Ride The Yorke

 

Ride The Yorke

If you love a great beach, this is your ride.

Early November 2021

 

Checking out the new Walk The Yorke Trail had been on our bucket list for quite a while. A 500km marked Walking\Cycling trail around the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. This is a coastal ride that we had been saving up for warm weather so that we could swim as well.

I must say that we weren’t expecting all that much from this ride, perhaps because it was so close to home, but what transpired was a mind blowing experience that had us asking whether this might just be the best bikepacking trail in Australia.

You can see the map here: https://yorkepeninsula.com.au/sites/yorke5/media/uploaded/walk-the-yorke/walk-the-yorke-map.pdf

Camp Wherever You Like,, Almost

Attracting us to this ride was the fact that it is effectively a loop with any start/finish point that is convenient to you. A coastal ride with sleepy holiday towns and every type of beach, from wild ocean, to classic surf, to safe easy swimming. But the big one is this. You can camp FOR FREE, anywhere along the trail (outside towns) as long as you walk or cycle in with no vehicle support. If using support vehicles, they can stay in the designated campsites for a $10 per night fee. The exception is the Innes National Park, where normal national parks S.A. rules and fees apply. The trail and campgrounds are slowly being upgraded, all have water, but some don’t have toilets yet (2021). There are several small coastal towns with options for resupply, takeaway or a sit down meal. You could easily do this as a credit card ride staying in formal accommodation, you can camp in proper caravan parks if you really need a shower. So, what we really loved about it is that you can make this ride as easy or as challenging as you like.

Yes, there is a lot of agriculture on Yorkes, so often that will be on one side of your ride. But mostly you won’t be able to drag your eyes away from the coastal landscape to really notice it.

We were also using this trip as a test run for our new campervan. A new VW Transporter that we converted over winter. This sort of trip is exactly why we built the camper, as an adventure base camp. It now allows us to pick the eyes out of the best bikepacking and hiking routes in Oz without having to ride long stretches of highway all the time. We will still do epic, long distance trips, but in between we will be combining it with a little vanlife.

For this trip we chose to start in Ardrossan as that was the closest visitor centre that had the proper trail maps, which were very much worth having. They also helped us out with some advice of where to leave the van reasonably safely for the time that we would be out on the bikes.

Once again, our bikes of choice were our trusty fatbikes,  as we intended to try a few of the walk only (recommended, not a rule) beach sections.

 

Day 1 Ardrossan to wild camp near Port Vincent 55.94km (Map 2&3)

Our Starting Point in Ardrossan

We had camped with the van overnight at the Parara Point campground just south of Ardrossan, so we packed up early and dropped the van back to our safe parking in Ardrossan, threw our gear on the bikes and headed South along the trail.

Back through our campground, the trail followed rough coastal tracks, occasionally quite sandy, but

Excellent Trailhead Signeage For Each Section

very enjoyable. Once past Rogues Point, the trail becomes very well made path along the clifftops, complete with regular bench seats and occasional shelters. Lulling us into a false sense of security, all of a sudden the trail ended at a deep ravine. Well, the map did say that some sections of the trail are incomplete. It turns out that there were several deep ravines where presumably there were issues with cost of construction. So, we had a few hike a bikes, one of which required unloading the bikes completely. But we got through it. Meanwhile the views were stunning on a beautiful day with the ocean that pure South Australian turquoise. Also along this section were lots of Wombat burrows, mostly nocturnal, we didn’t actually see one.

Amazing Trail With Incredible Views

Just after Pine Point the map sends riders out alongside the Yorke Highway down to Port Julia, but we decided that the conditions, Tide & Weather, were ideal to tackle our first beach section. The trail shadows the road out to Black Point first, originally a sleepy beach shack settlement, but now millionaires row, with McMansions stacked tightly alongside each other. But then we dropped onto the beach and into another world without another soul in sight. The beach is quite narrow here and the sand quite hard at water’s edge, so the riding was fine. There was lots to see, including a lazy sealion basking in the sun about 5 metres offshore. The main problem was not the sand, but the occasional rocky headland. Most of these were rideable at extreme low tide, but if not, or if you had strong onshore winds, you would have a serious problem. Our favourite forecasting app while in

Typical Trail Shelter With Water Tank

A Gully Diversion

Australia is Willy Weather. Very good for winds and tides. Be adventurous, but also smart. Be prepared to backtrack if it’s not safe to continue.

