Day: 0 (11th January 2025)

Football (the round ball version) has been a passion of mine for some time, so along the journey, Sarah too has fallen in, and suffered through many a Melbourne Victory game and indeed season with me.

We’d travelled to away games in Brisbane, seen us lose a Grand Final on the Central Coast, and also win one in Newcastle, but we’d long wanted to make the journey west to Adelaide for an original rivalry clash.

That’s how our trip to Adelaide started, that was its genus.

Then, a couple of months before our trip, we became hikers.

Suddenly, this became a week in South Australia, with the football it’s last hurrah (or footnote?), with a couple of days in the Barossa to be prologue to hiking a stretch of the Heysen Trail, the Wild South Coast Way!

Being January, it promised to be hot, indeed, this is the only section of the 1200km Heysen Trail which remains open over Summer, the rest of its length deemed too dangerous, a combination of fire danger & hydration challenges!

On a sunny January day as Sarah’s mum ferried us to the airport for our mid-morning flight, everything for our hike (minus gas and some fresh food) checked baggage in our hiking packs, anything else we’d need, squeezed into a day pack each as carry on.

As soon as you hit the air in Australia, especially in Summer, you’re reminded of how hot and dry a country we live in, the land below a patchwork of yellowed or brown fields.

The flight itself, only a little under an hour and a half, so it really was criminal neither of us had spent any time in Adelaide before!

We got a glimpse of the Coorong below (for anyone who remembers Storm Boy) then the equally brown Adelaide Hills on our descent, although they at least bore pockets of green trees to break up the brown!

I almost forgot to mention a really damn tasty in flight snack we were handed, a Lemon Myrtle and Blueberry Struesel. I’m normally not the biggest Blueberry fan, but this little thing was good!

We had some mini missions to undertake once we touched down (which was just shy of half past eleven in the morning), all before a 3pm bus down to the Fleurieu Peninsula.

It was most welcome that we didn’t need to purchase any sort of local travel card (looking back home at you Melbourne), with us being able to tap on and off from the public bus we took from the Airport via credit card.

From there, we walked a few blocks to get to the Adelaide Central Bus station (from where the aforementioned bus will depart) where we managed to squeeze our 2 large packs into 1 large locker, and switched out our boots for flip-flops.

Our first mission, was to drop off our day packs with our non hiking clothes, etc at a nearby hotel.

We’d been strategic here, calling them in advance to see if we could leave the bags there, before our booked stay in 6 days time.

First mini mission complete.

The city was building towards hosting the Santos Tour Down Under, so there was cycling boarding everywhere, but we were more interested in getting to the cities most famous promenade, Rundle Mall.

It was here sat a Macpac shop, from where we’d kill 2 birds with one stone.

Get ourselves a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) and some gas for our stove (as you can’t fly with these).

From there, mission 3 was a shoe in. We simply needed to find a supermarket & get ourselves the fresh elements of our hiking pantry.

Cherry Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Cucumber, Spinach and Mountain Flatbread

Final mission complete!

With time to spare, a bonus mission emerged after a lunch of Sushi Hand Rolls…

At 3pm, having whet our thirst, our bus departed on schedule and we began the 2 and a half hour journey south, the early part of which was just dry, Adelaide suburbs.

Eventually, we ditched the burbs, and we hit dry fields, some sea views, mobs of Kangaroos shading themselves in Olive groves, the odd winery here and there, as well as a few old historic towns.

It wasn’t drop dead gorgeous, but it wasn’t boring either.

We mentioned to our driver we were headed to the Cape Jervis Tavern, not the ferry terminal (the bus connects with the ferry to Kangaroo Island), and he was more than happy to stop, and so we were set down there, saving ourselves the trudge back up hill, ready to find our rooms for the night.

We’d booked them in advance, and even though it turned out the rooms were in an old school motel style out the back, we’d booked them through Air BnB.

Nothing fancy, but perfectly serviceable, and with 4 beds, perfect for a couple of pack explosions, ready to be repacked proper for the following day.

The water in Cape Jervis is apparently not potable (drinkable), but Beth who checked us in gave us a couple of large bottles to see us through the night.

After we’d ditched our stuff, it was time to while away some time in the pub itself, which here, straddles that line of community meeting place, service station/general store, watering hole, local takeway and eatery.

We’ve had such great experiences in these sorts of places before, so were really keen to see what South Australia would deliver. We’d also heard this place had a decent Thai menu as well!

We found ourselves a perch at the end of the bar, and ordered our first (ever) West End lagers to cool off on a warm evening.

There were a good mix of locals, a few of whom likely didn’t need another beverage, nor should have been driving to get here, the odd couple or family that must have been staying locally, plenty of fishing inclined folk too.

Beth who ran the place kept the drinks flowing, and us entertained, even kind enough to pull out her coin collection at one point to give us a look.

It was fun watching her do the sums in her head when a small pile of shrapnel, totalling $23.50 was plopped on the bar along with the question “What can I get with this?”

The young gent in question, most certainly wasn’t interested in the food menu, but seemed happy enough with the 6 pack he ultimately received (with the amount he was short, covered from the tip jar)!

When it came time for a meal, we hedged our bets with a local mix of fresh seafood, plus some spicy Pad Grapow.

We’d not known what a Saturday night in Cape Jervis would throw at us, but it was a fun way to spend our last night in a proper bed (for a few days at least).

Continue to Day 1 of our Wild South Coast Way Adventure HERE

* We flew QANTAS from Melbourne to Adelaide, our fares costing us $180.19 per person, on a One Way fare

* Our locker at Adelaide Central Bus station cost us $10 for 3 hours

* Our Personal Locator Beacon hire from Macpac, cost us $45 for 7 days (we didn’t require it for the full 7 days)

* The bus from Adelaide to Cape Jervis cost us $27.00 per person, with tickets purchased in advance via LinkSA

* Our room at the Cape Jervis Tavern (in the motel area) cost us $125.93 for the night via AirBnB