Wednesday 22 January 2014

22nd January 2014 - Mount Gambier

22nd January 2014

We have left Mt Barker SA behind us and arrived at Mount Gambier SA. Mt Barker is a lovely town and I have certainly met many people and made some very good friends (Hi Loucia !!) We had the dubious honour of being there whilst SA had their hottest and longest heatwave ever..... yes EVER!!!! 5 days of over 40 degrees didn't make for much fun and in the end most people were just staying home in the cool. Les and I did break that schedule up with visits to the pool and eating lots of icypoles !!! Good fun!!

Thankfully the heat eased off at just the right time for us to pack up the annex, wash the van and car and head south to Mt Gambier!!! We arrived here yesterday and headed straight for the showgrounds because here you can camp on the showgrounds and access power and water! The charge is less than at a conventional caravan park but more importantly....there is masses of space for everyone to spread out giving a luxurious sense of privacy and peace. It is also situated right next to the trotting track and as this weekend has a big event scheduled we are able to see lots of horses being put through their training.

Today started off a little gloomy but we had already decided to travel the 28kms to the coast and investigate Port Macdonnell. We drove around the rocky coast and learnt about the lighthouse which no longer stands, the huge amount of shipwrecks that occurred along there and the incredibly brave people who risked their own lives to save others in very risky situations.



AN EXTREMELY ROUGH COASTLINE FULL OF ROCKS AND REEFS THAT HAVE TAKEN DOWN PLENTY OF SHIPS OVER THE YEARS.

The sun came out and we settled down in the park to eat our (copious) fisherman's baskets and enjoy the view. The town is fairly small and seems to be most famous for the amount of Rock Lobsters it provides. We did see scuba divers and snorkelers swimming around the rocks but assumed that was for Abalone.

Back in Mt Gambier we stopped at the Blue Lake for another look. We were here 3 years ago and at that time walked around the rim of the lake. It is an extinct volcano that has a basin of water in it but no-one knows why it is sooooo blue. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't believe how blue it actually is.........this colour only occurs for about 3 months of the year and again no-one knows why


IT TRULY IS THAT BLUE, AS THOUGH SOMEONE HAS POURED PAINT INTO IT!!

By this time we were all tired (and still rolling around from our extensive lunch!) so headed back to the van for a well deserved rest.

SAM HAVING A WELL EARNED SLEEP AFTER A HUGE DAY AT THE BEACH

We have plans for more site seeing tomorrow and there is a speedway event on tomorrow evening at the local track. The weather should be perfect for both!

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