Two River Mouths and an Island.

Being somewhat recovered from our Covid woes but still wanting to avoid crowds lest we inadvertently share the spicy cough, sister and I again left Roger in the lurch and took ourselves off for a day trip down the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Off we went, via tedious Post Office business in Mt Barker and a stop to look at antiques and second hand shops in Strathalbyn. The antiquing was all theoretical, mind you. What with both of us running on Qld time we were prowling the streets of Strathalbyn well before any respectable second hand shops had opened their doors for the day. We looked in a few windows, called it quits, and took ourselves off to Milang via the Strathalbyn bakery because I had inside knowledge about the dire lack of acceptable coffee establishments in Milang and we needed supplies to have with our thermos coffee.

It's nice to see familiar things through someone else's eyes.  Here she is taking in Lake Alexandrina, the opposite shore so far away that it isn't visible from here.

Lake Alexandrina from the jetty.

The sun was warm, the wind was cold.  The pelicans and cormorants had all found somewhere out of the wind.  The fishermen were made of sterner stuff.

 

Sister and I spent a good portion of our young lives paddling, fishing, and generally mucking about in the inland rivers which ran all the way down through Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria to the sea at Goolwa in South Australia. We shared a fascination with the river, so it was with great excitement that we went to the Murray Mouth lookout on Hindmarsh Island, traipsing out across the sand to dabble our fingers in the waters of the Coorong.  

If you look closely you can see fishing shacks at the base of the Coorong sandhills.  They're a short boat ride away from Hindmarsh Island, a 70+km 4wd trip via sand track and salt lagoon.  The law just changed to allow the leases on these shacks to be sold rather than ceasing (along with demolition of said shack) on the passing of the leaseholder.  They pop up for sale now, along with caveats involving the compulsory installation of septic systems and warnings about inaccessibility and the difficulties of maintenance.  Living on the Coorong may be romantic, but is not for the faint-hearted.

Off to paddle.

 

The dredge was at anchor and out in the channel two seals did the dead-seal-float that seals do, wallowing around with one flipper up as if calling for help.  A fisherman, standing waist-deep on the edge of the channel, snorted with displeasure and splashed his way back to shore.  "Not gonna catch a thing with those buggers there!"  I took that to mean he wasn't a fan of seals.

Just doing their thing.

 

Having visited the Murray mouth we swung past my old friend the paddle steamer Oscar W, safely at anchor in its temporary digs while the Goolwa Wharf underwent renovations,

and went out to the barrages which happily lived up to my reckless promises of multitudes of bird life and seals in abundance.

Black swans,

pelicans,

shadow patterns under the walkway,

and seals doing the dead-seal swim.

Seals are the cats of the sea: sleeping in precarious sunny spots,

and bending into pretzels to scratch and groom.

 Oh all right, just one more seal-related video before we continue ...

By the time we got to Victor Harbor another cup of tea was calling

Watching the world wander past on its way to and from Granite Island.

 

and then off we went for our anticipated amble around Granite Island with its elusive promise of Little Penguins.

The penguins were, as usual, invisible but we saw a Buff Banded Rail, which made us happy.

Calm waters of Encounter Bay, shielded by Granite Island.

The Bluff and Encounter Bay from Granite Island.

The not-so-calm side of Granite Island.

 

By the time we had spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get just the right wave photograph we were running out of both steam and time, so it was over the Fleurieu and a quick stop at Silver Sands to appreciate the South Australian penchant for driving any old car up and down the beach with gay abandon. 

The South Australian sand packs hard and firm: any old 2wd can wander down onto the beach.  And if they get stuck there's any number of 4wders more than keen to try out their towing skills.

Don't run over swimmers or pedestrians.

 

Then we had to stop at the Onkaparinga River mouth so that we could boast we had visited the mouth of Australia's largest river system and the mouth of South Australia's largest river and both in the one day too.

South Australia's largest river meets the sea.

 

We went home.  Roger and the cat were both still alive.  We played the nightly Quiddler match.

She beat me.

Again.