You would think that after our alarm clock issues over the past couple of days, we would have things well and truly sorted on that front. Sadly, if you were to think this you couldn’t be further from the truth, as was evidenced by this mornings ordeal on the awakening front. A plan had been formulated and cemented in place last night, which would have seen us getting up at about 8:45AM, packing everything up, then be on the road by 10:00AM.

Instead of waking to the dulcet tones of my alarm though, it was to the panicked screeching of Bec loudly proclaiming that we had slept in, as I was bodily shoved out of the bed. I glanced at my watch through bleary eyes, seeing that we had indeed slept in by a trifling 5 minutes or so. It wasn’t until the persistent urging of Bec woke me further, that I realised the error in our ways was more to the tune of an hour and 5 minutes. We now had barely 10 minutes to go until the clock struck 10:00AM, the time that we were not only meant to be starting our days trek, but also the time by which we were obligated to be checking out of the caravan park.

The hustle was feverish as we hurriedly bustled about completing in 35 minutes what would usually take us an hour to accomplish. It was such a rush I spent the most of the morning praying that we had missed nothing. I could just see us trekking down the road dragging a bouncing, errant hose or electrical cable, still obdurately attached to the side of the van.

For our inadvertent sleep in and subsequent hurry, we managed to hit the road at a still respectable 10:25AM, bound for Victor Harbour. Only a matter of 80Km south of Adelaide, it was to take us an inordinately lengthy 1½ hours as we struggled slowly through traffic, along clogged roads. It would seem that the South Australian roads corporation don’t believe in multi-lane freeways and byways, thus we were relegated to coursing through the streets surrounding the city in an effort to purge ourselves from the southern environs of the metropolis.

As the city transmogrified into the pretty suburbs and then into neat green farm land, the drive became rather picturesque. Surrounded by fields, as we rolled up and down mild hills and the occasional juice sucker, we eventually found ourselves faced by ever increasing signs for the beachside town of Victor Harbor.

Prior to reaching the town centre, we pulled off of the main road for a quick pit stop at the Alexandrina Cheese Factory. Considering our unfortunate lack of time to have breakfast this morning, toothpicks topped with little chunks of cheese, didn’t go anywhere near satiating my hunger, although I sure as hell gave it a good go.

The township of Victor Harbour was next on our itinerary, where we found it to be a bustling town. Crowds of people were relaxing in the gardens in the main square, or enjoying the carnival atmosphere of a little sideshow alley which adorned the foreshore. I think the pleasant weather combined with it being a long weekend might have seen a substantial increase in population, but it gave the town an air of busyness.

Luckily, we were able to utilise the specified caravan parking area, although it only gave us a half an hour to have a quick look about the environs of the main township. After that, we drove around looking for a suitable spot to park again, this time closer to an antique shop we had read about. Other than the couple of caravan friendly parking spots near the beach, we found the remainder of Victor Harbour to be somewhat unfriendly towards lengthy vehicles such as ours.

A series…

…of views…

…around…

…Victor Harbour.

That said, we managed to squeeze into a space bordered by a couple of driveways, which we only just managed to not impede to any great extent, while we went for a quick browse of the antique shop. Crammed full of goodies, we carefully wove a route between the piles of goods, trying our hardest not to knock anything over.

With nothing of interest caching our eye, it was time to continue our drive towards our ultimate destination for the day, a little campground on the side of the road at Langhorne Creek.

On the way, we made a further stop at Middleton, where we took a scenic drive along the esplanade in the hope of spotting a whale or two. We were out of luck this afternoon however, the whales that had been observed earlier this morning obviously having already moved onward. We were to do the same, but stumbled across yet another antique shop that beckoned to our sensibilities as well as another arts and crafts store which had Bec all aflutter. It was only a quick stop, before we were again onward bound.

We then continued on our journey through scenic pastures and farmland, until we came to the hamlet of Langtree Creek, the site of our intended stop over for the evening. We had a choice of either this camping area, or another that was a further 200Km down the road towards Robe. It was already 3:30PM by the time we arrived here, which we figured was late enough to call it a day, while still being early enough to have a relaxing afternoon.

Parked up for the evening beneath a shady grove of trees, a plan was hatched to crack open a bottle of wine, before sitting outdoors to enjoy the atmosphere. We changed this plan slightly to cracking open a bottle of wine before relaxing indoors, on account of the mosquitoes that were otherwise feasting on our blood.

Nonetheless, a beguiling afternoon was had as the sun sunk slowly down, taking the warmth with it, leaving us to huddle beneath the bed clothes to watch some tele.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.