Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram
One of the lovely features of Victor Harbor is the historic horse drawn tram that travels frequently from the mainland over the causeway to Granite Island. The island is a short – perhaps ten minute – walk across a causeway. This walk is undertaken by many hundreds of people daily, rising to many thousands in the peak tourist seasons. Over the summer months, Easter weekend, school holidays and even normal weekends the island and its causeway can be quite crowded.
Causeway from Victor Harbor to Granite Island
The alternative to walking is to take a ride either way on the historic horse drawn tram. These trams operate throughout the day, every day of the year and are very popular with tourists, visitors and locals. The Clydesdale horses willingly go through their paces throughout the day and really seem to enjoy their ‘work.’
Horse drawn tram Victor Harbor, South Australia
The trams have been a part of the cultural and tourist attractions for many years. Commencing in 1894 the tram ran until 1956 when the carriages were sold. The service recommenced in 1985 with four rebuilt carriages. Each carriage is hauled by one of 14 Clydesdale horses. It is one of only three horse drawn tramways anywhere in the world. (The others are in Japan and on the Isle of Man.)
Links:
- Victor Harbor Tramway – web page with much more information, including prices bookings and running times. It also has photos of the horses and information about them.
- Victor Harbor – more tourist and visitor information.
Horse drawn tram Victor Harbor, South Australia
Victor Harbor, South Australia
Yesterday I wrote about our recent caravan trip to Victor Harbor. This trip is becoming an annual pilgrimage to this lovely seaside town. My wife usually attends a special convention one weekend in March every year.
From the earliest days of settlement in South Australia Victor Harbor has been the summer holiday destination of choice of so many South Australians – and a significant number of interstate and overseas visitors too. In more recent times it has become a favoured retirement destination. One local radio announcer calls the town “God’s waiting room.”
Granite Island, Victor Harbor
Victor Harbor has a milder climate than many other parts of the state, especially the capital city Adelaide. It can frequently be 4-8 degrees Celsius cooler than the city in summer, and less harsh in winter; frosts are almost unknown. On the downside, it can be much wetter than other places.
Causeway from Victor Harbor to Granite Island
With such good weather, a long pleasant beachfront and many sealed walking trails that double up as bicycle tracks, many people are very active when they visit Victor Harbor. The most popular walking trail leads out over a causeway to Granite Island just off the coast. On the Saturday of our recent visit I went for a walk out to the island with friends Trevor and Keith. I’ll write about that tomorrow.
A short holiday in Victor Harbor
We recently had a short caravan holiday in Victor Harbor, South Australia. This seaside town is a popular holiday destination about an hour south of Adelaide. It is a little over an hour from our home, especially when towing a caravan.
Granite Island, Victor Harbor
This sojourn in the caravan park at Encounter Bay is an annual pilgrimage by us and a number of our friends. We always reserve a number of sites in close proximity to each other. During the weekend our wives attend the CWCI Convention. The men have a relaxing weekend reading, talking, walking and generally lazing around.
Related Articles:
- Caravan holiday in Victor Harbor – last year’s post on this.
- Victor Harbor South Australia – also from last year.
- A beautiful day – some days in South Australia should be bottled.
- Victor Harbor – general information about this seaside town.
Travelling South Australia
Last Friday evening we had a meeting to attend in the South Australian country town of Coonalpyn, about an hour’s drive from home and two hours South East of Adelaide. We decided to take the day off from work. My wife works in her native plant nursery most days and I on my writing.
How Park
The weather forecast was not looking good, but the start of the day was quite pleasant. We travelled via Tailem Bend to the small mallee community of Peake, nearly an hour east of Murray Bridge. Here we turned north for a few kilometres to a picnic ground called How Park. This small community park is now very run down with a dilapidated toilet block and club rooms, a strip of concrete formerly used as a cricket pitch and an open area previously used as a football oval.
Uninvited lunch guests:
This park would have been much used in earlier times, say in the 1950s and 60s, but its condition is now quite derelict. Some of the beautiful pine trees planted by early settlers are magnificent still; others have either died through the drought or been ravaged by storms. Despite this we still had our picnic lunch there. The numerous uninvited bush flies decided to join us. I only recorded a few birds in the park and didn’t take any photos. One notable sighting was of several Peaceful Doves who serenaded us while we dined.
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
Jabuk to Geranium:
After lunch we travelled to Jabuk and then on to Geranium. By now the hot north wind was increasing and the cloud cover intensifying. It was not a good day for birding and I saw very little of interest except for four Western Grey Kangaroos. On previous occasions I had seen many birds on this stretch of road. Today was a very poor birding day though I did see a family of White Winged Choughs.
Banksias
One Tree Hill:
A few kilometres south of Geranium there is a locality known as One Tree Hill. It has many trees there so I don’t know why it is called that. Nearby is a soak used by the Aborigines in earlier times; it would have been one of the few places where there was fresh water in the district. There is no surface water now; the local farmers and their bores have lowered the water table. One feature of this locality is many hundreds of trees planted by a local grower, especially many kinds of Banksias (see photo). I was only able to get several photos before beating a hasty retreat to the car for shelter. From that point on it rained steadily all the way to our friends’ place in Coonalpyn.
While the rain was very welcome, the birding was disappointing. Next time we will pick better weather.
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.