South Australia

Last Sunday we said goodbye to Warrnambool and, also, said goodbye to Victoria as we headed on to Mt Gambier. Our last few months have been very memorable in Victoria and we are grateful for the many things we did and the wonderful things we have seen and learnt, and the great times we have spent with family.

This week we have enjoyed Mt Gambier, especially the Blue Lake - it is very blue as you can see in the picture! And we all expended much effort climbing up to the Centenary Tower which sits atop the highest point that overlooks Mt Gambier city. It gave a wonderful view of the surrounding farmland and out to the coast, as well as the city itself and Valley Lake down below. We visited the Umpherstone Sink Hole where the ground has given way to the limestone caves underneath, causing a fall of about 25m where now one can walk down to enjoy the gardens below. It was a nice spot and popular in the summer when the gardens are in full bloom.

After Mt Gambier we drove on to Robe, a small town further around the coast (nice sunrise here!). A highlight was a SUPER playground we visited on the way to Robe, at Millicent. It must be one of the best we have come across and funding was contributed by Kimberley-Clark - the big paper manufacturer, which is just out of town. We saw HUGE piles of woodchips ready to be turned into tissues, toilet paper and paper towel, etc! The playground had lots fun things to do, and Sophia wondered if we were camping here! Unfortunately for everyone (including the big kid on the back of the car!) we had to move on.

We stayed at Robe for one night and now really understand why they call this the limestone coast. There is rugged rock and limestone everywhere, no wonder so many ships were lost to the depths offshore, even though they tried to rescue them - photo by the Obleisk, where they used to store rockets which they shot out to the wrecked ships so they could attach a rope and haul passengers to land. Robe was once a bustling port town where about 17,000 Chinese people came ashore during the height of the Gold Rush times (1850-1870), to make their way to the Victorian gold fields. Now it is small, a bit like Augusta.

We headed north from Robe to Kingston, and the Big Lobster - ordered in feet it arrived built in metres!! Also drove along the Coorong that day, remembering Storm Boy and his pelicans. Then got to Murray Bridge on the Murray River. It was less green that I thought it would be and it was quite hot the day we arrived. Although that changed the next day when the cool weather and rain came in! We thought it might be fun to hire a house boat, but found them too expensive and look forward to seeing more of the Murray River, later, in our travels with Dad and Mum and Jen and Nic and family, who will be here soon only 7 days, 10 hours, but who is counting anyway!! (And did I say we are REALLY looking forward to that!)