Travel
Join us on our debut motorhome trip to South Australia
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Dreaming of picking up a motorhome and blasting off to see the natural beauty of South Australia? Leonie did it!
By Leonie Jarrett
The world works in mysterious ways. We had a trip coming up that we had planned to be our first motorhome pottering around the Sunshine Coast. However, Tropical Cyclone Alfred had other plans - so, at the eleventh hour, we switched our itinerary to South Australia. We figured it was time to replenish the wine stocks anyway!
My husband and I recently bought a 2023 Jayco Conquest with the plan of exploring more of Australia on the road. We plan to take short trips, store the motorhome wherever we end up and fly home to Melbourne. This way, whenever we’re ready we simply fly back to where we stored the motorhome and resume our exploring.
In this way, we think we won’t suffer cabin fever, get bored or be homesick. We didn’t know it when we bought the motorhome but we are going to be grandparents later in the year (yayyyyy!!!!!!) so it is even more important to us that we are not away for too many long stints.
Anyway, I digress! Our first fun dilemma was to name our motorhome. My husband and I settled on “Vandie,” a combination of our names with a “V” for van at the beginning.
Mildura (meaning “red earth”)
Our first day was a drive to Mildura from Melbourne. We only had two nights and one full day to spend here, which was enough time to drive down the beautifully landscaped main street, Deakin Avenue, where Canary Island date palms adorn the streetscape.
We also visited Orange World but not enough time to do much else. We had taken our kids to Orange World on an earlier trip to Mildura, some fifteen years ago and had fond memories so we returned. We had a fun and educational train ride through the orchard over the red earth and we bought a bag of oranges. More on those oranges in a bit.
We hadn’t figured out if everything on Vandie worked before we left Melbourne (a bit silly in retrospect) but, luckily, everything did. Especially lucky that the air-conditioner worked- a blessing - as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees for that first week.
We stayed in caravan parks every night of this trip, starting with the BIG4 Red Cliffs Caravan Park (a town just out of Mildura). One of the joys of staying in a caravan park is friendly people to chat to if you are in the mood for a yarn. That first night we chatted to a lovely couple from England who had hired a motorhome (never having driven one before) from Sydney to Adelaide. It was the last night of their motorhome experience and they were loath to say farewell to it. Husband and wife were genuinely debating whether they should buy a motorhome back in England but, as they said, it’s just too cold in England!
For British adventures without a van check out these holiday hotspots.
Van-enthusiasts beware!
The next day we were off to McLaren Vale. Since we entered South Australia from our home State of Victoria, we noticed signs to bin all our fresh fruit and vegetables. We didn’t have much but we did have that brand new bag of oranges. We thought about it but decided to do the right thing and bin it. Just as well because after queuing for thirty minutes at the Yamba Quarantine Station, the officer asked to inspect our fridge and pantry!
We stopped at Angove’s in Renmark as my husband and mother-in-law had worked for Angove’s in Melbourne for years. We bought a port and a couple of mini sparkling wines and finally arrived in McLaren Vale that evening. Most of the day was through arid country in 41-degree heat so we were glad to arrive in a seeming oasis that evening at the McLaren Vale Cabin & Caravan Park.
We learnt two important logistical van lessons that day. First is we can’t drive as far in Vandie as we would in our normal car so we need to allow for shorter drives. Second is that we need to carry AdBlue (a diesel exhaust fluid). The gentleman who sold us Vandie had talked about AdBlue but he’d talked about so many things that we clearly didn’t pay proper attention.
Well, we paid attention when Vandie lost speed suddenly and wouldn’t travel more than about seventy kilometres per hour. Thank goodness for Google and a service station that sold auto products. We found out later that Vandie had gone into “limp home” mode. Had we completely run out of AdBlue and turned off the engine, it would not have restarted! Eek! Crisis averted through dumb luck and about five litres of AdBlue!
Checking what your vehicle needs prior to setting out on a road trip can keep you out of a pickle. Especially if you have an electric vehicle.
McLaren Vale via Renmark
We spent two lazy days at McLaren Vale wineries. First up was Mollydooker Wines where we paired a wine tasting with a “Molly” charcuterie platter. I learnt that “mollydooker” is Aussie slang for a left-hander!
The winery was started by a husband and wife pair and two of the Mollydooker red wines are named after their children: “Gigglepot” for their daughter and “Blue Eyed Boy” for their son. Having two blue-eyed boys ourselves, we had to buy two bottles!
The Mollydooker Cellar Door sits in a gorgeous, elevated position looking over vines and mountains and the d’Arenberg Cube. It couldn’t be a more scenic spot to sit.
The next day was spent at the d’Arenberg Cube. We started with a Premium Wine Tasting high on Level 4. Kobie, studying to be a viticulturist and an oenologist, was our guide. This was the start of my vocabulary lesson for the day- adding “Viticulturist”, “Oenologist”, “athazagoraphobiac” and “cenosilicaphobic” to my wine vocab bank.
