The tour goes on through western Victoria and SE South Australia. Portland was first on the list. I was again surprised at the size of the place. Comalco/Rio have contributed to this size no doubt by locating an aluminium smelter in Town.

Taking the southern road (not the Princess highway) brings you to Nelson. Looked like a nice caravan park on the foreshore. Save that for "next time".

The SA/Vic border is not far down the road from Nelson. Not much to mark the border but the appearance of "stobie" electricity poles and an improvement in the road lets you know you're in SA. The increase of the speed limit to 110km/h is of no relevance to the Hilux. I'm usually flying along at up to 90km/h!

I arrived in Mt. Gambier about lunch time and so to did the sun. The last time I believe I was in Mt. Gambier was in about 1976 on a family road trip (in a Morris 1100) to Tassie. All I can vaguely remember of that time in Mt. Gambier is being bored at the post office while my folks wrote some cards and then going to Blue Lake and thinking "Big deal?" This time I avoided the P.O. but did a bit of shopping and then drove to the towns draw card i.e. Blue Lake. Read all the interpretation signs there and found out they don't know why the lake is blue? The reason why I read all the bloody signs was to find out why Blue Lake is blue? I did find out it turns grey in winter and the lake is the town's water supply- a bit of a worry if nobody knows what's making the lake look so blue?

Drove through Millicent and past the Kimberly-Clarke pulp/paper mill where my old man worked at one stage. Didn't notice any pollutions or smells from the place unlike interest groups in Tas. would have us believe pulp mills to be like. Not to say there is no pollution at all, but the pulp mill I saw was a lot better than what's currently located in Long Reach (I just put all that in for your benefit if you read this Chris!).

Arrived in Robe late arvo and had a quick drive around (that's all the time needed to drive around Robe). I went out to Little Dip conservation area on the edge of town and found a campsite. It was a bit pricey ($5!) but not bad.

After solving the intricacies of a time zone change and daylights savings at once I found I had 1 & a half hours extra on Sunday. I made the most of it by sleeping in. Turned out to be a superb day weather wise so I decided to have a surf. The surf turned out to be a little bigger than I first thought and I got held under by one wave for a little bit which was a tad uncomfortable. I stuck to the white-water after that.

This stretch of the coast between Portland and backstairs passage (not what you're thinking) is known by seafarers as "the horror stretch". This is due to the course you steer along this coastline brings you beam on to the generally heavy south westerly southern ocean swells and hence a ship will roll a lot. It was good to be on a surfboard on the same swell that can make life uncomfortable if you are on a ship.

Stayed in the "SeaVu" caravan park in Robe that night. The sea view from SeaVu was made better by the clement weather (and a few beers).The next day (Monday) I stopped at Kingston SE briefly to look at the historic Cape Jaffa lighthouse that had been relocated there from Margaret reef 15 km away. Kingston SE (as opposed to Kingston on the Murray and that lesser well known town Kingston Jamaica) is also home to world famous Larry the Big Lobster. I reckon the big tourist things are great. The atrociousness of it all kind of makes you stop and look and laugh. What drives people to put in so much effort to erect these gaudy monuments is beyond me but also interests me. The councils in these places must be rather more lax than say Launceston. I can just imagine how you would go in Tas. with a proposal to build a giant concrete Lobster in the centre of town? (Probably better luck than building a pulp mill in an industrial area?)

From that highlight came the lowlight. I had read on several maps that Kingston SE was home to the "Granites". When I saw the signs for the Granites on the outskirts of town I thought I had better have a look then. All I could find was 2 unremarkable rocks on a beach. This may yet be Australia's most pissweak tourist attraction?

The Coorong extends between North of Kingston SE and Goolwa at the mouth of the Murray river. I think one it's greatest claims is that it was the setting for the movie "Storm boy". I did notice a Pelican viewing area on my way through. I think it's a place like Kakadu maybe that needs to be viewed from a height and distance (i.e. helicopter) to be fully appreciated. There were a few campsites here and there but I hadn't planned on stopping.

My high tech GPS street atlas told me I could turn off at Meningie and drive to Goolwa via Hindmarsh Island. The road sign however said no through road and the lady in the shop I stopped said it has never been possible to drive through to Goolwa that way. Stupid GPS. I then drove further north to Wellington and got on the cable ferry to cross the Murray River. The low level of the river was demonstrated by the caravan in front of me dragging its spare tire along the ground on the steep incline getting off the ferry.

Around an hour later I was then safely set up in the caravan park at Victor harbour. There was enough time left in the day for a quick swim on the beach beside the caravan park. I only have vague memories of spending what seemed like a very long time in the car from Adelaide to visit Victor Harbour. I also have memories of walking along the causeway linking Victor Harbour and Granite Island and seeing people we knew whom had been fishing off the causeway. I therefore had to walk over the causeway the next day. I would have driven or rode actually except you're not allowed to. There is (for some reason) a horse drawn tram that crosses the causeway at regular intervals during the day. The signs say the horses (Clydesdales) enjoy the work-how the hell does anyone know that I wonder? The signs also say there are 10 horses in total that they rotate and that the horses aren't worked near as hard as "in the old days". So these horse are actually your modern soft c*** layabouts?

Fortunately I got to Victor Harbour a week before school holidays start in SA. Apparently the place gets very busy during holiday times and can make getting around and getting into caravan parks more expensive. I read somewhere the population can get up to 80000 in peak periods which would be a real pain. It also appears that none of the states school holidays coincide with one another too. I much prefer the grey nomads as neighbours than bloody families. The old scrotes are usually in bed by ten, don't disturb me and are generally more courteous, pleasant and usually have something interesting to say.

Having spent 2 nights in Victor harbour, I then drove to Cape Jervis at the bottom corner of the Fleurieu Peninsula. This is where you can catch the ferry to Kangaroo island- I didn't however. I ended up at Rapid bay for the night. I can remember someone on a ship telling me they used to go to Rapid bay so I thought I might have a look-see at it. It get's a tick in the "Camps 4" which I've found isn't always a guarantee of a good spot. This time they were right and it is a good spot. It is a big grassy area right on the beach-and in only costs $5!! The bloke collecting the camp fee told me that BHP had stopped shipping the limestone (dolomite?) out of the place several years ago and hadn't done any further maintenance to the large jetty. It's now slowly falling to pieces and access is blocked to it. Apparently it's a very popular diving spot and people come to see the sea dragons (whatever they are?)

I ended up doing some fishing late in the day and caught 4 crabs and a nice sized Salmon. The fried fillet was good!

It's off to Adelaide tomorrow for a few days. Not looking forward to big city traffic…

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