Bleasdale to the Coorong

Bleasdale Winery is only a few minutes drive up the road from where we were staying in Langhorne Creek so it was an obvious choice for our wine tasting experience yesterday morning. Bleasdale is one of the oldest wineries in the district, with the first vines being planted around 1860. Frank Potts, the original founder of Bleasdale made great use of the River Red Gums growing on the property and there was still plenty of evidence of his efforts around the beautiful old winery.

One of the early timber grape presses Frank designed and built was still in operation as recently as 2010 ..........

We spent around two hours here - a generous, lengthy tasting session that was well rewarded by us with many purchases ...

From here we drove SW to the port town of Goolwa in time to pick up our cruise to the beautiful Coorong National Park. The Coorong is at the mouth of the (once) mighty Murray River, where the river meets the Southern Ocean. It's an extensive wetland area of Intenational significance. The whole Lower River Murray was the most densely populated area (the Ngarrindjeri people) in Australia prior to European settlement, but it's certainly not densely populated these days.  

We set off from the Goolwa Wharf around 1.00pm, starting with a light lunch and an introduction to the rich history of the port area. We were soon making our way through the Goolwa Barrage, site of the resident seal population that relies on the ready food source that seems to go with the constant water movement caused by the lock system.

It was so interesting to see the actual mouth of the Murray River - just a small opening between the Sir Richard and Younghusband Peninsulas. It needs constant dredging these days of reduced flow.

The point where the waters of the River Murray meet the Great Southern Ocean.

A unique setting for national park signage ........ and near the area of the dunes made famous in the Storm Boy book and film (1976 and 2019 versions) - (book by Colin Thiele).

We pulled up at a sandy landing for a guided walk through the dunes to the 90 mile beach facing the Southern Ocean. Sarah our guide was active, enthusiastic and very well informed - she made it really memorable for us. This stumpy tailed lizard crossed near our path on cue and she caught it - allowing us a really close look. An echidna almost got caught too - Sarah tried her best. We saw an emu and 4 chicks, amazing bird life (including the Coorong pelicans), plenty of bush tucker, ancient shell middens and lots of evidence of the cockle farming for which the area is noted.

The sight of that 90 mile beach, extending all the way to Kingston SE on the SA south-east coast, was suitably awesome.

Three and a half hours later we returned through the barrage back to Goolwa Wharf........ we'd loved this opportunity to see more of this unique area of our country. It would be great to do the full day tour next time!