South Australia is so vast but over three quarters of the population live in Adelaide and its surroundings. I spent ten days, during the Easter break, with my host family in a rather remote area of South Australia. We headed to Port Neill, a coastal town on the Eyre Peninsula. Driving from Adelaide took around 6.5 hours – so technically, I have now had a road trip of South Australia (there was not a whole lot to see en route – not surprising due to the centralised population).
Port Neill is a very small town (there is one shop which is also the petrol station (there is one petrol pump), the shop did not even have bread at one point – bit of a hit or miss with it). The shop puts the town into perspective – there is not much to do but we managed to (somewhat) occupy ourselves for ten days here. (I also finally started properly reading Harry Potter because at times, there was nothing else to do, so shout out to Port Neill for FINALLY getting me into HP!).
The Eyre Peninsula coastline is pretty beautiful – I LOVE THE BEACH. Our accommodation was a beach house which belongs to the family I was with, I LOVE A SEA VIEW.
So, what to do in Port Neill, a remote area of SA?
Beach walks:
- Port Neill is home to beautiful beaches including: Main Beach, Surfers Beach, Back Beach. We called Surfers Beach Secret Beach as it was pretty much our own private beach from the house (rare to find anyone there). Whatever direction you choose to walk in you can easily have either a long or short walk exploring the different beaches along the coast.
Run/Cycle:
- The roads just keep going so it’s an easy area to go running/cycling here, plus, you can run in the middle of the road and not worry (too much) about any cars.
Snorkel:
- We went snorkelling quite a few times – mainly seeing just schools of tiny almost clear fish, but it was still good. At one point we saw a stingray (although it may have been a manta ray) but we decided to move from that beach after that.. The sea was SO clear; it was like being in a swimming pool. Even the seaweed, despite my dislike for it, looked pretty cool.
Port Neill Lookout:
- There is a lookout point about 2km from the jetty on main beach. You can take a walk along the beach to get there, or can drive/cycle along the road, but it’s worth checking out as you do get a pretty sweet coastal view.
Bingo with the locals:
- The Monday we were there was a cool, dull day, limiting us to what we could do, having exhausted video games, board games and reading at home. Going through the town, we spotted a sign ‘Bingo: 1pm’, yup, BINGO for us needing a plan. So, three of the kids, their auntie, and myself decided to have an afternoon experiencing true Port Neill life: Bingo with the locals. There were about 7 old people there, then we rocked up and I’m not sure they knew what had hit them. We paid $2 each and got a bingo card. The first round finished after 1.5 hours, when we were then ready to leave, to realise it was not over. We conversed, decided we were having a great time, and, following the (free) tea and biscuit break (win win), went all in and paid $6 each – doing it properly with three bingo cards at once: we were serious. The bingos were rolling in this time – we all won something, I made a whole $3. BINGO. So, we played bingo for FOUR hours with the Port Neill locals – if that is not experiencing true Australian life, I’m not sure what is. No regrets.
Jetty jump:
- Main beach has a jetty, which also has a lower platform to it. Technically, we platform jumped rather than jetty jumped buuuut it was a lot of fun!
Fishing:
- Port Neill is very much a fishing port. I did not go out fishing, but the family brought their boat and a few of them went out most days. People were often fishing just from the jetty too – a top squid catching spot. We had some great fresh fish for dinner: Flat head, Tommy Ruffs, Squid, King George Whiting (yes, I ate them – I have become so adventurous with food in Oz).
Star gaze:
- The night sky in Port Neill was incredible. The moon was rising super late (midnight or later), making the stars more prominent in the sky. The kids and I walked down to the jetty to check out the sky from there, but not wanting to walk home we got picked up in the old-school Brumby car that lives at the Port Neill house. We piled in the (roofless, seatless) back – driving along star gazing from there. Next, we immersed ourselves in darkness – the house we were in was away from the rest of the town – there were no immediate neighbours – turning off the house lights was all the was required. With a lack of moon and no lights, we had the perfect view of the stars. The Milky Way was so clear, we were identifying constellations and satellites, and we saw at least 5 shooting stars between us.
Pub:
- Friday night we opted for a pub dinner. The pub was THE place to be – totally where all the people were hiding – so many people (for Port Neill anyway). The service was hilarious. Three plates of food arrived. I went to get myself a glass of wine to which I got refused for not having ID (because obv I looked more like one of the children than one of the adults..). I got driven back to the house so I could collect my ID, got back to the pub, ordered a drink, no more meals had arrived (about 20+ minutes after the first three). The next batch of three meals came out (the first three had long finished theirs), and eventually the rest. It is evident they don’t get groups of ten just turning up for food often, they could not cope! But we kind of expected that and just had to roll with it, plus the food was surprisingly decent.
Tennis:
- There are three tennis courts which, although not the best surfacing, were decent enough for a hit of the tennis ball. Although one racket short meant we had one person playing with a cricket bat… it worked surprisingly well!
The town also has: a school, a playground, 3 or 4 pieces of outdoor gym equipment, a bowling green, a bakery (which is only open in summer – we missed out), a golf course annnnnd not much else that I can think of right now.
Beyond Port Neill
Tumby Bay:
The nearest main town is Tumby Bay, which is 40km away. There is an actual supermarket there at least, and quite a few shops that sell just a mixture of absolutely anything and everything. It was a bit of an odd place, but there were certainly more people there than in Port Neill.
Day Trip to Port Lincoln:
Port Lincoln is just under an hour away from Port Neill. We did a day trip there – went for lunch at the Marina Hotel, then continued on to a lookout point before heading to Glen Forest Animal Park. Here, the kids and I (me totally being a kid not an adult on this entire trip), did a Segway tour through the vineyard. None of us had been on a Segway before so was cool to do! We then checked out the animals – there was an albino kangaroo. The Australians I was with said they had never even seen one before so I think I’m lucky that I got to see one! There was also the cutest wombat, called Willow. I turned around from looking at the kangaroos to have Willow practically thrown into my arms, I wasn’t complaining but did not see her coming! She was a bit wriggly, and did scratch me at one point, but I loved her all the same.
Overall, there were a lack of people and not too much to do in Port Neill, but it was a nice getaway with beautiful beaches. Plus, it was great to get the chance to really experience a remote area of South Australia!
