Port Elliot (arrived Mon, 7th March departed Fri, 11th March)

Hi guys, first time blogger here so apologies if it is not as interesting as the previous entries by our resident blogger Jo.

After 4 very relaxing days at Kingston (travelling is hard work) we headed off to the sleepy beachside town of Port Elliot. A great drive through the salt lakes of the Coorong that differed in colour from bright white to brown to fluro pink before crossing over the mighty Murray River (full and flowing freely once again) on a barge that the boys enjoyed and onto our campsite at Horseshoe Bay Port Elliot.

It was 38 degrees when we arrived in the early afternoon so we quickly set up camp and headed to the beach for a swim. The water was cold but refershing and was unfortunately our last swim here as the weather turned quite chilly and remained that way until the day we left.

The boys couldn't have cared less as they were totally lost to the jumping pillow in the campground on which they spent considerable time just jumping away.

We managed to entice the boys away to explore the surrounding area which usually started or finished with a stop at the Port Elliot bakery which is well worth a visit if you are ever in town.

Our first excursion was a trip to the historic Port town of Goolwa on Lake Elizabeth at the mouth of the Murray River. It has a quaint old town centre and some of the old paddle steamers that used to be the main form of transport up and down the Murray River were on display. I was the only one to see them as no one else was interested in getting out of the car that day (it was raining and cold). Not even old faithful (Archie) could be persuaded to come with me.

The following day the sun came out for a few hours so we wandered down to The Flying Fish Cafe for lunch as recommeded to us by a couple (John and Joce) we met at Port Campbell who thanks to Jo's continual questioning became a wealth of tourist information regarding their homestate of South Australia. The food was excellent and we enjoyed the views out over the bay. The weather turned as we were finishing up and we walked back in light rain and the boys went and jumped on the jumping pillow for the rest of the day.

Our final day at Port Elliot we spent down at Victor Harbour which is a favoured destination for those living in Adelaide. We had a great day wandering out across the boardwalk to Granite Island and watching dolphins round up schools of fish and herding them towards shore before feasting, seals frolicking in the water and a special sneak viewing of the fairy penguins at the research centre. The boys enjoyed an ice cream with sprinkles which caused great excitement and was probably what they remember most about the day. We finished the day with a mandatory stop at the bakery followed by a couple of hours on the jumping pillow (at least it wore them out each day).

I managed to go for a run and fell for the old first up syndrome. I felt quite good so I went further than I should have and still feeling good I followed it up with some push ups and sit ups. I would like to say I did a lot but sadly it was only a few before my body just said no to anymore of this craziness and refused to allow me to raise myself up off the ground no matter how hard I tried.

I think I better stick to the slow walk that I have perfected over the last 7 weeks.

We packed up camp (the boys had one last jump on the jumping pillow) and we are now off to the big smoke.....Adelaide.