Strathalbyn Part 1 ("Strath" to the locals)

We set up camp at Strathalbyn for a week. Initially we made the decision to stay a couple of days but we realised it is actually quite a central location for exploring the surrounds and into Adelaide, so rather than pack up and move, we stayed a week. The caravan park is next to the football oval, which wasn't a problem at all except for football training being rather noisy and keeping Rory awake. Facilities are limited (amenities and a basic playground) but it is very close to town and is clean and quiet, which is good.

From Strathalbyn we visited Hahndorf (a German town, established in 1839), Victor Harbour and Adelaide. Strath itself is a pretty town, with a mix of old and new buildings. There is a Commercial Street that has shops like Woolworths and chemist etc and then there is High St, which is probably the original main street, as all of the buildings are old, and it is full of many interesting antique shops. If we weren't travelling, and didn't have a 2yo, we probably would have spent more time there browsing all of the unique and interesting items in the many shops but 2yo and antiques don't mix and we can't buy anything anyway! If you are interested in antiques and are in the area, I thoroughly recommend taking the time to explore this lovely town and the collection of antique shops.

Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings
We  visited the Jupiter Creek Gold Diggings with our good friends Michael, Melissa, Willow and Sakari. Any day spent with these guys is good, but this had the added benefit of a unique and new experience. Jupiter Creek is an historic gold mining area, complete with tunnels, shafts (some of which are fenced off) and the many varied mounds from alluvial gold mining. One of the more interesting finds of the day was the Phoenix Adit. As we discovered, when hiking around the trails, this tunnel actually travels 80m underground (horizontal, not depth) and you can climb out the other end. There was no information about this that we found so it was purely by chance that we discovered it. We weren't prepared so we didn't go through the whole tunnel. The 4 kids and I just went in a little way, maybe 4m.

I definitely recommend a hard hat (don't ask how I know....)

And even more exciting..... we found quartz crystals all over the ground in one area! We probably wouldn't have discovered it except a small boy from another family showed us the crystal he had and his dad told us where they found it. The kids had a great time fossicking the site and seeing what could be discovered and it was really simple; you just walked around watching the sun glinting off the crystals and followed the shine to pick it up. Loads of fun for everyone, and Rory was just happy picking up (and throwing) rocks. We're not going to get rich from quartz crystals, and most of them were broken, which we assume is because this is just mine workings that were brought to the surface and dumped as part of the historic gold mining operation, but hey, it was fun and the kids had a blast!

My finds (top 2)

Tilda's finds

Victor Harbour
We drove to Victor Harbour for the day as well. We also really liked this town. There are some old buildings here, which are always pretty and which I find very appealing. I think the kids are finally getting used to me pointing out all of the old buildings and houses, although I'm not sure Rory understands as he will often point to a house of any age and type and say "I want that one".

Granite Island is a nice walk. The smooth granite rocks lining the island are so different from the rugged limestone coast of Robe. Tilda got a bit of a geology lesson from her (only slightly more knowledgeable) mum. It is such a change from the limestone coast and also very different from the coastline where we come from. You can see penguins, seals, dolphins and whales from the Island, although we saw none of these (being there in the middle of the day doesn't really lend itself to finding these animals).

Of course, the kids did get to play at (yet!!!!) another playground. This one had a real train! It is a fair compromise because they don't necessarily enjoy the travels and scenery that we do.. and I often use that time to give a friend a call for a catch up while supervising, so it all kid of works out. Although I am kind of very sick of playgrounds at the moment :)

Mt Barker is also not far away, which is great as Michael and Melissa were staying there so we could catch up with them (yay for "new friends"). The time is coming soon when we will part ways and I think everyone will be pretty sad at that. It truly has been wonderful to have a lovely family to hag out with on this journey and to share the fun and not so fun, the good and the frustrating. Mt Barker also has important things like Aldi and K-Mart for much needed supplies.

Adelaide
We also did a day trip to Adelaide. We had a 2 hour park and that is all the time we spent there, not because Adelaide is bad but because Rory's behaviour was horrible. He cried, whinged and tantrumed for the whole time we were there. I was worried he would wake up sick the next day as his behaviour was so far out of the ordinary but we think he was just overtired and overstimulated from the fun day at Jupiter's Creek. So we saw Rundle St Mall and that was about it. We did do a drive through north Adelaide, as we were told we should, and it is a very pretty place full of old, very large houses that were nice to see. I think it would be good to have more time to explore Adelaide but it just wasn't part of our plan/schedule and certainly not with the kids. On the plus side, we did find The Map Shop which made Greg happy as it stocks these books that are the "bible" for people who tour England on canal boats (his next adventure apparently - just gotta figure out how to finance it).

Robe, South Australia

Robe is certainly smack bang in the middle of the limestone coast and a very interesting place to visit. It is on the coast, on the southern side of Guichen Bay. It is hard to imagine the landscape without having seen it. It is dramatic and rocky and rugged and definitely worth seeing for how different it is to where we come from.

