Camping on Yorke Peninsula
It's the week between Christmas and New Years and I've been on the road for 3 weeks.
I've been working non stop since I left Sydney and have already made it through 3 states. The reason for the speedy trip is I had plans to spend Christmas with my family in Adelaide. I could have started my official Big Lap here and continued west from South Australia, but then I would have missed exploring the two biggest states in the country - New South Wales and Victoria would come at the end of my lap.
I know this doesn't really matter but I wanted to capture the country right. If I started in Victoria I could explore that popular area first leaving New South Wales last on my lap. It all made sense in my head, trust me.
I was supposed to head back to Victoria for New Years but I was waiting on a delivery of gear for an upcoming project I'm embarking on (more on that later)
I've decided to book a camping adventure on Yorke Peninsula. Three nights staying at any of the bush camping sites across the Peninsula.
I invited my 11 year old niece to come for the experience. Bush camping meant basic amenities and the first day was predicted to hit 40 degrees celsius. Vanlife isn't for everyone and with all the warnings laid out before the trip, she was still excited for the vanlife experience.
The first day was the hottest day I had experienced in the van. What an introduction to van life for my niece!
Yorkes bush camping is on a first come first serve basis. You pay per night but can stay at any of the 19 camps all over the area. I had chosen the bigger camp sites on the west coast, to make sure we had a place to stay. They all had over 30 available spots and they also had access to a toilet. I was used to camping in awkward locations, but my niece wasn't. I was trying to make this trip as comfortable as possible for her.
After a sweaty car ride with the air con at full speed, we arrived at out first camp site at Burners Beach. And yes, I chose that camp for a reason - I was hoping it was walking distance to a beach. As luck would have it we scored one of the last camp sites and spent the afternoon swimming in the (not so clear) Burners Beach ocean - with the heat I didn't care how murky the water was, as long as it was cool.
Our only focus was to get through the night as there was supposed to be a cool change at midnight which should have made the rest of our trip more bearable.
After waking up at 1.30am to the sound of my awning banging into the van from the wind I got up to secure it down and felt the relief of the cool change. The heat had finally past.
Day two and we had much cooler weather - now this was vanlife! We headed to Flaherty’s Beach - It’s said to have the whitest sand and the clearest water in South Australia. This has to be one of my top beaches in Australia! Later that day we made it to our second campsite, Port Minlacowie with an epic parking spot over the ocean.
The Gap Campground was our final camp site and it was an awesome little spot with close access to the beach.
I knew inviting my niece along to the trip was going to make it a busy one, but I also knew I needed the company. I've been travelling on my own ever since I got the van and with the isolation I experienced during covid I had become quite comfortable hiding out in my van alone. Having someone else along fro the ride would push me out of my comfort zone and out of my normal routine.
I didn't get as much work done as I planned - even though my niece is old enough to take care of herself I still had a lot of 'mum' duties to complete. Everything tends to take longer in a van and with an extra person, time seemed to disappear even faster.
I set my niece a challenge to film her own vlog of the trip. She had just bought her first camera and it was my chance to show her how all the features worked. With her focussed on filming and editing her vlog it gave me a little bit of time to work on my own project. I decided to film my own vlog while I was on Yorkes and I appreciated having a camera assistant to help me out.
You can check out the full trip over on my YouTube channel here
Tam x
