DAY 168 – BEERENBERG FAMILY FARM AND PORT ADELAIDE

We had another pretty big day planned today.  One of the things we wanted to do whilst up in the Adelaide Hills was to go visit the Beerenberg Family Farm and do some strawberry picking but we just ran out of time the previous day. 

So it was back up the mountain again this morning to visit the Beereberg Farm.  We love Beerenberg products especially their Beetroot Balsamic Relish called “Steve”.  The first one I ever bought, was bought more as a gimmick because it had Steve’s name on it, but we loved it so much we have been buying it along with several of their other chutney’s and relishes ever since.  In fact not only do we love it, but anyone we have shared it with seems to love it also….

They are also renowned for their jams and jellies and have a huge strawberry fields which you can pay to go pick your own strawberries.  We spent the morning strawberry picking the most delicious, sweet large strawberries we have eaten since coming home from Denmark last year.  

They do a roaring trade as there were lots and lots of folk and families out in the fields picking their strawberries.  They were $9.95 a kilo, but honestly they were worth every cent.  You could pick as much or as little as you liked.  You pay your $4 to go into the fields so that you can pick your berries.  We were both given a pink armband to wear, and then they have a big old dodge truck with a shop set up in the back where you take them once you have picked them to have them weighed and you pay for them.  

We offloaded them into the car and went back into their gift shop to check out their other products they had on sale.  They had a huge variety of sauces, chutney, jams, jellies and honey,  lots we had never heard of and it was tempting to splurge out, but we remained good, as space is now becoming a big of a premium for us as the moment.  We did pick up a couple of sauces to use at Christmas time, and a special rib sauce for Chloe’s husband Dan, as he loves his ribs…..

From here we headed back home, mainly to put the strawberries in our fridge and have a quick bite before heading off to explore the rest of the Adelaide beaches and Port Adelaide. 

We were keen to check out Semaphore Beach as I had read quite a bit about it and it wasn’t quite as upmarket or trendy as Glenelg which suited us fine…

 It is primarily a residential suburb, although its seaside location makes it a popular local tourist destination, with numerous restaurants, takeaway food outlets and other tourism-oriented businesses.  It is safe, there’s a rock wall protecting most of the beach, and it is also clean, stretches of long white sand make it an ideal family location.  The atmosphere is very casual and relaxed with quite a few family attractions including the Semaphore Carousel which has just  about to celebrate it’s 75^th year as a resident of the Semaphore foreshore.

The carousel is believed to be the largest operating carousel in Australia with 40 handcrafted wooden horses and it is housed in an undercover enclosure to protect it from the elements.

 From Semaphore Beach we headed onto the industrial port town of Port Adelaide, on the way there we detoured into one of the industrial areas where we saw them building a big naval vessel.  After seeing the HMAS Whyalla, it kind of sparked an interest in us.  We did stop and take a couple of photos.  

Our initial destination in Port Adelaide was to check out the Port Adelaide lighthouse. The lighthouse arrived in South Australia in April 1867, having been prefabricated in England and shipped to Australia in pieces.  It was erected at the entrance to the Port River and was first lit on January 1st 1869.

The lighthouse stood on a platform approximately 20 feet above the high water mark, supported by wooden piles.  It was originally intended for lighthouse keepers to live in the base of the tower, however , the weather conditions proved this plan to be unsuitable, and accommodation was built for the keepers between the decks.

The Port Adelaide Lighthouse now  stands at the end of commercial road, Port Adelaide, as an exhibit of the South Australian Maritime Museum.  This is, however, after almost 120 years serving South Australia’s coastlines.  It was decommissioned in 1985 and acquired by the South Australian Maritime Museum, restored and reassembled on its present site on Black Diamond Square.

 As we were driving around Port Adelaide we noticed that it has been transformed into a giant outdoor gallery  with quite a bit of street art and then found out that it was a result of the 2015 and 2107 Wonderwalls street art festival.  International street artists as wells as national and local artists have created astounding pieces of street art around Port Adelaide that leaving visitors gaping in awe. This set us on a mission then to locate as many of the murals as we could find.  They were amazing and we didn’t see nearly enough. 

It turns out that there are actually maps you can down load which will take you along a trail of discovery through the streets  and encourage you to explore the different locations within Port Adelaide so that you can find these artworks.  Pity we did not know about it before hand, but I can assure you, I will be doing my research on it before we venture back there in a couple of years.  You could easily spent a day here just driving around and checking them all out.  

By now the sun had set, and it was starting to get a little difficult to take photos, so we decided that it was time to start heading back to our van, as we probably still had a half hour journey back home.  We also wanted to pick up a pizza for dinner, and as it was going on for 9pm we knew we needed to do it soon before the shops all shut…

 

Sunset

We also needed to get home as we had a bit of packing to do, so that we could get away reasonably early in the morning as we had another big day of travel with a little over 350kms to go to get to Robe.  We knew it would take a while as we also wanted to explore places like Meningie and Kingston SE on the way.

Our time in Adelaide has come to an end a little too quickly actually.  We could have easily spent another couple of days here.  We will just have to put the things we missed this trip on a bucket list to be achieved when we return in a few years time…