Road Tripping to Picturesque Shores.

My eldest, Angel, turned 18 this year and her favourite things to do are go on road trips and to the beach. So what better than to combine them with a mini road trip to a couple of beaches south of Adelaide. Our final was Morgans Beach, with a visit to Second Valley on the way.

”Road trippin’ with my two favorite allies. Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies.”

First stop was for snacks and supplies, Angel's pick. On the way back to the car I caught my sandal and the front part of the sole came off and started flapping around. Not great for driving with, so back home to glue it, change shoes and we were off again.

I set out with just a quarter of a tank of petrol, so by the time we reached Yankalilla we were looking our for somewhere to refuel. In Normanville we finally spotted a petrol station and pulled in. Country towns are nearly always much friendlier than the metropolitan areas and the lady at the counter standing under a sign which proclaimed “food” had a little laugh at my lost look as tried to figure out where to pay for fuel. It was right there, apparently. People fuel and car fuel, the same thing!?

From the refuel stop it wasn't long before we were at Second Valley's beach; down a road which ended in a carpark. Next to the carpark as you approach the shore are benches and a picnic table.

From there you can go down to a sand beach on the right as you face the sea. It looks like high tide will cover most of the sand, so sandcastle building should probably be done at low tide. It's really a picturesque, rather than a relaxing by the shore kind of beach.

We gave the sand a miss and instead went to the left along a boardwalk which lead to the jetty.

From there you could take a path down onto the rocks and around to the next beach/cove.

The sea was relatively calm and a beautiful blue/green where you could see down to the sand.

The next cove along was a single beach which clinked as we walked over them.

The rock faces which framed the shoreline had layers and swirls of rust and gold weaving through them and patches of quartz.

After the girls completed a little photo shoot we visited the toilet facilities and set out on the next leg of the trip. Morgans Beach isn't far from Cape Jervis where the ferry leaves for Kangaroo island and on clear days you may be able to make out the island from the cliffs.

The satnav directed us down the road that leads directly to the beach. It's a beach you can drive on, as it's rocky underneath the sand. I could probably have even taken my two wheel drive car onto it, but the approach was a dirt, gravel road which dropped off quite steeply and I didn't like my chances of getting back up there. So we turned around and took the higher road to the lookout.

The view was amazing and when we stepped out of the car we were hit by strong winds. It's no surprise that the nearby hillside has wind turbines making the most of the winds. It had been a fairly long stretch of road between the beach road and the lookout, so we looked around for a path nearby to take us down. There was one leading from the parking area and something that looked promising going down a hill, rather than the cliff. So after some snacks in the car we headed down towards the beach.

From the path along the top, we couldn't actually find another branching off down to the sand, so we cautiously made our way down the slope the most accessible way we could, aiming for what looked like the path further down. Half way down we discovered that the path was in fact a creek bed carved out by storm runoffs and not something we wanted to be trying to walk in!

My daughters were in flip-flops (thongs, jandals) so they were struggling a bit more than me. At this point I was grateful for my sandals breaking and coercing me into changing into shoes. Don't worry, we all made it to the bottom in one piece.

If we thought Second Valley's beach was pretty, Morgans is stunning. It's a sand and rock beach, so the best of everything for recreation and relaxation. The cliffs protect it from the worst of the winds, so we were warm again after the blasting we got at the top.

The tallest sand bank offered an irresistible challenge and we had some races to the top. It’s like those dreams where you're running, but staying in the same place, but we reached the top eventually, then rolled back down. This didn't faze my gymnast daughters, but made me so dizzy I had to lie down for a minute or risk losing my lunch!

After a bit of splashing in the shallows and relaxing in the warm, rather than scorching, sun, we headed back up the hill to the car to find a place to have dinner.

~○♤○~

Posted using Partiko Android