March - Featuring South Australia (including Kangaroo Island)

Well, let me start by saying that our motorhome trip to the Sunshine Coast never happened. But, I’ll get to that!

The 1st of March (a Saturday) was spent by me, L and G at a brand new culinary experience in Main Ridge on the Mornington Peninsula. Owner, Ciara, hails from Ireland. Her gorgeous property includes ten acres of vines (currently looked after by Foxey’s Hangout and, when we visited, on the cusp of harvest) and a house formerly occupied by the property manager.

Last year, Ciara decided to renovate that house and she has created a bespoke kitchen with a dining space around a huge, curved stone bench plus tables inside and out. Ciara’s cooking is home-style, seasonal Mediterranean and she uses as much produce from her garden as possible. A real farm-to-fork experience. Ciara demonstrates what she is cooking, all the while giving cooking and entertaining tips to the group. 

At the end of the demonstration, the group all ate lunch together. It was a lovely day and, if you’re looking for a unique pamper experience or gift, this is it – www.froghollowkitchen.com.au or @froghollowkitchen on Instagram. The girls and I loved it! If you'dl like to know more, here is a little story I wrote about it -  https://thepaige.au/food-wine-vines-new-friends-at-frog-hollow-kitchen/

A couple of days later, I was invited by VisitBritain to evening drinks and nibbles at a cute gin distillery in Melbourne followed by a Hoyts Lux screening of the newest Bridget Jones movie. I met some more travel writers (each of these functions is a bit easier than the last one as I meet more people). I really enjoyed the film. The girls and I had watched the first three the week before which was fun.

So, back to the motorhome, we had everything sorted to take our first trip but Tropical Cyclone Alfred had other ideas so, with a couple of days to go, we swapped our trip to Mildura, McLaren Vale, Port Elliot and Kangaroo Island. We packed up the motorhome (we’ve decided to call her Vandie – I liked Andie [a combination of both our names] but Andrew doesn’t so Vandie she is).

The first time I sat in Vandie as she was moving was the day we left on our adventure! My initial reaction was that it was sooooo unnaturally high but I soon got used to it and loved it.

We started by taking the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff and finished Day 1 in Red Cliffs (Mildura). Luckily, everything worked and we seemed to work out how everything worked quickly and easily. Especially luckily the air-conditioning worked really well. We needed this as the weather was very hot that first week, climbing to 40 degrees Celsius!

We really only had half a day in Mildura as we wanted to watch Collingwood’s opening match that afternoon. We decided to go to Orange World as we remembered that as a lot of fun from when we took the kids some 15 years ago. It was a fun couple of hours and we bought a big bag of oranges. (Which we had to forfeit the next day as we crossed into SA!)

Next day we headed off to McLaren Vale. We visited Mollydooker, Down a Rabbit Hole and d’Arenberg. Mollydooker was an impromptu stop that we loved. A wine tasting was accompanied by terrific stories and wine education and a yummy tasting plate. We couldn’t resist buying a couple of bottles of their “Blue Eyed Boy” as we have two blue-eyed boys!

We spent a lazy few hours at Mollydooker and then drove to DTRH which we had seen on some travel shows. We couldn’t manage any more wine but thought we’d have a coffee. They didn’t serve coffee so we made a mental note to come back next time.

The next day we had booked a wine tasting and lunch at d’Arenberg. We had seen photos of the Cube (and, in fact, had admired it from Mollydooker the day prior). The wine tasting was led by another passionate wine-lover and we were well and truly wined out before lunch! We wandered through the levels of the Cube including the Salvador Dali exhibition, the unusual (!) toilets and the quirky decoration. What an imagination to create such a place!

Lunch was a degustation at d’Arry’s Verandah and it was divine. It was the most beautiful day and we ate on the shaded terrace feeling very happy with ourselves!

After deciding we needed to go on a wine strike (temporarily of course!), we headed for Port Elliot which we loved. A beachside town with gorgeous beaches, there are also heritage buildings and some cute cafés. Close by is the town of Victor Harbor but we only called through to the supermarket there on the way to Kangaroo Island. We were content just to stay at Port Elliot and soak up the scenery and our beachfront caravan park site.

On to Kangaroo Island (KI). We booked at the last minute so the car ferry stung (almost $800 return!). We drove about an hour on from Victor Harbor to Cape Jervis to catch the ferry. At the moment you reverse on the ferry and drive off (and the same at KI). Driving a motorhome, this is no mean feat and Andrew did it perfectly. They pack you in too – there was little room between us and huge trucks. New ferries are coming this year which are bigger and will be drive on, drive off.

The ferry is about 50 minutes (you have to get out of your car) and our caravan park was basically at the ferry terminal in Penneshaw.

Next morning, we woke early (6.30am) and it was just getting light. We decided to get up and walk the five minutes to the beach, Hog Bay. Andrew grabbed his fishing gear. I marvelled at the fiery sunset and saw some dark shapes in the water which I soon realised were dolphins! This was our first amazing wildlife sighting on KI…there were to be a few!

