Port Willunga - June 2015

Sam and I decided to pop over to Adelaide on the June long weekend this year, I was keen to catch up with my friends from Peru and Sam is always up for a bit of a weekend away. I headed over on the Thursday in the ute with Sam flying over after school on Friday night. One of the good things about Adelaide is that I can work in the morning and then hit the road and be over there in time for dinner, and that's how it panned out on this trip. One of the (few!) advantages of starting work at around 5 in the morning is that my day is technically half over by the time most people are just clocking on for the day, that was a bonus on this trip as I'd arranged to catch up with Petra for dinner that night in Glenelg.

Sunset from Glenelg.

I pulled into my hotel in Glenelg, The Stamford Grand, at around 6 after a wet and windy drive over. After a quick shower and change of clothes we, Petra, Kaye and my new friend Margaret, headed out for some gourmet pizza, duck and vegetarian would you believe, not much pineapple to be seen on this menu! The pizza's however were very good and the conversation excellent as Petra and I relived our trip to Peru, at the same time I was intrigued to hear about Kaye's recent cruise to Antarctica as Sam and I had done a similar trip a few years ago. Now I'd originally thought that I might have three walks to write up on this trip to Adelaide but as it turned out I didn't actually take a photo on the first two walks, this was due to me trying to keep up with Petra, Kaye and Margaret as well as being engrossed in some good conversation. On Friday we did around 18 kilometres up and down Sturt Gorge (I think), with a nice coffee stop at the top. On Saturday we did the Waterfall Walk in Belair National Park, probably around 12 kilometres with a few navigational challenges, we then headed to the Sheoak Cafe for some more coffee, something that always tops off a great day I reckon.

With Sam having arrived, Petra had planned for a bit of a walk along the cliff tops at Port Willunga on Sunday and then lunch at the Star of Greece Restaurant. We were joined on this ramble by Deb and Greg, whom Petra and I had walked in Peru with. Adelaide had put on some great weather for our long weekend and today we had sun with blue skies again, with the wind howling in off the water it was bloody freezing however. After an initial short beach section we climbed onto the cliff tops and headed north, the plan was to walk for a couple of hours and then turnaround and head back for lunch.

The track starts off very well formed.

Looking back towards Port Willunga.

The turnoff down to Maslin Beach, we stayed on the cliff tops.

The cliff tops provided for very easy walking with great views out to sea, initially we followed a formed track before passing the turnoff to Maslin Beach, from here the track turned into a bit more of a walking pad but it was still easy to follow. The cliffs here are comprised of red clay and the soft clay has eroded into many great shapes, the differing colour of the clay also added interest. Dropping down to beach level for a few metres at the small town of Moana we soon climbed again up a rougher track onto the cliffs again. For the majority of our stroll the cliffs were backed with open farmland so we had views over the open paddocks towards Willunga Hill as well. When the next settlement of Seaford started to come into view we turned and started back towards the sanctuary of the Star Of Greece.

Looking back towards the cliffs at the end of Maslin Beach.

Seaford has just come into view.

Most of our stroll along the cliff tops was across open grass land.

The soft clay appears to erode very quickly.

On our journey back we decided to walk the beach some of the way, the sand appearing like spindrift snow as it blew along the beach, luckily for us we were walking with the wind at our backs now so the blowing sand could only sand blast our backs. After walking along the beach for awhile we came to a sign telling us that we were about to enter the clothing optional section of the beach, however with the howling wind and the wind chill making the temperature feel as though it was in the low single figures I didn't think we'd bump into any nudists today. I was wrong however as almost as soon as we'd passed the sign we noticed a bloke heading in our direction, nothing out of the ordinary there except that this bloke was rugged up with a beanie, scarf and warm jacket, and his tackle fully exposed to the sand blasting wind, hmmm...... Now I'm all for a bit of skinny dipping action if the temperature is even remotely warm but this was a bit extreme, just the thought of the sand blasting bought a tear to my eye! I've mentioned this before on my blog but life is really not fair, it always seems to be blokes that like to get their gear off in public, the fairer sex seem a lot more circumspect.

Walking back along the beach, luckily the wind was coming from behind us.

Time to get our gear off.... the old bloke coming in the other direction had beaten us to it however!

The eroded cliffs backing onto Maslin Beach.

After passing by our exhibitionist mate we soon arrived at the steps marking our exit from the beach, climbing up we passed some more great patterns in the eroded clay cliffs. Once back on the tops we were in familiar territory and we once again followed the good track back to Port Willunga and lunch. The Star of Greece proved to be an inspired choice by Petra and we enjoyed our lunch sitting in the weak sun by the window with a great view out over Gulf St Vincent, telling Sam stories of our adventures in Peru. As always, we had greatly enjoyed our trip over to South Australia and I particularly enjoyed catching up with old friends, these are the times we'll remember when were sitting in the rocking chair on the porch in our old age.

Climbing up onto the tops again.

Port Willunga Beach, the Star of Greece restaurant is the white building just visible above the car park.

The Dirt.
We stayed at the Stamford Grand at Glenelg with an ocean view for around $170 a night, we have stayed here before over the years and its a good spot just keep in mind that its an extra $30 a day to park in the car park next door, wifi was another $25, and breakfast another $30 each so it starts to mount up.
The Star of Greece is named after a ship that came to grief on a reef just off shore in ye olde days and it was a great place to relax and catch up. The food is restaurant quality and the staff were exceptional, somewhere that I would definitely recommend.
I left the GPS in the car on this walk but I'd say we walked around ten kilometres on this easy stroll.

One last sun set from Glenelg.