Month: October 2024

Mount Gambier – South Australia’s second most populous city, after Adelaide. Some 28000 people, surrounded by not a lot on the surface.

We saw a little under the surface as we passed through miles of forest on the way from Beachport: some native, the bulk planted conifers from Europe or North American. Of the latter it’s mainly softwood radiata pine, a native of California – used for paper and particle board. The plantations are valued at over 1.2billion Aus Dollars.

We’ve also seen a large number of farms for sale for whatever reason. A very pleasant rural landscape dotted with sheep and cattle – as well as the ubiquitous rape seed. A few small settlements including Millicent and Glencoe, a wee place – not even a one horse town.

Water is a predominant theme – either being pumped to the surface or drained.

One coffee/garage though gave a welcome warming spot from the cold wind. The lady there was keen to tell us convicts should be sent into a desert or distant place and left to fend for themselves. I had to quietly say “we tried that a few hundred years ago and you seem to have thrived”. I’m not sure it registered, maybe just as well.

Today Barbara tried out some magpie swooping deterrent on her helmet. Very fetching and it might have worked. Certainly made a noise.

Great names of some roads: Agricultural Boundary Road; One Mile Hill Road. This was a clue how long the hill (a gentle 5% or so) lasted.

Arriving in Mount Gambier – a town on the boundary of an extinct (hopefully) volcano, on a lovely rail to trail path. Broad gauge if of interest with wooden sleepers.

A happy waitress from Manchester today, a mincing cheeky chappy waiter from Glasgow in Adelaide. A diverse country.

Good place for a rest – even Barbara exhausted the opportunities before too long. It did include the saline Siloam pool – 7x more salty than the sea. Washing – rinse, hang out to dry, second and third rinse in the sharp deluges which followed. What hair driers were invented for.

The weather thus far has been benign spring: coldish in the morning (10C or so), rising to a pleasant early 20C before a sharp decline as it gets dark. Which it does around 6pm, for the next day or so. When it’ll be spring forward an hour – when in UK it’ll be fall back soon.

Lovely spring flowers abound – I’ve declined the offer of an app as I’d forget just as soom as I look away.

Great to see so many public amenities – like toilets, changing rooms and dog poo bags – well maintained. A reminder not to assume all is good – one of the group left his waterproof for a short while when he went to swim: only to spot a car stopping to take it away.

Tomorrow we start the next 4 day segment to Port Campbell, another bustling metropolis of 500 folks. I do like these wee places, though I suspect we’re seeing them on the quiet seasonal shoulder.

Nothing as simple as naming a place after a beach. No, it’s from Michael Hicks Beach, British Secretary of State for the Colonies, circa 1878. I’ll need to look is there is a Hicksport. Originally a whaling station, by this time the econimic drivers were wool and grain. Now it’s South Australia’s 2nd longest pier at 772m admired by the 530 permanent inhabitants.

Whilst we remained on the same straight road, the views changed. More pine trees and arable farming. The sea view is never far away in scenery remarkable similar to the North Gower Marsh (looking forward to finding salted lamb).

A diversion to Robe for coffee. I wonder if derobe means we’ve left it behind?

Our first (live) kangaroos doing their marsupial thing. A mob of emus too: as solitary animals they form large mobs during migratory seasons when they are in seach of better food sources. Kind of neat to see these animals in the wild, first seen on Skippy.

Heading into our first rest day – the streets of Beachport will be toured following the tumble weed in the wind.

(Haven’t seen any rabbits yet – I want to give their ears back)….)