The area is made up primarily of limestone, which is very prevalent as a building material, and so very different from home. Adjacent to the caravan park was a very short (2 minute) walk to a lake. The photos need to be seen to be believed - the lake isn't surrounded by sand, in fact I don't think there is any sand at the lake at all. Instead it is surrounded by very lumpy, craggy, bumpy rock. I wondered if it was either a sinkhole or a part of an extinct volcano, as the area used to be volcanicly (I think I made that word up) active a long time ago.

The kids had a great time playing with the foam that had been whipped up by the wind. It was really weird as when you rubbed the foam on your hands, it was like rubbing them with liquid soap. I guess it was because of the minerals in the water. I can't imagine what it would be like to swim in there. I don't know if people do, but they do use that lake for water skiing so I guess you could.

The town is quite old and you can see the historic nature of it in many of the houses and buildings.We visited the Old Gaol, which is really just a bunch of limestone rocks outlining the layout of the old gaol.

Rory loved the obelisk on one headland. It really is quite classic in its red and white colours. It is all fenced off and you can't get too close to it any more as the coast is eroding and they expect that it will one day fall into the sea. There is a lighthouse (which Rory really loves) just a bit further around the next little bay. I didn't get a photo of it as it was built in the 1970s and is really a stunning (stunningly bad) example of 1970s architecture. It was a star shaped concrete structure with a base about 3.5m wide and the top was 5m wide. I thought it was hideous but Greg thought I was too harsh saying that.

We also saw two seals feeding in the water off the headland near the obelisk. We have now seen seals in the wild 3 times but this is the first time we've seen them doing something other than sitting on rocks.

The kids loved riding their bikes at the "mex" track and skate park. I thought it was quite clever to locate it right next door to the ambulance station, which we fortunately didn't need. Greg decided to relive his youth and rode Tilda's bike on the big kids BMX track and the skate park. Tilda and Rory discovered that the skate ramps are actually quite slippery and  you can slide on them (head first, on your tummy, if you are Rory).

There was quite a funny conversation in the back of the car one day. It went like this - Tilda "it's a pyramid" Rory "it's a obelisk". I never thought a 2yo would be correcting an 8yo on the term obelisk.

I was just thinking how different this blog would be if we were travelling either without kids, or with older kids. It would probably give you a review of the different places to eat and the interesting shops we explored, rather than the parks, playgrounds and lighthouses we saw.

Robe is a nice town and was a nice stop for a couple of days. Being off season it was very quiet, and the weather was blowing a gale yet again so even the locals stayed hidden I think.

Mount Gambier

We all found the environment of Mount Gambier to be very interesting. There are many interesting spectacles to see and we only just skimmed the surface of the area. I think the main thing Mt Gambier is famous for is the blue lake, which is in an extinct volcano and supplies the town with water. When we were there it was more of a steely blue, rather that the really turquoise blue it can be in the warmer months of the year. Rory and Tilda were both fascinated that it is a volcano. 

The whole area is built on limestone and apparently there are limestone caves running underneath the town. There are two sinkholes that you can visit for free, both of which are pretty amazing. You can also tour one of the underground caves (for a price), but we didn't want to do that. We didn't really need to, as we had plenty to see and do in the two days we were there.

One of the sinkholes is located in the town centre. It is a nicely sculpted garden that provides a serene and peaceful place. There are viewing platforms along the path, so you can get a good look at the hanging garden, the waterfall and the water that flows who knows where underground. The waterfall only flows after rain, so that is one of the up sides of all of the rain that we have been " enjoying". I was quite disgusted at the amount of rubbish that is at the bottom of this sinkhole. Given that there are bins located close to the paths to the sinkhole, there is no excuse and I can't believe people could be such filthy pigs and so incredibly selfish, that they would rather spoil such a beautiful garden than walk a couple of steps to a bin. Humanity seriously has a lot to answer for that people would think that is appropriate and OK. At night they run a movie that you can view from the gardens. We didn't get to see it as it starts around 8:30pm which is just too late for Rory. 

The other sinkhole we visited in the Umpherston Garden, so named after the man who bought the land that the sinkhole is on and built a garden there. In the early days (can't remember if it was 1800s or early 1900s) there was still water in the sinkhole and they would row a boat about on it. The idea was to create an oasis of greenery and cool in the midst of the land. You can go all the way to the bottom of this sinkhole and enjoy the hydrangeas and other plantings. It is truly amazing to stand in the bottom of a sinkhole.

We went back to the Unpherston Garden at night, as I had read on WikiCamps that possums live in the holes in the rock during the day and come out at night. I had fruit to feed them, but we forgot to take it with us. It is a very surreal experience at night. As we approached the steps down into the garden, 4 possums and a couple of rats came hurrying up the steps towards us. We all paused, feeling almost threatened by them all, especially as we had forgotten the food. We were wondering whether to continue or not, leaning heavily towards not because... rats, ewwww!... but another family arrived. They had bread and offered to share with us. While I know bread isn't great to feed the possums, it was almost like we needed to pay them in order to get down the stairs. The sinkhole is beautiful at night. It is lit up softly, which just adds to the feel and lots of possums come out of the holes in the rocks and walk along the ledges. They're not scared of people at all, instead they are so used to being fed they almost demand it. There were adults and babies and it was magical. (The rats weren't magical though, although I did see a couple that didn't look like your typical suburban rat. There was a cute little black one, whose shape was all wrong for a rat, but I don't know what it was.) Tilda and Rory were both scared at first, and I must admit, being mobbed by a group of possums is pretty intimidating, but they soon overcame their fears and happily fed the possums. There were three other families there while we were and the possums received a wide assortment of fruits and bread. 

