A Mini Holiday

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I decided to test the waters a bit before booking a trip to Tasmania, a little short trip to see how well I cope and discover what I do and don't really want.

So I'm going to stay in Mount Gambier for a few days. Take a few pictures of the Blue Lake and surrounding countryside. I don't like to do anything in a rush, so I pick up a hire car on the Monday, 8th Jan, on the Tuesday I'll drive to Mount Gambier and spend 2 nights in a nice hotel, drive back home on Thursday and return the car on Friday morning.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Keep an eye out for the thylacines. I’ve wanted to visit Tasmania also. I hope you take pictures to share.

 

[Judge]

 

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Keep an eye out for the thylacines.

There's a chance that the thylacine will be seen again in the future, they're experimenting with genetic manipulation trying to recreate them.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08...years-genetic-engineering-team-says/101333144

I’ve wanted to visit Tasmania also. I hope you take pictures to share.

Naturally I'll be taking pictures, and posting them in here. I'm having trouble working out where I want to stay and for how long though. I always felt a bit weird staying in a hotel, no idea why, but in Tasmania cabins in caravan parks are a lot more expensive than hotel rooms.

So I figured I'll spend a couple of nights in a hotel first before I make my mind up. Mt Gambier is another of those places I always meant to see but I never got around to it. It's a long extinct volcano that filled with water.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

That’s one beautiful blue crater lake.

I’ve seen some in Costa Rica, not as beautiful, but the surrounding areas were more wild.

Have you tried Airbnb? I just checked and there were rentals under $100/night.

 

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Have you tried Airbnb? I just checked and there were rentals under $100/night.

The thought never even entered my mind, I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

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I’ve seen some in Costa Rica, not as beautiful, but the surrounding areas were more wild.

It has traditionally been a rich farming region more so than a tourist destination but there are some other spectacular sights in the area, including the caves at Naracoorte just to the north, but like so many places in Australia it's just too far out of the way to attract a lot of international tourism and too overpriced to attract domestic tourists.

 

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So I went to Mount Gambier. I stopped at Naracoorte on the way to have a look at some caves. A couple of the caves are open for a self guided tour but the more spectacular ones are open by guided tour only. I didn't want to spend 90 minutes in a guided tour and the caves don't really interest me all that much any way. Far more interesting are some of the fossils they've found in the region, including this giant wombat type creature.

A lot of the caves start off as just a hole in the ground.

Then it was on to Mount Gambier. The water in the Blue Lake really is blue, just like some of the springs up in the top end. It's the town drinking water supply so no swimming, in fact no close access at all. It's illegal for trucks to carry dangerous chemicals in the region too because of this, detour routes have been created for trucks. Any chemicals spilt in this area will end up in that lake.

The old building in the above picture is the old pumping station for the town's water, it still is but the pumps inside it are new.

 

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There's a lot to see in the region. The Blue Lake isn't the only blue lake in the area, here's one that people can swim in. All the people in this picture are foreign tourists. How can I tell? It's only 25 degrees and the south wind has a bite to it and they're all swimming.

Mount Gambier is also not the only volcano in the region either, there's quite a few of them. None of them are really tall enough to be called mountains but they get the honorific because they are volcanoes. This is Mount Schank.

There's dozens of wonderful walking trails all over the place, many with great features as well as fantastic views.

This tower is sometimes open to the public as well but was closed when I was there.

There's many wondrous things to look at.

It's been a very rich farming region for a very long time and there's precious little native bush in the region, yet it's a very pretty region and somewhere I want to go back to.

 

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There are a few native national parks in the area too but they're small and the only wildlife I saw were a few birds and a feral pig.

I was shocked by how many people were there, that little town was busier than the city. I know it's school holidays and everything but I didn't expect there to be that many tourists. The place was packed.

I definitely want to go back there and spend some time there, but I'll have to do that during the winter when there's no tourists, it was just too crowded for me to really enjoy it.

