A nice grassy flat area, without the crowds or expense of a caravan park, Benson Park was our pick to do a little shakedown trip on our new Hybrid Camper
Truth be told, we were going to head up to the Flinders, but big summer rains washed the roads away! It turned out to be a bit of a blessing, as at only 2 hours from Adelaide, Benson Park was an ideal spot to test things out.
Location
Benson Park is a small farm stay, located 2 hours north east of Adelaide, just outside of Waikerie on the Murray River. It’s an easy drive – one you’re on Main North Road, you actually don’t turn off until you get to the driveway of Benson Park!
Benson Park acreage sits on the cliff tops of the Murray, but the the camping area is set back about 800 metres, nearer the farm house. There’s clear signage from the highway so its hard to miss.
A Great Spot For Families
I wanted to do a shakedown on the Hybrid, and having some relevant comfort to do so is definitely a good thing. We can’t stand caravan parks though. Too many people, crammed in too close, and outrageous addon costs for kids. It’s not for us.
So I stumbled across this one whilst looking for a spot on the River over the long weekend. Everywhere was booking out fast, and Benson Park ticked some boxes. Nice easy spot to park up and test things. Lots of animals to entertain the kids. Plenty of space from others (this was a bit of an unknown but turned out to be true).
They had Sheep, Goats, Alpaca’s, Guinea Pigs, and Ponies in close proximity of our camp. The Ponies would often come over, munching grass right at the back of our van, and the kids loved it! They would pick up long grass and feed it to them.
Ken, the owner, and Margaret, a caretaker were brilliant with the kids. They’d pop over now and then and tell the kids it was time to feed so and so. And they’d all run off to help.
One afternoon, Ken and Margaret brought the ponies into the camping area and walked them around with the kids riding them. Another highlight – and there was no extra charges.
The Camping Area
As mentioned above, there is a nice grassy area to set up camp. Its essentially a fenced off paddock that’s well watered – the green standing out from the dusty surrounds.
On one side there are some basic playground equipment for the kids, including some bikes and sports equipment they can borrow.
Just outside the paddock is a row of toilet and shower facilities. This is made up of three separate little sheds containing toilet/shower in each. They don’t look like much, but are very clean and the water pressure was great!
My only gripe is that there’s not much of a view at the paddock. You’re looking at a spattering of other caravans. And for some reason, the caretakers chose to park the small number of caravans that were there – quite close to each other. I requested a spot away from the trees to get some solar in. We had a bit of space, but on the second night they parked someone right near us, despite the oodles of space still available.
The kids certainly loved the animals nearby, but if it were up to me, I’d rather be looking at water given proximity to the river. This was driven home when we took a trip out to the ‘sunset bar’
The Sunset Bar
Ken has set up a little viewing area atop the cliffs on his property and labelled it the sunset bar. There’s some chairs, and I guess what could be described as an enormous lazy susan. A huge table with a few rustic drink holders that spins.
We walked here on our first night. It was a calm and balmy night, and the views of the river were great. This is where we should be camping I thought! Probably not much fun when the wind is up, and you can’t actually get to the water from up there – but it’s a nice view.
It looks like they’re set up to have bonfires when its not fire danger season – that’d be nice too. On the second night we decided we’d spare the kids little legs and drive over there. We met a lovely couple and chatted for a while. Taking the car also meant I could access a few cold drinks from my new drawer fridge in the back!
Not Just for Families?
I was thinking to myself that this wouldn’t be a particularly interesting place to stop if you didn’t have kids. With the animal feedings, pony rides etc, it is exceptional value for families with kids. But, we only saw one other family there. The other campers were older couples, who were basically just chilling out in their chairs the whole time.
But it did occur to me, for $35 a night, this is better value that a caravan park. They aren’t crammed in (even if vans did get positioned closer than I would have liked!) and there was power available too. I didn’t ask for power as I wanted to see how our solar setup went, but I don’t think it was an additional cost. Again, I’m not a caravan park person, but unless you wanted to use the caravan park pool, I’m not sure why you’d pay more for that over here. Horses for courses I guess!
Are we going again?
Well, the kids certainly want to head back and check on the baby alpaca they saw getting born, and to see if the 20+ guinea pigs have expanded their family even more (we saw one fresh baby in our 2 day stay!). For the parents it is a case of seen that, what’s next? We have plenty more places to explore in the new Hybrid. The kids will probably twist our arms eventually though.
