Exploring the Yorke Peninsula

 Whilst we had more rain overnight (hopefully enough to get farmers excited), we wake to clear skies and little cloud. Today we hope to drive South to see some of the Peninsula, and enjoy some of the local cuisine.

Our cabin is right on the waterfront and we can see the ferry getting ready to head to Lucky Bay. It is a lot smaller than I had imagined and looks like it can't carry a lot of vehicles, perhaps hence the high charge.


Our Cabin


The ferry leaving this morning for Lucky Bay

Todays plan is to gert a good overview of theYorke Peninsula, driving South in the direction of Stansbury, via Port Vincent, then to Yorketown, Point Turtin and the back North via Minlaton, Maitland, a detour through Moonta Bay and back to Wallaroo. What seemed like a good idea turned out to be about a 300 km drive. Nevertheless we saw some interesting country and had some great food. We also discovered thsat on the Yorke Peninsula, silo art has been replaced by water tank murals. Our first experience of this was at Port Vincent.




Port Vincent coastline

Other than a nice beach, there wasn't a lot else to see at Port Vincent, so we pushed on further South to Stansbury where there is supposed to be a large oyster farm and a nice restaurant for lunch. The Oyster farm outlet turned out to be based on a farm lot, well away from the ocean, and it was closed and had bits of oyster cages and equipment scattered around on the ground. A quick check on the internet shows the business is for sale.

Our luck was better with our choice of lunch restaurant, Dalrymple, which was located along the shoreline with great views and excellent food.






Lobster sliders, Thai green curry chicken and prawn spring rolls, and prawn and ginger dumplings

As an added bonus, we collected another photo of a painted water tower on the way out of town.


There was also a beach very popular with black swans, and if the signs were any indication, looked like a good crabbing spot.




We have come as far South as we wished, as it is another 70 km to the bottom of the Peninsula and time seems to be getting away from us, so we head west to Yorketown, in the centre of the peninsula.

As we enter town it is hard to miss the water tower, where the artist here seems to be paying homage to the wheat industry. Not surprising really, as without wheat, there isn't much else on the Yorke Peninsula.


In the main street we find a nice cafe, have a cup of coffee and move on the the West Coast to investigate a place called Point Turtin. Some fellow travellers we had spoken to in pubs raved about this place as a holiday destination, and the transportable cabin we stayed in at Willow Springs originated from here, so our curiousity is well founded.

It is a much bigger place than we expected, very scenic, a fits the bill as a place to have a holiday home, or bring a caravan.


This secluded beach seemed popular with fishermen


Of course there is a jetty





And a nice safe harbour for launching and retrieving small boats


On a piece of prime real estate above the jetty and harbour is a large caravan park with many sites with great waterfront views.



Leaving Point Turtin we head North along the Western side of the Peninsula through never ending acreages of harvested wheat farms, and the occasional sighting of sheep or other livestock. I many instances it is a bumpy ride, as whilst the roads are bitumen, they haven't seen alot of love for a long time. Even through the main streets of larger towns like Maitland, it is a rough ride.

Our last stop before Wallaroo, is Moonta, a sister town to Wallaroo only around 15kms south.

We drive down to Moonta Bay, which is dominated by the jetty.


A little beach next to the jetty where a family are enjoying a coffee






It is an impressive jetty with a lot of fishermen trying their luck


it is time to return to Wallaroo as it is approaching 5 pm and we have a dinner booking for 6.30pm. We are home by 5.15pm.

Dinner tonight is just a short walk to main street to what is claimed to be the best restaurant in town, The Bond Store. Craft Brewery, distillery and fine restaurant, it is reasonably busy when we arrive and slowly fills up to be very busy. There are lots of staff and both service and food is very good.

We tried their local quandong and blood orange gin, which was very nice. The food menu was tapas style and we had a good selection of tasty small plates.


Microbrewery



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