Walk The Yorke, South Australia
Port Rickaby, South Australia, Australia
time : Oct 25, 2021 9:20 AM
duration : 6h 28m 41s
distance : 23.2 km
total_ascent : 113 m
highest_point : 32 m
avg_speed : 4.2 km/h
user_id : gstreet
user_firstname : Carl
user_lastname : Greenstreet
Clear chilly night (plus another night of listening to soothing rhythmic sound of waves), so I woke to a tent dripping with condensation. It’s hard to avoid a wet tent when temperatures fall below the dew point (wind helps) but the good news is that my double wall tent keeps me dry inside. Chris’s tent was similarly wet so we had a slow start waiting for the sun and wind to dry our tents.
We finally got off around 9:30 after a small brekkie at the camp kiosk. We quickly headed out onto Wauraltee Beach, a broad, flat and wide beach which stayed that way for the rest of the day’s walk. I perhaps could stop here, as how much can you say about beach walking? Nevertheless, I’ll find a few things to say!
Although the walking was monotonous, the beach and ocean was just lovely. This is where having a walking partner shines - we had deep introspective discussions about growing up and how it made us into the people we are today. And the kilometres flew by!
My biggest regret is that there was zero shade anywhere on this walk and the reflected sun was bright and intense. The water to our left was light green, waveless, sandy bottomed and seemed to be relatively consistent shallow depth for at least a hundred metres, sometimes much more, before dropping off into deep dark blue.
Chris’ sharp eyed picked out a couple of dolphins lazily swimming parallel to us 30 metres out. We seemed to be walking at their swimming pace and we had them beside us for the next half hour.
Around 15 kilometres into the walk as we approached a headland, we came across two ladies and a small dog walking the other way. They were locals and we chatted about the area, dining options, etc. Unlike us, they were looking forward to the coming warmer (hot?) weather as they saw it as swimming weather!
We took a short lunch break, using our sit pads on top of the sea grass stacks - makes quite a comfy seat! Then we crossed the headland to the much shorter Rifle Butt beach, and then across one more headland to the short Second Beach. We left the beach and crossed in front of the Port Victoria boat ramp and headed towards the town and jetty about a kilometre away. Just in two o’clock, we arrived at the pub opposite the jetty and had a pleasant two beer break, sitting out on a shaded deck and enjoying the ocean views.
From there, Chris talked me into walking a kilometre out of our way to a small cafe, La Petite Cafe. It was going to be closed the next two days so this was our only chance to try it out. It’s basically a very small business with tables on the lawn and front veranda of someone’s home. But we had the best coffee and homemade cheesecake of the trip - Chris wrote her a Google review awarding her the best coffee category for Walk the Yorke - and we should know after over 400 kilometres walked so far and pretty ordinary coffees!
From there, rested and quite full, we trudged to our ocean view 2-story Airbnb home on the edge of town. They had a key safe so it was easy access and we are quite pleased with this expansive (sleeps 12?) and well appointed home. It will be quite a comfortable rest day! Love the glamping life!!