Central Yorke Peninsula region: seeing our first ever pink salt lake!

Hey there, friend!

Explore the Central Yorke Peninsula with me

In this journal entry, I’ll be sharing our experiences of the wonderful Central Yorke Peninsula region. If you haven’t already, you might be interested in reading this entry first, all about our travels in the Upper Yorke Peninsula.

Our little trio visited a number of small sweet seaside towns around the central region of the Yorke Peninsula—Minlaton, Edithburgh, Yorketown, Point Turton, Port Vincent, Port Victoria and Stansbury. When you’re travelling in winter, a lot of these towns can feel quiet and sleepy. I’m not big on crowded places so this suited me. On the downside, it was cold and windy most of the time, and way too cold to go into the ocean.

Despite the cold and the wind, we did have some gorgeous sunny winter days. My hubby, Charlie and I did several Walk the Yorke trails in the different towns which were lovely in their own ways. For those not familiar, Walk the Yorke is a collection of trails that showcases the towns and coastline of the peninsula. All of the paths join together and form more than 500km of trail!

In this part of the peninsula, we saw our first ever pink salt lake, what an extraordinary experience! We discovered some really great eats and drinks – it’s really awesome when you come across gems that completely exceed your expectations! I’m super excited to share these amazing places with you.

Minlaton

Let’s kick off with the town we called “home” while exploring Central Yorke Peninsula. Minlaton is a small farming town located in the centre of the Yorke Peninsula. Its position makes it a great exploration base for day trips out to other towns in the area. While the township seems small, it’s actually one of the bigger rural hubs and has all of the essentials you need – a decent Foodland, pharmacy, bakery, a handful of cafes, hotel, and a few specialty stores.

Minlaton Caravan Park

Dogs welcome on sites

Website: www.minlatoncaravanpark.com.au
Length of our stay: 14 nights
Time of year: August-September
Type of site: Powered site (gravel)
Site number: 45
Pricing: From $30/night (it seems that they’ve increased their rates to $35/night since then)
Rewards Card: Kui Parks (we don’t have this)
Total site costs: $420
Online booking form: Yes
Deposit: Have to pay in full when booking online
Grocery shopping: Foodland – note that it closes really early on weekends, at 4pm
Phone and internet reception: No issues with Telstra phones and Nighthawk wifi router.

The pros of staying at Minlaton Caravan Park

• It’s located in a peaceful country area
• The park is lovely and green with plenty of native trees and pretty succulent gardens
• The sites are extra large and fairly flat – we could fit our caravan and car side by side with our awning fully up and we didn’t have to do too much levelling
• It’s at a close distance to Watsacowie Brewery, only about a 5 minute walk!
• It’s a walkable distance to the main street which has most essentials plus a few lifestyle/gift/clothing stores
• Minlanton has a central location in the peninsula making it a good base for day trips
• If you’re staying with your dog, there’s a school oval across the road or footy oval a tiny bit further up for zoomies
• The amenities are clean and tidy.

The cons of staying at Minlaton Caravan Park

• None of the cafes we tried in town were that great unfortunately
• There’s only one amenities block with no alternatives during cleaning.

Other things to note about Minlaton Caravan Park

• If you’re not caravanning, they have fantastic looking modern villas
• They have a huge camp kitchen with all of the basics.

Would we stay at Minlaton Caravan Park again?

Absolutely! It might a personal preference but my hubby and I grew up in the country so we feel right at home in places like Minlaton.

Watsacowie Brewing Co, Minlanton

Dog-friendly brewery, indoors and outdoors

Watsacowie is a dog-friendly and family-friendly brewery and taphouse at the edge of town. One of the perks of staying at Minlaton Caravan Park was that we could walk there in 5 minutes! And boy, did we take advantage of it.

Like most breweries in South Australia, dogs are permitted inside as long as they’re leashed and well behaved. At our first visit, there were probably about 5 or 6 furry friends inside the brewery, including Charlie. Since it was winter, we appreciated being welcomed indoors where they had a cosy fire going and it was much, much warmer!

The brewery has their own good girl, Red, roaming the grounds and eager for a good scratch.

There are plenty of seating options inside and outside, which is probably a good thing since they host live music most weekends. I feel like it’s the perfect place to gather amongst friends because of its welcoming, fun and friendly vibe.

While the brewery doesn’t have a kitchen to offer its own food, they do have caterers come in and serve tasty treats most weekends. Just keep an eye out on their website and socials to find out the lineup for music and food!

When we went, they had YP Wood Oven Pizzas on site and we tried a couple of their pizzas. They were a tad on the small side for the price point, however, both had delicious flavours and a generous amount of topping. Alternatively, you’re more than welcome to BYO food to eat alongside their beers.