Rocky Headland Complete With Sunbaking Sealion

We had to drag the bikes up steps at the end of the beach at Port Julia before heading back onto cliff top path most of the way into Port Vincent.

It was late afternoon, so we decided to sit down at a beach side burger joint and have something to eat before we decided where we would camp that night. We were feeling a bit tired after some heavy sand, stairs and gullies, slowing us down a bit. After a feed and a chat with some interested locals, we decided to continue about 5kms to Devils Gully Shelter. We had two options, one was beach. But as the tide was now rising, we chose the bike route and found a stunning campsite right on the cliff tops, looking East over the St Vincent’s Gulf across to the lights of Adelaide.

 

Wombat Burrow

Day 2 Wild Camp to Kemp Bay Shelter  69.47km (Map 3&4)

We enjoyed coffee while watching a stunning late spring sunrise over the Adelaide hills and gulf of Saint Vincent. Our first night back in the tent had been a good one.

First Night's Camp Near Devil's Gully

Starting the ride this morning, we had about 5ks of beautiful cliff top riding again until Lime Kiln Gully. The tide was high now, so from here we were out onto the roadside trail into Stansbury where we found a nice coffee shop under the huge Norfolk Island Pines. We grabbed a couple of unplanned items at the IGA (supermarket) and continued onwards.

South of Stansbury the trail mostly follows cliff top path with magnificent views. Other than a deviation around the Klein Point mine, we were on the coast the whole way to Edithburgh.

Lime Kiln Near Coobowie

We had heard about an ocean pool at Edithburgh and wanted to check out if it was swimmable. The sun was out when we arrived, and we decided to go for it. What a great spot and there were cold freshwater showers in the amenities after the swim. Once again, free. We felt very fresh as we headed on towards the turn west at Sultana Point.

The Ocean Pool At Edithburgh

After Sultana Point, the trail follows sandy double track behind the dunes. It was quite warm and the sand loose and dry, we were happy as usual to be floating over it on our fat bikes. We cruised past the massive Wattle Point wind farm on our right, keeping a constant eye on the pure white sand and turquoise seas to our left. A light offshore breeze was keeping the bays flat as a biscuit. There are two campgrounds worth checking out here, Wattle Point and Goldsmith Beach. Both were having new shelters and toilets built and we decided it was bit early to stop, so we kept going, our eye on stopping at Kemp Bay, all going well.

Wind Farm In The Background

Clan Ranald Road (all dirt) is a stunning ride. Very easy going unless the wind was against you. This is a very exposed part of the coastline with great views across to Kangaroo Island. Looming ahead was the brick monolith of the Troubridge Lighthouse. Perched on a windswept hill on Troubridge point, this massive brick lighthouse is worth a visit, for the view, as well as the amazing craftsmanship in the tower’s construction. Astonishingly, we saw a Rainbow Bee Eater sitting on a wire fence here. One of our favourite sights of The Kimberley trip earlier this year, we had no idea that they migrated this far south.

Troubridge Lighthouse

With about 10ks still to go, we ripped back down the hill and found the Kemp Bay shelter tucked into a bushy hill overlooking a magnificent beach. This is a hiker/biker only shelter and we had it all to ourselves. It was still quite warm, and I felt the need for a swim, but the beach was quite rough and dangerous. But at the Eastern end there is a rocky reef not far off the beach, sheltering a small lagoon offering a nice safe swimming spot.

We made dinner in the shelter, watching the sun set before retiring to our wonderful tent with a view of the beach.

