Crown Princess - Day 6 Adelaide- Coorong day trip

Above:- The mouth of the Murray river

Today is our big expensive excursion of the cruise, a bus trip to Goolwa and then a boat trip to the Coorong and then to the mouth of the Murray River.

We haven't been put off getting on a boat following yesterdays debacle. 

The boat is named 'The Spirit of the Murray'.

We boarded at Goolwa and sailed down to the mouth of the Murray River, but we went further than this map, down to about snake pit.

First we had a coach dive through the highlights of Adelaide, we must go back there one day. (maybe have a 3rd attempt to get to Kangaroo Island).

 

We went through a lock where the water went from fresh water to salt water,

 

The fish that go through the weir get confused by the change to salty from fresh so they are a bit dopey.

Its a 'Sushi Train' for the seals and the birds... they just wait near the overflow and pick up all the fish they want, a bit like a cruise ship buffet.

 There were so many birds, pelicans, black swans, gulls, cormorants, darters, ibis and there is a bird that migrates from the northern Arctic every year. 

 

 https://www.spiritofthecoorong.com.au/coorongbirds

Beached again!

But on purpose this time.

We walked through the dunes to 90 mile beach.

Which would have been okay if I had on my proper walking shoes, but they were still wet and sitting on our cabins balcony trying to get dry.

I had to wear the only other shoes I had, which were my gold ballet flats.

The sand burnt my feet through them and they were hopeless for walking on sand.

Made it to the beach and there was a lesson on collecting pippis.

Burnt feet in my unsuitable shoes, which kept filling up with sand...

For such a mass of water it only has a very small mouth.

And in this post I have forgotten to mention Storm Boy. The book was set here and they filmed the movies here as well.
 

We were supplied a very nice lunch and a gift of a wine tumbler and stubby holder. 

Sometimes one pays a lot of money for a shore excursion and then find it disappointing. But this one was great value for money. We were out from 8am and were some of the last back to the ship at 5.30pm.

Here we are leaving Adelaide from the aft deck, heading for Port Lincoln tonight.

Because we are so far south the sun sets a later in the evening.

Here is the sunset that night from our cabin at around 9pm.