Blogs from Mannum, South Australia, Australia, Oceania

Another cruisey day in more ways than one! We departed from the central bus terminal again, we know it pretty well by now, setting off for Mannum. Cheryl, our driver, filled us in on the roads, government and road rules along the way, as well as historical tidbits. She explained that the parks around Adelaide (laid out by Colonel William Light) are not only the lungs of the city, but are wider than a musket ball shot, so that if there was an attempt at invasion, no one within the CBD could be hurt. We arrived at Mannum and were taken directly to the Proud Mary riverboat. It actually started a four day tour last night, and while the tourists were on a shore excursion today it was filled with our coach load plus some “walk-ons”. ... read more

We have this pack up and move so together it is very simple and no challenge at all. We were on the road by 9:35am, GEE 5 minutes late! But the trip planned was only around an hour so it didn’t matter so much. We travelled along some of the roads we had travelled yesterday in our crisscross of the Barossa Wine trail, but then found ourselves on new roads and a huge water pipe running alongside the road, which is the Mannum – Adelaide pipeline. We arrived at our destination at around 11am, booked in for one night and found out that it is a long weekend here in SA (Adelaide cup) so the parks are expecting a busy weekend or are already booked out. We managed a site for one night with an option ... read more

Hi all We enjoyed our Murray River Cruise on the Murray Princess with Allen and Marijke. Because the water levels are low we were a bit limited in where we could go, but we cruised from Murray bridge to Swan Reach, and they bused us up to Lock 1 at Blanchetown. One day we did a Borossa valley wine trail, just 8 of us in a minibus which was great. had lunch at Chateau Tundra winery, where we had been with Graeme and Margaret before our Simpson desert trip. Yesterday we got off the boat at 9am, and brought Allen and Marijke back to the caravan at Mannum. We then drove them back to Adelaide, via the scenic drive through the Torrens valley. We visited the National Motor Museum, with over 300 vintage, veteran, classic and ... read more

Introduction This week the hikers were lucky enough to have a long weekend to explore a bit further than the Adelaide environs. It was Dan’s turn to pick which walk to do and he had been eyeing off this one in the Adelaide for kids book by James Muecke. It wasn't really a walk at all, but a visit to Mannum minerals, however we were able to couple it together with a few other walks and touristy things while we were visiting the Mannum area. Mannum is about 75 km away from home (as the crow flies) and on the River Murray. From Adelaide, you need to head east, crossing the Adelaide Hills, through Chain of Ponds, Gumeracha, Birdwood and Mount Pleasant. It is then a steep descent through the rocky slopes to the Gum-tree lined ... read more