Tailem Bend SA. 22/23 August 2026

Tailem Bend is only a 100 km or so from Adelaide, we stayed here for two nights to unwind from tour mode and get our caravan feet again. The van park is totally automated, no contact with anyone whatever. It’s all done on the line, and the big imposing prison style gates don't help. And it is right alongside the Princes Highway, which really gets busy with truck traffic and the attendant noise after dark. Not to mention the freight trains rumbling past all night.

View from caravan park across Murray River. Tailem Bend SA.

We took ourselves for a wander around the area. There is a vehicle ferry just north of the town that takes you across the Murray and you follow the road to Jervois, and then to Wellington about 10 km down stream. Wellington has a hotel billed as the oldest country hotel in SA, having been built in 1848. Mind you, you have to look long and hard at the back of the building from the outside to see anything that looks remotely old.

Wellington is also home to the busiest and oldest vehicle ferry crossing on the Murray. While we were there eating our huge hamburgers for lunch it never sopped ferrying traffic from side to side and was always full, as were we!

Before we took that same ferry back across to the main road we went further south about 30 km to see what was in a little town called Langhorne Creek. It’s seems a nice old, small and charming place. Certainly the hotel was obviously a hit with heaps of people out and about and heading there for their Sunday lunch.

Vehicle ferry. Wellington SA