Speaking of beer, the star of the show, Watsacowie Brewery has an extensive range of delicious craft beers on tap at any given point. Whether you prefer light, mid or dark brews, they offer enough variety to ensure you’ll find something you like. My hubby is more of a dark beer lover so he really dug their Watsacracken, a Scandinavian nitro stout.

If you’re travelling through the Yorke Peninsula, make sure to pop by this amazing dog-friendly brewery!

Minlaton Walking Trail

Dog-friendly walking trail

We noticed walking trail signs along Old Port Vincent Road and decided to follow it one day. To be honest, it’s not the most interesting walk in the world and I wouldn’t recommend travelling to Minlaton just for it or anything.

The dirt trail goes around the golf course, through a bit of a forest reserve and along Gum Flat Road. At the reserve, you’ll see some gnarly weathered old trees, and there was a nice bit of trail along Gum Flat Road that was lined with beautiful trees on both sides, creating a pretty natural archway.

Other attractions to see in Minlaton

One of Minlaton’s main attractions is The Harry Butler Memorial, across the road from the caravan park. Captain Harry Butler grew up in the region and lived a short but adventurous life. He earned recognition as a WW1 pilot and later for his stunt flying and joy flights. We didn’t actually go and see the memorial, but you can view his restored Red Devil plane in an enclosed display.

Another attraction you could visit is HJ Cook Fauna Park, also just across the road from the caravan park. This native animal reserve is home to emus, wallabies and kangaroos. As far as I could see, you can’t actually go inside but you can walk along the fence line.

Within the town, you can see little murals painted on some of the building walls. My favourite was this cute artwork of a puppy tugging at the wall showing some bright orange flowers underneath. It’s on a building a couple of doors down from the Post office.

Places to eat in Minlaton

Unfortunately, aside from the pizzas at Watsacowie Brewing, I didn’t particularly enjoy any of the food places in town.

Port Victoria

Located under half an hour north of Minlaton on the western edge, we visited the tiny seaside location of Port Victoria. The town has a rich maritime history where its port used to dock huge sailing ships that exported grain from the peninsula all the way to Europe. It’s a popular diving spot with several shipwrecks near Wardang Island, just off its coast.

Le Petit Café, Port Victoria

Dog-friendly cafe

As with most outings, we started with treating ourselves to some delicious local food. We decided to go to Le Petit Cafe for brunch, this is a cute and quirky spot that’s tucked away on Wilson Terrace. I might be wrong but the cafe seems like the owner’s home, and they’ve turned their front yard into a casual dining venue.

The front verandah has a counter in front of the doorway to place your orders and there’s tables and chairs arranged out on the front lawn with plenty of sail shades. It was a cosy and relaxing setting for brunch, with the added bonus that Charlie could comfortably lie down on the grass next to us.

The food also had a homely vibe to it – simple but tasty. For some reason, cornflake cookies were everywhere in the Yorke Peninsula (and I was there for it!). We got a free one because the apricot slice was apparently on the smaller side than usual. Winner winner chicken dinner!

Walk the Yorke in Port Victoria

After eating, we walked around the jetty area and made our way towards the Port Victoria boat ramp along the Walk the Yorke trail. This is an easy gravel path that follows the coastline – I would say from the jetty to the boat ramp and back, it’s nearly 4km. We had a beautiful sunny winter’s day and it actually got quite warm on our walk. All of the bob tails (shingleback lizards) came out to soak in the warmth of the sun.

Port Vincent

We visited Port Vincent, a charming little coastal town on the right edge of the Yorke Peninsula. You know a place is a popular holiday destination with the amount of caravan parks, motels, short stay apartments and beach house rentals available in the area! The town had a nice bay that seemed well protected – perfect for swimming, snorkelling and other ocean related activities.

The Kiosk, Port Vincent

Dog-friendly outdoor seating

First things first, food! My hubby and I decided on lunch at the local fave, The Kiosk, a humble beachfront cafe with superb views of the ocean. And when you’re dining at the beach, seafood seems the most appropriate choice right?

We opted for a seafood basket for two, sorry, not sure why I didn’t take any photos of it. The seafood tasted fresh and the batter/coating was fairly thin and crispy, plus it came with a generous serving of chips. They serve a lot of deep fried seafood, as expected, as well as things like burgers, hot dogs, yiros and toasted sandwiches.

One thing to add, if you do visit The Kiosk, the donuts seem really popular. I was tempted but I was so stuffed from the seafood basket! Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried them before.

Port Vincent Northern Walking Trail

Dog-friendly walking trail

Following lunch, we wandered along the foreshore towards the trailhead for the Northern Walking Trail. The trailhead is across the road from the beach, roughly where Marine Parade and Marina Drive meet, look out for a blue sign that says “Alan Powell Walking Trail”. The loop if you turn back at the steps heading towards marina is about a 3km walk.

