Round Journey: approximately 5.5 hours driving time.
Head south down the main street and in less than 10 minutes you will be at Leasingham. Turn left and go to Auburn, where a well signposted right turn will see you in Port Wakefield, via Balaklava. You have taken only 50 minutes to travel from Mintaro to Port Wakefield.
Take a tour around this historic town, including the wharf area. There is so much more to this former port at the head of St Vincent Gulf than the obvious row of servos and fast food outlets.
With maybe a coffee consumed, head north up the highway and take the left fork to Yorke Peninsula. Several kilometres on, you will turn left and follow the eastern coastline of the peninsula, visiting the towns of Ardrossan, Port Vincent, Stansbury and Edithburgh, with many small settlements and beaches along the way.
Driving time is approximately 1.5 hours to Edithburgh from Port Wakefield. How long you stop in each seaside town is up to you! There are numerous jetties to walk.
When you turn for home, you can drive up the centre of the peninsula through Yorketown and Minlaton, the major service centres, along with Maitland, of the Lower Peninsula.
Unfortunately, a day just does not allow time to venture along the foot to Marion Bay, Stenhouse Bay,Innes National Park, Cape Spencer and Corney Point. It is well worth considering an overnight stay in this western most region of the peninsula to allow proper exploration of the area.
Back up the central road and 15 kilometres north of Minlaton, deviate left to Port Victoria on the western coast. Port Victoria is arguably the best known port in Australia that was regularly visited by the massive 4 masted Barques (windjammers) that loaded grain for passage, via Cape Horn, to Europe. The streets of Port Victoria are named after the ships of the mighty German P Line; ships such as the PAMIR , PASSAT, POMMERN, PEKING and the PADUA, which stills sails today as a sail training ship with the name KRUZENSHTERN under the Russian flag.(It visited Australia during the 1988 Bi Centenary Celebrations). The PASSAT was the last windjammer to load at and leave Port Victoria in early June, 1949.
Take the road to Maitland from Port Victoria and continue north through Arthurton until you reach the main road from Kadina to Port Wakefield at Kulpara. A right turn will take you back to Port Wakefield. Driving time Edithburgh to Port Wakefield via central road is approximately 2 hours. A further 50 to 60 minutes and we are back in Mintaro via Balaklava and Auburn.