Six Ferries Ride

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This is a one day ride that I have mapped out, which covers 430 kilometers, and crosses the lower SA section of the River Murray a total of six times by Ferry.

Today Fish, Jock and myself completed the “Six Ferries Ride”.

We left the Adelaide southern suburbs at 8.30 am and headed through the southern foothills in almost perfect weather. It was about 20 degrees when we left, which was a pleasant change after last week’s heat wave. Our chosen route wound our way south through some wonderful twisting Adelaide Hills roads from Mylor, to Hahndorf and on to Strathalbyn via Echunga and Meadows. This is all a fairly well established and popular motorcycling route, and there are many alternative roads to Strathalbyn, all of them great.. After a brief stop at the Strathalbyn Bakery for a coffee, we said goodbye to the “twisties” and continued through the Langhorne Creek wine region to Wellington. This was to be our first Ferry Crossing. This part of the ride is quite flat and straight, but picturesque nonetheless.

Wellington is an historic river town, situated just before the Murray empties into Lake Alexandrina. The pub has good meals, and there is a small community museum situated in the old courthouse.

Over the Ferry to the eastern side of the river, and just a short run up the road to Tailem Bend, and old railway town which is now a services centre for the local community. The ferry crossing there leads to the small town of Jervois on the western side floodplain, which is in the middle of a dairying area.

From Jervois it’s about 25 kilometers to major town of Murray Bridge where we kept to the western side of the river and headed for Mannum. Just ten kilometes out of Mannum we passed the Reedy Creek Waterfall Reserve. This is a relatively unknown hidden treasure, Here a permanent stream from the eastern side of the Adelaide Hills runs through a shallow gorge and over granite boulders forming a string a rock pools stretching for several hundred meters. It’s a pretty spot for a picnic and a scramble up the creek and over the rocks.

Mannum is another historic river town, and home to the paddle steamer “Marion”. We topped up with fuel, and stopped for morning tea down by the river, before crossing ferry number three which is right in the town, and beside the caravan park. There’s plenty of options for meals here, with a couple of pubs and a good bakery.

Once back on the eastern side of the river, we followed the scenic river road to Younghusband towards Bowhill. This road follows the main stream and the strings of now dried swamps which are testimony to the low river levels. This road has a couple of kilometers of hard packed dirt road, before it rejoins the bitumen. This is a beaut side road which showcases the nature of the river. We bypassed the shack city of Bowhill and continued the further 10 kilometers to Purnong Landing for the fourth ferry crossing. After crossing to the west side of the river again, we left the shacks at Purnong Landing and headed inland for 16 kilometers on the Mannum Road, and then cut back north east towards Walker Flat. This route kept us on the sealed roads. At Walker Flat there is a well stocked general store, with sells a range of takeaway food as well as both un leaded and premium petrol. We sat by the river to eat lunch while watching Ferry Number Five ply back and forth.

After lunch we crossed the penultimate ferry at Walker Flat and then headed north to Swan Reach. This road follows the cliff tops on the eastern side of the river. There are several lookouts which provide great views of the old river and the sad dried swamps.

The Swan Reach pub is a great venue for a meal, with the dining room overlooking the river. The general store also sells petrol.

We crossed the sixth and last ferry at Swan Reach, and headed west through mallee scrub and crop farms to the little town of Sedan. From there the Sedan to Mt Pleasant road concludes with a magnificent 18 kilometer stretch with open sweeping curves which wind up the eastern side of the range at Cooks Hill and then across the top through open grazing country to finish at aptly named rural town of Mount Pleasant. This is a spectacular piece of road, which cries out to be ridden with enthusiasm.

From Mount Pleasant we meandered through the hills passing through Birdwood, home of the National Motor Museum, and Woodside with its pubs and antique shops. We joined the freeway at Verdun, and headed home.

This ride has a magnificent variety of scenery and roads. We passed through twisties in the hills, wine regions, river towns, all manner of farm country, highways and straight roads through flat mallee country, and wonderful sweepers. If you want a one day sample of what SA has to offer, I can recommend the “Six Ferries Ride”.