The start of the trail is quite narrow and uneven with lots of turns, stairs and little bridges. It goes through a patch of bushland at the back of people’s homes and heads towards the top of the cliffs where you’ll find a lookout point offering pretty views of the marina, bay and township.

Once we were along the trail on top of the cliffs, it was very reminiscent of Ardrossan and the section of Walk the Yorke we did there. On one side you have beautiful ocean views and on the other side, peaceful farmlands. The trail becomes easier and wider at this point. It was extra gorgeous because it was a sunny day. I don’t know about you but the sun being out makes such a difference to my mood!

Our turning point was the set of steps that led down to the bottom of the cliffs towards the marina but you can extend your walk by continuing north along the path. At the bottom of the cliffs and closer towards the marina, you’ll pass 3 granite boulders along the shoreline known as The Erratics. They didn’t look very big or momentous but apparently they were deposited there during the ice age. The end of the trail comes out onto Marina Drive near house 55.

Stansbury

On one of our free days, we drove about 20 minutes south from Minlaton to the tiny seaside town of Stansbury to have some lunch and a short wander. On first impressions, it seems like a delightful and well-kept township. There were colourful gardens and large lawns along the foreshore, and an abundance of tall pine trees lining the streets.

Dalrymple Hotel, Stansbury

Dog-friendly pub with outdoor seating

For lunch, we chose the Dalrymple Hotel, located just across the road from the foreshore. They have quite a few dog-friendly bar tables along their front verandah. But let’s talk about the food, this country pub certainly surpassed my expectations. We had the best afternoon feasting on a selection of their small share plates. Because, your girl loves to eat tapas style!

The hotel seems to incorporate plenty of dishes with Asian fusion flavours into their menu as well as your classic pub meals of schnitzels, pizzas, burgers, fish and chips etc. I really enjoyed what we ate – each dish had great flavours, was presented well, tasted fresh and the service was quick. If you’re in Stanbury, definitely give this unassuming hotel a visit!

Wandering around Stansbury

We walked along the foreshore towards the caravan park. The bay seems quite protected and would probably make a great swimming spot in summer! Even with the blustery weather we had, the water looked idyllic and tranquil. There were also some cute shelters along the beach. We walked towards the jetty and spotted a walking trail sign. This was very short, not even a kilometre, through a very small bushland reserve that went up to the cliffs.

Point Turton

On one of our exploration days, we went to check out the beaches at Point Turton as we heard they were fantastic. Point Turton is a small coastal township on the Western side of the peninsula. Aside from walking Flaherty Beach and checking out Magazine Bay, we didn’t do much else in the area. If you’re after eats, Point Turton does have a tavern and bakery/general store, although we didn’t really investigate much of the town.

Walk the Yorke and Flaherty Beach, Point Turton

Dog-friendly walking trail

We parked at the Esplanade and strolled along the Walk the Yorke gravel trail down towards Flaherty Beach. I’m not sure if it was because it was winter but we found that most beaches we visited around the peninsula were covered in seaweed.

Flaherty Beach had huge mounds of seaweed and lots of seashells, so it was difficult to walk some parts. We got up to about Longbottom Beach before turning back, roughly 5km each way. I’ve seen photos of the beach looking pristine, so it might have just been the wrong season, wrong time of day to visit or maybe even the wrong section since it is a long stretch of beach!

I would recommend going when it’s low tide, less windy and in summer weather! You could also park at the location marked “Flaherty’s Beach Car Park” on Google Maps if you didn’t want to walk in from the town. Watch this video from Our Australia Trip to see the beach looking much more inviting! It’s about at the 8.55 minute mark.

Magazine Bay Cave, Point Turton

Dog-friendly beach

After our walk, we dropped by Magazine Bay to have a look at the cave there. This is a tiny secluded bay along North Coast Road, less than 1km from the Point Turton caravan park. If you’re coming from the town, it’s easy to miss the turnoff as it’s not signposted all that well so drive slow and keep a lookout for an exit to your right!

Near the car park, there’s a staircase to access the bay. It’s quite a rocky beach and the shoreline is covered with smooth pebbles, it’s actually very pretty. I was there for ages collecting pebbles of different colours and shapes. The cave is cute and someone has laid carpeting down inside. It’s a tiny bit of a scramble up some rocks to get to it but nothing too steep or crazy. According to the signage, the cave was used to store explosives for the quarry once upon a time! I can’t remember but maybe that’s why it’s called Magazine Bay?

Yorketown

Visiting Yorketown and seeing a pink salt lake for the first time was certainly one of the highlights of our Yorke Peninsula travels! If you’re planning to travel through this region, I would highly suggest adding the salt lakes to your bucket list. Yorketown is surrounded by over 200 salt lakes, and in the past, the harvest and commercial production of salt was a thriving industry for the town. These days, the pink salt lakes play a huge part in bringing tourists and avid photographers to the area.