Sunset From Kemp bay Shelter

Day 3 Kemp Bay to Marion Bay 69.18km (map4&5)

I went to bed dreaming of an early morning swim before we left, but woke to find it rather cool and overcast, so I wasn’t very tempted. Coffee instead.

The riding was cruisy into Port Moorowie, but the weather was quite dark and threatening. We faffed around with getting out of Port Moorowie due to a missed marker. Eventually we were back on the sandy dune tracks behind the beach until we came out at the massive grassed campground at the Foul Bay shelter. We would definitely stay here if it wasn’t so early.

Brooding Skies

Back onto the South coast Road, we found the wind picking up and our thoughts wandered to where to find our wet weather gear. But while the head wind persisted, I struggled. I couldn’t get my head around what was going on. We were on fast gravel road, it wasn’t steep, just the head wind, and Mary was killing it today, looking over her shoulder wondering what was wrong with me. Was it day three blues?  After about 15ks of this I decided to stop and pout on the side of the road for a bit. Let’s check my tyres I thought. No wonder, Larry had dropped his rear tyre pressure to about 5psi. I put 100 pumps in off the hand pump and immediately had my mojo back, woohoo, what head wind?  Larry was in trouble. The tyre was going back down slowly.

Sandy Back of Beach Trails

We had just hit the intersection with the bitumen of the Yorke Highway, so I pumped again and then went for it. I had sealant in the kit, so I pumped some in when we got to camp and reinflated. We didn’t have any problems after that.

We decided to get a site at the Marion bay campground and have a shower.  We had a meal at the Tavern which I must say was outstanding. But apart from the showers, after being in nice quiet campsites the last few nights, the very busy campground was a bit hard to take.

Excellent Cultural Signage And Art Along The Route

Day 4 Marion Bay to Gleeson’s Landing 68.52km (Map 6)

Making breakfast in the camp kitchen was a hoot. There was a large group of people on a tagalong tour with an Aussie country singer, Beccy Cole. These (mostly) ladies were on the last day of a two week rolling bender, and were having a riotous time. Although a few quietly asked us for suggestions of nice quiet campsites they could go to for a few days to quietly see out the hangovers.

Leaving Marion Bay past the General store for a few basics, we headed into the Innes National Park.

Start Of Innes National Park

Apart from a locked gate that we had to unload the bikes to get over, it was a beautiful ride on closed double track through to Stenhouse Bay. Wonderful ocean views all the way. After Stenhouse, it’s out onto the slow moving bitumen road. This is a nice ride, even for us devout off roaders. A small amount of traffic moves slowly and respectfully due to a 40km/h limit. There are things to check out along the way and lots of campsites within the park as well. You do have to pay to camp in the park though.

We had lunch at Pondalowie Beach and headed off, not sure what our final camp site would be tonight. Cars can’t go through the park on this side, the road is blocked at the entrance to The Browns Beach campground. From here it was an outstanding ride through the back of the West Coast Dunes and virgin scrub which ultimately brings you out near the Gym Beach camp ground.

Encroching Dunes North Of Brown's Beach

Now heading North, we had to go out onto Marion Bay Road for quite a while. We stopped for coffee at Formby Bay Shelter, the famous Baby Lizards surf break, but decided we still had a couple of hours in our legs and pushed on. We ended up at Gleesons landing at another fabulous beach front campsite.

Decorated Shelter at Baby Lizards

Shelter Art

Campsite at Gleeson's Landing

Day 5 Gleeson’s Landing to Point Turton 63.49km (Map 7)

The trail from Gleesons gets a bit random. The coast here is really wild and the beaches very deep sand, so you have to follow the bike route out around the back roads. There is a temptation to skip riding Lighthouse road and go straight to Dunn Point as it cuts off quite a few ks, but don’t do it. This is spectacular coastline that just has to be seen. We had second breakfast at a lookout above Berry Bay and sat watching a pod of dolphins cruising Southwards chasing their second breakfast.

