Day 48 - 23/1/14 – Coorong National Park – Port Elliot SA

After three weeks of mostly 30 minutes hops from one town to the next we were going to drive for 1 ½ hours today...so we were up with the sparrows and rolled out about 9.....which is sometimes when we are rolling out of bed!

We followed the highway northwards, yep in this part of SA the sun sets over the sea, running along the edge of the Coorong. We visited Chinamen’s well which was an engineering masterpiece made in the 1840’s made by the Chinese to help those who were walking to the Victorian gold fields....I found it amazing that there was a 150+ yr old well just sitting there.

There are also some great saltpans... I tried to convince the boys to have a race to the otherside and back but they wouldn't be in on it!

We also went to Jack’s Point to look across to pelican islands where pretty much every pelican in Australia and some of PNG was born, except when lake Ayre is flooded as apparently it is better. Needless to say it was just a touch on the nose!

Yes I know I need a wide angle lense!

A statue of an Ostrich that a Bushranger called "Mr P" used to ride when he robbed people around Meningie 

Lake Alexandrina goes as far as the eye can see

We headed northwards and scooted around the edge of Lake Alexandria which is the absolutely huge lake that Murray River runs into before it goes out into the ocean.

Crossing the Murray River in Wellington just before it heads into Lake Alexandrina

We crossed the Murray by ferry at Wellington and then headed through the Langhorne Creek wine district, Strathalbyn to Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island where we off loaded Rufus for a trip to the mouth of the Murray River. Way back on day 6 or 7 we swam at Towong, NSW at the head of the Murray River, now some 40 days later we were where it meets the sea, I am not sure why, but it seemed pretty cool to me. We parked Rufus a safe distance from the mouth and walked the last couple of hundred meters.

The Mouth of The Murray River

We mucked around a bit and then decided to go further around to the surf beach to do a bit of cockling. I managed to get the first then De and Jack followed but it took Sambo about 15 minutes to find his first one, but he never gave up! It took a while but we eventually managed to get around 40, enough for an entree’ I figured!

One of the more unusual signs we have seen on our trip!

We headed back and drove through to Port Elliot where we had dinner overlooking Horseshoe Bay, an absolutely spectacular spot. If you make the journey to SA make sure you visit this little gem. There is a van park right on the beach but we ended up at the showgrounds...as it was a ¼ of the cost!

 

Each night De and I have been taking turns to read the boys a story book since the day they were born. Recently we changed the process a little from them taking it in turn to choose a random book to getting one ‘book’ and reading a chapter or two a night. The first one was Charlotte’s Web and tonight I read the boys the last two chapters......and after about half an hour of consoling them and trying to help them understand the real meaning of the story they eventually fell asleep....Damn you Kerry Bayfield, if only I had paid attention in English I may have been able to tell them the real meaning behind that bloody book!