Leaving the campsite at Robe yesterday I saw a Wicked campervan, reminding me of my epic journey across northern Ozz 2 years ago - the van yesterday had a great slogan: "Don't drink and drive, smoke pot and fly!" I should have taken a photo.... Talking about driving, all the states have lots of signs like "drowsy drivers die, take a powernap now" or "better to arrive late than dead", but South Australia excels in cheeky ones like that above - non-native english speakers may have to ask me to interpret that for them!
Before leaving Robe we took pictures of the cute little old "historic" stone buildings - the church, the customs house, the old police station, all dating from the 1850s and standing on the dunes overlooking the natural harbour - we must remember that anything older than the 1950s is historic in this young country. We then drove southward behind coastal lagoons through lovely rolling limestone country, stopping in little old Beachport where we were amazed yet again by the quality of service given by the local Information Centre: their effective PR persuaded us to take their drmatic scenic drive through rolling dunes and low cliffs, with tremendous vistas both along the coast and inland, past the local salt lake (7x seawater, "so salt you float"), the drive only being abandoned as the sea fog rolled in and reduced visibility to a few metres, not much point in scenic lookouts then!
On to Mount Gambier, an inland town on the flanks of a ?dormant volcanic vent, last active only 4,000 years ago, leaving 2 beautiful crater lakes, one with water turning a brilliant blue in summer (calcite precitated from the water in summer eats up humic material, or so they say....). It seems this area has been lying over the East Australian Hotspot, deep down in the mantle, until recently - this now apparently lying just offshore. Then on to Mount Schank, yet another young volcanic cone rearing up from the limestone flats, before arriving on the south coast in Port MacDonnell, self-proclaimed "Rock lobster capital of South Australia", which Ros had to test of course, while I stuck to oysters.... both verdicts were the best meal yet!
Today Thursday it was onwards eastwards, crossing the state line back into Victoria, walking along yet more spectacular sea-cliffs near Portland, this time with "petrified forest" where the lime-rich sand dunes have buried trees, and the trunks are now calcified, all quite impressive (and an even more impressive windmill "farm" in the background). Then past an oil rig just offshore, quite a contrast to the 145 year old rig from the other day, to yet another volcanic crater complex - Tower Hill - now a nature reserve with all the original fauna protected, emus wandering around in the parking lot, snakes and lizzards galore, but disappointingly no koalas sighted. Finally ending for the night in Warrnambool ("ample water") undecided as to what to do tomorrow in dodgy weather, storm or no storm? The night will show.....
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