Home again.

9th March 2019

Distance: 643km
Fuel: 63L

Set off about 9am, like yesterday not an inspiring drive being mostly on the Hume Highway.

Stopped at Holbrook for lunch, tried the bakery first but it was packed so crossed the road to a cafe/restaurant and had a very nice lunch.

Afterwards wandered up to the submarine just to stretch the legs.

The original plan was to stop overnight at somewhere like Junee but at the turn off for Junee decided to press on for home.

The final stop was at Gundagai at the Dog on the Tuckerbox again just to stretch the legs, it was a long drive, far longer than I like to do these days but eventually arrived home in the late afternoon.

Trip Summary

Distance Travelled: 3237km
Fuel: 325L
Average Park cost: $29.10

The Route

Shepperton

8th March 2019

Distance: 411km
Fuel: 44L

Not an exciting day – making the way back home. A lot of the journey was driving on the Hume Highway.

Booked in at Shepparton’s Lake Victoria Holiday Park.

Walked beside the Goulburn River and Lake Victoria in the evening.

Great Ocean Road

7th March 2019

Distance: 101.9

After yesterday’s visit to the spectacular sights on the Great Ocean Rd west of Port Campbell, this morning we set off to visit the natural structures on the eastern side of Port Campbell.

Loch Ard Gorge, Broken Head and the Thunder Cave

Don’t know if the Thunder Cave is a new platform but I don’t recall seeing it on a previous visit.

!2 Apostles

No longer twelve, possibly eight or ten? but the area was packed with people – I don’t remember this from a previous visit. It is starting to get like the Blue Mountains attractions – something to be avoided.

Kept travelling east with the intention of having lunch at Lavers Hill but found the local cafe in the middle of a power cut. Fortunately they still had hot pies but obviously no coffee or hot drinks.

Returned to Port Campbell and walked up the ‘Discovery Walk’ on the other side of the creek. It actually was worth the stairs with good views over the town.

Port Campbell

6th March 2019

Distance: 258km

Time to leave Mount Gambier, it is a town I like very much but time to move on to The Great Ocean Road.

Pretty uneventful drive cutting across country and avoiding major towns (such as there are) until reaching the Great Ocean Road where we periodically stopped to enjoy the views.

Bay of Islands

The Grotto

London Bridge

Unfortunately one of the arches collapsed a few years ago.

The Arch

The weather was really cold with a strong southerly wind reducing the temperature to an apparent 7’C. It just never let up.

We arrived at Port Campbell checked in and set up camp the wind was still bitterly cold making the 15’C seem like 7’C according to BOM.

Port MacDonnell

5th March 2019

Distance: 88km
Fuel: 9L

The weather was forecast to be showery and so it was but only brief showers of a few minutes interspersed with sunshine.

Drove the 25km to Port MacDonnell (the southernmost town in South Australia) and paid a visit to the Tourist information office which was also the local library and Maritime Museum.

Opposite were some large murals.

The museum was quite interesting showing the local history but as a maritime museum it was a bit tedious being a history of ship wrecks along the coast including one which resulted in 89 deaths

Next door to the museum was the old Customs House with a German WWII mine in the courtyard – the Germans mined the sea route from Adelaide to Melbourne.

Next visit was to the site of the old lighthouse with its spectacular coastal views.

Had intended to drive along the coast but the road suddenly ended and the sat nav showed the route via Mount Gambier which seemed a bit of a waste of time.

Stopped at Mount Schank one of the many local extinct volcanos, there was a path to the rim. It was pretty steep but the views made it worth the effort.

Funny thing was that the sound of a herd of cows a few kms away sounded as if it was next door.

Returned to the caravan park after topping up with fuel and doing a bit of shopping.

A Day in Mount Gambier

4th March 2019

Distance :25km
Fuel: 24L

Leisurely start, no rush today everything is in town.

First stop was the Blue Lake… Yes, it really was blue and the steep walls made its volcanic past obvious to anybody. It is the town’s water supply.

Next door is Valley Lake, the remains of two craters that finally exploded, joined and largely filled themselves in forming a smaller shallower lake and a large area of land that has been turned into a recreation park.

Overlooking this area is Centenary Tower which is reached by a very steep walk. It is worth the effort because the views are spectacular. To be honest I thought the tower must have been a bicentennial project but I couldn’t have been more wrong – it was built to celebrate the centenary of the opening up of the region and was completed in 1904.

Next visit was to the Umpherston Sinkhole which, like Cave Gardens, has been turned into a park and gardens. Named after the person who originally owned the land and used it as his own retreat from the heat. It used to have a quite large lake but as the water table has lowered it is now largely dry. There was also a waterfall but unfortunately the mechanism that kept it going is broken.

Had a sandwich lunch and coffee at the local cafe – actually very nice, a big change from that at the Giant Koala..

Next port of call was Engelbrecht Cave yet another but smaller sinkhole but this time privately owned and which leads to a complex of water filled caves and tunnels which are popular with divers. The caves run under the main streets of Mt Gambier. Naturally we only visited the dry bits.

