Wednesday, 29 July 2026
Brrr, this morning it was only 4.5°C (felt like 0.6°C!) when we were having breakfast. Fortunately the sun was shining, so it didn’t seem quite that bad as we packed the truck. We were on the road by 9.15am and crossed the South Australian border at 9.45am AEST. The Western Highway became the Dukes Highway and almost immediately my watch and phone flipped back to 9.15am Australian Central Standard Time. We were in Bordertown before Bernie’s devices updated to South Australian Time. It continues to baffle us that we have the same phones on the same network and yet they can be showing different times in these border areas?!
We stopped in Keith for our first leg stretch to take a photo of the Land Rover on a Pole. The monument was erected by the ‘Keith Area Development Association’ as a tribute to the pioneering spirit and courage of the men and women who participated in the AMP Land Development Scheme. Another plaque recognized the foresight of the Australian Mutual Provident Society in establishing a land development scheme.
In the 1940s, scientists discovered that the key to bringing the Ninety Mile Desert into agricultural production lay in the application of trace elements to the soil. The AMP Society realising the potential of this knowledge, began negotiations with the South Australian Government which led to the purchase of land in the upper south east. The pioneering spirit of the AMP Society and the work and dedication of the settlers brought this area into significant agricultural production.
Although we have stopped here before, we have taken little notice of the small building behind the Land Rover on its pole. Bernie had a look this morning and saw that the building consisted of two bedrooms and a kitchen/dining/sitting room joined by a breezeway. There is not a single word of interpretative information, but we came to the conclusion that these structures must have been pre-fab cottages/shacks that were erected at the camps occupied by the settlers involved in the AMP Land Development Scheme??? We could not think of a better explanation.
After a glorious start to our day, it clouded over and started raining at Tintinara. We soon arrived at the Shell Servo near The Bend Motorsport Park to refuel and take a comfort stop. As we had been driving we were still discussing the route that we would take into Adelaide. As we travelled via Murray Bridge and Mount Barker on the motorway only a month ago, we decided that we had time today to take the scenic route via Strathalbyn.
Just before reaching Tailem Bend, we turned left onto the Princes Highway. Soon after we turned left onto Ferry Road to take the Fleurieu Way. After a few kilometres, Syri was instructing us to take the Wellington Ferry ferry across the Murray River. After a short wait, the ferry arrived on the east side of the river and we were loaded aboard for the short crossing. Reaching the small town of Wellington on the other side of the Murray we continued along the Langhorne Creek Road around the northern shore of Lake Alexandrina. Dammit, we were on the scenic route and I promptly fell asleep!
I woke up just before we reached Langhorne Creek so did get to enjoy some vineyards … and the turf farm … before arriving in Strathalbyn just after 12.30pm. With lots of cafés to choose from, we headed to the Strath Corner Bakery for some lunch. We really only wanted sandwiches and other venues seemed to have much heavier fare on offer. After lunch we took the footbridge over the Angas River, to stroll through the Soldiers Memorial Gardens to take a photo of St Andrew’s Uniting Church.
Resuming our journey, we took Paris Creek Road to head out of town before turning onto Bull Creek Road to arrive in Meadows. We took Dashwood Gully Road up into the hills where we encountered more rain, as we travelled along Kangarilla Road and across the Onkaparinga River at Clarendon. As we headed down out of the hills towards Gulf St Vincent, the sky cleared and it was sunny again. It has certainly been a mixed day weather-wise.
We had the SatNav set to take us to the Marino Rocks Lighthouse and Syri efficiently directed us through suburban streets to the Marino Conservation Park, where we parked the truck before walking the rest of the way to the lighthouse. Hmmn, the lighthouse was not the most picturesque lighthouse that we have ever seen. In fact, these days the lighthouse seems to be more of a telecommunications tower!
Next on our agenda was Glenelg Beach where we planned to buy ice creams to eat by the seaside. We walked back down the hill and clambered into the truck. Hmmn, Bernie says, we’ve got a tyre pressure warning on the dashboard. An inspection of the front passenger side tyre determined that we had picked up a screw in the tread. So, scratch ice creams at the beach, we need to find a tyre repair place ASAP to try to make sure we can get this tyre fixed this afternoon.
Syri guided us to the Bob Jane T-Mark at Marion where things were busy on a Wednesday afternoon. They assured us that they could fix the tyre today BUT, with a full workload booked for the day, they might not be able to get to our tyre until closing time i.e. 5.30pm! The Discovery Park Adelaide Beachfront had sent us a text message to say that reception would be closing at 4.30pm, so Bernie rang to let them know that we probably would not arrive before 4.30pm. They told us that they would be able to put our key in the key safe and would text us the code.
With our accommodation sorted, we headed across Sturt Road to Westfield Marion in search of ice cream. Just because we couldn’t get to Glenelg Beach didn’t have to mean that we couldn’t have ice-cream. We wandered around, found a store directory and we thought we had it sussed where Gelatissimo was located. Nope, when we reached K-mart, we knew we had missed it. Found another store directory and searched again to try to work out where we had gone wrong, ha, ha. Eventually we found the store hidden around a corner near one of the external doors. What an out of the way place to put the ice cream store! Hmmn, I guess eating our ice-creams in the wind tunnel created by the doors opening repeatedly sort of replicated the conditions that we would have experienced down by the sea???
Since we are ‘on the road’ we couldn’t really shop. What if we found something that we really fancied? It’s not like we want to take extra stuff into the desert with us. We did think briefly about going to a movie, but felt sure if we did that we would get a text from Bob Jane fifteen minutes in to say the truck was ready to be picked up. In the end we decided to head back to the T-Mart. We collected our books from the truck and settled in to wait, with The Chase playing on the waiting room TV. When Starlink went offline, Bernie reckoned that the truck must’ve been taken into the workshop. Yay, things were happening.
Eventually, just before 5.30pm, the truck was driven from around the back to the front of the store. We made our way to the desk where we received the best news of the day … NO CHARGE for the repair and the work is guaranteed for the life of the tyre, bring it back if you have any trouble with it. We have no idea how we got away with having the tyre fixed for free? And hopefully now that we have had a flat tyre in the city we will not get a flat tyre in the desert. Fingers crossed.
With a dinner date organised for 6.30pm in Henley Beach we wondered if we had time to go to the Discovery Park before dinner. In the end we motored up to the Discovery Park Adelaide Beachfront (Semaphore Park) arriving at 6.05pm. We quickly hauled a few things into the cabin, used our bathroom and then headed straight back out to the truck for the 12-minute journey down the coast to Henley Park. We were almost on time. Bernie dropped me off to meet Graham and Robyn at Estia Restaurant about three minutes late, while he tried to find a car park.
We missed seeing Graham and Robyn last month when we were in town because our visit clashed with The Showdown between Adelaide and Port Adelaide. It was lovely to have the opportunity to catch up with them this time through and enjoy delicious Greek cuisine with them.
Steps: 9,873 (6.54kms)