 As a town, Mount Gambier was OK. There was an interesting mix of old and new buildings, and most of the old buildings are made of limestone because it is so readily available. I still love the old buildings and houses, and I love seeing all of the variations on them in different towns. I would have liked to have a bit more time, as there was still lots to see and do, including a drive or two to some other craters and further exploration of the region.

Best of.....

Seeing we've been on the road for 3 months I thought I'd do a round up of "best bits" so far.

Best caravan park:
Greg - Halls Gap because the scenery from the caravan park was amazing plus the wildlife
Therese - Omeo was by far the prettiest but just way overpriced for what you got
Tilda -

Best free camp:
Bendeela... voted best by all of us because of the wombats, river and nice grassy sites

Best cheap (<$25/night) camp: 
Greg - Swifts Creek
Therese - Swifts Creek and Genoa
Tilda - Swifts Creek

Best place to see wildlife:
Bendeela (NSW) for wombats
Halls Gap (VIC) for kangaroos and emus and deer
Apollo Bay (VIC) to see the seals at Marengo

Best paid activity:
Greg - Enchanted Garden Adventure Park and Sovereign Hill
Therese - Peninsula Hot Springs or Sovereign Hill
Tilda - Sovereign Hill
Rory - Werribee Zoo and Thredbo Chair lift

Best free activity: 
Greg - walking to the start of the Snowy River
Therese - all of the walks we did at the Snowy River area and beach combing in general (no particular beach)
Tilda - Pods and Acorns playground at Canberra Arboretum
Rory - playground

Best eat out or takeaway meal:
Greg  - The hamburgers at The Durham Hotel at Kingston in Canberra
Therese - the hamburgers at The Durham (eat in) and the burgers at Orbost (takeaway)
Tilda and Rory - Papadinos Pizza at Katoomba

Best playground:
Greg - Warrnambool because of the giant flying fox and slides adults can go on
Therese - any playground that is full fenced with only one gate in and out, and Warrnambool adventure playground and Rye
Tilda - Pods and Acorns at Canberra
Rory - any with a pirate ship, like Rye playground

Any other "best of"  requests??

Halls Gap, The Grampians

We had dreadful weather at Halls Gap, so we really didn't get to enjoy the place very much. It rained, drizzled and poured most of the time we were there and there were horrendously strong winds for much of it too. After the tree branch fell on Rory's head at Omeo we are very careful not to be out among trees in the wind, and in all honesty, sometimes the wind was almost terrifying, it was gusting that strongly. While the weather was disappointing for us, it is so very good that the area was experiencing so much rain, as farmers just out of the mountains (at Stawell and Ararat) have been selling off their livestock due to drought.

 The rock formations are amazing - so rugged and different. We were camped at the bottom of one section and the view was breathtaking.

We drove up to Mackenzie Falls as it really got talked up as a great waterfall, but I am guessing the serious lack of rain the area has been experiencing for years has affected it, as it was not overwhelmingly impressive. We had hoped to do a couple of bushwalks but weren't able to because of the wind and rain. We did a 100m walk to the Grand Canyon at the start of the walk to The Pinnacle, but couldn't go any further because of the steep climb and the shocking weather. Still, we did see a very pretty creek which was flowing very well thanks to all of the rain.

 Mackenzie Falls (from the lookout so it doesn't look that big. It would probably look much more impressive from the bottom, but the weather was too horrible to do that walk)

Locking back towards Halls Gap (this is what most of our time there looked like!)

 The water is very stained with tannin

 Rock hopping across a creek in the rain

I fell on my butt to get this photo so it had to be included :)

We drove to Stawell on the only sunny afternoon we had, primarily so Greg could check out a creek for gold, but with all of the recent rain it was flowing too fast to be able to pan. We found a working underground gold mine at Stawell, which everyone found very interesting... even Rory as he could watch the diggers loading the rock into the crusher and Tilda really did enjoy reading and learning about the underground mining operation.

Tilda and Rory standing on the 1 million ounce gold bullion replica

 (to give some indicator of just how much gold had been mined)

Our caravan park was full of roos, sulphur crested cockatoos, long beaked corellas and emus ranged just outside the camping area. This was fun for the kids. One afternoon there was a large kangaroo just outside our van. He looked cold, wet and very bedraggled and I felt sorry for him, so I decided to give him some food. What I didn't realise was just how tame they are! He came right up to the door and took the food from my hand, before I could even step out of the van! It would have been OK except I thought he looked like he would come inside for more... and he was a BIG boy, bigger than Tilda, so a bit over 4 foot high. We spend the next 15-20 minutes trapped in our van as he wasn't leaving and Rory insisted on locking the door so he couldn't come in!

The "standover" guy in the background, after he'd moved away a bit