Wrights Bay towards Adelaide

Our relaxing four days at Wrights Bay on the Limestone Coast came to an end this morning. We had picked it just right with the weather. One hundred kilometres away temperatures of around 40 to 43C were being experienced. At our beach stopover, temperatures in the van were a cool 28C and we experienced a constant 10 to 12 knot wind off the sea all weekend. Brilliant.

Wrights Bay, sunset, glass of Pinot Gris – a perfect end to the day.

The area in which we stopped was about 4 hectares of grass and trees with probably five or six vans on site at any one time all weekend. While it was not a free camp, the three dollars per night per person was not going to break the bank. It was tempting to stay on for a few more days but the journey must go on.

The Limestone Coast in South Australia is a stunning part of the country. Kilometres of white sandy coastline and hardly a person to be seen. What we did notice on our many walks along the beach was the absence of any sea life in the shallows or being washed up with the tides. There were very few shells along the shoreline and piles and piles of seaweed. We think it may have something to do with the limestone rock in the area.

A typical stone cottage at Robe – stunning

On Saturday we unhooked the jeep and travelled the 30km into Robe, Wright Bay’s closest town. Robe was settled in 1802 and in 1847 was declared a port. By 1856 Robe was the second major colonial out-port. A decline in trade in the 1870’s meant that in 1878 Robe was closed as a port and became a quiet little seaside village as it is today. It is a beautiful village with many of the 1800 limestone cottages still being lived in today. We certainly recommend the town be worth a visit.

We reluctantly packed up this morning a bid farewell to our many new friends we had made over the four days at Wrights Bay. As an aside, many of the travellers at the beach had small dogs. For some reason they seemed to spend quite a bit of time under our motorhome. We thought we may have passed over road kill on the journey and some was left under the motorhome. However when we pulled out this morning, a very large bush rat jumped down from under the motorhome, we think it was in the spare tyre well, and fled into the trees. There is an upside to this story – at least we know there is no snakes travelling under the motorhome with us – the snake would have eaten the rat!!

Our journey westward today was quite nerve wracking. We travelled 270km of the southern coast in 40 to 50 knot winds.  The van was being thrown all over the road. It was with some relief that we arrived at our overnight destination of Frank Potts Reserve at Langhorn Creek and directly beside a winery. Our next challenge was to find a spot away from any trees as 60 to 70 knot winds have been forecast for tonight. All sorted and we are reasonably relaxed about our stay here tonight. Managing the weather conditions is one of our biggest challenges over here.

Over the next few days we will be staying within half a days travel from Adelaide as we are awaiting the arrival of our new satellite dome from New Zealand.