LANGHORNE CREEK, LAKE ALEXANDRINA, & FLEURIEU PENINSULA

When I left Lobethal my plan was a short drive south to yet another famous SA wine region, Langhorne Creek. It took ages to pack up camp cos it was drizzling and everything was wet. Not only that but l had connected with a few people while doing my BlazeAid stint and had some farewells to bid. I finally hit the road around 1pm, bound for Frank Potts Reserve, a spot recommended by a couple of Adelaide locals from camp. It was located at the town of Langhorne Creek and across the road from Kimbolton Wines and The Winehouse. Very convenient! I was only planning an overnight so stayed attached. It was a pretty little place and fairly popular, with several other campers in. The drizzle that had persisted in the Adelaide Hills had dissipated as l made my way, through stunning scenery, to lower pastures, and the weather was lovely at Langhorne Creek. James and I settled in to a flat, shady spot at Potts.

Late in the afternoon James and I wandered across the road to the Kimbolton cellar door. There were three guys in there visiting as well - one old and two young. Whilst tasting we got talking, about what we were drinking among other things, and I discovered one of the youngies, Jeremy, was also camped at Potts. I bought a red before strolling a bit further up the road to The Winehouse which is also the home to the Meechi Brewing Company. The lady behind the counter was lovely and we got into some really interesting dialogue, while, of course, I tasted wines (not the craft beer). The establishment showcases Ben Potts wines as well as John Glaetzer's (formerly the winemaker for Wolf Blass). John's Blend was the yummiest and most expensive, and to my surprise and delight the lady gave me the opened tasting bottle which was two thirds full. Woohoo! Ah, I did buy a bubbles there as well...

As I walked back into the reserve I ran into Jeremy and invited him over to partake of my booty. It was really nice to share the bottle and some conversation, mostly about travelling, which we were both doing solo with our fur babies. By the time it got dark I had met two other ladies who were both by themselves, and a couple in a huge bus. It was fun.

FRANK POTTS RESERVE gets a 3.5. It's a small, flat, shady space nestled between the main road (very quiet at night) and Langhorne Creek about 1km out of town. It's really an overnighter rather than a destination, but a good one, and handy to a couple of local haunts. Dog friendly, good TV and phone, drop dunny and feels safe. I liked it.

Next morning I pulled up stakes and drove up the road for less than an hour to Sturt Point Lookout on Lake Alexandrina. Given my home is on the mighty Murray river, not far from the source, I was keen to see how it ended up near it's final destination. The beauty of the Adelaide Hills and the lushness of Langhorne Creek faded quickly as I moved into the flat, bland grassland which bordered the lake. When I arrived at Point Sturt after 10 km of average rocky road on entry, I was not that excited about the space. It wasn't all that scenic and it was windy as buggery. So much so that not only couldn't l really go out of the van by day or cook outside, but during the night l was shitting myself that the van would blow off the precipice!

While I did meet some nice people there (including the dad of the girl who works the Clydesdale-driven train on the rail link connecting Victor Harbor to Granite Island), by morning I was ready to go. It was a bit of a disappointment. I was expecting more. Ah well....

  

POINT STURT LOOKOUT is, or was, sooo windy. It's very exposed, has no facilities other than phone and TV and while it felt safe with others there it was remote. 2.5 is my rating.

However....my next discovery was the southeastern coastline of the Fleurieu Peninsula. OMG it is beautiful. There are no coastal free camps available so my next cheapest option was Port Elliot Showground located a couple of kms from the beach. I opted for an unpowered site, not so much for the $5 saving per day but more so cos it meant l could set up away from others and try to get away with not tethering James. That worked a treat! We stayed 5 nights.

During that time we did lots of walking and sightseeing on the fabulous coastal trails between Goolwa and Victor Harbor (Port Elliot is roughly in the middle), and drives into the hills surrounding and coastlines bordering. Stunning! I loved it.

We drove across the relatively new bridge from the historic and quaint township of Goolwa to Hindmarsh Island from where we could see across to the mouth of the Murray which has to be dredged constantly at, I might add, a cost of $6 million dollars per year. Fuck me!

I visited Granite Rock (without James...no dogs due breeding fairy penguins) which is connected to central Victor Harbor via a bridge. It showcases some great sculptures.

Saturday we drove into the hills behind the coast to Myponga via Hindmarsh Falls. From there it was a short hop to Willunga which has a fabulous Saturday market with great wine tastings. You beauty! On the way back via Mt Compass I dropped into an op shop and picked up a couple of $2 bargains. Yay!

We went to the local beaches a few times and loved the sun, surf and vibe.

I even visited the Victor Harbor Golf Course and checked out the first tee. Mmm....a bit hilly for a Yarrawongan. 

BLAZEAID: NHILL, LOBETHAL, ADELAIDE HILLS & MCLARENVALE WINE REGIONS

Yesterday I packed up at the BLAZEAID LOBETHAL CAMP having spent the past eleven days in the company of hundreds of volunteers and farmers clearing and rebuilding farm fencing lost in the horrific Adelaide Hills bushfires that engulfed the region just a few days before Christmas. It's been an interesting and rewarding time. Not only did I learn how to do fencing, but I met dozens of new people (some now friends), ate myself silly with three meals plus (donated, home-baked) morning and afternoon teas provided each day and, on my days off, visited lots of wineries. Always early mornings and hard work, but all in all a really worthwhile experience. 

