slow pace reminded us a little of a Hawaiian island.

The weird part of the island was that there was hardly anyone around. Maybe it is a product of living in the middle of a busy city, but it felt a bit strange.

The place we stayed in was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The nearest eatery to our cabin was about 45 minutes away by dirt road. It was only open from 6pm to 7:30pm and catered primarily the local sheep shearers. When we arrived, it was “schnitzel night” – gravy $3 extra.

The only grocery store within an hour of our cabin was more like a well stocked pantry – they didn’t use barcodes and most items were covered in dust. It was here that we decided that although country life has always sounded appealing, we’re not sure we are cut out for it. We like our city conveniences.

We did see some great sights though. We toured around the “remarkable rocks” (not to be confused with “The Remarkables” - a mountain range in New Zealand). They were fascinating, as you can see in the pictures below.

 

The views were gorgeous along the coastline.

 

We saw a ton of fur seals at “The Arch”. It was hard to see them at first because they blended in with the rocks…can you spot them?

There was a beautiful lookout up 512 steps. It was well worth the trip up!

The highlight of the island for us was a sheep dairy where they use the sheep’s milk to make cheeses and yoghurt. We are now the biggest fans of sheep’s milk products. It tastes better than cow’s milk and is way easier on the stomach. We tasted haloumi cheese for the first time and have now eaten it several times since. It’s delicious.

 

Most of the island and surrounding lands are comprised of limestone, and there are several magnificent limestone caves in the area. Here are some photos of one of the Kelly Caves we toured.

Bald Hill was another beautiful lookout. The sun was just beginning to set while we were there, which made for some neat pictures.

Overall, Kangaroo Island was beautiful and the slow pace of life was very relaxing.  We will post the next part of our trip soon!