The Christmas New Year period provides a time for relaxing and resetting. Work, or in my case my PhD, is the last thing on people’s minds and it’s usually hot!

It’s a time to go to the beach and we were very lucky this year to be invited by our daughter, her partner and our new grandson to spend New Year with them at my daughter’s partner’s family shack at Black Point on the Yorke Peninsula.

Black Point is about a two-hour drive from Adelaide if the traffic isn’t too bad. We were lucky and the traffic was light.

Although Yorke Peninsula is one of South Australia’s favourite summer holiday spots, we don’t visit often. So it was delightful to be invited.

As kids, my favourite person and I had trips to Yorke Peninsula and my favourite person had lived there for a short time when she was little – the joys of being a minister’s daughter.  In my case, my last visit was to James Well for a Partner Retreat which proved to be the catalyst for a move to the firm that sustained me for the remainder of my working life, although through the raging argument that ensued at the retreat I certainly couldn’t have foreseen it.

The drive out of Adelaide took us through North Adelaide and onto Port Wakefield Road. The terrain is so different from our usual drive to our holiday house on the Fleurieu Peninsula. It’s a straight drive just a couple of turns at the top of the peninsula and then we were there. It’s flat and dry, quintessential Australian countryside.

Following the rule of not driving for too long in any one stint, we stopped at Port Wakefield to stretch our legs. It’s a typical country town. It’s just the right distance from Adelaide to stop and refuel both yourself and the car. It’s the staging point for trips north or west in the state and the turnoff to Yorke Peninsula just out of the town can bottleneck but we weren’t held up at all.

Through Port Wakefield, we headed down the other side of Yorke Peninsula past Ardrossan and then onto Black Point, which for most of the year would be described as sleepy. At this time of the year it’s a lively delightful little beachside town.

As we pulled into our accommodation we were greeted by the neighbours apologising for the noise they’d planned to make for New Year, and our daughter’s partner setting up the boiler so he could cook ups the crabs he’d caught in the morning.

Black Point used to just be shacks on the beachfront but today there is a little more development with more modern beach house built behind.  Our daughter’s partner’s family shack fronts straight onto the beach. It was once just one room and a verandah although today it’s been made a little more modern with separate bedrooms and an indoor bathroom and loo! It is the verandah that is the focal point. It’s right on the beach. I have photos of my daughter’s partner fishing off the verandah but the tide was out so there was no chance of that on this occasion.

What could be better for enjoying this lovely location?

The beach and the ocean are the focus here. Continue reading →