Well we've made it to Adelaide after a dash up the Coorong to deliver the torrential rain that's been following us around the country - much to the relief of Uncle Chris as they've been in drought here for a number of weeks!

Friday in Mt Gambier was surprisingly nice weather, so we started the day by visiting the Umpherston sinkhole - a garden planted in a hole in the ground created by the caving in of a limestone cave. The startling thing about this was that in 1930 when the garden had been landscaped, a third of the bottom of the sinkhole had been submerged under the water table. In 80 years (a fraction of a second in geological terms) this has now receded so much that there is no water in the bottom - scary! We then headed to Blue Lake, which is VERY blue (see photos!). The reasons for its colour aren't fully known, but recent research has suggested it's due to an abundance of white calcite forming near the surface of the lake, making the water appear bright blue. We had lunch by another sunken garden (we started to feel a bit uneasy walking around Mt Gambier worrying the pavement would cave into yet another sinkhole at any moment)! We then drove to a town called Millicent and on to a beach called Geltwood beach, which was another southern ocean rugged affair. Whilst we were there a 4WD drove onto the sand and promptly got stuck. Grinning smugly that it wasn't us this time I offered my pushing services and we eventually got them off the beach. After that we stopped at another little town called Southend before heading on to Beachport. Here we found a nice conservation park with cheap camping just outside town.

We drove around Beachport a bit the next day to check out their rugged coastline and one of the longest jetties in Australia at 800m! We then used their surf beach as a base for a few hours on the boards. Whilst it was very tame as the beach lies in a protected bay, this proved useful for us amateurs. Chelle is getting annoyingly good whilst I continue to keep searching for my sense of balance! After recovering from the icy southern ocean waters (at one point another surfer in a full wetsuit asked me, in a t-shirt, whether I was cold - to which I replied "no I'm fine - I'm English!". That seemed to allay his fears!) we drove North heading for Robe and found yet another conservation park just outside in which to camp cheaply!

It rained all night so I was worried about how we were going to get back along the unsealed road to the town. Luckily we made it and checked out Robe's surf beach with similar intentions to the previous day - it was however as flat as a pancake! So we drove on to Coorong national park - effectively about a hundred miles of coastline protected by a dune structure. We stopped at 42 mile crossing to check out the ocean beach, which was very rugged and covered in little shells so after collecting a few of these we got on our way towards Adelaide. Heading north it was starting to look pretty stormy and before long we were involved in a thunder and lightning storm on a flat plain. Being the tallest thing on the road and in fact the whole area, we started to feel quite exposed! We then crossed the Murray River on a boat (quite exciting given the weather) then found Uncle Chris and Irenes place in Ashbourne. After a long drive we were greeted to the smell of roast beef in the oven - perfect!