After about 2 hours just looking at the amazing 12 Apostles we must move on as it is now getting dark and we need to find somewhere to stay the night.
A good night's rest, staying in a car park just down the road from these fantastic rock formations, we were up early and going for more walks to see more of these rocks they just seem to get better if that is possible this certainly is the highlight of the trip so far.
Drove into Peterborough against gale force headwinds it was frightening at times with the car and van been pushed and swaying along the road. We had only driven a couple of km out of town
when we received a text message from the Victorian Police warning us about the bushfire's and very strong winds, there was no shelter hide behind so we slowly drove into Warnambool and parked at the back of McDonald's and waited for the other 2 couples to catch up to us, we camped here for the night.
It rained overnight & on the radio they said that it helped put out some of the fires.
6/03. Moved on again this time into the town of Port Fairy a small tourist and fishing village, then drove further down the highway to a camp site on the Fitzroy River, we will stay here for about 4 or 5 days and chill out.
After arriving at our camp Stan, Les & the girls are staring up into some trees, just near our caravan they called us over, we could not believe our eyes about 15 metres up a Gum tree is a Koala, Sandra was wrapped and so was I.
During the last 5 days here we have spotted 9 Koala Bears within a radius of only 100 metres. This free camp site is just great, there are no facilities here but that does not bother us one bit as we have all that we need to stay off road for a week or two.
My old Mate Stan is an expert in survival there is nothing he cant do, he caught a Brown trout back at Talbingo with a bucket, got us a feed of Blackberry's with Les at Lavers Hill and bugger me he and Les caught Rabbits at Fitzroy River --------------- It's all a little tiring for Les.
Whilst camping at Fitzroy River Sandra and I had a trip to Portland about 20 kilometers from here, and to our luck there was a fishing competition down here, with heaps of Blue fin Tuna been the main catch.Portland is a Beautiful old town with some historic old Buildings and great parks by the sea side.
I would have liked to spend more time here.
11/03. Packed up again this morning we are traveling to Heywood with Les & Maureen, Stan & Joan are going into Portland for a look around and will catch up in Dartmore.
Heywood is another of those great country towns only small but plenty of history, they make very good pies here but gave us ones we did not order, poor old Les got a pie with lots of Chili, his face was a lot redder than it usually is, he could not talk for a while said his throat was on fire.We are now in Dartmore, only small with a general store, post office, primary school and a population of only 300.
12/03. Went for a walk this morning around this quaint old town. The avenue was lined with Atlantic Cedar trees planted in 1918 in Honour of the 60 Dartmore Servicemen and Nurses who went to war.
12/03. Went for a walk this morning around this quaint old town. The avenue was lined with Atlantic Cedar trees planted in 1918 in Honour of the 60 Dartmore Servicemen and Nurses who went to war.
In 1996 the old cedar trees were becoming dangerous so it was decided to cut them down. 2 years later a Chainsaw sculptor - Kevin Gilders began to carve these old trees into a work of art.
1 sculpture was in memory of Nurse Sister Rachel Pratt who one a Military Medal for Gallantry under fire, another was The Boys at War - recruits had to be 5'6 inches & a chest expansion of 34 inches and aged between 18 / 38, it was common for boys to put there age up to go to war.
There are plenty of Peaches and Apples growing beside the road San and Joan cooked up a lot of stewed fruit.
16/03. We now are on the Limestone Coast at Mount Gambier the second largest City of South Australia which is Famous for The Blue Lake, 3 of the lakes were created from Volcano activity 4500 years ago, the blue lake supplies the City with all of its water needs. Each winter the colour is a steely blue and in November the colour changes to a brilliant Turquoise Blue.
Among other things to look at are these amazing Sinkholes, they were formed many thousands of years ago by water seeping through cracks in the porous limestone and creating enormous under ground caverns and eventually the roof would cave in and leave these huge holes in the ground called Sinkholes. The most famous is the Umpherston Sinkhole.
We had 2 days in the Central caravan Park and then 3 days at the local Showground for only 11 bucks a night, beside the Trotting Track which had trials for Pacers, it was something different to look at but no betting.
The Blue Lake - Mount Gambier ----------------- Umpherston Sinkhole - Mount Gambier
20/3. Drove out to look at Mt Shank a Dormant Volcano which last erupted about 5000 years ago, they are not sure if it will erupt again, as we still had plenty of daylight left we then went to see Port Mc Donnell, "South Australia's Rock Lobster Capital", on the way in we photographed another Sculpture this one in the shape of a Wave & Shells carved from a large piece of limestone weighing 50 Tonne.
Poet Adam Lindsay Gorden had his Poets Retreat here at a Cottage called Dingley Dell, Adam in his younger days was a Steeplechase Jockey, he was hailed as our National Poet.
Mount Shank - Dormant Volcano --------------- The Wave & Shells Sculpture -Port McDonnel
1 comment:
Brilliant blog - feel as if I've been there with you ! xxx
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