What an exciting day today exploring the sights of Mt Gambier - a great place to visit, and one I'd recommend to anyone. We kicked off the day with a visit to The Cave Garden - it's a sinkhole in the centre of town and descends about 15 metres below street level with cascading ivy, and a stream of water flowing to its great cavern. We had morning tea at a fantastic place called the Metro Bakery & Cafe - highly recommended, then went to the Umpherston Sinkhole (aka The Sunken Garden) - another wondrous place with beautiful garden terraces all with blooming hydrangeas of many colours, alongside the hanging ivy ferns. It's a fantastic place for adults and children to explore.

Our next destination was Mt Schank, about 20 minutes south of Mt Gambier. It is a very basic ash cone about 100m high, and the base of the crater does not extend below the water table, so there is no crater lake as with the Blue Lake. We took the steep half-km walk to the rim of the crater, then traversed about a mile around the rim which is quite exposed, so we had to take care at times. The view from up there over the fields around Mt Gambier was fantastic, as was the view into the crater. We spotted a centipede, and were on the lookout for snakes - we found a complete skin though!

It was late afternoon, but we still had more to see, so we gathered up some lunch ingredients, and made our way to the Valley Lake and ate lunch by the water with dozens of Ducks, Purple Swamp Hens with their purple chest and red beaks, and Eurasion Coots with their white heads, and a couple of beautiful Black Swans. We visited the Conservation Park but only saw a few kangaroos, some geese and a kookaburra. After a play in the fantastic playgrounds, we drove around Browns Lake, up to Centenary Tower, Punch Bowl Crater and finally back to camp!

The day wasn't over however, as Mum & Renee quickly got changed into their running gear. Dad & Eamon dropped them off at the Blue Lake - Mum ran clockwise (the 'easy' way), while Renee ran anti-clockwise - they of course met along the way, and took a selfie with the lake in the background. Dad tracked Renee in the car and they waited at the finish line for Mum to arrive which was about 5 minutes (maybe more!) after Mum. Then it was back to camp, and while Mum & Dad did domestic chores and cooked dinner, Renee & Eamon played tennis with some other children, and enjoyed the GIANT jumping pillow as it's our last night here in Mt Gambier.