Day 56 - Wednesday 22 February - Surrounds of McLaren Vale

DAY 56

WEDNESDAY

22 February 2017 –  Finished my book “The Last Anniversary” By Liane Moriarty. This was another easy read with an enjoyable cast of characters who keep the book ticking along.

Onkaparinga National Park – Port Noarlunga – McLaren Vale

The wind came in strong and fast last night, causing the tree we were parked under to scrape wildly across the top of the van, dropping nuts and keeping us awake.  By 8.15, Paul had had enough and wanted to move the van over, so we needed to move some things outside and secure things inside before he did a big loop and parked away from the trees reach.

Now that we were up we figured we should make the most of the day so we grabbed our things and headed to Onkanparinga National Park to walk the Gorge trail, a 4km loop that was supposed to take two hours, but only took us an hour and 10min. We enjoyed the lookout, spying the Onkaparinga River Below with the natural bushland and vineyards splayed out over the rolling hills.  The walk itself was pretty average, with nothing of real note to see and I was glad to get back to the car.

We returned to the ocean, stopping in at Port Noarlunga to take in the ocean views and the jetty. There were some people attempting to fish, but no one catching anything. We walked through the little town enjoying the little food shops and deciding we would come back for dinner.

Once back at the car, we drove to South Port Noarlunga and parked overlooking the river mouth and beach, where we had lunch before driving down to the river and walking the foot bridge over to South Beach and back. We watched the large bream swim around the pylons and a family attempting to catch their share.

By the time we were back at the car, Paul was ready for a beer so we navigated to Red Poles in McLaren Vale where he could try a tasting paddle of Fox Hat Brewery Beers and a paddle of McLaren Vale Brewing Company beers. When he was done it was time to head back for nap.

We spent a long time sitting around and recovering from our poor night’s sleep. 6pm rolled around before we knew it. We figured we should walk before dinner, so we drove down to Seaforth Beach and walked the cliff path south to Moana before returning. The water looked no where near as inviting as it had yesterday with the surfers taking advantage of the rolling swells and the kite surfers enjoying the strong breeze.

We soon worked up an appetite and were happy to get back to the car and head on to Ampika Thai restaurant in Port Noarlunga. This place overlooks the beach and jetty and was a lovely place to stop for the evening and enjoy some really good Thai food, even if it was on the pricey side. Guess we were paying for the views too.

Our bellies were certainly full by the time we finished our meal and we felt the need to roll home. Instead it was in the car and back to the caravan park to have a quiet and restful night ahead of our day tomorrow.