Marion Bay to Wallaroo

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After several cloudy days we finally woke to some blue sky this morning which was very welcome.

Today we continued around the ‘toe’ of the Yorke Peninsula and then started up the west coast. Our first stop was at Point Annie where we drove straight down towards what we thought was the viewpoint rather than taking the left turn and then driving around to the official parking area. We managed it OK in the MU-X, but Cathy and Steve decided against it in their Subaru. They probably wouldn’t have had the clearance needed as it was pretty rugged. The other disadvantage with the unofficial parking area was that we could only see the rocky bay. When we drove around to the designated parking area we were treated to views of a beautiful sandy beach to the south and the rocky cove to the north!

We continued towards Corny Point via the dusty gravel coastal road stopping in at Berry Bay where we watched a surf school for a while. It looked like it was a school group that had been taken to the baby surf at the southern end of Berry Bay. We watched for a while and saw a couple of the students almost manage to stand up on their boards.

We had been hoping for a great photo op of Corny Point Lighthouse across the bay, but we were just too far away to frame up a decent shot. When we arrived at the road into the lighthouse it was rather disappointing to find that it had a big, fat, orange cherry picker parked alongside with a crew painting the lighthouse!! Timing?! Bernie declared that he would be able to take it out in Photoshop?? But then that would be a lie wouldn’t it?

Despite the cherry picker blight upon the lighthouse we made our way around the corner along another 4WD sort of a track and found ourselves finally able to take the money shot across the water. Ha, ha, we could still see that damn cherry picker even from this angle! Still, it gave Bernie a bit more practice with taking the truck ‘off-road’. Hmmn, not really because the Subaru was able to follow us.

We started heading east and into Corny Point township which was denoted on the map in the same size font as Marion Bay, but was nowhere near as big which meant that there was nowhere for Steve to buy a coffee! Continuing on the unmade roads we tootled along to Burners Beach, Point Soutar and Point Turton.

After Point Turton we were relieved to be back on the bitumen as it had been very, very dusty driving for most of the morning. It wasn’t long before we were on the Yorke Highway heading towards Minlaton, the business centre of southern and central Yorke Peninsula. We ate lunch at the Minlaton Bakery which proved to be quite entertaining. First we had a Border Collie arrive in the shop having slipped its lead because it was desperate to follow after its doggy daddy. Just when we had recovered from that amusement we saw a fellow wander past outside with his blue and yellow macaw on his shoulder! Not something that you see every day.

Minlaton’s other claim to fame is as the home of aviator, Captain Harry Butler. After his service in WWI he purchased a 1916 Bristol monoplane and had it shipped back to Australia. On the 6^th of August 1919, Harry made the first airmail flight to the peninsula in his ‘Red Devil’ which was also notable as the first mail flight over water in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately the National Trust Museum featuring Harry Butler memorabilia was closed this afternoon, but the monoplane display on the outskirts of town could be viewed.

We headed back to the coast again at Port Victoria. When we were at Ardrossan one of the locals told me that we really should do the geology trail at Wallaroo. By the time Bernie was heading back along the Ardrossan Jetty the old salt was telling him that we really should do the geology trail at Port Vincent. Hmmn, he was a bit confused as we had since worked out that it is actually the Port Victoria Geology Trail.

This part of the peninsula was formed by volcanic action nearly 2,000 million years ago! To this day the beach is scattered with two types of volcanic rock, black basalt rocks and pink feldspar porphyry. There are also some bright green rocks that are a mineral called epidote, but there are a no photos of those because we didn’t pick up the trail guide until AFTER we had done the trail and we thought that the bright green rocks had been painted by vandals!! Ha, ha, should have picked up the guide from the foreshore kiosk before we walked the trail rather than afterwards when we were buying ice-cream.

Wardang Island sits just offshore from Port Victoria and played on important role in trying to address Australia’s rabbit problem. It was here that the CSIRO set up a quarantine station to conduct research into the viability of releasing myxomatosis into Australia to curb the rabbit population.

From Port Vincent we made out way up through Maitland and Moonta to Wallaroo. We are basing ourselves in Wallaroo for two nights so that we can explore the Moonta/Moonta Bay, Wallaroo and Kadina triangle near the top of the Yorke Peninsula.



Steps for the day: 13,158 (9.0km)

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