The Discovery Coast and The Limestone Coast

After a rather wet night at the Grampians we said our goodbyes on Sunday to mountain country and headed back towards the coast. Along the way we thought we’d stop off in “Volcano Country”. Our first destination was just outside Byaduk, at the Byaduk caves. Here we explored Herman 1 Cave – despite difficult climb down into the cave the adventure was quite fun. We got to a stage where our head lamps were not bright enough for navigating damp volcanic rock and turned back. Once safely (or so we thought- hours later I discovered I had been bitten by a leech resulting in the grossest sight and a need for washing clothes!) out of the cave we adventured around looking at other caves and a historic stone wall.

What we had to scramble down!

We then headed to Mt Eccles National Park – where hot showers were available! The park was lovely and the amenities quite nice, there was quite a lot of wildlife around, including roos, koalas and possums. We decided to stay two nights, as the weather had been fairly average and we wanted to do a few of the walks in the park. The next day we wandered around Lake Surprise! And explored a lava tunnel (this time it had steps in so we were much happier to enter the cave plus we took the dolphin torch with us!), we also had some much needed RNR. Before leaving the park we also checked out “The Natural Bridge” – a bridge formed by lava tunnels. It was rather cool. Then we headed towards Portland and the coast – potentially a big mistake; as we drove into town clouds amassed in front of us and then the rain was upon us! I think it’s important to note that since we departed the Grampians we’ve barely seen the sun, most days have been cloudy and we had small spits of rain. After a day in Portland we were beginning to think of the sun as a mythical being. We stocked up and hid in the library and eventually gained the courage to head to a local state park – Cobboboonee. The weather was fierce so we settled down to watch a movie, ate butter chicken and decided to leave the dishes until the morning – except a possum had other plans. Now it is not widely know that possums are great lovers of Indian food, so anyone could be forgiven for leaving their butter chicken dishes out on a picnic table in the rain and proceeding to watch Mission Impossible, but if you wanted to watch the movie in peace and not wonder what the heck all the banging is and where you’re dinner utensils have gone then it’s probably not a good idea.

On the plus side poss basically scraped the pot clean so less washing up in the morning!

A typical look at what caving involves - I'll give you a clue, darkness!

Anyway, we left in search of the sun. Although we didn’t actually find it, we did find some interesting things along the way. We stopped in at Cape Bridgewater to look at the blowholes and petrified forest.  We were going to attempt a walk to the local seal colony until icy cold winds (strong enough to blow Toto out of Kansas) and rain appeared. Instead we headed west. We ended up camping by the Glenelg River at a wonderful little camp ground called Pritchards. And magically the rain held off for an hour or so. In this time we explored the area and the river, which was overflowing. Then we had happy hour with a skippy called bob and fed possums (about 10)  some of our old veggies (we were soon to cross the border and no fruit and veg is allowed). In the morning it was once again raining. We put it down to being in Victoria so decided it was almost time for a tree change!

The Petrified Forest

We explored the little town of Nelson, the river so high that several sheds were surrounded by it, and then headed to the Princess Margaret Rose Caves, which meant briefly driving into SA to come back to Vic. This time Michael took the honours of driving across the borders. Weirdly enough we didn’t actually explore the caves, as the sun was coming out sporadically, we set up camp and tried to enjoy the patches of nice weather, separated by bouts of rain. The campsite was ok – Michael and I decided there were too many rules PLUS the showers were timed to 4 minutes, not so fun.

Bob the Skippie - Helping us figure out where to go next!

The next morning we set off to South Australia, but this time to stay. I drove across the border, past several mobs of skippies, landing in Mt Gambier by 10am. We stocked up and checked out the town, but found out there was a festival on and there were a lot of tourists around – so we got out of town fairly quickly and went to the Piccaninnie Ponds – a place where the water is so clear that in some parts you can see 40. The campsite was alright and again the weather slipped back to average so we watched another movie and hid out in The Hulk. We also devised a wicked way of hanging the tablet so we have a suspended flat screen telly ;p

Our big screen telly with surround sound!

And that brings us to today. This morning we slept in again since the rain was around before we eventually headed off. Heading to Mt Gambier again (where we are going to stay for a couple of days to upgrade our car), we went via Port Macdonald, which was small and kind of sweet except for a strong smell of seaweed. We briefly looked at Mt Schank – not attempting the walk because of the rain. And then stumbled upon a lovely look out of the Blue Lake at Mt Gambier. The lake was actually still blue, which we were told we wouldn’t see because of the seasons. So we checked out a few lookouts, marvelled at the lake and the surrounding sinkholes and went to Valley Lake for lunch. A black swan decided it wanted some lunch too – although they look really majestic on the water, their pretty scary when there trying to steal your spag bowl! Valley Lake has a free nature walk and wildlife zoo, full of Aussie animals, so we quickly went in to see some more skippies. After that we headed to Dan Murphies to resupply and we’re currently at the town’s showground. We plan to explore the area over the next couple of days and restock as were going to do a big stretch of wilderness soon. Oh if you haven’t guessed by now, the theme of this week has been rain…we seriously cannot wait til we’re at Alice where the temperatures are still in the 30’s! Anyway that’s it for now, hooroo!

The scary black swan

Lesson of the week: Don’t let the weather dampen your spirits (get it? It’s punny!)