Our drive today from Port Fairy on the south coast of Vic, to Melbourne was during the week long heat wave. We pulled over at a free metal dump along the way to chuck the frame of the broken marquee  To make way for our shiny new one we picked up at Warnambool

We drove thru many salt lakes and farming districts to avoid the Great Ocean Road, during the peak tourist time. Next stop was Geelong for some retail therapy to replace a missing camera Slurpee’s cooled us down

From here we drove to stay with Melissa,Mark and the kids for 2 nights. It was SO hot in the city! We really appreciated their new house and were able to clean ourselves, clothes, bedding, tent and truck after 6 weeks on the road.

Not to mention the air conditioning, TV and great company!

Lets go cool off…

Well it’s been great fun here for more than a month – we cant believe the weather conditions we have had – lots of cold weather and only a handful of hot days, but its time to head for Melbourne to get on the Spirit of Tassie.

A few more beach stops today as we farewell SA. Beachport was a stunning stop with a quick dip – as the water was less than half the outside temp today (SA heatwave day)

The Pool of Siloam is 7 times saltier than the sea – eeww!

The Blue Lake at Mount Gambier looked vivid today – much nicer than the salty dog above.

Umpherston Sinkhole was a nice relief from the heat, down under the plants and rock face.

Treating ourselves tonight in Port Fairy  – it our ‘Yeah Halfway!’ party with aircon and 2 telly’s!!!

On toward Robe today, the coastline here is great, so we have many stops to view the inviting water and unusual rock formations, The Granites near Kingston are very cool, huge boulders on the beach. Then to Kingston SE – where the waters are much calmer.

We finally get to try some ‘Coorong Mullet’ along with some other local fare. It was surprisingly tasty.

On to a nice quiet park – away from the packed van parks by the beach, this one was so leafy and almost to ourselves. Best of all for the kids it had a jumping pillow too!

Over the years of travelling to SA we have had many attempts at camping on ‘The Coorong’ finally the stars, the moon and the weather aligned and provided (aided by the GPS) a hard to find, but superb bush camp at Wreck Crossing. Tucked in between the dunes and on the edge of a salt flat. We had much fun day and night.

2 nights of moon light riding – with no boundaries – nice way to farewell the sun and warm up.

Afternoon’s we took to the salt flat for cricket – with no boundaries – Max was by far the best all rounder!

Thick forest canopy seemed like Merkwood

We had a ride along the 4wd track – then a long hike thru the dunes and middens to the beach, 120km long. We foraged for ages looking for washed up treasure.

We saw an amazing range of animal prints in the sand dunes and on the salt flat. Huge emu prints more than 2m apart – even the emu’s fang it on the flats.

A rest day at Clayton Bay. Wasn’t so restful for some…. The water was the best medicine for all. Haven’t used our swimmers since last year – KI was too cold!

No wonder they call this place the wetlands.

Clayton Bay campground was so quiet and peaceful, our decision to move on from the packed Victor Harbour van towns was well worth it. So many birds, it is so nice listening to them day and night in this lovely wetland setting, and the birds here are not only water birds.

Our time here is over and KI has turned on a beaut day for our departure – same as our arrival. Back to Bay of Shoals to farewell the our family fishermen, we are confident they will have better luck today as the wind has finally eased. It has been fab to catch up with them here on this great island, and to spend some time with family on this 3 month trip is truly special – not to mention familiar faces  Enjoy the rest of your time here guys and keep us posted on how many times you ‘bag out!’

One last look at the south coast on our way to the ferry. Pennington Bay has yet another untouched beach, with the most brilliant coloured water. Its a shame to leave on such a gorgeous day.

We were thinking as the winds have eased and its a great day the crossing should be a breeze – WRONG! It was yet again very bumpy going over ‘Backstairs Passage’ I tried to update the blog, but could only manage to do 1 day, as we were all feeling green – especially Max. He held onto his lunch, but suffered all afternoon. Even today he’s not great. Might have to dose up before the Spirit of Tasmania crossing Friday next week.

Yeah we made it to SA. We head East to Victor Harbour and stock up on some supplies – and Diesel – it’s 20c per/L cheaper here than on KI, but it is to be expected with the cost of freighting it there (buy SEALINK shares).