 

[Rodafina]

I decided to test the waters a bit before booking a trip to Tasmania, a little short trip to see how well I cope and discover what I do and don't really want.

Did you learn anything that will inform your Tasmania plan?

 

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Did you learn anything that will inform your Tasmania plan?

I did. I learnt that I have very little tolerance for crowds.

I really liked Mount Gambier though, I'm definitely going to spend a few weeks there during the off peak season. It seems a lot more enticing to me than Tassie now. I drove down to Port McDonnell too, just to the south, and had a look at the great southern ocean. I want to go fishing and catch myself a feed of squid, maybe a few King George Whiting as well. Seafood from the southern ocean tastes so much better than that in the tropics.

And I'd like to spend more than just a few days exploring those walking trails.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I did. I learnt that I have very little tolerance for crowds.

Every time I see a neat or beautiful place to visit, I discover billions of people visit there every year and my interest sags. Even in the off season, there seems to be a lot of people these days.

I've been in caves and even the tours have been informative and sometimes really interesting. One cave in the far west was a "primitive" tour. Every third person carried an oil lantern. There were primitive ladders to climb up or down. When we all got to the great room in the middle, after ensuring everyone was safe and okay with this, they turned off all the lanterns. It became totally totally dark. We stayed that way for several minutes. It was, quite literally, awesome.

Thanks for posting. I enjoy reading your tours in Australia.

 

[Forest Cat]

I borrowed your picture, what is that stone?

 

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I borrowed your picture, what is that stone?

It's a fossil of a giant sea snail. Not a perfect specimen, the hole through the middle of it looks natural though. They're now calling this region The Limestone Coast, which confused me a little at first because when I was a kid the coast in the west of the state had that name. Millions of years ago most of central Australia was a shallow sea between two large islands and you can find small fossilised shells everywhere. Limestone is made from shells and bones.

 

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Every time I see a neat or beautiful place to visit, I discover billions of people visit there every year and my interest sags. Even in the off season, there seems to be a lot of people these days.

This is what's putting me off of Tassie, it's a tourist mecca and tourism is that state's largest industry. I would really only be able to visit during winter, the same as Mount Gambier, but at least in Mount Gambier it doesn't get cold enough to snow.

I'd like to rent a house in Mount Gambier for a couple of weeks, I think I'd really enjoy that.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

It snows in Tassie? and....I didn't realize Tassie was such a popular destination. I have to read Bill Bryson's book again. I know there was someplace he visited that seemed wonderful, forests, hills, etc.

I don't much like the cold anymore. It is cold here! Hah! 50F.

 

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Hobart will sometimes get snow right down to sea level. Cradle Mountain and much of the surrounding parks will close down in winter too, because of the snow and the danger to witless tourists.

And a couple of other interesting little facts, interesting to me anyway. The car I hired was a recent model Hyundai Accent. I did 1100 Km in it and it used 59 litres of fuel. That's pretty economical.

Driving in dense fog is very tiring. I left early in the morning, just before sunrise, so that I wouldn't have to contend with too many gormless idiots towing caravans. Except for a couple of odd clear patches here and there I had dense fog all the way to Coonalpyn. That's 300 Km.

And now it looks like we're finally going to get some summer weather for the first time in 4 years. Maybe. It's going to be warm for the next week at least. The whole time I was down in Mount Gambier I wished I'd brought a coat.

 

[Forest Cat]

All the people in this picture are foreign tourists. How can I tell? It's only 25 degrees and the south wind has a bite to it and they're all swimming.

Yeah it looks awful and only 25 degrees, I just hope those poor people survived and didn't get frostbite. (it was -32 here recently).

 

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Yeah it looks awful and only 25 degrees, I just hope those poor people survived and didn't get frostbite. (it was -32 here recently).

There's not many places in mainland Australia that ever get below 0, to us 10 degrees is too cold to go outside. No one would think of going swimming unless it's over 30. The coldest temperature I've ever experienced is about -7, the only reason I know it was that cold is because it was snowing, but I had to travel interstate and go up in to the alpine regions to experience that.