Fleurieu Penninsular

Years ago Mark and I went to Victor Harbour and had a fabulous weekend.  So we decided to visit again.  Only problem was it wasn't a sleepy seaside town anymore.  It was school holidays, tourist season and oh my gosh the people around!!  Was crazy, not exactly as we remembered it.  It even had show rides on the foreshore.  But we decided to give it a chance, where else could we go to be away from the crowds anyway.

We checked in at a caravan park for a few nights.  Jake made fast friends with the boy next door, Oliver.  He was disgusted that we actually wanted him to go out, he was far too busy with his new friend. 
We ended up enjoying Victor, even with the crowds.  We spent our time bike riding, playing tennis, going for walks etc.  Victor is well set up for this sort of thing. It was too cold for swimming, which was a pity but anything under 30degrees is too cold for us now.  Man I sound spoilt!!  Sorry....



People having Camel rides along the beach

Our favourite day was when we walked over to Granite Island.  Really enjoyed that, had as nice walk all around the top.  Didn't see any penguins, apparently the population has been reduced from 1000s to under a hundred, very sad.  There is a penguin centre but we couldn't deal with the crowds, so we avoided it! And of course we caught the horse drawn carriage on the way back.  Kids thought it was fabulous.

On the causeway, once again standing out with our cowboy hats!

Jake saw this sandy area of the causeway and stated it was almost the shape of Australia.

Looking back from Granite Island to Victor

ooohh the token family shot

Jake found this rock.  Made him giggle as he proclaimed it looked like a but!!

on the horse drawn tram

Jake yelling out hello to everyone, and I mean everyone the whole way back!!

Thomas the horse

Charlotte thought the draught horses were beautiful.

 

 

We met our friends Joel, Meg, Khai and Eden for lunch after at Victor. We originally met these guys in Alice, after their car broke down.   They were staying at Rapid Bay, where we had planned to go next.  Unfortunately its a really popular spot and was basically full.  And with our big ass van, its hard to squeeze in anywhere.  Luckily for us though, our friends managed to save us a spot the next day right next to them.  So we cut our Victor Harbour time short and high tailed it there.

And are we glad we did.  Rapid Bay rates as one of our favourite places so far.  For us a place can be special for one family but not the next, as we've found when talking to other travellers.  For us it really also depends on the weather, who we meet and how we are feeling at the time.  We managed to score fabulous weather, and met some great people.  Yep so Rapid Bay rates for us.

our camp spot

 

We spent our days getting to know our fellow campers.  We had Joel, Meg, Khai and Eden on one side and Bruce and Karen on the other.  Was lovely to meet fellow travellers, who were such nice people.  Karen and I would go for long walks.  The kids played lots.  Was interesting watching Khai and Jake sort out how to play together.  Khai ended up loving Charlotte, was very cute.  Charlotte loved Eden, thought she was so so adorable and so did I! But Charlotte found a kindred spirit in Megan, who has a love of horses and snakes.  Karen is a massage therapist so Mark and I both had a massage.  We read books and just enjoyed spending time together.

We swam lots, the water was amazingly blue.  Looked like photos of the Mediterranean.  We all had a turn of snorkeling, most days the water was crystal clear.  Joel and Mark had some kid free time snorkeling near the Jetty.  Mark and I even got to go by ourselves as Megan and Joel watched the kids for us.  Mark managed to score ten or so squid jiggs of the sea bottom. That had been caught in the reeds.  Mark tried his hand at fishing, but alas no fish.  It was pretty popular and think all the fish had already been caught that day!!

Joel, Khai, Boy and Girl.  As Khai referred to them as!!

And of course it was New Years Eve aswell.  We had a great night chatting to the other guys.  Listening to everyone else's loud loud music, luckily they had pretty good taste.  The kids had the necessary sparklers, wouldn't be New Years Eve without them.  The kids went to bed and the adults stayed up, as it should be.  We even got a fire works display courtesy of other campers who set them off on the beach.  Was pretty nice!! Hopefully 2013 will be as good as 2012........

The drive into the camp site was pretty hilly, but breath taking scenery.  Joel mentioned that you can climb one of the big hills overlooking the camp ground.  That the view was amazing, and it wasn't too hard!  Well I believed him, knowing I hate hills.  We climbed the hill and the view was amazing.  So definitely well worth it, thanks Joel.  I must get better at climbing hills!!!

The weather cooled down and got a little windy towards the end of our week long stay.  We decided to head off and check out Cape Jervis.  We watched the ferry go to Kangaroo Island (but didn't go due to the cost of it), then went to have a play in the sand at Morgans beach.  We drove the Cruiser on the sand, lugged down a bit with Marks tool box in the back. We met Joel and Co there, but didn't stay long.  We had thought the beach would have been sheltered but nope.  It was so windy there, horrible.  We climbed the sand dunes then took afternoon tea home!

The kids wanted to practise Monopoly before Gran and Grumps arrived.  So out the board came.  And little Khai wanted to play too.  They all did an awesome job of playing together, was lovely to see.

On our final night we had a communal tea.  We all cooked some very yummy food and sat and ate, drank and chatted.  Was a great night to finish our time here with.

Charlotte and Eden

See what I mean

Great mates????

I love this shot.  Jake is being silly as he hates having his photo taken.  Khai is busy kissing Charlotte and Charlotte is too focused on Eden to notice!!



Me, Mark, Bruce, Karen, Eden, Meg, Khai, Joel, Jake and Charlotte

We had such a nice quiet and relaxing week at Rapid Bay.  Would have stayed longer but Mum and Dad are coming to visit.  We said goodbyes to Joel, Megan, Khai and Eden who are heading to Victoria.  And to Bruce and Karen who are staying a bit longer at Rapid Bay.  Then we drove back to Adelaide and set up for Mum and Dads arrival.