I had left Daylesford on January 22nd aware that the forecast was for pretty strong wind. As I headed further west however, it turned into a freaking gale with gusts up around 100kph. I had planned to overnight at Bordertown, but pulled the pin at Nhill, fearful the crosswinds were going to blow me off the road. WikiCamps rated the freecamp at Nhill Airport highly, so I hightailed it for there, fortunately finding a relatively sheltered spot between the Military Museum and some other buildings. Another couple with a van joined me and with the luxury of power outlets conveniently located on the front of the museum, we hunkered down for the onslaught. And it indeed was an onslaught! What started out as a massive dust storm turned into thunderstorms with torrential rain and plenty of thunder and lightning. It was quite an evening and night! By morning it had eased to just plain wet and windy. And sadly for the fuel consumption it was all headwind to my South Australian destination of Lobethal. Bugger!

Nhill Airport gets a 3.5 rating from me. It's an overnighter that has maybe 4 powered sites on bitumen and lots of  flat grassed areas with trees for shade. It has clean toilets, a dump point, good phone and TV reception, is dog friendly and feels safe. It's only about a kilometer out of town and is surrounded by pastureland so is very quiet. There's a donation box.

We were out of there quite early and at Bordertown  took a break so James could have a walk and a wee and I could have a cappy. The coffee shop there is amazing and houses the original police station building. It's a quaint old Aussie town that is not actually on the SA/Vic border but 17km west of it. It's also the birthplace of Bob Hawke, one of Australia's rather iconic Prime Ministers, and a Rhodes scholar to boot. There is a museum dedicated to him there but it was too cold, wet and windy to wander around the town at length.

The trip up into the Adelaide Hills was a lovely drive with very pretty scenery until we hit the fire zone. Wow! It was so sad to see. As I  approached the Blazeaid camp I couldn't believe how the town of Lobethal had escaped the flames. Camp was at the local sports oval so I parked, checked in at the makeshift registration desk that had been set up in the large footy/cricket clubrooms, filled in all the paperwork and was given my Blazeaid Volunteer badge with my first name written on it. The fact that I had a dog was apparently a cause for concern even though l had already told Barb, one of the head honchos, that James would be with me. A discussion with Sue ensued and as he was not allowed to go out on site with me I said I would leave him in the van and only go out every second day. I would see how he coped being left alone from 7 in the mornings till 3 or 4pm. Justin then showed me where to park the van amid 20 or so other vans and after setting up James and I did a recce of the area by foot and then by car. The fire had pretty much burned right up to the edge of town and even parts of the sports fields which were right in town were scorched.

Morning Muster was at 7.15 daily, so next morning I was up by 6, walked James and presented myself amid the 80 or more other volunteers, making sure, as per the rule book, to wear my name tag and the hi-vis vest provided. After a briefing on safety, procedures, registering for dinner each day, alcohol policy (two drinks per day per haps....yeah right!) and other stuff that became a bit boring on a repetitive daily basis, we were allocated to teams and given a team leader. Each team was assigned a trailer with all tools that would be needed, an esky full of food and drink and by 8am the eight of us had packed into three cars and headed out to our assigned property.

The people and work were quite good fun and the farmers happy to have us. You could work at your own pace, certainly under no pressure to bust a gut, and breaks at 10.30 and 12.30 with plenty to eat. Home time was generally around 3pm, by which time you were dirty and buggered. I was glad to only work every second day, though several of the other days I worked in the kitchen, setting up for breaky which started at 6.30 then making sandwiches or preparing food for the next day. Work was cancelled if it was forecast to be over 40 degrees or it was raining, and only a half day worked over 36 degrees. Some volunteers worked lots of days and others did a few here and there. Most people came from Adelaide or surrounding areas each day, though the core volunteer management group were all pretty much camped onsite.

Evening meal was 6.30 and provided by different local organisations each night. The food was bloody yummy, plenty of it and lots of variety. Some nights there were heaps of people there. You could take a wine or beer from the fridge for $3 or bring your own. While the drinking wasn't regulated, no one really over indulged in the dining room. What went on in one's private space, however, was one's own business!

Apparently the Lobethal Camp is the biggest Blazeaid has ever had, some days with well over 100 volunteers - young, old, male, female, interstate and internationals included. The beauty of the organisation is that not a single person gets paid anything. Every level is run by volunteers with everything used and consumed either donated or purchased by fundraising. It's pretty impressive and a fabulous way to help out in disaster areas while having a bit of fun and meeting new people.

On my days off I made sure to do lots of sightseeing. Hahndorf is a famous tourist destination just a few kilometers from Lobethal. Established by 19th century Lutherans from Germany it has amazing architecture, artisan food and lots of beer houses.

The wineries in the Adelaide Hills wine region are abundant, and I made it my mission to visit, taste and buy at many of them!

I did lots of driving through the Adelaide Hills. It is a really beautiful area. I visited Mount Lofty Lookout, the Big Rockinghorse and hand-made timber toy shop and had a few wines at the Lobethal Bierhous.

We took a run down through the hills to the McLarenvale wine region where I had a delicious lunch and Rose from Wirra Wirra and we also spent an afternoon at the gorgeous Christies Beach.

And on February 1st. we celebrated James 12th. birthday. Happy birthday to my true blue mate!

Last Friday through to Monday we had lots of rain (90mm). Great for lots of reasons but boy - did it make for a wet camp! I must admit I was starting to get over it.

And to be honest, after eleven days in one spot my feet were beginning to itch. Time to move! I bid farewell to the BlazeAid crew and headed off to continue my travels. I do have to say -

Great work BlazeAid volunteers. You do a bloody good job!