Update time again!!

Lincoln National Park is only a short drive from Port Lincoln, literally 10 kms to the park entrance from town. We drove into the park along the gravel roads, stopping in at a few bays and inlets on the way. From these bays we were looking back across Proper Bay to where we were camped in Port Lincoln. Luckily the weather was good and the sunshine on the water made the turquoise colours really stand out. We continued meandering until we arrived at the Donington Lighthouse at Cape Donington. We could see the flash of light from this lighthouse from our camp across the water, and we were interested to see what it looked like. It was a disappointment to find it is no more than 20 metres high and made of unpainted, triangle shaped concrete blocks. Probably the crappiest lighthouse in Australia!! On the way back out of the park we turned off the gravel road to take the track south to the sand dunes and then drive back to Port Lincoln along the massive sand dunes on the shore of Sleaford Bay. This was a fantastic drive! It took us over two hours to drive the 30 kms of sand dunes. The track was not very clearly marked and there was a bit of guesswork at times as to where the track was actually going. We drove through soft sand, over huge dunes, through narrow cuttings with tree roots poking out onto the track, up and down some rough and rocky hills and then over more sand dunes. It was a great drive and well worth the effort.

A few more days hanging around Port Lincoln to see what the weather was going to do and checking in daily with the shark cage diving people, and it became obvious that the sharks were being hard to find and that the weather was in no hurry to remain steady for more than a day or two at a time. I was a bit disappointed that I was not able to dive with the Great White Sharks after finally making it to Port Lincoln, but it's a bit hard to achieve that when the sharks have gone on a vacation…. Not to worry, I can always come back another time when the sharks are feeling more sociable. After a week of waiting, we departed Port Lincoln and drove north along the Lincoln Highway. We stopped at Tumby Bay for a cuppa and a look around town. When we were camped at Cape Keraudren in W.A., we met a guy that lived at Tumby Bay and loved it, so we had heard a lot about it. It is a nice little town, right on the water of a nice clean bay. There is not a lot in Tumby Bay, which is great, but there are a lot of elderly people living there and not a lot in the way of businesses to provide work. It would be a great place to retire, but it might be a bit too quiet for us at this stage of life… We continued driving north, passing through Cowell, Whyalla and Port Augusta, before heading away from the coast and out toward the hills. There is a lot of industry around Whyalla and Port Augusta and it is not a very pretty part of the country. At times the road passes huge salt flats and mining where there are cranes and dredgers and huge cargo ships, seemingly to do with a salt mining industry. Once through Port Augusta and veering away from the coast the scenery changes quickly. The road becomes winding as it climbs into the rolling hills, it was good to be back in the hills and amongst the trees again. We stopped at a small caravan park in Melrose for the night, camping next to a small creek under huge gum trees. The next day we drove through Laura, Gladstone, Clare, and on to the Barossa Valley to check out the famous wine region. This was well worth the drive, the amount of wineries in this area has to be seen to be believed. In some places the vineyards extend for kilometres and kilometres, sprawling over the hills and out of sight. It is hard to believe that all this effort is put into making a drink. People must really love their wine… We didn't tour any wineries as we had learnt that they were reasonably expensive and we really don't have enough of an appreciation of wine to justify spending the money. We were happy just driving through the area and looking at the scenery. Various turns were taken and roads were driven as we wandered from the Barossa Valley and through the Adelaide Hills.