I noticed a couple of ladies on the beach snapping dolphin photos and started a conversation. They had arrived on the 6am ferry and come down to the beach. They were gobsmacked (as I was) at seeing the dolphins. They were friends from Belgium – one lives permanently in Sydney now, her friend was in Australia for work and they were taking a holiday together. They had a story to tell when they went home!

We found a cute café for breakfast – there were two in Penneshaw, across the road from each other. We alternated which one we went to. Both made good coffee. 

At lunchtime, we picked up a hire car – a fully electric Polestar. This is the first EV either of us had ever driven and we loved it. We loved it so much that we extended the hire for a few days. (That way, we didn’t need to journey on gravel roads in Vandie nor pack up each day. This worked very well).

That day was 40 degrees (lucky that Vandie has a great air conditioner as did our hire car) but, in the afternoon, it dropped to 30 and the next day it was about 20!

We explored several beautiful beaches during our time on KI but our absolute highlight was the wildlife, followed by the “local maker” scene.

I’ll talk about the makers first…we visited a Ligurian bee farm, a gin distillery, a eucalyptus oil distillery, a brewery, a wool manufacturer and a brewery. All local, all selling product and all offering tours of some description. Each place was a destination of its own so you won’t get bored on KI!

A note on the bees…Ligurian bees were brought to KI from Italy. Kangaroo Island was declared a sanctuary for Ligurian bees in 1885 and strict biosecurity laws protect their genetic purity and disease-free status. As a result, you can’t bring honey onto KI!

The wildlife..where do I start? I’ve already mentioned the dolphins but the absolute highlight for me was feeding kangaroos at the KI Wildlife Park. For a $3 bag of food, I had kangaroos and wallabies gently pawing me for food. It was AMAZING!

We also got there during a Koala talk which meant that the fenced koala enclosure was open and we were allowed to pat the koalas – DREAMS! 

We also saw loads of sea lions (in the wild this time) at Seal Bay. We even saw a pup feeding from Mum! Fun fact - sea lions are a subspecies of seal.

Cape Willoughby Lighthouse was another highlight. We walked around and learnt about its history from the Visitors’ Information Centre and we also did a hike around the lighthouse. It was dusty and lined with kangaroo poo. We saw many roos along the way, mainly sheltering in the shade under the trees.

Andrew had not wanted to film a YouTube but, at the last minute, he changed his mind so we went down to the beach (Hog Bay ) on our last morning. We started to talk into the GoPro when, lo and behold, a kangaroo jumped out of a bush beside us, hopped across the sand and out of sight. What a fitting end to our time on KI!

We drove on to Bordertown, arriving just before dark so that we had an easy drive into Melbourne the next day. It was a good decision except that we heard trains and traffic all night. Note to self – pack ear plugs in the motorhome for noisy caravan parks.

Home to Melbourne and we went to the MCG for our first footy game for the year. Collingwood won too – bonus!

We spent the weekend at Rye with our daughters and gave all of us a treat by a day at Alba Thermal Springs on the Mornington Peninsula. We had a couple of vouchers which included lunch so we ended up spending most of the day there. Heavenly.

The bliss state ended abruptly Monday night when I woke up to a noise and realised Andrew was in the bathroom. I called out and he didn’t answer so I went to investigate and saw him on the ground covered in blood! This isn’t a thriller novel so I’ll cut to the chase – he is fine (thank goodness). He fainted and hit his head and needed four stitches but it took a call to 000, an ambulance ride and a night in hospital to work all this out. A scary experience for both of us and one of those reminders that life is fragile and can change in an instant.

After our night in Emergency, Andrew had a quiet couple of days. I actually had a bit of work on that week so I was busy and Andrew did some more editing on YouTube episodes and some holiday re-jigging and planning.

We are up to over 3,000 subscribers for our YouTube channel !!!! We now have four live episodes and they are all getting lots of views. On the basis of the early success of this channel, we were gifted a European river cruise this week. WOW!! More about that in August.

Last week, we were gifted another European river cruise which we will do in June. That one is due to me “selling” a story to a magazine. How lucky are we??!!!

The June and August river cruises have necessitated some changing up of holiday dates and plans but we’re more than happy to make the changes!

This time last year I would not have believed that my writing and, now, Andrew’s YouTube would provide us with free (luxury) trips. What a life I am living!!

In Writing Wins, I had five travel stories published this month 😊:

• The tropical Australian island you've never heard of (but need to visit ASAP) - https://www.mamamia.com.au/cocos-keeling-islands/

• Oxford Beyond the Books: A Magical Journey Through England’s Historic University Town - https://www.goworldtravel.com/oxford-englands-historic-university-town/👍

• He Said/She Said; Did both husband and wife warm to Norway and the Arctic Circle? - https://www.joincitro.com.au/news/travel-to-norway

• Food, Wine, Vines & New Friends at Frog Hollow Kitchen -  https://thepaige.au/food-wine-vines-new-friends-at-frog-hollow-kitchen/ This is a new publication for me…nice 

• A Day at Kiriwina Island - https://www.thewisetraveller.com/Articles/view/?permalink=a-day-at-kiriwina-island