Not a good start to the South Australian leg of our journey. Today was wet, cold, wet, windy and very wet. We went to church at an AoG church called Liberty church. I'm always concerned when I go to a church and in the almost 2 hour service they didn't once open the Bible either to read it or teach from it. Jay had great fun in Kids church but they spent the whole time playing games and there was no teaching there either. We had a look at a sinkhole which has been developed into a garden, then onto Maccas where we could spend the afternoon in the warmth. Jay played in the playground while I continued to bring my photo labelling up to date. Perched on the rim of a volcanic crater at Mt Schank is tonights free camp location.
11th April 2011
Even life on the road has it's share of tedious tasks to attend to. This morning was spent driving around Mount Gambier looking for someone who could do Frankie's 5000km service. Seeing as they can't fit us in until later in the week we've taken a side trip to Naracoorte to see the world heritage listed fossil caves. We drove through many vineyards to get here. Harvesters were active in many of them trying to collect the grapes before the latest rains damage them on the vines. For those wine connoisseurs amongst you it won't be a great year for Cabernet Sauvignon from this region but the sweet late harvest wines should be good. Ducking into Naracoorte we visited the Information Centre and their museum " The Sheep's Back", which looked at the importance of the wool industry and farming life in South Australia.
Tonights campsite is in the Naracoorte Caves National Park campground.
12th April 2011
Exploring the caves at Naracoorte we started with Fossil Cave. This is the main reason the area has a joint World Heritage listing with Riversleigh in Queensland. The area sits on a huge limestone slab extending hundreds of kilometres inland and up to 300m thick near the coast. Occasionally a hole forms into the caves from the surface into which animals fall. These animals may die on impact or get trapped and die of stress or ultimately starvation. As more and more material falls into the hole it creates a cone. Rain will move material at the top of the cone downhill, natural collapse will also transfer material to the bottom of the cone. Consequently there is a muddle of fossils in the caves which is representative of what was roaming around on the surface over an extended period of time. With everything from Australia's megafauna to evidence of Tasmanian tigers and devils on the mainland to current species the finds are a muddle for the paleontologists. Interestingly a fossil is defined as evidence of life, a leaf imprint, footprint, shell or bone that is over 10 000 years old. Not all fossils are fossilised i.e. mineralised. With humidity in the caves at about 96% and most of the bones just fossils in dirt, not fossilised, I struggle to see how they could have survived the supposed 25 - 50 million years.
Fortuitously we were at the counter when a mother and daughter came in to investigate adventure caving.
Having previously put our name down but awaiting another two people to make up a group of four we were able to talk them into joining us. We spent two hours exploring stick and tomato caves in our overalls and caving helmets. Jay was especially good at all the little squeezes and was in his element. Being my first real caving experience as well, I attempted all of the squeezes on offer to test my mettle for future caving with Venturers.
I was pleasantly surprised at how well I coped in some quite tight spots and am looking forward to giving it a go when I get back to Scouting.
After dinner we headed up to Bat Cave to watch the exodus of 15 000 southern bent-wing bats from their daytime refuge to feed on the insects in a 100 kilometre diameter. This is one of only two sites in the world where this bat lives, the other being at Warnambool.
13th April 2011
Back to the Bat Cave this morning for a look at them through the infra-red cameras. It was especially interesting seeing the footage of the baby bats in nurseries clinging to the roof. How mum ever recognizes her baby again is amazing.
The final cave and by far the best was Alexandria. The formations in this cave are so delicate and beautiful. The stand-out favourite for me was the reflected fairy castle.
Then it was back to Mt. Schank outside Mt. Gambier for the night.
14th April 2011
Happy birthday Lindsay!
Frankie was booked in for his 5000km service today. Jay and I took off on our bikes to explore Cave Garden and Engelbrecht Cave. After Naracoorte they weren't very impressive, however they had their own points of interest in relation to the history of Mt. Gambier. After picking up Frankie it was down to Port MacDonnell. Jay met up with a couple of boys who were collecting shrimps in a net under the pier. They happily let him join in. These are the sort of experiences I want most for Jay. Just to get in with the local kids and do the things they do. Chatting about the different types of fish around the pier, the types of bait to use, where the best fishing spots were. He was enjoying himself so much that I decided to stop the night in the boat ramp carpark and let him have more time with the kids. During the evening he also got to see the resident dolphin and a huge manta-ray as I enjoyed an amazing sunset over the bay.
15th April 2011
Our quiet empty carpark turned into a main thoroughfare sometime in the early hours of the morning and we awoke to a carpark full of utes, 4WDs and boat trailers as well as an awesome sunrise. Jay couldn't resist throwing in a line at the pier this morning to try and catch some of the fish we could see swimming around.
Finally success, he hauled in a couple of small bream and was sooooo excited. Unfortunately (or not from my perspective) the fish were too small and we had to toss them back into the drink.
Blue Lake, a crater which exposes the water table, provides Mt. Gambier with it's drinking water. The water looks like a Harpic blue loo. After seeping through the limestone it is naturally filtered and has a solution of calcium carbonate which is believed to be the reason for the brilliant blue colour. We toured the pump house which took us down to the waters edge.
A play in the playground at Millicent and then onto Beachport where we again have stopped in the boat ramp carpark. With the wind whistling around us we settled in for the night.
16th April 2011
Only a short hop, skip and a jump down the road to Robe was as far as we got today. After restocking the pantry we conducted our own bike tour around the area. We soon discovered that indeed Robe isn't famous for Robes but has some beautiful coastline with the Southern Ocean on one side and Guichen Bay, over which the caravan park we stayed in looks, along the other. The bay was first sited by French explored Nicholas Baudin in 1802 not long before crossing paths with Matthew Flinders on his voyage to survey the southern coastline. Jay tried his hand at fishing again this afternoon off the pier but the wind was blustering up from the Southern Ocean and it was just too cold and unpleasant to hang around.
17th April 2011
After attending the Uniting church service in Robe in which the visitors outnumbered the regular congregation by about 3-1, we moved up the coast a bit for lunch overlooking Lacepede Bay. With the Coorong National Park on our left and dry flat pasture land to our right we continued on to Meningie. The Coorong is a 150km stretch of wetland which is protected by a line of sand dunes from the Southern Ocean. It is an oasis for a huge variety of water birds. We set up camp at the Lions Club park overlooking Lake Albert. Adjoining Lake Alexandrina, the two lakes are the point where the Murray River drains into the ocean. We were treated to another brilliant sunset this evening, our last on the Limestone Coast.
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