Apr 9, Goolwa, Port Victor, McLaren Vale

We walked around Goolwa a bit. It was settled by Scots and some of the old homes are little stone cottages like you might find in Scotland. It was a nice town with old sandstone buildings. It was also the first town outside of Europe to become a Cittaslow city. It's called the slow living movement to maintain the unique characteristics of the town and preserve the quality of life for its people.

Down the road a bit was Port Elliot, another little ocean resort town. It was built around Horseshoe Bay, a beautiful sheltered ocean beach.

Victor Harbor was a larger resort area, that once was a whaling station and a center for shipping agricultural goods. We spent a long time talking to Vinny at the information center. He was a wealth of information, not only for Victor Harbor, but for the place we'll be going in the coming weeks. Lots of tips on what to see and not to see. The information centers are very impressive here.

We walked across the causeway to Granite Island. There was a horse drawn tram across the causeway, but we needed the exercise. There were granite formations around the island and wonderful views of the ocean. It is also a place where little penquins breed, but they only come ashore at night. The town had a Whaling Center and we learned about the different kinds of whales. I didn't know there were so many. The whale that migrates to this area is the right whale. It was called that because it was the right whale to hunt. It's a fairly slow whale with lots of blubber and it floats when harpooned. Whaling has been illegal since the 1980s.

While on the walk, we stopped to talk to Bruce, who had just come back from the west coast of the US. He also had good tips for us - like, in the outback - never pass a gas station and if your car breaks down, stay with it. He and his wife want to go back to the States and visit New Orleans and we had some tips about that.

We went through Mt Compass and Willunga. Stopped in McLaren Vale where we bought some almonds; toffee coated, smoked and chocolate covered. They also had almonds that were Thai chili, tiramisu, cinnamon covered and on and on. They sold something called dukkah, which was chopped nuts with spices. To eat it, we dipped bread in olive oil and then into the spiced nuts. There was traditional and spicy. The traditional had a middle eastern taste, very good. The sales lady thought the idea came from Egypt. Background music in the shop was zydeco!

More driving brought us to Belair Natl Park just south of Adelaide and we were tired so we got a campsite here for the night.

Pictures - Stone Cottage in Goolwa, Samson & Whale Sculpture, Jeanne on Granite Island, Tram Pulled by a Clydesdale