Places to kayak in South Australia

(Edited 7/5/2020)  If you’re looking for places to kayak in South Australia, we’d love to recommend the area around the Riverland, extending into western Victoria.  We have a wonderful variety of landscapes, ranging from green wetlands with mazes of side creeks, larger creeks lined with mighty redgums, the river edged with sheer limestone cliffs, anabranch creeks in National Parks lined with shady campsites, and creeks meandering through grey clay flats.

Popular places include Loch Luna, Gurra Gurra, Chowilla, Katarapko, Mullaroo, Chambers Creek, Bullyong, Lindsay River, Ral Ral, Kylie Creek, the Splash and Eckert’s Creek, some making for easy round trips, and others well-suited to extended canoe camping.

So, how do you decide where to go?

Google Maps and Google Earth can be handy for looking to see if the area contains the kind of scenery you are hoping to encounter. (This link will supply additional information about using Google Earth to plan your kayak trip.)

Different websites have information.

• See our blog post about kayaking at Katarapko.
• The Canoe SA website is a good source of information on Chowilla, Katarapko and  Loch Luna. The Canoe SA website also supplies information on the Coorong and Torrens Islands, however they are not in the area serviced by Canoe Adventures.
• Paddling Trails South Australia have a great range of trails with good route descriptions,  that link to Avanza maps.
• Ramblr   is a site where many people have logged their own trips, with gps points, linked to pictures, and their own route descriptions.  We enjoy seeing where Hairy Jaimie has been, but there are also many other logged routes.  Make your own judgements about the accuracy of the information.

Some organizations post trip reports.  This Riverland kayaking trip report is from the Sun Coast Senior Recreational Kayaking club, who came down from Qld in 2013, were supported and advised by us. and hired their equipment from us as well.

Another great way is to talk to a local who has ‘been there, done that’ recently.  Kym has done extensive exploring in the area, and is more than happy to share the information gained on those trips with his customers.