FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX: Fleurieu Peninsula

Friday 7 May 2021

Fleurieu Peninsula

Rapid Bay

When there are half price fares available (as part of a government incentive to get local tourism going), a good Asian always partakes. And so it was that Sue Lynn and I found ourselves with tickets to Adelaide for the Mother's Day weekend. Happy Mother's Day to me! The last time I went to South Australia was 20 years ago!!

It seemed with every trip I take these days, a Covid-19 update is required...community case in Sydney 2 days prior to our departure. What?!?! The anxiety stemming from potential snap border closures blended with despair of this trip going poof...Fortunately for us, unless one had visited the areas the case had visited while infectious, one could still fly to South Australia with no restrictions. We boarded the plane, keeping our fingers crossed that there were no sudden changes in border restrictions mid flight! The flight was not turned back, and we landed safely in Adelaide. Hallelujah! Upon disembarking, we had to be "checked" by SA police. The questions we answered were all a repeat of the declaration that we had to make online prior to our arrival, so we weren't quite sure what the point of it was other than taking up an extra 30 minutes of our time and being awarded...a raffle ticket! It almost felt like an announcement of the meat tray winner was imminent.

Got to love a friend who's a gold Qantas frequent flyer and can get lounge access!

My first plane ride in 15 months!

We're on!

Qantas still served meals. Warm bacon fritata

This was our prize after talking to south Australian police

Our rental car...that has no map on the display! What?!?! How can cars not have a GPS in 2021

We picked up our rental car and started our drive to the Fleurieu Peninsula. We had much to squeeze in as the weather man predicted that this was to be our only day with no rain. A brief stop was made in McLaren Vale for a photo of d'Arenberg Cube. There was no time for wine tasting. We had kayaking, snorkelling and hiking to do before sunset. Besides, we thought the area was actually not that pretty...Except for a patch of beautifully autumn hued vines, the rest of hillside was a rather sickly khaki colour.

Second Valley was to be where we would pick up our kayak, paddle to Rapid Bay, snorkel at the jetty, and spot the leafy sea dragon. At least that was the plane but alas...we were deemed too inexperienced to take the kayak out with a supposed incoming change of weather. It was probably a blessing in disguise, I'm not sure if we would have made it by kayak...

Rapid Bay by car was easier and faster. We got into our wetsuits, probably providing much amusement to the few fisherman on the jetty, and braved the cold waters in an attempt to spot the leafy sea dragon. Well...Sue Lynn snorkelled. I lasted about 5 minutes. It was the effort that counted I say. Unfortunately for us, there was no leafy sea dragon to be spotted.

d'Arenberg Cube

The autumn foliage of the vineyards

Second Valley Jetty

Can't kayak might as well take a walk

Sun is out again! Changing the colour of the water

Second Valley

Rapid Bay Jetty

How cold can it be with wetsuits?!

What we are attempting to spot

Ok let's do this

Rapid Bay

Next up...a hike to a waterfall. The walk to Deep Creek Waterfall was rated a grade 4 hike with estimated time of 2 hour return for 3.5km. I would probably not recommend this walk if you had a sprained ankle and was rushing to catch a sunset by 5:28pm half an hour away. Or at the very least, perhaps start earlier than 3:30pm. However, we didn't have a choice, do it today or maybe not get to do it at all. Going down was not too bad, but going up proved that I was not as fit as I believed myself to be! The water at the waterfall was freezing...it was at the very least an effective way to numb my ankle.

By the time we made it back to the car, we had 28 minutes to get ourselves to Cape Jervis for the sunset. We made it with 8 minutes to spare. For a minute we thought sunset was going to be a dud as the cloud cover was thick. Patience by Sue Lynn saw us being rewarded with a beautiful pink sky! All that driving was not in vain!

We had to make our way to Goolwa, our base, as it was now dark and we were starving. Our cottage was small and quaint but comfortable and seemed well appointed. I will write more about that tomorrow when I have better to take photos. Time to call it a day!