One of the things that my future in-laws wanted to do while over visiting my mum was to go down to Victor Harbour. From my mum's place it's less than an hour drive south across the Fleurieu Peninsula to the holiday town that is a growing centre and popular retirement location. When I was younger we'd regularly stayed at a holiday house that was in the family, and enjoyed many of the local entertainment venues. I was saddened to learn of the demise of Greenhills adventure park, but am pleased to see that the mini-golf at the start of the causeway is still there, even if it is now $9 a round! My mum, nephew and I played a round anyway, and the course is in good condition at least.
The parks around the coast of the town centre are good, this one has a whale tail fountain in it and the 2 main hotels on 2 of the sides of it
This new sign out on the island is quite nice, and includes the local name for the island
A regular thing of our holidays was always going over to Granite Island, and taking the horse drawn tram over is always fun, so we did that. 2 of our group walked over earlier, and 3 of us walked back, with my mum and fiancee being the only ones to tram both ways, while the future father-in-law walked both ways.
The tram has right of way, and there are signs telling pedestrians to stay outside the yellow lines.
It really isn't that far from the mainland to the island, and is a very comfortable walk on the flat wooden causeway
Out on the island there is quite a bit of development done over how it was before, but most of it is to help protect the environment, and encourage the penguin colony that breeds on the island. Keeping them safe from the people, while still allowing people onto the island is a tough balance that they're working well on. I remember the old days where we'd traipse all over the island on single file 'goat tracks' and could find burrows all over the place. We'd just shine our torches in to see if anyone was home because we didn't know better. Others unfortunately did damage to the burrows and even some of the animals, which has led to many protections for them, as well as a seemingly reduced number using the island as a home. The visitor's centre and information on the island now is very good though, and even during the daytime when there is no chance of seeing penguins, there is a lot of information you can get from a visit.
The tram brings you right along the front of the island to the corner where you can climb the back of the island and view the sea crashing into the back of the island
Another view of the tram, with the women of our group seated upstairs awaiting the trip back to the mainland
We were running short on time (the mini-golf took longer than we expected) and had to get back to town for lunch at the Hotel Victor (probably tomorrow's post).
After lunch mum headed home with my nephew, while I took the rest of us for a tour around the township and coast of Encounter Bay, including a drive up to the Bluff car park for a view over the township and coastline. I was quite pleased to see that Yilky's is still operating, and seems to have expanded from the milk bar that it used to be into the central store of a few food places that all look out over the bay.
The view from the island end of the causeway, across the bay towards the bluff.
and finally a panorama from the bluff car park, which is about 2/3 of the way up it's height, back over the bay
After that our plans for more coastal exploration were cut short with the weather not being great and my fiancee needing to rest. I'd have liked to have driven along the coast to Goolwa, and maybe over to Hindmarsh Island. Both things we used to do quite a bit when I was younger, but time didn't allow for this. As it was we only got home about 10 minutes before the rain arrived.
