Entering South Australia

Trip Start Feb 04, 2006

Trip End Apr 07, 2006

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Flag of Australia Limestone Coast, Australia
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

From Portland, we drove on to Mt. Gambier and, based on the wonderful reception we received at the tourist information, decided to spend the night. We went to the Blue Lake lookout (lake is indeed a deep blue colour) and took a short stroll through the Wildlife Park before it started raining and we headed back to town for dinner at the Thai Caf�. It didn't look like much from the outside, but the food was wonderful - and very, very hot. In the evening we visited the Umpherston sinkhole (a collapsed cave with terraced gardens) to see the possums that come out at night. No sooner had we gone down the stairs, but the first possum appeared and we even saw a mother-baby duo - the baby clinging on to its mother's back as she sought out something to eat.

The next morning we got off to an earlier start to check out the Wildlife Park again (this time in the sun!) Just as we started along the boardwalk, we noticed a koala taking a sunbath on the ledge

Blue Lake at Mt. Gambier

. Nadine took a picture from far away, and then we edged closer, thinking we would scare him off. But, we managed to walk right by without rousing much interest from him. There were lots of birds (superb fairy wrens, emus and many others we don't remember the names of!) and of course 'roos and wallabies.

At Beachport, our next stop, we went for a long walk along the beach - beautiful rugged coastline - and then headed on to Robe, where we stayed for the night at the Long Beach Holiday Park, enabling us to take another dip in the cold and wavy water.

From Robe, we drove through the Coorong National Park to reach Victor Harbour. En route we stopped at Meningie and Strathalbyn. Strath is a very picturesque small town with a lovely walkway along the river. There are lots of vineyards (McLaren Vale) on the way. As we were making good time (and the forecast for the next few days was favourable), we decided to move our trip to Kangaroo Island (KI) forward, and booked the ferry for Wednesday at 1 pm.

At Victor Harbour there was a fairy penguin colony on Granite Island, so we joined a guided tour after dusk. We had expected something similar to the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island, where the penguins return from a day's fishing at sea and cross the beach to their burrows

Ferry Penguin at Victor Harbour

. Unfortunately, it is now molting season and the majority of the birds were hiding in their homes. We'll try again in New Zealand. The tour itself was, however, quite informative.

Wednesday morning we went to the booking office in Victor Harbour to ask about accommodation on KI. We soon found out that it was "Cup Weekend" (horse-racing), so finding a cabin - or any accommodation, for that matter - was next thing to impossible. Applying lateral thinking, we decided to buy a tent. Fortunately, there were a sports store and hardware store just down the street, where we were able to pick up a cheap tent and some shellite (white gas) for our cooker. We then headed on to Cape Jervis to board the ferry.

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Koala sunbathing

Strathalbyn

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Comments

andrea.adrian on

Travelling with you
Nadine & Silvio, reading your Travelogue brings back so many happy memories!
At Mt. Gambier, I was also stopping incidentally, while I was on my way to the tennis in Melbourne, on the second part of my trip where I was all on my own. Originally, I was just planning on stopping at a motel along the way as soon as it gets dark, but curiosity made me stop at the intriguing Blue Lake in the afternoon, where I was told about the possums in the Umpherston Sinkhole. Spontaneously as you, I decided to stay for the night.