Port Elliot SA Horseshoe Bay

We took ourselves on a bit of a tour out of Victor Harbor down to Goolwa. Goolwa is on the edge of Lake Alexandrina, which is where the Murray River ends, except for big floods when the lake empties into the ocean. There is a bridge over to Hindmarsh Island, which is where Charles Sturt swum to in 1830, climbed a sand dune and declared that he could at last see the mouth of the Murray River. It is also where Captain Barker swum to in 1831 under orders to retrace Sturt's steps and add more details to his survey. He too climbed the hill and waved at his regiment on the far shore at Goolwa. he then disappeared from view, never to be seen again.

We stopped at Horseshoe Bay, established in 1851 to be the safe port for goods brought down the Murray to Goolwa. They even built a railway line in 1854, the first public railway in Australia. Port Elliot is the town right behind Horseshoe Bay. The bay was only active until 1864 when the penny dropped that it wasn't actually all that safe at all after the seventh shipwreck in the bay. They then extended the line to Victor Harbor and that's how that town came about.

Anyhow, a few snaps from Horseshoe Bay: Unfortunately no whales even though we keep getting told "there were hundreds here this time last year"

Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot SA

Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot SA

Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot SA

Horseshoe Bay, Port Elliot SA