We took a stab at the Clayton Bay waters edge park, close to The Coorong, its beaut, teaming with birdlife and great views across the wetlands, which joins up with Lake Alexandrina, so decide to stay put for 2 nights to rest and let Max recover. As we are close to traditional Aboriginal waterways, there are a couple of Canoe Tree’s here. Amazing they are still alive after having their bark removed for a canoe.

Its perfect kite weather here, no where near as windy as KI !

Just lovely….

After a windy day yesterday and a bit of driving around, today is looking better. After hearing so much about the beauty of d’Estrees Bay we head south for a BBQ lunch – just one problem. A road block saying ‘Road Closed’ is a bit of a surprise to us – so we drive on thru to investigate. We couldn’t believe what was in font of us. As we were standing here in disbelief a local council guy came to check the level. He tells us this hasn’t happened here since 1952. Rains during the winter have filled these lagoons and with the high rainfalls since it has nowhere else to go.

So a change of plans, the local honey farm has a great picnic area, so Gaz cooked up a piece of Smoked Porterhouse from Adelaide markets, and we enjoyed delicious Steak Sambo’s under some shady tree’s. The local Sheep Dairy Haloumi was a hit all round.

The afternoon milking was happening at the Island Pure Sheep Dairy, so we take the tour, and taste all the delicious products, Yummy yoghurts and cheeses. We all leave stocked up on local produce – very excited about the smoked lamb leg we each buy. Back to camp to get ready for an afternoon fishing adventure. Fingers crossed for fish for dinner.

A BIG thanks to Bob for bringing his boat over here, and giving Max & Leni their first at sea fishing adventure. They caught some….but not enough for dinner. So Leni & I make other plans back at camp. Pizza’s and tasting’s of  all our yummy KI produce.

A fishin we go……

Gotta love the boat ramps in SA.

You Beauty!! King George Whiting for dinner…

Yummy!!

Its raining again – sideways this time, the farmers market is on in Penneshaw and we think the 50min drive there might give us a climate change. Wrong. After braving the rainy market we hit the pub for the cricket and some lunch. And stand up we did – 5 nil up!!

Its still windy & cold but the rain has stopped, so off to another lighthouse. Cape Willoughby on the Eastern side.

Lucky there was a fence around the top – we might of lost a family member!!!

Number 1 Fresnel now out of use – but fun to play with.

Back to Penneshaw and its almost time for the Ferry to arrive – Wendy, Bob, Alex & Lil are on it. So we stick around to welcome them ashore. We wait at Frenchmans rock and the Contemplation Seat on the beach nearby while we watch the ferry arrive, with a ‘Celebration Ale’

Then surprise them by greeting them at the wharf.

Bob was off quick after his pole position. We split up with the Boys leading the way back to Kingscote and the Girls following behind, sisters chin wagging all the way

Off to the light house today – the road is long and the worst ever!!!  And we almost got run off the road by 3 utes speeding past us with their piggin dogs on the worst road on the island. Funny we didn’t think there would be feral pigs here, but yes – thanks to some non farming war vets from the 50’s and French sailors from the 1800’s –  who released their pigs its happy days for pig shooters.

The light house is the shortest in SA and the highest above sea level – very steep cliffs – hence its size. It almost got wiped out by the fires a few years ago, but only managed to loose the ‘c’ on the sign. 90% of the National Park was burnt out.

A great tour that ended with a bang.

After this loud firing, we drove to Flinders Chase NP and headed for the Sandy Creek Hike. Its on the western side of the island and the ocean is crashing onto this beach – next point of land from here would be South America. We walked along the creek, it then turned into dunes, and we walked out a gully in the dunes, to a beach with weird rock formations and great rockery plants and caves. It felt like somewhere sea hobbits would live.

Max had the most fun on the way back out!

From here a 30 min drive to the Admirals Arch, boy on this south western tip of the island it was soooo windy!! Not uncommon to receive 12m swells just off shore.

This is the home to a colony of NZ fur seals, but we think they aren’t as great as sea lions – these ones smell like wet dogs.

We pack up our camp tomorrow and head for a new site on the Eastern side of KI and get ready for some familiar faces. Western KI park has been great – except the weather!