Mon 20 Feb - Mount Gambier
10 Dec overnight reaching 25 Deg by mid afternoon. Another beautiful sunny day becoming overcast with a very fresh 25 km SE wind in the evening. The day started with a long walk from the caravan park up to the the Blue Lake onto a lookout above the Valley Lake. It’s hard to walk past the Blue Lake without taking photos - it is spectacular. Back at the van after breakfast I dropped Noel into town for some me time wandering around, while I took the ute for a wash. We parked it under the tree in front of our van last night and woke to the whole of the roof and driver side spray painted with bird droppings (seriously - the whole roof and drivers side was covered). I then returned to the visitor information centre for a bit more information about upcoming destinations, and then drove into town to explore some of Mount Gambier’s historical buildings. Mount Gambier has a relaxed feel about the place with some wonderful architecture. The style of building here is very unique, with some wonderful historical buildings including residential using a combination of sandstone, and pink and grey dolomite. Unfortunately, I think a tourist tax is applied in Mount Gambier, because it is quite expensive. Maybe they could invest a little to address the terrible internet service here. When Noel and I were reunited, we returned to the van for lunch, then we went for a drive down to the Valley Lake park which is a beautiful shady area where strangely it seems that you can water ski, but I didn’t notice anywhere for swimming. In fact there is a sign saying that swimming is verboten. From here, we drove 16km out of town to the Little Blue Lake - where you can swim, and there was quite a gathering braving the 12 Deg water. Unlike the Large Blue Lake in town which is the main water supply for Mount Gambier, people can swim in this Little Blue Lake. I thought about having a dip too, but 12 Deg was just a bit too fresh for me. Back to the van we went with the intention of preparing for our departure tomorrow morning, then I remembered I had to repair the centre bracket that supports the caravan awning. Back in the car and into Mitre 10 I went to buy a tube of Sikaflex , a caulking gun and some turps to clean up the mess I made last time I tried to fix it. About an hour later I looked at my handy man work a little proud of myself, but still too soon to tell if it will hold. The almost 90km drive to the coast tomorrow should test it out. I washed the bikes, packed a way a bit of gear, had dinner and another short walk around the caravan park, before settling in for for night. PS - The Pine Country Caravan Park where we have stayed the past 3 nights is located on a very large block of land about 4.5km from the town centre and caters for all types of accomodation including large grassy drive-through powered sites, spacious grassy unpowered sites backing farmland, a range of cabins, a private glamping tent section set aside for couples with no children and a section with glamping for families. It's surprisingly quiet and a very well maintained park - it gets a big tick from us. Tomorrow we head for the South Australian coast for three days at Beachport.
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