All Posts in Order: Lions and Lakes 2015, it's a wrap.

 

Aldgate Providore

Part One: Aldgate for a Spanish brunch, Mount Lofty lights up with fall colors, and the sun sets over Clayton Bay

Sailboat at Clayton Bay

Part Two: Dawn at Milang, Breakfast at Clayton Bay, English 'dry stone walls' at Callington, then -- lions and zebras and bison, oh my!

Lioness at Monarto

Part Three: Destination: Monarto! Lions, giraffes, meerkats ... on safari in South Aus

Mobilong Lookout, Murray Bridge

Part Four: Monarto to Murray Bridge, and on to Milang

Waterbirds on Lake Alexandrina

Part Five: "Birding" at Milang, breakfast at Wellington, on a glorious morning

Rusticana Wines, Langhorne Region

 









 Part Six: Rusticana Wines and on to Goolwa -- seals, black swans and pelicans on the barrages

"Birding" at Milang, breakfast at Wellington, on a glorious morning

The railway used to come to Milang in the days when this was a busy freight port. The track is disused now...

...the station and remaining cars are a standing exhibit, with Devonshire Ceam Teas serves on Sundays!
You find historic railway exhibits in many rural places, often with a retired steam locomotive.

Main street Milang in the early morning light: the wetlands and lake are on the right...

Milang wetlands; main street is right behind you.

The long jetty, where barges and paddle boats would unload freight. The old crane is still in place.

A brilliant morning on Lake Alexandrina. It'd be a great day for sailing.

The view from the jetty to Paddlesteamer Drive.

Lake Alexandrina -- the shoreline, with Paddlesteamer Drive just ahead. A major caravan park is on the right.

Paddlesteamer Drive in all its glory. For years, Alexandrina Council tried to get rid of these "shacks," but
the folks who live and/or holiday down here are grandfathered in. Well, would you sell out?!

Pelicans next in the reedbeds opposite the shoreline -- see two pictures above.

Gulls, egrets and pelicans gather on the short jetty ... on your doorstep, if you live on Paddle Steamer Drive.

Turn around, look in the other direction: the sky is changing.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s Milang was as busy with trade as today it's drowsy and laid back with
boaties, fisher folk and people like us just staying overnight to share the peace and quiet.

Where you find water, you find gnats, and where you find gnats -- swallows. These are welcome swallows,
common in all coastal and watery areas in South Australia.

Welcome swallows are tiny and rarely sit still. Lucky to get this shot!

Lake Alexandrina is one of the best places in this region for "birders," and especially camera-happy birders. We sometimes try the Goolwa Bird Hide, which is a timber shed with benches and long windows, nestled in the reedbeds just short of the Coorong; but in a half dozen visits we've yet to get really good pictures. The reason is, the water is a long way off, and the birds usually so distant, they're specks in your camera lens.

At Milang, quite a number of birds are not so shy of humans. They'll hang out on the shore and jetties, and it's fairly easy to get good pictures. One of these days I'd like to go to the Bird Hide with a massive 1000mm lens attached to a DSLR camera, on a glorious blue-sky day. But till then, Milang and, just up the shore, Clayton, are the places to be.

The plan was, we'd hit the road early and head over to Wellington for breakfast. And here we go...

The Old Courthouse is exactly that: the original 19th century building that was once used as a lockup and regional
court. Its recently been renovated with B&B rooms added, while the original building houses a museum...

In the middle of the Courthouse facilities was the most fantastic indoor/outdoor courtyard dining facility.
We absolutely loved this ... sad to say, when the building/business changed hands a year or so later, the new
owners redesigned everything. It's not like this any more. Dang. See the sunny archway? Go through it, and --

--you find yourself on the lawns behind the building, with a view of the car ferry. The ferry runs about every ten
minutes, and its free. Across the Murray River is Tailem Bend, and the Duke's Highway.

Above: As you eat breakfast, look out over the river at the flocks of cavorting little corellas which swarm around Wellington by the thousands. Earplugs might be a good idea. These guys are loud even one at a time, and when you get a hundred ... whoa. (Pictures uploaded at full size: click on them to view.)

Back to the courtyard for breakfast, which ought to be just about ready by now --

There's little to add to the picture captions! Milang in the morning light was glorious -- though it was rather cold, which you can't tell from these images. The day warmed up rapidly, however, and by the time we were in Wellington it was almost hot.

