Oz Circumnavigation: The leaving of South Australia

This is the famous Blue Lake in Mount Gambier, the colours just does not seem to do justice to the reality

The wall art at Cape Jaffa near Kingston SE was spectacular but the prosperity came from the large cray fish operation at this very small port with a population of around 150 during the winter

More wall art, perhaps this keeps them busy in the winter, no TV reception and Km's from the smoke.

Another Mount Gambier attraction, their sunken garden, this was one of many "sinkholes" in the region and is another testament to the changing environment, in the late19th century there was water in the bottom sufficient for boating persuits but now the water table is much lower and we have a pleasant garden instead.

Not to be outdone Mike at the Blue Lake, a shame that the camera does lie !!

Pinks Beach at Kingston SE where we park for a couple of nights, Katherine was determine to get her feet wet and achieved that feat!, no one else was on the beach at 7.30 AM.

Aside from the beach and it's historic buildings, Kingston has "Larry", unfortunately Larry is falling apart and unless someone foots a large reconstruction bill, Larry will disintegrate, poor "Larry"

This is Mount Schank near Mount Gambier, in the text below you will see it was a climb and circumnavigation that Mike just achieved. The base of the crater still has water for the sheep that graze there, since the water table is at that level.

This is the"Eerie" crater where we spent one night and Katherine felt that something was "wrong" with the place. The kids who played there obviously did not agree and jumped from the top cliff into the allegedly 30 metre deep water.

This proves that the trip is not all places, one of the reasons why we are so slow is that we sped time at the overnight stops to relax.

Another activity at the stops is Katherine's recuperation exercises, if avoiding the flies is not sufficient hand activity.

General overview of this section of the travels

This part of the journey takes us from Strahalbyn to our farewell to South Australia via Mount Gambier.

The trip was in two parts, firstly the fairy drab coastline of the Coorong, with it's many natural park areas ( Only the birds and naturalist's really appreciate this area) and the more interesting historic small towns of Kingston SE ( never did ask what the SE stood for??), Robe and the Coonawara wine region.

The nightly stops varied, but were always acceptable with Kingston being so good that we stayed 2 nights, basically on the beach as you will see from the photographs above.

Millicent was a pleasant town that provided Mike with another place to play golf ( rated 76 th in Australian golf courses. Still only achieved 28 points, but seeing as the group had never played there before 28 points was not as bad as it could have been.

After Millicent we spent a couple of days in the Coonawara wine area, had an excellent lunch at the Hollicks winery and went heavily into the Mary Mackillop story at Pinola. Stayed the night at Pinola railway Station in the town, a quiet and central spot.

Then it was on to Mount Gambier and a Caravan park, the first since Adelaide, our longest out yet, it was big and full of "live people" as Katherine would say.

Mount Gambier was different from other SA towns, well it is a City really, and as such had a large number of facilities.

One of our aims was to collect the post, which was a trauma since there are 3 post offices in Mount Gambier and the one we chose to have the mail sent to was the smallest and most remote.

The main attraction at Mount Gambier was the "Blue Lake", a most remarkable phenomenon and has to be seen to be believed. Additionally there are the numerous volcanic craters, one of which (Mount Schank) Mike climbed and walked the rim, nearly killed him.

Nights in this area were again varied, adjacent to the Cycle club room, rear of an Hotel and on the rim of a crater. The crater stop Katherine felt was inappropriate due to the bad vibes from the place, it did not stop a good nights sleep and late breakfast.