November 13, 2020December 22, 2020

South Australia Road Trip – Wine, Leafy Seadragons, and Dolphins

In November of 2020, we travelled to South Australia with three objectives:

Relax and drink some good wine
See a leafy seadragon
Swim with wild dolphins

This was our first flight, and our first time leaving New South Wales, in nine months #covid. The lounge was empty and the two hour flight to Adelaide passed quickly, though wearing a mask and dealing with foggy glasses was a bit uncomfortable.

I realise how fortunate we are here in Australia and can’t imagine masking up on a daily basis. The only surprise was when we arrived to a police and state emergency service screening.

1. Relax and drink some good wine

Our first stop was Sellick’s Hill, located just south of McLaren Vale. We stayed at “The Treehouse” AirBNB, which is hosted by Susie and Dean from the adjacent Sellick’s Chill winery. They invited us over for a wine tasting one night, and we learned that we’d stayed at their place in Port Lincoln. Such a small world! They also gave us a great tip about Pezz’s Pizza (delivery).

(photos from AirBNB listing)

We went on a full day wine tour with Wine Diva, and from what I can remember, we had a very nice time. I’ll piece together the itinerary based on photos on my phone.

Our first stop was D’Arenberg, not to taste, but to see the newly constructed five-story cube building and Dali exhibit.

The next stop was Oliver’s Taranga, where we tasted twelve different wines, including a Fiono and a Mencia. I remember that the hostess was very personable and had great stories to share about each of the wines. I still had my wits about me here, so we only left with two bottles.

Next up was Samson Tall, whose cellar door is in a church from the 1800’s. According to the photos, there was a barrel tasting and a friendly labrador. We left with a few bottles of Grenache Mataro Rose.

Lunch was a platter and tasting at Leconfield. We’d requested a vego-friendly platter, and it turned out to be the meat-platter without the meat. Kind of weak…

Our last stop was a building that had three cellar doors, however all I remember is that we met a nice kid who got us a booking at the Victory Hotel for dinner and gave us a tour of their impressive cellar. The food was OUTSTANDING.

2. See a leafy seadragon

Leafy seadragons are found off the southern and western coast of Australia. They are related to the seahorse, but their leaf-like appendages camouflage them against their surroundings. We’d seen them once before in Esperance, but decided to give South Australia a go.

The legendary Scott Portelli introduced us to Chelsea Haebich, who is a professional dive guide and Adelaide-local. We spent the first day at Second Valley.

The water was 16C/60F, but it wasn’t that bad with a 7mm wetsuit, hood, and gloves. Well, I had gloves. Andy had his gloves in his pocket when he jumped in and they floated away somewhere. Leafies are not as common as they used to be in these parts, but our expert guide spotted one within 5 minutes of getting in the water.

Also, not making this up, but a great white was spotted in the same location a few weeks later.

On the second day we went to Rapid Bay, which is about 15 minutes south on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

This dive here is all about the pylons and the cathedral-like light.

It was a nice dive and all, but the highlight was finding Andy’s gloves that he’d lost the day before! The gloves had stayed together, floated all the way from Second Valley to Rapid Bay, and were in the exact spot where I surfaced after an hours’ dive. What are the odds?!?

3 Swim with wild dolphins

For part three of this expedition, we drove an hour south to catch the ferry from Cape Jervis to Kangaroo Island. Despite a lot of wind, the ferry crossing was not too bad.

We stayed at the Sea Stone Cottage AirBNB in Emu Bay, which is 15 minutes from Kingscote, which is about an hour from the ferry dock in Penneshaw. The location was great, and we had many visits from kangaroos and even an echidna.

Due to the weather, we only had one day out with Kangaroo Island Marine Adventures but it was amazing! After a short ride from Kingscote, we spotted the dolphins returning to the Bay of Shoals. We’re coming back here for sure!

We spent one day exploring the island. Much of the eastern part of the island, including Flinders Chase National Park, was destroyed in the January 2020 fires. But nature really is amazing and there’s already a lot of regrowth (and still many, many kangaroos and koalas).

We visited Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, because I’ve got a thing about getting up close and personal with koalas.

We also visited the Seal Bay Conservation Park and did the guided tour down to the sand. We haven’t spent a lot of time with sea lions OUT of the water, and this was the first time we noticed the light-coloured mane on the males.