A quick look at the Corny Point lighthouse and then heading East again along a very shallow protected section of coastline. The beach here would be rideable at low tide but we didn’t have that option and had to stick to the road. We had a great lunch at the Corny Point General store before continuing East. We decided to crack on and get to Point Turton today so we could take advantage of the low tide early tomorrow. But there was still plenty of gravel to be ridden this afternoon through these sleepy beach

Back Road Gravel

communities.

The North Coast road was nice riding although very corrugated in places, some sections had cliff top trail to the side of the road. We camped at a very busy Point Turton Caravan Park and had a nice dinner at the Tavern directly across the road. The evening was very windy and cool, so we hoped that it wasn’t going to effect our beach riding too much in the morning. The caravan Park is very protected from the Southerlies, so we had a very quiet night in the tent much to our surprise.

Second Breakfast Is The Best

 

Day 6 Point Turton to Port Rickaby 48.57km (Map 8)

We woke to a beautifully calm morning and looked out across Hardwicke Bay to our intended beach ride for this morning. This was a stunning ride, and we kept a lazy pace to allow us to really soak it up. There were occasional soft patches, but the beach was very rideable, and in calm weather, I don’t think we would have had a problem at higher tides.

You exit the beach at the shack community of Hardwicke Bay, then follow a gravel road along the coast, past the shelter at Port Minlacowie. It was so awesome to be able to trust the regular water at the trail shelters.  It’s nice to not have to carry more than a few litres at a time.

It was back to nice sandy dune trails until we hit Parsons Beach road, out around an unrideable section re-joining the coast at Barker Rocks campground. More dune tracks through the Barker Rocks Conservation park until we came out at the beautiful little town of Port Rickaby. We stayed in the sleepy caravan Park that night but had a totally wild sleepless night, with high winds and thunderstorms rolling in from the west.

 

Day 7 Port Rickaby to Balgowan 50.25km (Map 9)

From Port Rickaby to Port Victoria, there is the choice of a long section of beach or the back of dunes gravel and sand road. Due to the wild weather last night, we chose the dunes. But since then, we have been back to camp at Wauraltee Beach and have found that the beach is totally rideable during all but the highest tides, so we totally recommend that on the appropriate bike. The back road is also a great ride, accessing some awesome camp sites that we wanted to come back to in the van.

There is more awesome clifftop trail to be enjoyed the last few ks into Port Victoria, which has an IGA (small supermarket) and a very quirky café (Le Petit Café) out on a backstreet that must be experienced. We had a very cool lunch there.

From Port Victoria to Balgowan, the trail follows rough double track through Nharangga indigenous land. The Point Pearce shelter had a leaking tap and virtually no water which we reported to the council. This section of trail would be largely impassable on bike following very wet weather we think, it was very low lying with lots of clay. But today was great and we really enjoyed the ride and thank the locals for allowing the trail to pass through their land.

Le Petit Cafe, Port Victoria

Balgowan is a very sleepy little place with a funny little campground on a cliff top above the bay. Some of these little caravan parks were so quiet and well priced, that it was cool to stay at them and have a shower. We love the wild camping, but sometimes the pull of a shower at the end of the day is just too much.

Day 8 Balgowan to Ardrossan 43.98km

We had decided that this was the point that we would leave the trail, as it was the best route option for a low traffic ride back across the Peninsula to Ardrossan where we had left the van.

So really there was not much to report, just a road grind across open farm land, but still quite enjoyable, as most days on the bike are.

We have since ridden Balgowan to Moonta and were able to ride the Beach nearly all the way.

Once back in Ardrossan we picked up some fresh food at the very good IGA and headed back over to Wauraltee Beach for a couple of days of sun and sand. We loved it.

 

In Summary, we would say that this is an awesome bike packing route, however you want to do it.  And I think that this is the true advantage of this route, there are so many options, from wild camping to Glamour accommodation, true bikepacking to a credit card tour. If you like a great beach, this is your ride.