Southern Ocean Drive - Britz

Nine nights and 1,223 kilometres from Adelaide along the Limestone Coast and the Fleurieu to Kangaroo Island, in a campervan.

The limestone is the thread for the first half. Piccaninnie Ponds comes first, a karst spring with water clear enough to see tens of metres down, then Mount Gambier, where the Umpherston Sinkhole has been planted as a terraced garden and the Blue Lake turns a startling cobalt each November, with the Tantanoola Caves nearby.

Coonawarra and Penola follow, where terra rossa soil over limestone produces the best cabernet in Australia, then Robe on the coast, and the Coorong, a lagoon running a hundred kilometres behind a dune barrier that is one of the country’s great bird sites. Langhorne Creek, Victor Harbour, Port Elliot and Deep Creek carry the route round the Fleurieu, and the ferry crosses to Kangaroo Island, where a third of the land is conservation park.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Ten days is a comfortable pace, and the ferry to Kangaroo Island takes vehicles but books out in peak season, so that leg needs arranging early. The island is also larger than it looks on a map, with long unsealed stretches in the west. Cellar doors in the Coonawarra mostly close by five, which is worth knowing before planning a late afternoon around them.