We began our two-day journey to Moonta Bay to start Walk the Yorke with an international flight.
November 30
The day before our departure from Auckland, New Zealand, news came that entire Airbus 320 fleet was grounded for safety-essential software updates. And as luck would have it, that was the type of plane we’d be flying on. Fortunately, Air New Zealand had our plane resolved without any delay for our flight.
Of course, we still had to get up ridiculously early in the morning, but that did come with the benefit that the road wasn’t too congested, and the airport wasn’t very busy, so getting from CareFree’s apartment to our plane wasn’t stressful.
The five hour flight from Auckland to Adelaide proceeded smoothly. The noise-canceling feature in my new AirPods Pro 3Air Pods Pro:: headphones reduced the usual (and exhausting) loud droning noise of the flight to a near-silent rumble, and despite getting up early and only getting a short nap at the start of the flight, I was not as tired as I usually am once we landed.
Biosecurity at Adelaide was quicker than I expected; they didn’t even bother to check our tent. (Hopefully we won’t pick up any spiders or insects that would be problematic when we return to New Zealand when we’re finished.)
The taxi stand was incredibly busy — and slow. Despite dozens of people in a long snaking line, only a handful of taxis showed up while we went to the ride share stand and waited for an Uber to show up for us.
Once settled in our room at the Glenelg Motel, we took another Uber across town to get a SIM card for me (CareFree was in Melbourne for a conference a few weeks back, and so already had one), and fuel canisters for us. We also picked up a snake bite kit, which we expect to not need. (Australia has quite venomous snakes, so it’s better to have and not need, than need and not have.)
Back at the motel, we finished planning for the hike. The western half of the trail is a bit of a food desert, so we decided on sending two boxes of food, to Point Turton and Marion Bay. We’ll take care of that tomorrow morning: our motel is within walking distance to a food store that is quite conveniently located in the same shopping mall as a post office.
We capped off the day with a pizza delivered from a nearby pizza place.
December 1
With the post office opening at nine, we left our motel to do our shopping (for 15 days of food!) at 8 am. We finished and were in front of the post office to get boxes with a few minutes to spare. It took us roughly another hour to get boxes, repack our food, and get them sent off to their destinations.
Each of our supplies just fit in a large Australian Post box (four total), but we’re also carrying a little less food than usual; while there doesn’t look to be much in the way of food stores for the first two thirds of the trail, there are several small communities with restaurants and take-away food, so we’ll be able to use them to supplement our supplies.
After a very late breakfast, another Uber brought us to Adelaide’s main bus station, and we waited a couple of hours for a bus to take us to Moonta Bay.
I don’t have a lot of experience with bus stations, but this one was not great. The seats were uncomfortable sheet metal — easy to clean, but with no friction so it was easy to slide off, and not very sturdy: any time someone stood up, the seats responded with a loud popping noise as the metal snapped back into its resting shape.
Our bus left on time — actually a couple of minutes early because everyone was on the bus and ready to go — and began a three-hour drive from Adelaide to Moonta Bay, near the trail’s western terminus.
Traveling across the Yorke Peninsula, once we left Adelaide, the landscape was predominately very flat farmland. The ride was somewhat uncomfortable. The seats were close together, and the road was often rough and bumpy. But, we made it to Moonta Bay without incident.
At the last stop of the line, we were dropped off at a parking lot adjacent to a cafe we hoped to get dinner at. Unfortunately, they were unexpectedly closed — a makeshift sign said they’d be open again tomorrow morning. So we made our way to the Moonta Bay Holiday Park, where we had a campsite booked.
The holiday park felt a little deserted, but school is still in session, so there are probably not many families on vacation yet.
We got our tent set up, which was a little challenging because of the wind (it’s been surprisingly windy since we arrived in Adelaide yesterday). Still, our campsite gave us a nice view overlooking the ocean, as the sun began to set. A little searching around online determined there really weren’t any food delivery options, so we cooked dinner in one of the camp kitchens, using one of the extra dinners we brought just-in-case.
The camp kitchen was nice. Metal picnic tables provided seating for maybe two dozen people, with more seating outside near a grill. A hot water dispenser provided all the heat we needed to cook ramen for dinner, no need to use our stoves or any of our fuel. (We could also have used the stove or microwave if necessary.) A loud fridge and an out of order coffee machine rounded off the amenities. An air hockey table, imported from Poland, claimed to accept Euro. Three grabber games, filled with various snacks, toys, and plushies felt weirdly placed, and occasionally broke the silence with their attract music.
Tomorrow, we’ll get up “early” and head south along the coast. The tavern on next town over opens at 8 for breakfast, and since we have 30 kilometers to walk tomorrow and didn’t get a nice dinner today, we want a nice breakfast tomorrow.