After a few hours of taking in the scenery we arrived at the old town of Hahndorf. Hahndorf is an old German influenced town that was originally settled in the 1800s. The towns buildings are built in a German style and a lot of the shops in town are German produce shops, pubs, and so on. We parked the camper at the Hahndorf "resort" for the princely sum of $34 for an unpowered site, and they didn't even supply soap or paper towel in the amenities block!! The price did include two free drinks with meals purchased at the German Arms Pub in town. As it was raining and cold that evening, we decided to take up the offer of a free drink and went to the pub for dinner. The pub was an awesome old pub built in the late 1800s with a great atmosphere and fantastic German meals. We bought a huge Kransky with sauerkraut that we shared and it only cost $16, with two free drinks. Bargain! We only stayed one night and packed up early the next morning. Before leaving the "resort" we stopped at the toilet block for a last minute pit-stop. I parked the Pajero and camper off the gravel track, on the grass that sloped away from the track rather steeply. When I began to drive off the ground was so wet and slippery that the Pajero began to slide sideways down the slope! Once it started sliding the camper began to jack-knife and only pushed the car sideways more. Fearing that we were going to finish up jack-knifed and slid into the trees at the bottom of the slope, I decided to take evasive action. The mud tyres once again proved their worth as I selected Low Range, first gear and gave it a whole heap of go pedal. The tyres dug into the slippery slope, spinning and throwing chunks of grass and mud high into the air. The Pajero inched forward and pulled the camper straight before I steered it down the hill and around the trees. Yay for mud tyres… sorry about the nice grass you used to have in the caravan park…

From Hahndorf we travelled around Adelaide and made a visit to Victor Harbour. I wanted to visit the Rodney Fox Great Shark Expo that had been relocated to Victor Harbour. It was once located near Adelaide but had been moved to be sharing a building with the Whaling Expo at Victor Harbour. The town itself is nice enough, but just another coastal town. The Shark Expo was not what I had expected, a bit disappointing to be honest, but at least I visited it and now I know what is there. Leaving Victor Harbour in the rain and wind, we passed Goolwa and continued around the coast. As we approached the town of Wellington we were surprised to find what little traffic there was had come to a halt. It took a few minutes to figure out that we needed to wait for a ferry to cross the Murray River… a ferry! At Wellington there is a cable operated vehicle ferry that is used to transport cars and trucks across the Murray River free of charge. It is interesting that this service still exists. You would think it would be cheaper for the council or whoever to build a bridge across the Murray than it would be to run the ferry. We were in line behind a semi-trailer carrying sheep and when the truck drove on to the ferry, the whole thing rocked and the waterline rose quite a bit up the sides of the ferry, which concerned Kathy somewhat. Surprisingly, the ferry still took us and two other cars across the river with the truck and it didn't sink! Once back on dry land we drove through Meningie and camped at Coorong National Park for the night. We found a nice camp near the lake, tucked in amongst the trees and thought we might stay for a few days if the weather held out. Unfortunately, as we were cooking dinner and the sun began to set, the mozzies arrived. First there was one here and there, then there were a few more, then the first few must have reported the findings of the reconnaissance mission and the squadrons were deployed. The mozzies arrived in swarm after swarm. They were big, nasty things, biting us through our shirts, jeans and even through our beanies! Dinner was hurried and we retreated to the camper. The next morning was a repeat performance from the mosquitos, arriving in a cloud of blood hungry noise and biting everything they landed on. They were even biting the camper trailer tent! Needless to say, we did not like the idea of becoming mozzie tucker for a further day or two, so we packed up and bolted before they sucked the diesel out of the Pajero!

We travelled the Princes Highway south, stopping at Kingston S.E. for an obligatory photo of the big lobster, and then took a detour to look at Robe. Robe is another nice coastal town with plenty of rugged South Australian coastal scenery. A short drive from Robe brought us to Mount Gambier where we planned to stop for a day or two. Mount Gambier is a large-ish country city and is quite spread out. The area was very volcanically active a few hundred thousand years ago and this has shaped the landscape in and around town. The town is known for the sinkholes and crater lakes full of clear blue water, which we spent a bit of time exploring. We took a walk up to Tower Hill, which is a short walk of a couple of hundred metres to a lookout tower, but the path is a "one-in-four grade", which means it is very steep! From the top we could see out over the whole town and a few of the crater lakes, and almost to the ocean in the other direction. The sinkholes were another interesting natural attraction, created by underground rivers and tunnels under the town, the roof of the cave has collapsed and created a sinkhole. In Umpherstone Sinkhole there are gardens and walkways that have been there since the early 1900's. There is more to see in Mount Gambier than we first thought and we are glad to have visited it.