Preview -- The Riverland, March 2014

The riverboat Captain Proud at her moorings in Murray Bridge.

Houseboats on the Murray River near Murray Bridge

The Murray River, from the foredeck  of the riverboat Captain Proud -- heading downriver toward Goolwa.

The Murray River near Swan Reach, South Australia

Cliffs tower over the river near Swan Reach, South Australia

Dawn breaks over the Murray at  Blanchetown, South Australia

Kookaburras in the pink of the dawn at Blanchetown, SA.

Wetlands at Blanchetown, SA, in the evening light 

Cliffs on the Murray River near Morgan, SA

The Morgan car ferry on the Murray River.

Mainstreet Morgan, South Australia

Site of the old boiler house on the old wharf at Morgan on the River Murray, SA.

The weather is changing rapidly over South Australia's Riverland.

We're off on the road to Waikerie --

The paddlewheel riverboat Murray River Queen, moored at Waikerie, South Australia

The Murray River at Pelican Point, not far from Waikerie, SA.

The historic -- 1860s -- coach inn at Overland Corner, South Australia...

The Overland Corner Hotel, authentic and original, inside and out.

The Overland Corner Hotel is under new management, with a great menu ... Riverland, South Australia.

Overland Corner itself is a wetland that has dried out: work is beginning to restore it.
Lola, the Mitsubishi Magna, "roughing it" in the wilderness .... almost!

Murray River Lock Number 3, at Overland Corner. Now, why does a river need a lock system? Stay tuned!

Welcome to Banrock Station,  an old sheep station that's become a winery and wetlands wildlife refuge...

Banrock Station's wetlands, from the balcony behind the winery's cafe.

Lake Bonney in dramatic weather, near Barmera, South Australia 

Vineyards by evening light -- Loxton, South Australia's Riverland

The rolling road to Karoonda, South Australia ... homeward bound

The Big Ram of Karoonda ... about two meters tall!

Sunset, on the road home from Murray Bridge

Lunch on a riverboat, fabulous houseboats among the willows on the riverbanks, water skiiers showing off ... dawn over the Murray River, mudstone cliffs and stormy skies ... brunch in a timewarp, step back to 1865 for tea, pelicans and monster lock gates, coffee and cake at a world-famous winery, a gigantic concrete ram in a town in the middle of nowhere, a spectacular sunset --

You wouldn't believe what you can do between 10:30am Saturday and 8:00pm Sunday, with an intrepid Mitsubishi Magna called Lola fueled up and ready to go, and a cabin with your name on it waiting in Blanchetown!

The next series of posts will share all, in order. We were trying to cover every kilometer of this river west of the South Australian border, and ran out of time only by about thee hours; but we covered most of it, and ... gives us a reason to go back and do it again, doesn't it?!

Preview: Fleurieu Peninsula 2011

Grapes ready for harvest in McLaren Vale

The view over Sellicks Beach, looking south toward Myponga Beach, Gulf St. Vincent.

Prime grazing land in South Australia. It's dairy and beef around here. 

Myponga Reservoir on a sunny, blue-sky day. Take half an hour here for a picnic lunch.

The SeaLink is the Kangaroo Island car ferry. Gotta do this one day -- soon. It departs from Cape Jervis,
at the most accessible tip of the peninsula, for the trip across Backstairs Passage to Penneshaw.

Never waste a wall! I love this one -- Pacific Right Whales on the wall of the pub at Port Elliott. 

Cliffs getting misty, late in the afternoon, somewhere around Second Valley on Yankalilla Bay, Gulf St. Vincent.

Hang a right onto Rapid Bay Road, with the sun in just the just place to get shots like this...

... and sunset an Normanville, about two hours later

Leonard's Mill, opposite the turnoff for Second Valley...

The awesome jetty at Rapid Bay ... a major scuba diving site, due to the slow decomposition of the
ancient jetty itself, which provides habitat for rich marine life. Cool!

Colonial building, almost certainly  still in use (check out the new roof!) at Rapid Bay.

The road bridge from Goolwa to Hindmarsh Island, across the Goolwa Channel.

The relic of an ancient wagon at Bleasdale Wines, at Langhorne Creek 

Seriously tiny wild life: mollusks abound in the wetlands at Milang

Surf was up at the tiny cove around the "other side of the point" at Victor Harbour.

Sailboat at anchor just off Granite Island -- Victor Habour -- with the weather changing rapidly.

Twilight broods below sullen skies over Lake Alexandrina at Milang.

A seabird rookerie at Victor Harbour. Here's what Wikipedia says of Gould's Petrel: Outside the breeding season, it disperses into the open seas of the subtropical and tropical Pacific, occurring as far east as the Galapagos Islands.
They show up here, too! 

A pocket-size riverboat on Goolwa Channel, photographed from Hindmarsh Island.

Sailboats at anchor just off the coast of Hindmarsh Island.

The illusion is that the deer is wild ... shrewd photography. It's actually a shot through the chain-link fence
bordering the venison farm nor far from Hahndorf. We're almost home!

Just a few weeks ago the Tour Down Under traveled through much of the Fleurieu Peninsula, and seeing the locations on TV makes you catch a glimpse of your backyard through new eyes. I was inspired to return to the road trip we did in 2011, and post it here.

We covered a lot of ground in three short days ... the Fleurieu is a big place in a surprisingly small space. You could actually spend a month here and do something different every day. We're luck enough to live here -- and smart enough to know how lucky we are! It's going to be fun revisiting these places in the next few posts.