The Wellington Courthouse is a great cafe/B&B, with a nice line in breakfasts and a fascinating local history musem. We haven't used the B&B yet, since we always stay about 45 minutes up the road at the Milang Lakes Motel, but we've had breakfast at Wellington Courthouse many times. It's a great place to stop and fuel up for the day before taking the ferry over to Tailem Bend. Must do the B&B there one day.

Today, we were just meandering, and birding. The whole object was to see what species we could find and photograph, and we lucked out on the shore of Lake Alexandrina, as you see above!

After breakfast we were headed for Rusticana at Langhorne Creek, and the Goolwa Barrages, and then we'd swing home in a northbound loop via Mount Compass. One more post will wrap up this trip!

Monarto to Murray Bridge, and on to Milang

Gazelles at Monarto Wildlife Park ... probably heading off to a feeding point. It's getting along to mid-late
afternoon, and we're starting to think about afternoon tea ourselves!

A zebra heads determinedly along a guide fence ... tea, anyone?!

Prezwalski's horse: almost extinct in the wild, and thriving at Monarto.

American bison against a backdrop of native Australian trees -- how surreal is this! Cool, though.

American buffalo ... molting in an Australian fall. How do they manage the Aussie summer??

Monarto's white rhino snoozes the afternoon away in his corral...

...from the bus, which makes its way through these vast paddocks filled with antelope, giraffes, ostrich...
and if you keep a sharp eye out you'll see kangaroos in the distance!

Leaving Monarto, you exit via the gallery and store, which has touch-friendly exhibits...

And we're off on the road to Murray Bridge, hoping for afternoon tea.

Murray Bridge -- Mobilong Precinct, above the wharf...

Parklands along the river ... where we stopped for a picnic, since no place in town was open for a decent meal!
Bizarre as it sounds, every restaurant and pub stops serving at 2:00pm and doesn't reopen till 6:00.

Galahs (often known overseas as rose-breasted cockatoos) cavorting in the tree over our picnic spot...

...powerboats and water-skiers zipped up and down on the river, and a family of noisy miners cadged for crumbs.

The afternoon sun was lowering as we headed for Milang, where we were booked in at our usual --
the Milang Lakes Motel, our favorite place to stay on Lake Alexandrina.

It's a picturesque drive, especially in good weather. Often, the skies darken as you approach Milang, but
this time we were lucky ... blue skies all the way.

A strong wing raises whitecaps on Lake Alexandrina, on the way into town...

An Australian magpie stands beak-to-the-wind under a racing windlass.

Lake Alexandrina -- the lakeshore. Actually, a shot borrowed from another day, as you can tell from the
calm lake surface and the lovely sky. Confession: after Monarto, I was dead tired and ready for a rest at the motel! 

Milang: Paddle Steamer Drive, seen across the wetlands -- again, borrowed from another day.

And Milang: the bird sanctuary. Should be called a FROG sanctuary! Dang, those guys are loud at night.

The main thought in our minds as we left the Monarto Wildlife Park was FOOD. We'd intended to head to Murray Bridge for something like a very late lunch or very early dinner, but plans were upturned by the fact that every restaurant or pub in town was no longer serving. They close the kitchen at 2:00pm and don't reopen till 6:00, so we were out of luck, unless we wanted fast food, which we didn't.

The solution was a somewhat on-the-fly picnic, in the parklands by the river. Wouldn't you know it? Usually we go out loaded (and bring back 90% of the food). This time we'd intended to go "cafe to cafe," so we hadn't over-packed. But enough was in the cooler to put something together, and we didn't exactly starve.

Then, on to Milang as a strong wind began to crank. The lake was energetic with whitecaps, and we guessed it would be cold later. But what got our hopes up was the clear blue sky. For the first time in many years, you'd see stars tonight. And Milang is so far from any town that the skies there are DARK ... we were longing to see the Milky Way, and were not disappointed.

We put on as many layers as we could and went out at about 10:30pm. Aha! The sky was blazing. You can walk out of town in 90 seconds, and we did. The whole galaxy arched overhead like something out of a movie. Gorgeous! But there was no way to photograph it ... not with "compact" cameras. One of these days we'll go back with a full-on digital SLR and see what can be done.

Next: the lake in the morning light, waterbirds galore, and off to Wellington for breakfast.