WRECKS, ROADS AND ROCKS: SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S LIMESTONE COAST
“EITHER WAY, NO ONE SURVIVED”
Running 200km north-west from the Victorian border, South Australia’s Limestone Coast may be a long way from anywhere, but it’s an interesting place to tour and well suited to anyone travelling Melbourne to Adelaide or vice-versa. Of course, for South Australian locals like myself, it’s a somewhat easier destination, although it doesn’t start until you’re 300km south-east of Adelaide. It then stretches a further 200km all the way to the Victorian border.
For me, the history, the landscape, the villages and riding were the big attractions. For others it might be the wineries, glamping, snorkelling and caves. For an area not far from the deserts of central Australia on sparsely populated and tough land, it offers more for the visitor than many expect.
OUT OF ADELAIDE
Leaving Adelaide, you can head out via the South Eastern Freeway and Dukes Highway as far as Tailem Bend, but it’s a pretty tedious ride. I chose a winding route through the hills to Strathalbyn and then to the ferry crossing over the River Murray at Wellington. From here I followed the Princes Highway through the wild, remote and windswept Coorong National Park.
Either side of the smooth tarmac the bush was dense, low growing and looked practically impenetrable. The road swept up and down and in and out of low hills. Occasionally there were glimpses of the grey, choppy waters of the Coorong. Somewhere in that bush near the cold waters of the Coorong is the last resting place of the survivors of the wreck of the sailing vessel Maria. But it wasn’t the