The sinkhole was originally used as a rubbish dump for a distillery and the local butchers, Some quite nasty chemicals were originally dumped down it and cleaning it was quite a task – many hundreds of tonnes of rubbish were removed by hand before the cave could be used.

After dinner at a local Malaysian/Chinese restaurant went to Cave Garden to see the sound and light show which I had been told started a 8.30pm by 8.45 nothing had happened so walked back to the caravan park. The only disappointment of the day.

Am staying an extra day in Mount Gambier to get better weather for the Great Ocean Road though I have to say that I really like Mount Gambier as a town.

Mount Gambier

3rd March 2019

Distance: 220km

Didn’t leave until nearly 10am because only a journey just over 200km today, not only that, South Australia is half an hour behind the eastern states.

It was a largely uneventful journey mostly using back roads to cut cross country. The only problem with these roads is that there are never any rest areas except street parking in any small town. The weather was overcast only reaching 23’C but a pleasant change from the heatwave of the previous two days. Everything looked very dry and there was no rain in these clouds.

Arrived at Mount Gambier about midday and checked into a caravan park virtually in the centre of town. The owner was very helpful with events and sight to see.

At 1pm walked to the Riddoch Art Centre to watch a film about describing how the local area was formed from volcanic activity when Australia separated from from Gondwana Land and how the weakness caused by this fault line later led to the formation of the Blue Lake and lava flows travelling for 100s of kms into Victoria.

Nearby is Cave Gardens right in the town centre – basically a sinkhole.

Returned to camp for a shower before wandering out for a walk ending up at about 5.30pm at the Mount Gambier Community RSL where we had a meal and a couple of drinks.

The Grampians

2nd March 2019

Distance: 164km
Fuel: 18L

Despite an almost empty park we crammed ourselves right up against a vacant cabin to take advantage of the shade it offered during the hottest part of the day. The advantage was that in the morning the sun warmed the camp up.

After having a shower, breakfast, coffee and all the basic necessities of life it was time for a visit to the Grampians. It is a Saturday so expected more visitor traffic than there actually turned out to be.

There was a sharp contrast between the plains and the mountains, no gradual rise, one minute you were driving along flat roads, the next climbing on narrow winding mountain roads.

The scenery was pretty spectacular.

While the route and lookouts were uncrowded Halls Gap (just visible in the last photo), the town in the centre of the area, was packed with cars and people. I had intended to stop there for a meal but parking seemed at a premium and it was pretty crowded so we moved on.

On the way back to Horsham there was a ‘Giant Koala’’ at Dadswells Bridge. For a ‘Big’ thing the Koala wasn’t bad but the cafe and gift shop had a slghtly run down feel about it but there is nothing quite like an over priced cup of tea and a ham sandwich in such surroundings.

By mid afternoon the temperature had risen to 40’C but there was a slight breeze which made it slightly more bearable than yesterday however it seemed like a good opportunity to get the laundry done.

After a quick visit to Coles in Horsham for essential supplies the washing was done, on the line and dried within an hour.

Despite the heatwave it was a good day out

Arty Silos and a Pink Lake

1st March 2019

Distance: 453km
Fuel: 45L

Taking the scenic route rather than a direct route to Horsham today to take in three new paintings on the Silo Art Trail. We had visited the original paintings at Patchewollock, Brim and Sheep Hills but now there are new ones at Lascelles, Rosebery and Rupanyup.

The road took us west through Sea Lake before turning south. The temperature today was 40Ç, it was a very dry heat but hard going out of the air conditioned comfort of the car.

My TomTom satnav found some interesting cross country short cuts which involved a few single lane roads, When I first came to Australia in the 1960s these were a step up from the more common dirt road but they are getting rarer now.

We arrived at Wimmera Lakes Caravan Resort at about 2pm, checked in for a couple of days, quickly set up camp and went into Horsham to visit the Tourist information Office. A helpful lady there told us all about the Grampians National Park which was our plan for tomorrow.

We decided to visit Pink Lake as it was only half an hour’s drive away. It was less than overwhelming as it was almost completely dry so just a salt pan. A pink tinge was slightly visible but that was about it. Walked on the salt and found a spot with what looked like bright pink dye (at least someone was trying to enhance the experience).

Down to Victoria

27th and 28th February 2019

Wednesday

Distance: 428km
Fuel: 42L

A quick trip to the Grampians and beyond.

After a fairly long drive spent the first night at a Wagaa Wagga caravan park with the most run down facilities I have come across, definitely one to avoid in future.

Thursday

Distance: 381km
Fuel: 40L

On the way stopped at Deniliquin, a town I have always liked.

Entered the Sunrasia Quarantine area where we dutifully tried to eat the remaining bananas before disposing of them in the bin.

Originally had planned to stay at Barham in NSW but drove the extra 25km to Kerang just across the border in Victoria. Again the facilities not the best but much better than the previous night. Seem to have picked parks that have their best days behind them. This one was situated on the Kerang River and despite this I would visit again, it wasn’t that bad. .

In the evening went for walk to the town centre which was only 500 metres away.