Picnic at Kapunda
Yesterday I wrote about our recent short holiday in Clare. Travelling to and from our daughter’s place in Clare we can take several different routes. We usually have a few biscuits or fruit and a thermos of hot water so we can stop for a picnic somewhere along the way. On many occasions we have had a picnic lunch. This has quite often been at Angaston, a delightful little town in the beautiful Barossa Valley, a world famous wine producing region. There is a lovely shady park (for when it is hot) at one end of the main street.
This time we changed our plans. We decided to stop at Kapunda, another delightful small town just north of the Barossa Valley. It’s just over an hour’s drive north of Adelaide. Kapunda was once a bustling copper mining centre but now serves the surrounding farming community.
We went for an exploratory drive around the town and discovered a delightful little park where we could have our cuppa and a few biscuits for afternoon tea. We hadn’t even sat down at the picnic table provided before being descended upon by an army of ducks heading hopefully in our direction. They were to be sadly disappointed; no biscuits today. We had to be careful of the six fluffy baby Eurasian Coots skittering around our feet begging their mother for food.
Read more about the birds we saw on the article Birding while travelling on my Birding blog.
St Kilda Mangrove Boardwalk
St Kilda Mangrove walk
Yesterday I wrote about the visit we made to the St Kilda playground and picnic area north of Adelaide. After lunch in the picnic area we drove the short distance to the start of the Mangrove Boardwalk.
This has been open now for almost 20 years but this was our first visit. It will not be our last visit. Over the years we had heard many positive comments about this special walk. It certainly lived up to our expectations.
Mangrove boardwalk St Kilda
The walk is completely wheel-chair friendly, something that is not too common at tourist attractions in Australia, though this is improving. While no-one in our family has any need of a wheelchair, I am always conscious of my wife’s needs for a clear path. She has problems with her feet and needs a good clear path to follow if she is to fully enjoy the walks we attempt.
The relatively new Interpretive Centre at the start of the boardwalk is well set out, informative and easy to read and includes hands on interactive activities which children would enjoy.
Along the path and boardwalk there are plenty of interpretive signs to help visitors understand the vital part this mangrove forest plays in maintaining our marine environment. What surprised me was the fact that dolphins often visit this area. The birdlife was also very interesting, especially on the adjacent tidal flats of Barker Inlet. For more on the birdlife of this area go to my birding blog.
The photo below shows some of the birds seen.
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Barker Inlet, St Kilda
St Kilda, South Australia
Today we had some business to attend to north of Adelaide. After this was completed we travelled on for a few minutes to St Kilda. We had heard many positive comments about this location but over the years we had never made the effort to visit.
On arrival we had morning tea with our daughter before she travelled back to Clare in the mid-north of the state. It was a sunny day with a gentle breeze, although it did get windy later. It was one of those wonderful spring days we often get her in South Australia.
St Kilda Playground pirate ship
Next to the picnic ground is a wonderful playground with equipment suitable for all ages. One of the features is a wonderful pirate ship, complete with cannons. We were amused to see at least one group of children dressed up as pirates using the ship and playground to fight a mock battle. What a great idea of the parents concerned as it was obviously a special birthday party theme.
After a wander around the playground, picnic grounds and the nearby foreshore to check out the birdlife, we had a picnic lunch.
Castle in the playground at St Kilda
Swanport Reserve, Murray Bridge
Picnic at Swanport Reserve, Murray Bridge
We are fortunate here in Murray Bridge to have a number of delightful parks and reserves to enjoy. One of my favourites is Swanport Reserve about 5km south of the CBD. This reserve is right next to the River Murray (in the background of the above photo) and provides a safe lawned area for the children to play, plenty of shady trees for those warmer days and a safe beach for swimming. One section of the beach is reserved for fishing.
Abundant bird life
This reserve is just downstream from the Swanport Bridge which was opened in 1979. It is also opposite the Swanport Wetlands, a haven for water birds. One of the things I like about having picnics at this reserve is for the bird life. Pelicans, cormorants, swamphens, moorhens, swallows, terns, gulls abound, while in the gum trees (eucalypts) of the picnic grounds one can see Peaceful Doves, honeyeaters, Magpies, Magpie Larks, parrots and kingfishers. In nearby bushes I have sometimes been lucky and seen some Superb Blue Wrens, the bright blue of the males shining brilliantly in the Australian sunshine. More often than not I only hear them.
For more about birds check out my birding blog (click here)
River traffic
One of the relaxing aspects of spending a relaxing few hours at this reserve is the passing river traffic. On any given day there are fishing boats, speed boats towing water-skiers, canoes, small yachts,houseboats and large tourist boats, like the one shown in the photo below.
Boat on the River Murray at Swanport Reserve
Quick trip to Karoonda
Keith woke me up early this morning when he rang at 7:30am. Actually – I was already awake and trying to convince myself that the morning was really quite nice and wasn’t at all frosty outside. He rang to tell me that he had a job for me. Keith is a close friend and runs a courier business here in Murray Bridge. He regularly calls on me to be his relief driver. This job was a little different. A parcel should have been delivered yesterday to a business in Karoonda, a small Murray Mallee farming community about 65 km east of here. Keith asked if I could deliver it as soon as possible. That got me going, in spite of the chill in the air.
My wife decided to join me for the drive and we also took her mother with for the drive. Mother doesn’t get out all that much these days. This delivery job was work, but very pleasant work I might say. Being a relief driver for Keith is sometimes hard work, because some days are very busy and some of the parcels are quite heavy.
This parcel was small and only weighed a few kilograms. I had delivered it to the business concerned soon after 9 o’clock. On the return journey we detoured via Tailem Bend. We had packed morning tea before leaving. We drove down to the picnic area on the bank of the River Murray. We sat there for nearly an hour having a cuppa and some biscuits. While there we were entertained by a large variety of birds, including a flock of about 300 Silver Gulls.