victor harbor

angry waves at the victor harbour beach

no. it's not a spelling mistake. victor harbor is so spelled - if i am to believe wikipedia- because of an error of a surveyor general when the town was renamed in 1921 (prior to, it was port victor).

victor harbor (it feels so wrong to spell it like that) is a small seaside town in the south of south australia, on the fleurieu peninsula (pronounced penin-shoe-la in australia). with a population of only 11000 or so, the place is kind of quaint but still has everything you need. it's generally a bustling little metropolis at this time of year, but due to the terrible summer weather that south australia has been having, it actually was rather sparsely populated.

fairy penguin

vic harbour was a dominant whaling town back in its heyday. but as it's rather wrong to whale now, it's mostly just a tourist destination. people generally had the same reaction when we told them we'd be spending christmas there (oh! you'll love it there!). the town still gets an ample amount of whales in the area, but generally during june-oct.

it also happens to be home of the fairy penguins, whose name is under fire because apparently "fairy" penguins isn't a PC name. so they're also known as little penguins (because they only get to 30cm tall or so) or blue penguins (because they have a blue-ish sheen to them) or little blue penguins (for obvious reasons). fairy penguin is definitely my favourite. a few facts: they eat about 10% of their body weight every day. they can dive nearly 70m and can stay underwater for about 90s. the men make the burrows and then woo the ladies based on said burrows (hey baby, check out my house. you want to mate?)

causeway to granite island

pink lake between vic harbour and robe

the penguins live/hangout on granite island, a small island just off of victor harbor. it requires either a 600m walk or horse-drawn trolley ride. we opted to walk, mostly because we're cheap. there is a walking trail around the island and of course, a cafe/restaurant.

we spent 3 days in vic harbor, with my friend and her family. the weather was rather windy, rainy and brisk- which was nice but completely unusual for this area of the country at this time of year. i won't complain though, because i think being too hot in the van would be worse then being cold.

we left vic harbour and started our way down to mount gambier.  we drove by many a pink lake (caused by excess beta carotene), more vineyards and dry swampbeds (because they murray river is far too drained). we stopped for the night at a campground on the coorong peninsula- a national park in south australia.

xo