Rapid Bay

Rapid Bay. Home of Many Squid. Site of Enormous Cliffs. Place of Strange Caravanning Folk. This place has got it all especially if you’re after some culinary delights in a beautiful setting whilst weird neighbours get loose around you. 

Rapid Bay as seen from the hills above.

The coastline coming from Adelaide down the Fleurieu Peninsula is stunning- rolling hills either stop abruptly as enormous cliffs our meander gently down to the sea to end in beautiful beaches. The land is so fertile it almost smacks you in the face as you whiz past, and coming down the valley into Rapid Bay was gobsmacking to say the least. The campground is grassy and on one side is a gigantic cliff  whilst on the other is a gigantic cliff (and dismantled mine) with a jetty.

Beautiful Rapid Bay looking north.

We picked a spot amongst the Norfolk pines and set about our usual business. Enter Doug and Brigitta whose pointed questions on where we’d come from, how and why bordered on the invasive, but always keen to make another friend both Fiela and I took it all as simply friendliness. Until they invited themselves over, sat down with a drink and proceeded to rant at each other and us over the ethnicity of the average school dux (wtf??) and why taking your kids out of school for a holiday “absolutely ruins them.” As my eyes narrowed and steam started to escape my ears, Fiela cleverly stood up and said “Well we’ve got things to do, the kids… you know. Oh and I’ve got to go and have a fish.” Exit stage left. Leaving me holding the bigots. Enter Feral Children Screaming and suddenly Doug and Brigitta retreated to their caravan, only to hang about the edges of our camp again when the kids were occupied eating. Which turned out to be quite lucky.

Fiela fishing pain free.

Fiela did go out for a fish and caught a couple of squid. However, the weather had turned cold, and on his return to shore realised that actually, if you cycle for 36km towing 30+ kgs over hilly terrain (four days prior) and then get really cold while you sit in the same position for a few hours, your body will probably not like that so much. Luckily his friend Andrew was working back at a hospital in Adelaide, Doug and Brigitta jumped at the chance to be in on some drama and offered to watch over the camper, we bundled the kids into the car in their pyjamas, Fiela hobbled into the passenger seat and we drove all the way back to the city to work out why he was in such incredible pain. Turns out, when you get past 45 years of age, you’re not actually 27 anymore: you might need to do some stretches from time to time so your muscles don’t seize up especially after irregular exercise. We spent the night at the Blythes again, (who’d only just put fresh sheets back on the bed), and drove back to Rapid Bay the next day with a fully functioning Fiela. Crisis over.

Fleurieu tractors at the boat ramp.

The next day I decided to try and catch the squid, which I did. Just one. Fiela went out 20 minutes later and returned in half an hour with 15. Fishing Fail. Fiela’s rightful status as Master and Commander of the Kayak had been restored. He did this a few times and I’m officially over squid and the many ways you can cook it (even stuffed with risotto and baked in a tomato sauce).

We drove over to Victor Harbor (a 19^th Centruy spelling error!) 50kms away on the other side of the peninsula. It’s a lovely town, and we caught the horse drawn tram over to the little island. This was one of the hottest days we’d had since travelling through Outback Queensland, and we drove up to Port Elliot for a swim in its absolutely freezing waters. It was like being in Camps Bay, RSA, all over again.

The Victor Harbor Tram drawn by poor Misty, who was probably ready to walk straight into the sea after Marguerite 'encouraged' her to go faster for the entirety of the 25 minute trip.

In other strange caravanning times, one old mate parked his van within 10 metres of us, despite there being acres and acres of spare choose-your-own camp spot space. Marguerite was constantly high on sugar due to her friendship with a little girl over the way who had an unsupervised source of lollies at her disposal and therefore Marguerite’s. One dude slept in his car with his cat and her 5 kittens, and the rest of people we met here were from Victor Harbor. It was all a bit strange.

We bid farewell to the beautiful scenery of Rapid Bay and its various occupants after five days or so and moved on ready for some solitary time away from the crazies.

Rapid Bay sunset.

Uyshuis sunset.