Day 23 – Victor Harbor

This morning we encountered quite a bit of rain, for only really the second time on this trip (the first time being the Penguin Parade night on Phillip Island). The forecast was showing a bit of rain around, but really only patchy. So we donned our rain jackets and wandered off down the street toward the Victor Harbor foreshore.

Really the only thing we’d had pre-organised for Victor Harbor was to head across to Granite Island (known as Kaiki to the Ramindjeri people) via their Horse Drawn Tram. That kicked off from 10:30, so before then we were just going to wander around, and perhaps drop in on the Visitor Information Centre. That plan rapidly changed when the patchy rain became a downpour! It seemed as though the Horse Drawn Tram would probably be a bit late starting – but none of the locals thought the rain would stick around long. In fact, the lady behind the desk at the Tramway gift shop did say that (as far as she was aware), they’ve never had to delay the tram for rain before!

We trudged quickly through the downpour over to the Visitor Information Centre which was now, thankfully, open. It’s located in a beautiful old building, which included a huge cellar one level down. What they’ve now built in that cellar space is a whale discovery centre – the South Australian Whale Centre. Given there really wasn’t anything else to do without getting wetter, and the admission was only $20, we decided to head down and kill some time there waiting for the weather to clear up. It was a well put together centre, with plenty of info about different whale types, and how we can work to protect them – interestingly, there’s also a lot of information on Sea Shepherd and their voyages over the years as well. The kids were kept well entertained by a pretend fossil dig that they loved, and watching a few different videos around the place as well.

We emerged back out on to the street a bit after 11 – and sure enough, the rain had well and truly passed and it was blue sky almost everywhere! We headed back over to the Horse Drawn Tram on the foreshore. The tram is a beautiful two storey tram – open seating up the top, and a fairly comfy enclosed cabin underneath. As the tram pulls in, they unbuckle the Clydesdale, and walk him around to the other end of the tram for the next journey. There were two beautiful Clydesdales working today – Albert was on the morning shift, and then Scotty would be doing the afternoon journeys.

The trip over to Granite Island took about 15 minutes or so, at a really nice pace to watch everything pass you by. Once we jumped off the tram, we had a look around at what was there – to be honest, there isn’t heaps. But that’s fine, and that is also what makes it special. There’s a really nice looking cafe / kiosk where the tram comes in, and some toilets, but I’m fairly sure that’s all there is in terms of infrastructure.

What we spotted though, was the loop walking track that takes you right around the island. We had no other plans, and lunch in our backpacks, so that was the perfect thing to do over the next 45 minutes or so. The track essentially starts by climbing up from the shoreline onto the top of the island. It heads over to the far side, where you get some amazing views out into the Bight (albeit, very windy). And it then starts to head back around to the bay-side of the island, and gradually works its way down to the shore level and meets up with where the tram comes back over. As we finished the walk, Albert was on his way back onto the island on his next journey, and so the timing was perfect to jump back on and head to the mainland.

Earlier in the day, a guide at the Visitors Information Centre had given us a tip about a bike hire place just on the foreshore of Victor Harbor. And there is a really long bike path that essentially covers all of Encounter Bay – not that we were going to be doing all of it, but the ride from Victor Harbor down to the Bluff at the end of Encounter Bay was doable in an hour!

So we hired us some e-bikes! Well, most of us – unfortunately, there wasn’t an e-bike at Alexander’s size. So he and Debbie went with regular bikes, while Daniel, Eliza and I all took e-bikes. The ride was really flat, so Alexander didn’t feel too left out without an e-bike. We had a great ride along the foreshore – it was smooth, and really quiet all the way. There was a really steep climb up to the Bluff lookout at the end, but definitely worth it for the view. Unfortunately, by that time, we were getting to the halfway point of our hire time, and so we didn’t get to stay for too long to enjoy the view.

Another tip we picked up along the way today was for dinner tonight – a beautiful Italian restaurant in the centre of Victor Harbor called Nino’s. Apparently they had a brilliant kids’ menu… and the tip turned out to be spot on. The kids enjoyed a really decent choice of meals – more than just the usual nuggets and fish & chips: proper meals that were just smaller versions of some of the pastas and pizzas on their menu! Plus a drink, plus a HUGE scoop of gelato for dessert. $14.50 each. Ridiculous. And their servings were pretty huge for them – Daniel’s pizza was about 3/4 the size of Debbie’s “adult” pizza… and he couldn’t finish it! For Daniel, that’s a big deal – he often doesn’t want the “kids meal” when we go out because he’s still hungry afterwards. Debbie and I enjoyed really nice meals too. Just a perfect meal out to finish the time in Victor Harbor.

I know I write this almost every day – but tomorrow is exciting: we head onto Kangaroo Island!