A Quick Trip to South Australia with Apollo

January, Australia Day weekend 2020

Wineries, beaches, golden sunsets and good people

Alex and I did a train trip with Journey Beyond on The Great Southern from Brisbane to Adelaide-it was awesome! (Chat about that experience later). I’ve had my eyes on South Australia for a long time and when I found out the train ended in Adelaide, I was stoked! This was the perfect opportunity to spend the long weekend exploring the beautiful south coast. We rented our campervan with Apollo who we also used on our trip in New Zealand. They are incredible and I highly recommend you book with them if you are planning a road trip!

Before you head off on your trip, download the ApolloConnect app. It will make your life so much easier on the road to find campsites as well as popular attractions!

We had limited time (4 days to be exact) so I picked a few of my #bucketlist places that I’ve wanted to see, one of them being the Fleurieu Peninsula!

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To sum up this area, it’s where wineries meet the sea. If you love wine and the salty sea, I recommend you make your way to the Fleurieu. It is only a forty minute drive South of Adelaide. We went to two different wineries, one being the d’Arenberg (thanks for the tip Sera, @photography_byron_bay) and the other one Down the Rabbit Hole. I tell ya, they make some good wine down there! After some short tasting sessions (still have to drive) we headed to the rugged coastline which is insane!

I recommend you visit Port Willunga (where we watched the sunset) and Maslin Beach. If you’re game enough, the surf breaks are sick. Not so much for me, it’s too cold and don’t get me wrong-I LOVE sharks but no thanks.

Fun fact – Maslin beach is Australia’s first LEGAL nudist beach ☀

My favourite part of Port Willy are the man-made caves that you can go in and explore. I’ve never seen anything like it! I read somewhere that back in the day these caves were for fisherman to store there boats and supplies.

The timber pylons are from an old jetty from back in the day.

My favourite part about the south coast was definitely the golden sunsets around 8:30pm. They lit up the sky! I love it when the sun goes down late, gives so much more time to explore.

EYRE PENINSULA

IF you love seafood, you must GO to the Eyre Peninsula! It is worth the drive. The Coffin Bay oysters are amazing! I recommend you check out Oyster HQ located right on the waters edge in Coffin Bay. If you have time, book an oyster farm tour. We didn’t get a chance to but it would have been so cool to pick our own fresh oysters in the water.

If you’re not a huge seafood fan, don’t worry there’s so much more to see and do.

We explored two of the of the national parks in the Peninsula, Lincoln and Coffin Bay National Park. Lincoln is located on the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula, 13 kilometres south west from Port Lincoln. Coffin Bay is roughly 46 km west of Port Lincoln (see map below to get a visual idea). We thought because it was a long weekend the beaches were going to be full but instead there wasn’t a soul in sight (with the exception of emus)

Our time in the national parks were spent beach hopping, so many to see! Do not limit yourself to just one.

Emus! On our way into Coffin Bay National Park, a family of emus came out of nowhere! (on that note: please be careful driving) When we saw our first emu on the side of the main road we were so stoked! Little did we know we were about to see so many more on our adventure. This was definitely a highlight!

Greenly Beach

Only an hour drive from Port Lincoln. This was my favourite part of the trip. Everything about our experience at Greenly beach was amazing. We had the entire beach to ourselves, the weather was perfect, the sunset was epic and we had salty swims in the rock pools! There are pools on both ends of the beach but we spent all of our time on western side (pictured below).

HOW TO GET TO THE POOLS: Don’t miss out on these pools like we almost did! Once you get to the end of the western side of the beach, climb up the rocks (wear proper shoes). Once you get to the top, don’t stop! Continue walking over the rocks and you will see them below. Simple as that!

TIP: Be sure to check the tides. I use the app Willy Weather, it works like a charm! It can be very dangerous in these southern waters, so please be careful!

BE SURE TO FILL UP THE TANK
Most towns have petrol stations but some close early. There is one 24/7 station located in Cummins. Do your research before you hit the road and figure out where you will have to fill up.

Bumbunga Lake

Our last stop on our way back to Adelaide was at Lake Bumbunga. It’s a pink salt lake located on the side of the road on the way to Snowtown. We sent up the drone up and it was so cool! This time of year the salt isn’t as pink due to the bacteria not being able to survive, spring is your best bet. The water salinity was still high enough to see some of the pink. Definitely worth the stop to check it out!

Once we got back to Adelaide, we returned our Apollo van, took an Uber to the ever so popular Glenelg and finished off our journey with some fresh oysters. Our trip was so amazing but it was a tease because there is so much more I wanted to see. I did not want to leave! Guess what just means we’ll have to come back 😉

Places we will visit next time we are in South Australia
☼ Barossa Valley
☼ Kangaroo Island
☼ Port Noarlunga
☼ Farm Beach (a local said this beach is awesome)
☼ Rapid Bay
☼ Cage diving
☼ Swim with dolphins and sea lions
☼ Yorke Peninsula