Vast skies and wild water: the Murray Mouth

The 'Murray Mouth,' South Australia...

The Coorong is dead ahead, across the last kilometer of the 'Mighty Murray' 

The Murray River mouth must be constantly dredged to keep it open.

At the tip of Hindmarsh Island, you're just one sand bank away from the Southern Ocean...

YOU ARE HERE: courtesy of Ma Google, I can show you exactly where you are on the globe!

From Goolwa, drive over the great swooping road bridge which will take you across the channel to Hindmarsh Island ... then follow your nose (and the signage!) to the very tip of the island. Keep going till you literally run out of road -- and there is the "Murray Mouth," the outfall of a great river that had its beginning a long, long way away:

The River Murray rises near Mount Kosciuszko in the Australian Alps and flows 2,530 km to the Southern Ocean, near Goolwa in South Australia. This snapshot covers the upper part of the Murray catchment from the river's headwaters to Lake Mulwala, near Yarrawonga.  [source]

 As rivers around the world go, the Murray -- which Aussies call "Mighty" is not so wide or deep or long; but the Murray-Diamantina River system is the biggest on this continent, and several states depend on it for ... everything. As the saying goes, "Water is Life." Though it's obviously outdone  by the Mississippi, the Yangtze, the Amazon, the Congo, the Ganges, the Murray River is pretty impressive in its own right, especially when you remember that it runs through the driest states on the driest continent, which those other rivers do not.  That link, right above, will take you to the Wikipedia page, with all you'd ever need to know in a nutshell. The map right here will get you there -- view it at full size to actually see it.

But -- facts and figures aside -- most of what you'll remember of the Murray Mouth is vast skies, overwhelming emptiness, silence broken only by the crash of wild surf (when it's up) and the cries of seabirds. You'll see silver gulls, terns, pelicans, herons, and numerous birds of prey hunting over the dunes...

At the end of the road which spans Hindmarsh Island, you'll find easy parking in a wide, surfaced carpark (or parking lot, for our US cousins ... or car park, two words, for those who prefer it that way!) just inland of the dunes. Be prepared for hugeness, quiet -- and it can be very cold indeed in winter. It's almost always windy, and the Southern Ocean is just on the other side of that sandbar you see on the horizon, where pelicans nest.

Yet signs of human habitation are all around --

The dredge, without which the Murray would silt itself up completely and Lake Alexandrina would flood.

Believe it or not, people live here, right on the beach!

Yes, people live at Murray Mouth -- imagine living in this world of sky and water, seabirds and the wind. Sounds a lot like Storm Boy (which has just been remade in 2018, incidentally).

The managed ecosystem and history are actually very interesting, and you don't need coverage for your mobile to research it on the fly. The info-boards are to your right before you tromp onto the sand, and they're highly informative. I've uploaded these shots, below, at 2000 pixels wide, which makes them entirely readable:

Marino to Hallett Cove ... cafe to cafe! Got your hiking shoes on?

The Marino Rocks Cafe marks the end of the section of the coastal trail heading back to Seacliff --
the other end of this segment begins at the Kingston caravan park.

The view from Marino, looking north towards Brighton

A boadwalk follows the clifftop -- a safe way to view the dramatic cliffs at Marino and Hallett Cove.

The rocks here are ancient -- some of the oldest in the world...

...and great for fishing!

Neat little platform areas are set up with benches to rest your weary legs...

You can walk from Seacliff to far beyond Hallett Cove, but it's a looong walk with a lot of climbing.

Stop along the way for a picnic, and you'll have company! Crows abound, and it seems pie-and-chips
must be their natural food. Uh, right.

Just so you know where you are...

In many places, steps lead up and down to the rocks or beach below. Got your climbing shoes on?!

The walks and climbs are rewarded by spectacular views -- ancient cliffs.

Ocean views and brilliant wildflowers. Before you start scrambling around --

Danger of falling on your head. No, really? I'm amazed.

Watch out for wildflowers, and honey bees hard at work in the sea air...

The trail goes on and on, far south of Hallett Cove, but here's where it comes out -- 

At Hallett Cove Conservation Park, which is our destination today.

You're right under the international flight path. Qantas and Cathay Pacific will be overhead --

-- and contrails cross, where flightpaths intersect. Separated by a lot of altitude, of course.

Hallett Cove Conservation Park is criss-crossed by boardwalks. 

Plentiful information boards tell the story ... see the shots below at full size, they're perfectly readable.

Stepways lead from the beach-level areas up to the clifftop for a closeup look...

Very ancient, constantly changing geology at Hallett Cove.

Hallett Cove Conservation Park offers a great workout for your legs, too!

Along the trail, watch out for lizards. Relax! They're totally harmless. And cute.

Opposite the ancient cliff formations is Hallett Cove itself, complete with fishing boats...

...and fishermen angling right off the rocks at low tide. Before you start rock hopping -- put your shoes on...

You don't want to step on a blue ringed octopus in bare feet. Shoes, right? Right.

Hallett Cove's beach is not the best in the world for walking on. It fact, it's rough on the ankles!

But the view from the beach back up to the cliffs is really superb...

A wide shot of the whole of Hallett Cove, from fishing boats to beach to suburb.

A tiny part of the suburb of Hallett Cove. What a place to live!

The Boat Shed cafe stands right at the entrance to the Hallett Cove Conservation Park. Coffee, anyone?

June 5th, 2016, and our detour to the beach takes us from Brighton and Seacliff then down to Marino and Hallett Cove -- all a little way north of where we live, but close enough to be at the further point in fifteen minutes or so, on the new expressway (which connects the southern suburbs with downtown, if you stay on it the whole way).

You can actually hike from Port Adelaide to Sellicks Beach ... which would be a marathon indeed. A lot of the way, you'd be on esplanades, like those at Brighton and Seacliff, and some of the time you're on coastal trails and boardwalks, such as those you see above. On a blue-sky day its a lovely place to walk, and if your legs are up to it, you can make it up and down to the beach in numerous places. These are great shores for rock fishing -- and you'll usually see fishing boats out, often scores of them, if something is "running."

Or you could be here for the geology. Hallett Cove has some of the most ancient rocks in the world, and you get closeup views from the boardwalks, even before you reach Hallett Cove Conservation Park itself, where information boards tell the story of the region's geological history. With the Boat Shed cafe right on the park's gateway, you could spend all day here ... give your legs a great workout, for sure!

The images in this post were actually gathered over several trips and several years. We've done the boardwalk, but on June 5th we were short of time (we were really on our way to the stores!), so we drove from Marino to Hallett Cove. We walked in from the Boat Shed, through the park and back back along the beach ... and Hallett Cove beach isn't the greatest beach in the world to walk. It's all loose rocks and soft sand, tough on your ankles. However, the views from the beach are spectacular -- and there's a very nice cafe at the end of it ... if you can make it up a very long, very steep ramp! We did.

See Brighton and Seacliff here.