Tuesday, and we drove back down to the coast (ice cream prize for the first to see the sea), to Port Fairy, where a big folk festival was about to get under way (our timing has left something to be desired in terms of this type of event so far). Port Fairy is another cute little town, based on the River Moyne. We had a chip butty on the wharf along the river, before finding a camp site to spend the night. The Folk Festival involves some good folk, jazz and blues artists which is meant to be excellent, but we were 3 days too early, and with rain forecasted, decided this was not a time to embrace a New Glastonbury. We had a beer that evening in the local pub, but didn't find out much more about the festival. Our camp site was great until we were invaded by what we think were Polish neighbours – camp site largely empty, these guys plonk their two camper-vans right next to us. It was fine apart from Chuckie, the devil daughter who was clearly sent to try us (Jen swore she saw her head turn a full 360 degrees at one point...)
Wednesday, and off we set for the South Australian border, very exciting! We took a detour to Cape Bridgewater which was lovely – beautiful beach on the Victorian side, and seals in the water fishing off the headland – I'd liked to have spent more time there and done the walk to the seal lookout (we saw seals jumping just from the headland).
Then we crossed the border into South Australia. Twice! Well, you know, its the first time we've been this far from Sydney in Australia, it was worth going back for a photo!
Then we headed to Mount Gambier, where they have this bizarrely blue lake (the picture doesn't really do it justice).
I read all the physics of why its so blue for 6 months of the year, then the usual grey, but I didn't really understand it and can't recall it for you now – something to do with the volcanic ash geology... We found a camp site, which wasn't the best, but served its purpose for a night. Our neighbours were an older couple (the lady was EXTREMELY talkative, we struggled to get away in the morning) and a lady travelling around the country alone with her three children – quite a challenge! When we finally extracted ourselves from the detailed advice of our neighbour on Thursday morning, we had a trip to Bunnings Warehouse (you know I'm singing the tune as I write) to buy some drinking water hose and fittings so we could build our water system (mmm, water system).
After that we headed up along the coast via Carpenter Rocks (really not a lot happening there) to Robe. I was keen to drive up the beach track through Canuda National Park, but Jen was understandably a bit nervous about us getting bogged and losing Priscilla to the incoming tide, so we went up the road. Hmpf. I'd read that Robe was lovely and it turned out to be perfect. Not a cheap camp site, but we had a spot right next to the water. That night we had a lovely sunset and saw a seal playing in the bay! The next morning we had a dolphin in the bay to get us out of bed.
It was all too lovely, so for the first time since setting off, we stopped for three nights (THREE NIGHTS!) and just stood still and didn't do too much. Well. We did some stuff. Like we built a water system (mmm, water system)... Sounds a bit more exciting than perhaps it is, but heh, we're not big on DIY, this was quite a project for us! And now we have fixed water tanks and running water when we need it at the back of the car. We're very proud of ourselves!
We also had a date night, and went out for a pizza!
All in all a very satisfactory time was had, the only disappointing thing was the water looked so inviting, but was in fact minus 15'C (no really, it was, I went in!)
Saturday we reluctantly left our little paradise to keep Priscilla eating up those kilometres (around 5,000km's at this point). We headed to the Coroong National Park, via Kingston, where Priscilla picked a fight with a large red lobster:
The Coroong stretches from just north of Robe around 100km to the mouth of the River Murray, and consists of a string of salt-water lagoons separated from the Southern Ocean by the Younghusband Peninsula. Again, I wanted to drive up the beach, and we almost did a couple of times - firstly from a spot called the Granites, where a group of dirt bike riders put me off by suggesting the tide was on its way in, and secondly at 32 Mile Crossing, where a group fishing confirmed the tide issue and we admitted defeat and kept to the dirt track behind the dunes until we reached our camp at 42 Mile Crossing.
We did make friends with a Shingleback Lizard on route though:
It was a nice enough camp, with quite a few people present. We met a nice lady and her travelling companion from Adelaide – she was setting off for a year to travel around the country on her own. There were also some Yutes (Youths), who turned out to be lovely, from Perth, travelling around the country as well. You meet all sorts...
Anyway, this random bunch of travellers was in for a night and a half – we had a tremendous (yes Taylor, that kind of Tremendous) thunder storm – I think it went on for about 3 hours, raging mostly just above our heads. Lightening, thunder to crack the world apart and of course torrential rain didn't make for the best night's sleep its fair to say. But we, and Priscilla, and importantly the tent, survived to face another day.... And it meant we felt justified treating ourselves to a night in a hotel!
More of which in the next instalment....
Claire, of Claire and Jen Fame
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