A relatively short day today brought us to Port Vincent, continuing our trek up the east shore of the Yorke Peninsula.
On our way out of the Stansbury Caravan Park, CareFree and I stopped by the office to see if they had cold sodas. Alas, they did not, but they had ice cream, which we had to help cool us down a little as we set off for the day.
A sidewalk along the beach took us out of town and up onto the cliffs, and soon we were on a shared gravel cycle track. Across the gulf, we could see the mountains behind Adelaide, though it was too hazy to really see the city very well. After crossing a highway, the cycle track became a nice tree-lined path, hidden from the road on one side and a farm on the other.
We made good time this morning, though there wasn’t a whole lot to look at. The cycle track was in its tree-lined path for a little over an hour, before crossing the highway and ending with access to a beach.
A sign noted that there used to be chalk mining in the area, and that locals probably had stories of (dangerous) childhood escapades involving them, but questions whether anyone has any living memory of the mines actually being worked. Which is not surprising, since the mines stoped producing in 1920, over 100 years ago!
The beach, the only one of the day, was a nice walk. After a little while, we ran into a family pulling a wagon filled with blue swimmer crabs they’d found on the beach. (Or rather, in the shallows; they tend to stay buried under the sand when they’re not feeding.) It was surprising how deeply blue, almost metallic, the crabs were. Apparently, these crabs are a delicacy; I wondered how they compared to Maryland blue crabs.
Further along the beach, near Devils Gully, the cliffs took on a reddish color. This was presumably the namesake for the gully, which the trail wound around.
A long break at the Devils Gully Shelter got us out of the sun for a while, but from there, it was only another 45 minutes to reach town. The last stretch of trail was along a nice gravel walking path overlooking the water. We saw an empty snake skin next to the path. Aside from a dead baby snake we saw on the trail in the national park, and maybe some snake trails in the dirt from time to time, this was the first real sign of snakes we’ve seen so far this hike.
As we left the path and joined a paved road in town, one of the Yorke Peninsula’s signs reminded, “Your rubbish is yours, please take it with you.” I feel like more places could use signs like that, rather than just bland “no littering” signs.
A short walk brought us to the Port Vincent Foreshore Caravan Park, our home for the next two days.
After settling in to our cabin, we walked down the street to the kiosk, where we got ice cream and sodas, and then to the IGA to get some snacks and pasta and sauce for dinner tonight. (Our cabin has a stove, and with a food store, we’re not limited to cooking camp food.)
From the porch of our cabin, a patch of sand grew and shrank with the tide. Various sea birds, and especially pelicans, made it their home for the day, though they’ll have to move sometime in the night when the water comes in more.
Tomorrow, all we have to do is stay out of the heat, and resupply for two days to the next large town on the trail, Ardrossan.
