Murray River crossing, Mt Gambier 25-29 Nov 2010

dear friends;  Lou here at the helm of Blog LOMA

we are currently in Mount Gambier, south Australia, and its back to being cold! What!?  Summer is meant to start here on December 1st and today its only 18C:  yeah - OK I know that's a heatwave to you poor buggers in England and Scotland, but to us here in the south of the planet, trust me that is a winter temperature...

Mt Gambier is a very interesting town;  it has a couple of extinct volcanoes and sink holes, of which one, the Blue Lake, lives up to its name.  Its a huge sink hole that at certain times of the year i.e - now -  has a lovely blue colour to its very deep waters.  We also took a trek up to look into the crater /caldera of Mt Schank; Matt spoke to one of the locals who said it was only a 10 min walk to the top;  bloody liar!  It was a trek up some very steep steps cut into the rock;  OK if you have legs like Naomi Campbell, but mine were struggling to reach the rise of each step as they appeared to go upwards.  The view at the top was worth it though, I got to look into the extinct bowl of a small volcano...  Covered with trees and grass now it last blew its top 2 million yrs ago, but it was the closest I ever have come to such a geological feature as this, and trust me,  I never want to get that close to a live one...

Once again I have become the fashion police and once again I can report the assault of the Grey Nomads and the 3/4 pants continues...   it got worse when we saw a husband & wife  in a fetching ensemble of matching polo shirts with 3/4 pants and sneakers.  Is there no end to this travesty of the fashion senses?  It appears not, as when in the local shopping centre here in Mt Gambier, we were confronted with racks of the damn things outside the shop I love to hate: Millers!

So what have we been doing since our last blog?  Well, we have come further east into South Australia, if that makes any sense.  We did some bird watching in the Bool Lagoon which has camping also,  a very flat part of the world with a huge wetlands area, and the SA Govt has kindly installed boardwalks into the reeds and shallows so tourists like us can easily walk around and see and hear the birdies... Coool!  Just on another topic they have it really sorted here with the recycling:  10c back refund on all bottles and cans!  We should have the same system across the whole country;  Are you listening Julia Gilard?

So enough of my ramblings;  check out our pics of our latest visit and see what you think...

please leave comments, we love to hear from all our readers...

The Big Lobster - 24.11.10 near Newland Head SA

Here is Matt seated at the edge of Mt Schank SA 28.11.10; the edge of the bowl of an extinct volcano

29.11.10 - the Umpherson Sinkhole; Mt Gambier;  this used to have a lake in the bottom (1900s) but that has gone now and the massive hole has been made into a lovely garden.

Another view of the Umpherson Sink hole; 29.11.10: they have a collection of possums who come out at night to get fed. (we didn't hang around to see that).

Here I am at the Blue Lake,  another extinct volcano sink hole, this one is below the water table, and thus fills up;  its usually NOT this blue, but we are here at the end of November (29th) when the blue colour is most visible;  this was the town's main water supply up until a few years ago.  Yes, it was blowing a gale and bloody cold that wind was too...

Here is the ferry across the Murray River from one part of S.A to another; we are waiting for the barge on the other shore,  its a whole 2 min journey and again my 2nd favourite "F" word : FREE... 27.11.10 - we are on our way to the Bool Lagoon for a 1 night stay.

Adios Amigos;  - -  love from Louise and Matt - - 

we are off to the border, going into Victoria and up to the Grampian National Park.   There is some major flooding in Vic at the moment,  something we hope to avoid if we can... it may be time to change the camper van into a boat?  Let's hope not...

XXX