We left Ardrossan and continued on to Adelaide - a fairly short drive, but dealing with the crowded streets and traffic lights was not much fun.

It was good to catch up with Stephanie and share notes. She had been to New Zealand so had some good travel stories as well, not to mention lots of photos. We spent a very pleasant day together, and took her out for dinner in the evening on a warm balmy Adelaide night.

Our initial plan was to go straight to Melbourne the next day, but it was a scorcher of a day and driving was not going to be pleasant. We could have spent another day in Adelaide on the beach, but it was a Saturday and half of Adelaide would be at the beach. We considered going to Victor Harbour, but the other half of Adelaide would be there.

We set off on the Western Highway, towards Melbourne, but decided to detour south halfway along and drop into Mt Gambier. We had been to Mt Gambier once before a few years earlier, but it was in the winter. The weather had been cold and wet and miserable, and the Blue Lake wasn't even blue. We had thought of returning again a few times, but it was just so far away. This was the perfect opportunity - it was south and close to the beach so should be cooler, it would give us a chance to break up the long drive, and it would only add one or two hours to the total trip.

On the way we passed through some wine country in the Coonawarra region, then some pine plantations. As we approached Mt Gambier we noticed the weather getting a bit more pleasant. We were unsure if this was because of our location, or the cool change had come through. The lady at the caravan park assured us it had been a scorcher here too, and had just dropped twelve degrees in the past hour. Either way, it was very pleasant.

And we saw the Blue Lake. It really is an amazing blue colour.

GeorgeY's Bit

Visiting Mount Gambier and seeing the Blue Lake in summer was a long overdue task. We did not bother with sink-holes and caves because the Blue Lake is amazingly blue.

SA for the non-resident stands for South Australia. And Mount Gambier, being the south end of South Australia, is the gold medal winner of the "Blind Spot" Title on the tourist to-do list. Many pink lakes from other states (some are hardly pink) have priority with overseas visitors.

Mount Gambier has grown a bit more and now has a new shopping centre with Woolies and other shops, and volcanoes and other geological features. Yet in a proud SA tradition, it is still not to be seen.