River Hindmarsh

Set off to Victor Harbor (no, that spelling upsets me too much) Victor Harbour and granite island.

“Captain Richard Crozier, anchored in the lee of Granite Island at 5.30 p.m. on 26 April 1837, on his way back to Sydney and India. He named the place 'Victor Harbour' (note his original spelling) after his ship HMS Victor, and the Bluff 'Cape Victor.' He also noted the names given by the whalers to the islands - Granite, Wright's and Seal Rock.

In the 1860s when port facilities were established, the name 'Port Victor' came into use. There was ongoing confusion with Port Victoria on the west coast (actually someone wrecked a ship confusing the two ports - oops). Later that year the State government gazetted all South Australian harbours with the spelling 'harbor' - including official reversion of the name to Victor Harbor.” What was the British Government doing? That’s almost akin to becoming a state of America.

Anyway, enjoyed a trip on the horse drawn tram, pulled by Isabella, a beautiful Clydesdale shire horse, across to Granite Island. Elliot, another Clydesdale, should have been doing it, but was sent home with a cough - too much singing.

We had been advised to walk around the island in an anti-clockwise direction so that we ascended by sloped paths and descended by steps. Around the island there is an art trail which was fun but also slightly weird. The granite made beautiful natural rock sculptures. The island is home to a colony of fairy penguins who were all out at sea (literally) catching fish and would return at dusk. We excitedly took some photos of penguin-looking birds at the end of the breakwater, only to find that they were piebald cormorants when we zoomed into the photos ☹️. The island is also a great place to whale-watch during the winter months, must come back and do that sometime.

We then walked around Granite Island, back along the causeway and then set off to Adelaide. We wanted to get to a campsite (No 52) so that we could do some washing. In the last sentence the word “we” should actually read “Bun” 😊. Tomorrow we go off to explore Adelaide, hopefully it will have stopped raining by then, never mind, all part of the adventure.Read more