Victor Harbour is a sea side town only 45 minutes from Adelaide. However, the ocean views and panoramic beaches seemed too serene to imagine Australia’s fifth largest city being so near. We wanted to stop at the festival with a ferris wheel, bouncing castle, dodgem cars and other childhood delights. There was no parking anywhere nearby though, but as we idled the car we could see the 600m across the bridge to Granite Island. Some people walked across the island, while others caught a tram pulled by a Clydesdale horse.
We went and parked in the next town along called Port Elliot for the night. There were two lakes where locals fished, a playground, toilets, barbecue, and shelter. Peter, Susan, and Lucy did their schoolwork on a lakeside table that night while a mother duck swam on the lake with six tiny ducklings, and white corella cockatoos sat all around in the trees. Peter said, “It’s so easy to concentrate when the birds are choralling, and the sun is setting on the water.”
A local man advised us to move the van as a market was going to be there in the morning. We reversed the van up into a court opposite and unhitched ready for the morning. When we arose in the morning, the market was in full swing. We walked around looking at the stores. All of the kids bought a new wide-brimmed hat, with Peter’s having a zip-up part to let down a mosquito netting around his face. I told him, “Now we are all going to be really jealous when the mosquitoes, blowies, or sandflies are driving us mad and you are fine! I wish there was a hat there for all of us like yours!”
Victor Harbour
It was late morning before we headed in to Victor Harbour. It wasn’t too hard to find parking without a big campervan in tow. We walked around the town, and bought a hot dog each at a German hot dog stand by a pond for lunch.
We then walked over the bridge to Granite Island, and went to see the talk about Little Penguins. Later we joked that it was a retirement village and rehabilitation hospital for penguins. Edmund cried “Look!” each time a penguin moved, and was delighted when one was fed a fish.
I wanted to walk around the island, but Jarrad pointed out that we’d forgot sunscreen and there was nowhere on the island to buy it. The kids played for a little in the sand by the water, and we watched the tall yachts sail in the waters between Granite Island and the mainland shore.
We paid our money to go on the carriage back over the bridge. Peter and Lucy insisted that we went up the top, and then headed to the front corner. Edmund and Susan sat at the back near the stairs with me. We felt sorry for the poor horseto have to pull such a huge weight. Then I drew a breath and exclaimed, “What’s that?”
“A stingray!” Jarrad and Susan responded together after a long pause. We all sat in silence watching the huge grey shape swim around the shallow water. “A penguin!” Susan gasped, as she noticed a small black and white shape bob up for breath. Jarrad, Susan and I kept busy with penguin spotting the rest of the way back over the bridge. We were rewarded with seeing a few more of the birds, and one long grey shape in the water that we couldn’t identify. Spotting penguins while sitting on a horse drawn carriage from a beautiful island is one of those things that made us stop and think about the value of travel!
Everyone was hot and even though we’d had a lovely day, we were exhausted. We all sat on the grass looking over the ocean to eat a gelati before we headed back to the campervan.
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