South Australia > Victoria

It was time to wish Kingston SE goodbye. We packed up our stuff, and headed back onto the B1. Hatti was keen to do a quick detour past the giant lobster that was Kingston’s ‘attraction’. It appears to a popular trend in some Australian towns and cities to adopt a thing, and procure a big version of it to put on display. Affectionately known as Australia’s big things.

Wind turbine have been well adopted in South Australia, recently featured in the news as having purchased a giant lithium battery from Elon Musk’s Tesla to store surplus energy generated by their wind farms.

Around half way down to Mount Gambier we paused for a quick break. The stop was a small village on the B1 called Tantanoola and it had a nice collection of houses, shops and a giant wind turbine propeller… pictured above.

After a short while we headed on to Mt Gambier, home to the Blue Lake. We had a quick picnic, then headed to the campsite, ‘Blue Lake Holiday Park’. We don’t usually opt for a holiday park; but it was off season, they had tennis courts and the location was perfect for wandering around the neighbouring lakes.

Sandwiched between Blue lake and Valley lake was Leg of Mutton Lake, which is now less than a puddle thanks to a drop in the water table. The indentation does however make for a nice walk. So followed the path down from the road and explored the basin of the former lake.

Lake-ed out, we retreated back to camp and set up office in the BBQ hut. This would be our blog updating station for the evening.

In between blogging and dinner, we jumped onto the nearby tennis court for a quick hit around. Dusting off the rust we soon pulled together a short rally or two!

After the afternoon / evening in Mount Gambier, we headed off towards Hamilton. It had been recommended to us (thanks Gary) as a drastic change of scene from the flat costal road! After a quick lunch break in Hamilton we made for the Grampians National Park.

Within minutes of leaving Hamilton the Grampian mountain range loomed ahead of us. A dramatic scene.

Having completed the hike, we were happy to duck back into the car, and venture to the stop for the evening; a campsite in Dunkeld. With most visitors travelling to Halls Gap, a resort to the North of the Grampians, we had to the place to ourselves.

The campsite was well equipped; the kitchen had a twin gas hob, so we cooked up a feast of posh beans (Heinz beans with fried red onion, tomato puree, garlic, paprika and possibly some other stuff) with a side of potato wedges!

The next day we headed back to the coast. The first destination of the day was a boardwalk that skirted Port Fairy’s Griffitts island (a strong recommendation from my Grandfather).

The last chapter, in our trip from Perth to Melbourne (Lorne) was to travel along the acclaimed Great Ocean Road. The 240km stretch of coastline was home to some staggering coastal erosion thanks to the (relatively) soft limestone and sandstone composition.

After an abrasive morning of looking at erosion we arrived in Lorne, our destination for the rest of December and all of January! Thankfully we could give the car, and ourselves, a break from the road! See you all next time as we bed down into the beach lifestyle!

J.