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The Cube is the dream of the current owner and winemaker at d’Arenberg, Chester Osborn. He wanted to create a cube-shaped building, inspired by the puzzles and complexities of winemaking. We were told that the building took fifteen years to get through Council approvals. Now that’s determination!
Both the interior and exterior of the Cube are quirky to say the least. If you visit, make sure you check out the toilets. There is a riddle instruction to find the entrance to the women’s toilets – “Find the knob and push the bush.” My lips are sealed.
We had a fabulous lunch outside on the terrace at d’Arry’s Verandah Restaurant. The Fleurieu lamb was to die for!
If wineries are your thing, check out these hotspots in the Hunter Valley.
Port Elliot - a beachside gem
A short drive of about forty kilometres and we arrived at our beachside BIG4 Port Elliot Holiday Park. We are new to this caravan park caper but wowee do they occupy some choice real estate!
Vandie’s spot was right beside the sand dunes so we could hear the waves plus we were only a short stroll from town.
We loved Port Elliot. We expected a pretty beach (South Australia is spoiled for choice in the beach department) but there is also a historic town here. The Port Elliot Bakery (our go-to for morning coffee) has been operating since 1860 and there are several historic buildings along the pretty main street, The Strand.
As you’d expect in a historic town, there are a few pubs too! We ate in the beer garden of the Hotel Elliot watching an AFL match on a big screen and happily meandered to our holiday home on wheels.
On our last morning in Port Elliot, we ate breakfast at Flying Fish, a café on the beachfront of the glorious, sheltered Horseshoe Bay. We admired a group of daily ocean swimmers as we lazily sipped our cappuccinos!
Kangaroo Island capers
Next was “the main event” of the trip – Kangaroo Island (or KI as it is locally known). A forty-five-minute drive took us from Port Elliot to Cape Jervis where the SeaLink KI ferry departs. Note – there is nothing in Cape Jervis apart from the ferry terminal. Also note that, if you are taking a vehicle onboard, you reverse on at each end and the vehicles are crammed in like sardines. New ferries are coming and they will be “drive on, drive off” but, until then, taking a vehicle onto the KI ferry requires confidence with backing a vehicle.
The ferry trip is easy – about fifty minutes and both our crossings were smooth. The only minus was the cost. As we had booked at the last minute, it cost us $700 return. (That did include the cost of our eight-metre-long motorhome). Ouch! Lesson learned - book in advance.
We booked into the Seafront Holiday Park for five nights. This caravan park overlooks lovely, family-friendly Hog Bay in Penneshaw. On our first morning, we watched the sunrise and dolphins frolic! On our last morning, a kangaroo hopped out of a saltbush and across the sand right in front of us!
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The caravan park was also a short walk to the ferry terminal and the town of Penneshaw. Penneshaw has everything you need – cafés, a very well-stocked IGA supermarket and a pub. A bonus is that the pub has an outdoor terrace with clifftop views over the water to mainland Australia.
We had never been to KI before so we wanted to explore. We didn’t want Vandie to travel on unsealed roads and the distances on KI are vast so bikes are not an option. We hired a car and an option was an electric vehicle - another first for us.
Not having done much research (as this trip was very much last minute), we were pleasantly surprised at how much there is to do on KI. Firstly, there are glorious beaches everywhere. Some are family-friendly like Hog Bay, some much rugged like Pennington Bay, some you can drive onto like Emu Bay.
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We didn’t expect the “local maker” scene to be so vibrant. We visited a bee farm, a gin distillery, a eucalyptus oil distillery (that was a first for us!), a winery and a brewery. All offered tours or tastings and most offered food – there is no shortage of something to do, see and learn on KI.
For us, the highlight, though, was the wildlife. Starting with a surprise visit from the dolphins on our first morning, our next wildlife encounter was a colony of sea lions at Seal Bay. From a boardwalk and lookout, we saw sea lions in their natural habitat sleeping on the sand and even saw one suckling from its mum – a treat!
At Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, we patted koalas and fed kangaroos! It was the stuff of dreams.
We saw kangaroos in the wild too. At Cape Willoughby Lighthouse, for example, there were roos everywhere, mainly sheltering in the shade under the trees. Unfortunately, we saw a lot of dead kangaroos by the side of the road – wildlife is a driving hazard on KI.
For wildlife lovers check out these volunteer experiences to help our native wildlife.
All too soon, it was time to reverse Vandie back onto the ferry and make our way back to Melbourne. Vandie is resting now, ready for her next adventure. And we’ll make sure to carry AdBlue with us on future trips!
Want to follow in Leonie’s footsteps? Check out her accommodation for this trip below:
Feature image: Leonie Jarrett
Tell us in the comments below: Have you ever slept in a motorhome? Did you like it?
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