Wellington - South Australia

17 - 18 September 2014

We have travelled further afield for this trip - all the way to South Australia. The plan had been to come to Adelaide for a conference, then we decided we might as well make the most of it and have a holiday as well, so we added an extra two weeks to the itinerary.

Getting up at 4am is not my idea of a good start to a holiday, but that is what we needed to do to get the 5.55am flight from Townsville to Adelaide via Brisbane. Lucky we live only 10 minutes from the airport or we'd have had to be up even earlier. We had a smooth run with both flights on time, and arrived in Adelaide at 10.45. 

It didn't take long to collect our bags and hire car and hit the road. We headed out of town for lunch and supplies. It was a nice drive through hills and farmland - 110 on the freeway, in pouring rain, overtaking trucks as the road wound around, in a car I had never driven before. We watched the outside temperature vary from 11 to 18 degrees and we were treated to smorgasbord of weather - bright sunshine, howling wind, clouds, drizzle and full-on rain. We noticed that a number of wine regions were tantalisingly close but I managed to resist the temptation and stay focused on today's destination - but we will visit wine regions later in the trip. 

After lunch and shopping in Murray Bridge we drove on the short distance to Wellington. Once again the Crazy Woman (GPS) did her best to get us lost but we outsmarted her by following the road signs. She seemed to have become confused about which was right and which was left! 

We arrived in Wellington (population 180) and checked into a riverfront cabin attached to the pub, where we could watch the punt crossing the river bringing traffic across from Tailem Bend. I had filled the jug for a cup of tea before I noticed the sign near the tap "untreated water - do not drink", so emptied it out, then seeing the horrible discoloured water which had come from the tap. There was, thankfully, a large container of rain water provided in the fridge. From our "outback" travels, we are used to having to boil water before drinking, but this was really something. The smell when the shower was turned on was quite awful.

Black Swans fly past

Pelican resting on the boat landing in front of the cabin

Purple Swamp-hen stepping out

We had a really nice, and reasonably priced dinner at the pub and learned that a "schooner" of beer in South Australia is what we call a "pot" or a "ten" (ounce) in Queensland and a "middy" in New South Wales. Beer drinkers beware - you may not get what you intended.

The morning dawned grey, with rain clouds approaching in the distance. A flotilla of Pelicans patrolled the calm, leaden Murray River only metres from where we sat warmly sipping coffee.

Car ferry at Wellington

A very popular place for Pelicans

• Great views of Murray River
• Generously sized, reasonably priced cabins
• Better than average pub grub