A weekend away to Deep Creek

Discussion on what, where & how to get there ...
Post Reply
User avatar
Silverbullet
Senior Member
Posts: 2858
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:20 pm
Location: Adelaide

A weekend away to Deep Creek

Post by Silverbullet » Sun Dec 12, 2021 10:47 am

Well it was my birthday on Thursday so I decided the best present for myself was to take a 4 day weekend and go camping by myself for a couple of nights :razz: Considering that I haven't been camping properly in close to 15 years (!!!) I decided to not go too far, Deep Creek conservation park is on the Fleurieu peninsula not far from Cape Jervis. Less than 2 hours drive from home. It's a great place for a quick getaway to enjoy some native flora and fauna, lots of good bushwalking in the park and a couple of beaches/coves to explore. There's also a couple of "4WD only" tracks which I wanted to try one, down to Blowhole beach for a bit of fishing.

You'll have to forgive the weird reflection in some of the photos as my phone camera has a crack in the glass over one of the lenses.

The car loaded up and heading out.
Image

Soon as I got there I headed straight for blowhole beach. There's some big cobblestones at the start of the track to make any low vehicles and 2WDs turn back. The track down started off fine but got hairy pretty quickly, and steep! There were some decent sized rocks, gullies/wash out etc. Wish I took some photos/video of the track but I was concentrating on driving too much and not breaking anything. I stopped halfway down to air-down a bit which made it less bouncy. 1st gear low range handled it with ease I have to say, very impressed. Had to use the brakes as well in some areas but never slipped or spun a wheel. Think some of the big land cruisers and utes at the bottom were surprised to see me there :lol:
Same thing going back up, 1st gear low and held it at 2k rpm the whole way she just rolled over everything and got back to the top without breaking a sweat. Very impressed with this car! This was the first time I've used the 4WD seriously.
The view at the bottom was pretty good although the fishing was a wash out (too rough and weedy)
Image

Got to my camp site about 3PM and set up camp. It took me ages because I was experimenting with a tarp/shelter setup and trying to find the best way to rig it. This is was I came up with although it wasn't as good as I had hoped. Most of the space was too low/un-usable. I attached it to the car using suction-cup handles, the ones you would use to lift panes of glass since I don't have a roof rack.
Image

The wild life at the Trig cam ground is very friendly, a little too friendly! This little bugger walked right up and started helping itself to my rubbish bag! :evil: I think people must feed them which I think is wrong.
Image
Image

Day 2 was a 11 or 12k bush walk/hike around the circuit trail, the longest walk in the park, You get to see most of the park and 2 beach coves on this hike. It got insanely rough and steep in some places so not for the faint of heart or in-experienced. I took plenty of food and water with me.
The effort was worth it though, the waterfall was beautiful and the views were stunning along various parts of the walk.
Image
Image
Image
Image

This where I sat and had lunch, a nice view :biggrin:
Image

The sign boards said to allow 7 hours for this walk but I somehow completed it in just over 4 hours so I was back at camp with nothing to do by mid day :roll:
I un-tied the tarp from the car and went for a drive to the nearby Talisker park to explore the old silver/lead mine. It was pretty interesting with some old ruins and artifacts, amazing what they could achieve way out here in the 1870's with pick axes, steam and candle power. The main shaft and lower levels of this mine were more than 130m under ground!
Image
Image

A steep climb from the mine gave a nice lookout to Kangaroo Island.
Image

I went back to camp after this and enjoyed the peace and the bird song for and hour or two before dusk while reading a book. Was visited by these two cute creatures.
Image

By now it was Friday night and about 3 or 4 other vehicles/utes/land cruisers showed up in the space of half an hour, started playing music and making noise :cry: Why people go to a peaceful surround like that and start playing music from their bluetooth speakers is completely beyond me.
Anyway I was packed up and gone by 7AM the next morning before they were even out of bed.

My birthday present from family was a joy flight in a Boeing Stearman, a trainer bi-plane from WW2. It was an incredible experience, I love these old birds. I was able to control the plane for a while and did a few turns. Then the pilot asked if I was fine with some aerobatics and I stupidly said yes...
A loop, a barrel roll and a stall turn later and I had to ask to go back since I was so sick! :cry: Spent the rest of the day feeling like death.
The feeling of being upside down in the loop and the G's at the bottom, it was something else for sure. I dunno how people do that for a living.

Image
Image
Image

Anyway I was extremely happy with the camping experience and got some ideas on what to improve for next time. Now I'm looking forward to the next trip and where to go to test out the 4WD some more. I think Robe might be the place to go.

User avatar
Subyroo
Junior Member
Posts: 686
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:00 am
Location: Sunshine Coast

Re: A weekend away to Deep Creek

Post by Subyroo » Sun Dec 12, 2021 10:57 am

You certainly had a good time out there Silverbullet.
That flight would have been no good to me either, I can get butterflies in my stomach just by going down a steep hill in a car, so an aircraft doing loops would probably have me filling the cockpit from both ends. :lol: :lol:

User avatar
El_Freddo
Master Member
Posts: 12487
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: Bridgewater Vic
Contact:

Re: A weekend away to Deep Creek

Post by El_Freddo » Mon Dec 13, 2021 2:00 pm

Good effort Sam! And Happy Birthday for the other day!

Looks like a top trip away. These little 4wds are really surprising. Ruby Scoo usually still surprises me when I ask more of her than I should.

I concur with the noise issue out bush, what’s the point of being out there with music blaring??

You’ll love Robe. Pack a shovel, recovery tracks and your compressor and you’ll be sweet 8)

Cheers

Bennie
"The lounge room is not a workshop..."
Image
El Freddo's Pics - El_Freddo's youtube

User avatar
El_Freddo
Master Member
Posts: 12487
Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
Location: Bridgewater Vic
Contact:

Re: A weekend away to Deep Creek

Post by El_Freddo » Tue Dec 14, 2021 4:31 pm

I forgot to mention how lucky you are to see the rare sight of TWO Echidnas together, something I’m yet to see. They’re usually solitary animals roaming alone until mating season - then males seek out the females and follow them around to mate. Apparently there can be up to ten males following a female in what’s dubbed as an “Echidna train”.

I’ve never seen one but one of my lecturers at uni (who I thought was undeserving of it as he totally missed the significance of the experience) saw one while rock climbing at a particular place he frequented.

Enjoy those moments when you can, can’t wait to see it myself, hopefully someone will be there to share the moment with too (without the doof doof music blaring!).

Cheers

Bennie
"The lounge room is not a workshop..."
Image
El Freddo's Pics - El_Freddo's youtube

byter
Junior Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2023 10:27 pm

Re: A weekend away to Deep Creek

Post by byter » Sun Feb 12, 2023 6:04 pm

Subyroo wrote:
Sun Dec 12, 2021 10:57 am
You certainly had a good time out there Silverbullet.
That flight would have been no good to me either, I can get butterflies in my stomach just by going down a steep hill in a car, so an aircraft doing loops would probably have me filling the cockpit from both ends. :lol: :lol:
Hi,

It was a Friday night, and within a half-hour, three or four other cars—utes or land cruisers—arrived, began creating noise, and began playing music. Why somebody would go to such a serene setting and begin blasting music over their Bluetooth speakers is utterly beyond me.
The next morning before they had even gotten out of bed and also furniture, I had already packed and left before 7AM.
Online Shopping Australia https://www.aushoppinghub.com/ for Furniture, Rugs, Lighting, Tableware, Kitchenware & Fashion.

Post Reply

Return to “Camping and Travel”