Day 33 - Victor Harbor

Well we finally left KI this morning on the 7.30am ferry. The weather had moderated but the crossing was still rough with lots of rocking and rolling & a couple of waves breaking right over the bow. They had roped off the front rows of seats!

We wanted to do a heritage train ride “The Cockle Train” which runs between Goolwa and Victor Harbor in our original planning but thought it may not be possible as we were running 1 day later. However, when we checked the timetable the train runs 3 times a day between the towns. We arrived in VH around 9am and as that was too early to go to a caravan park we were able to park near the station which is close to the waterfront and we left the van there until this afternoon.

Did the 11am train to Goolwa - had 45 minutes there and then back to Victor Harbor.

This railway was the first in South Aust colony and it was the first public line laid with iron rails in Australia. It was opened in 1854 to service the Murray River trade and was pulled by horses until 1884 when steam started. The line is now completely run by volunteers for the tourism sector. Our train was operated with railcars but the pm run is by a steam train and there is a photo below of the engine commencing it’s pm run. Once a month a steam train does a full day outing from Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills to Victor Harbor so they use it for the Cockle train in the pm before it returns to Mount Barker. Was an enjoyable outing.

On our return had lunch at the foreshore and the area was packed as a big vintage vehicle rally/display was on.

Some photos of our morning run to VH….

Tomorrow we will travel around Lake Alexandrina and the plan is to camp nearby.