Our Big Trip of OZ - 24/09/11 - ~16/01/12: Monday 14th Nov – Sunday 20th Nov – Our Fourth State

Monday 14^th November we left Adelaide around lunch time and headed down the Limstone Coast of S.A. toward Victoria. We decided to follow the coast which we thought was the scenic drive with ocean views. Well the map was deceiving – the road was quiet, rough and boring with no ocean view however we should be thankful we still had nice driving weather. As soon as we could, we headed inland to drive through the picturesque Coonawarra wine region. That night we pulled up at a free camp at the pine forestry area just south of Penola & 30kms north of S.A’s 2^nd largest town, Mt Gambier.

Tuesday 15^th Nov – we headed to Mt Gambier, tiky-toured around, went to see the Lakes – Blue & Valley – and then did a guided tour of the pump station at the Blue Lakes. The colour of this lake was incredible, such a striking blue and apparently the colour gets more intense later in the summer. This lake is the main water supply of Mt Gambier and its filtration system is natural underground limestone (so natural still does exist…not all chemical). After Mt Gambier we headed 60kms nth east and crossed the border to Casterton in Victoria, a small country town where friends of mine Adele and Darren & family had moved to from Cairns 2 years ago. Darren is the principal of the local Catholic school in the town which has just over 40 students enrolled with classes of around 14 students – heaven as a teacher I thought and the boys also thought that was be great. It was lovely to catch up with Adele and Darren and their kids over dinner and drinks and on Wednesday Adele showed me around the town (which only took about 20mins) and we indulged in the best coffee & cake in one of the local coffee shops (thank goodness Wednesday was one of the days it was open). We all fell in love with the quaint little town and thought it would just be such a wonderful place to live (now I know why Adele moved there). And you could buy a house for just $110 000!

After Casterton we headed to the Grampians and stayed in the hills until Friday 18^th November. We camped 2 nights in the national park for just $14 a night – with long drop toilets and a bush shower (which was a corrugated iron cubicle and a bucket on a chain with a shower nozzle attached – some creative work of art we thought!), and kangaroos visiting us at night. Well, there was no R&R in the Grampians for us as most would do. We had one full day to see it all and that is exactly what we did. Thursday was “get fit day” where we must have hiked to about 5 lookouts and water falls covering at least 6kms up and down. And this was the day I overcame one of my biggest fears – the fear of height. We did this amazing walk up to the “Pinnacle” – a rock ledge at the top of one of the peaks. It was a 2km walk pretty much well straight up and I almost crapped myself when I got to the top. At the end of the walk they expect you to go right out to this edge point about 1mtr wide (which is fenced or caged as we called it). Mark and Scott just walked out there, took photos and enjoyed the magnificent view, Trent plucked up courage and walked out after and me…well crawling was the only way I could do it and even then it took a lot for me to stand up at the end. The view was well worth it but next time I will just Google it as I am sure someone would have published photos on the net….this would save a lot of stress on my poor heart!!!!

For our last morning in the Grampians (Friday 18^th Nov) we decided not to hike, climb or sight see (not that our bodies weren’t weary or anything because we are now super fit), we just heard there was this great mini-golf course we had to try. And it was probably one of the best we have played in. The course was set through a beautiful garden that was challenging and showed our true talent. Most holes were par 4 or 5 so you can just guess how many 8+ scores we made. Once we got to 8 shots we called it quits for that hole otherwise it would have taken us all day and we did not have all day as we knew storms were forecast for the afternoon. Around lunch time we headed out of the Grampians towards….well we still had to decide because in every direction we looked there were black storm clouds.

So we drove through Stawell, picked up some supplies then headed to Ararat, then on to Lake Bolac keeping a close eye on the dark skies. The radar at that stage was not looking good for Lake Bolac so we decided to move on. Also the camp ground right on Lake Bolac was hosting “The Ultimate Camper Muster” where all the ‘ultimate’ brand camper trailers were, so of course Mark had to drive straight through it with our jayco on tow. (Probably been more places than them anyway.....). Funny that no-one jumped out to tell us to stay!!!! So the next town was Mortlake (which was in tiny writing in our Camp 6 book). We cruised on into the town, found the van park (which you could guess was not hard to find) and I just thought it was “gorgeous”. The van park had a little lake at the entrance on one side with a rose garden on the other, lovely green grass and free washing and drying and only $22 a night, perfect for us to sit out the bad weather forecasted for the next few days. And did I mention the caretaker just loved to have a chat – so he and Mark just hit it off. Now the boys have been feeding their ducks, I have vegies from their garden and the boys have dug for worms in their garden to use for fish bait to fish in the lake. The local town pub had a fire place and there was a really cute little coffee shop in the old convent house that home baked scones and cakes and the owner of the coffee shop just happens to be the sister of the caretaker…keeping it in the family and that tells you how small this town is. Oh and the fireplace was needed on Saturday night. I think the min was about 6 degrees and we don’t have heating in our little camper. The boys just loved our stay because the town skate park was just next to the van park and each day the boys had it to themselves to ride their bikes on. They definitely would not get his in Cairns.

So after 3 days of washing & drying every bit of clothing and linen I had we really have to head off again (even though Scott would love to buy a permanent van here).