This is probably the most simplified explanation of a pink salt lake but from what I understand, there’s salt-tolerant algae present in these types of lakes that produce pigments of colour. There’s more detailed information about the phenomena at the Salt Lakes trailhead. This is located at Weaners Flat Reserve, near the Yorketown playground. Weaners Flat is a lovely reserve with a huge playground, pretty gardens, picnic shelters and a (regular) lake that you can walk around.

We stopped by three pink salt lakes from the official map in the following order: Domaschenz Lake, Geitz Lake and Pink Lake.

Domaschenz Lake, Yorketown

Dog-friendly attraction

This was a bit underwhelming to be honest. There was no official viewing point, you couldn’t really get to the fenceline and the pink wasn’t very obvious.

Geitz Lake, Yorketown

Dog-friendly attraction

After the underwhelm came the overwhelm, in a positive way! Geitz Lake was so pink! It was a milky pink too, unlike the other two lakes which were pink but kind of transparent. The opaqueness made the colour so much more apparent. The vibrant pink looked surreal sandwiched against the vibrant blue sky and vibrant green grass.

Geitz Lake is fenced in and there’s a bench that marks the viewing point. If you’re short on time, this one was definitely the best for us!

Pink Lake, Yorketown

Dog-friendly attraction

This was also fairly pink but as mentioned, more transparent so it wasn’t as obvious with the colour. This lake isn’t fenced in but I’m not sure if you’re allowed to go closer or in it. The Pink Lake has a large viewing platform with seating and picnic benches. We brought some wraps to eat and aside from the wind, it was a beautiful setting to enjoy a nice, relaxing lunch.

Another thing you’ll notice while driving around the Yorke Peninsula are the patches of bright yellow canola fields. How incredibly uplifting is that colour?!

Places to eat at Yorketown

Nel’s Cafe, Yorketown

Dog-friendly cafe with outdoor seating

We indulged in some sweet treats at Nel’s Cafe along the main street of town. This is a sweet cafe with plenty of sheltered dog-friendly outdoor seating. They had a small but yummy selection of little cakes!

Melville Hotel, Yorketown

Dog-friendly pub with outdoor seating

On another day, we had lunch at the Melville Hotel, located on the corner of the highly confusing intersection at the town centre. I must admit the ambience felt like we were walking into a local bingo hall with its decor and style, but the folks there were friendly and the food was tasty. We left Charlie in the car because it was bloody windy, however, the hotel does have a dog-friendly outdoor area.

Edithburgh

This is another tiny seaside town on the right edge of the Yorke Peninsula. Apparently, it has a permanent population of around 500 people. Despite its size, we found ourselves making a day of it. We had a fabulous lunch, bought a few things from the local surf/tackle shop (great little store to pop into), checked out the tidal pool and went on a pretty coastal walk!

Location Cafe, Edithburgh

Dog-friendly outdoor seating

We were glad to spot a cafe open in Edithburgh to have some lunch. Location Cafe had a For Sale sign in front of it so I’m not sure what the situation is with that, but it was open when we went at the start of September. This was a delightful place and the food was great.

They had a great outdoor area at the back of the cafe that was dog-friendly, accessible by a side gate. There were plenty of tables set up on the lawn with big umbrellas. Their menu was small but had a diverse range of things from fish and chips, burgers, pastas, to bruschettas and focaccias. I enjoyed my creamy bacon and mushroom pasta, it was tasty and satisfying, especially on a cold day!

Tidal Pool, Edithburgh

After lunch, we checked out the town’s tidal pool which was pretty cool to see. It was a blustery day and the waves were certainly crashing. The tidal pool is not a dog-friendly location, my hubby and I took turns having a bit of a look around.

Mosaic Art Trail Walk, Edithburgh

Dog-friendly walking trail

From the jetty area, we walked along the Walk the Yorke trail towards Sultana Point, roughly 5-6km return. This is an easy gravel walk that follows the coastline. It mostly follows the Sultana Point Road and you walk past houses, caravan parks etc. but it deviates a little bit toward the end and you have a more bushy secluded path.

There’s informative signs along the way and fun mosaic art on rocks. We ended up walking along the road throughout housing once the path finished and we went down one of the access paths for the rest, walking on the beach to Sultana Point. The thin stretch of beach had people’s properties backing onto it which was interesting to look at as they all have private beach access.

And that’s a wrap!

I hope you’ve had a great time exploring Central Yorke Peninsula through this read. It’s a fantastic part of South Australia, and I hope it has sparked your interest in planning a visit soon.

Have you been to any of these places before? Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments or pop in any questions you might have; I’d love to hear from you. Safe travels and happy exploring! Thanks for joining me, hope to see you again!

Sheryl