Quad Bike Riding – Waitpinga

South Australia

This post is a trip down memory lane from last Winter.  The purpose of this blog is partly to drag myself away from worshipping the beautiful long, hot summers of South Australia and to embrace the cold, wind and rain of our winters. This was one of those occasions I felt I did a great job of getting out there amongst it – cold weather and all.

And on to my quad-bike story.

My earliest attempts at motorbike riding involved my brother’s first motorbike back when we were growing up in our dusty, little (much missed) hometown. I’m sure he hasn’t forgiven me yet for stalling it miles out in the bush – and leaving it for him find and bring back.

Oh and there was the occasional ride on the back of my cousins’ PeeWee 50’s along dirt roads even before that. Tears whipping down my face, feeling like we were flying (but in reality, we were probably only doing 20 km/hr). I’ve never disliked motorbikes, but I guess I just never rode them enough to get confident or learn to enjoy them.

Having teenage sons, quad bike riding was the perfect family activity for us. It’s actually quite difficult to find places where kids can do quad-bike tours and they get to ride on their own. It was only due to the fact that the whole of the property we rode on was privately owned which meant we could do this. Waitpinga is just out of Victor Harbor, which is about a 1 ½ hour drive from Adelaide. We decided to stay the Saturday night in Victor and do the ride the next morning.

The safety briefing made me a little nervous. Of course I’d Googled the dangers of quad-biking before booking (like any over-protective Gen X parent would). Apparently the main danger is from rollovers occurring due to uneven ground.

But If they let non-licenced drivers do it here, then how dangerous could it be (?!).

Well it was muddy. It was cold. It started raining while we were part-way around. We rode through not only mud and water but through deep sand, uphill, downhill and at one stage had to slow down to let a cow cross our path. We veered dangerously close to fence posts.

And we loved it.

Thumbs-Up – having a great time.

The views were spectacular and we got to stop part-way around to enjoy the scenery and take photos. I was laughing every time I ploughed through the water, but honestly it was that scared/nervous laughing that verges on a bit of a scream. Reminiscent of the day I went on the Sizzler for the first time at the Gawler Show with my youngest.

Our youngest had the smaller quad-bike which meant he was down closer to all the action. He finished up with some pretty impressive mud-covered clothes…something that probably hasn’t happened in a long time.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. It was the perfect combination of getting out of our comfort zones and having fun together. It was professionally run and the operators were super friendly. Highly recommended for families with adolescents or teenagers. If you’ve never (or only rarely) ridden a quad bike before, like us, it’s perfect. We’re still hopeful we will get back there for the longer ride. I’ll keep you posted if we do.

Sarina