Mount Gambier is 450km SE of Adelaide and only 17 km from the SA/Victorian border. It’s well known for its volcanic and limestone features. We were looking forward to seeing the famous Blue Lake, which is an amazing brilliant blue colour and then found out it’s only blue during the summer months. The rest of the year it’s a steely grey colour. However, on a sunny October day, it still looked fairly impressive.
The Cave Gardens are in the town itself and the centrepiece is a 90ft cave. You can’t go down to the cave floor but there is a walkway and lookouts. Every night there is a free sound and light show in the cave. As a state heritage site, I think the council should really get the shopping trolley removed.
The Umpherston Sinkhole on the edge of town has been turned into a spectacular garden which you can walk down into.
The highlight of the area is Mt Schank, a 330ft (100m) high volcanic cone. It was a reasonably tiring 900m walk to the top along the steep limestone step walking trail but there are seats along the way with sweeping views. There is also a walking trail around the rim of the crater. Jonathan went down into the crater itself with his 360 camera.
We also had an afternoon drive down to Port Macdonnell to stand at the southernmost point of South Australia and to see a Little Penguin colony. I might have mentioned before that Little Penguins used to be called Fairy Penguins but had their name officially changed due to political correctness. Anyway, the name was academic as they had all packed their little penguin suitcases and left, probably due to an increase in local predators.
