Thursday 20-Mar
Today the car will be fixed, the weather was rainy and cold so a good day to stay inside and have the heater on.
Friday 21-Mar
The weather cleared up so we decided to take the bikes out for a ride to Robe. This is a nice town and they have a great bike paths along the coast to get around.
We read the story of the monument that commemorates the 16,500 Chinese who landed here back in 1855 and then walked approximately 320 kilometres to the goldfields of Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria. The monument consists of a ten foot high stone with pictures of a ship, spade, pick, gold-pan, and of Chinese carrying their belongings on poles.
The memorial was erected in 1986 as part of South Australia`s Jubilee Celebration. In 1996 an additional plaque was added to the memorial during Robe`s sesquicentenary celebrations.
Saturday 22-Mar
Our next stop is Mount Gambier, a city built on the slopes of a dormant volcano which forms part of the larger volcanic precinct. We stopped on our way in Beachport and Millicent.
Sunday 23-Mar
Mount Gambier is a volcano which erupted through limestone plains in South Australia as recently as 4300 years ago, leaving behind four crater lakes. Two of these have dried up, and the best known of the survivors is Blue Lake, from which the surrounding town of Mount Gambier gets its water.
We took our bikes out and rode around the Blue Lake and explored a bit of the town. There is a 12 KM bike trail that runs through town and is one of the best we’ve used. We visited a sink hole that has been converted to an amazing garden many years ago.
Arno visited the Engelbrecht Cave. The site is named after Carl Engelbrecht, a German immigrant who settled in Mount Gambier during the 19th century. In the early days, after the cave was discovered it was just as a garbage pit. And there are still items to see that where dumped many years ago. Mr Engelbrecht started a whisky distillery and used the cave to dump all the sludge, you can still see the stains on the walls of the cave. The cave is also used by divers with tunnels going for hundreds of meters.
After this we had a late lunch and took the car to see a few more lakes. We also visited Centenary Tower and Arno even did the 190 meter steep climb. Centenary Tower sits on the rim of the volcanic crater. With sweeping views to the south, including countryside, Mount Schank and on a clear day, to the ocean.
Monday 24-Mar
We packed up and planned to make our way to the Grampians. But Jen suspected that the car was leaking diesel as the smell in the car was getting very nasty. Trust Jen’s nose so we called the mechanic who fixed the car in Robe. He advised us to visit the local Mitsubishi dealer. We had luck as the mechanic had a job cancelled and could look at our car. It appeared that one of the pipes that supplies diesel to the injectors was leaking. They did not have spare pipes in stock but luckily the mechanic was able to fix it. We really hope this is the end of our car troubles.
We had a short drive, relatively speaking, to an off grid campsite at Freshwater Lake. We had a beautiful spot close to the lake. There were plenty of birds and a family of emus looking for food.
Tuesday 25-Mar
On to the heart of the Grampians, Halls Gap. A nice little town with lots of cabins, hotels, restaurants and a few caravan parks.
The Grampians were hit by a very large bushfire which ignited on December 17, 2024 following a lightning strike near Yarram Gap Road in Gariwerd (Grampians National Park). The fire burned for weeks and even to date still large parts of the park are closed. But it is amazing to see how nature recovers so quickly, even considering they did not have much rain over the last few months.
Jen managed to get a great deal at the NRMA caravan park just outside Halls Gap. We booked in for 3 nights. We took the bikes for a ride into town to get some info from the Tourist Information centre. As always a very friendly lady gave all the things to do in this area. We did a short walk to the Venus bath at the back of Halls Gap and visited the botanical garden.
When we got back at the caravan we noticed that the hot water system was overflowing. This normally indicates to much water pressure. So we checked the water pressure reduction valve to notice that this was gone. We suspect this happened at our last caravan service where we told them that the return valve did no longer work. They must have replaced the pressure reduction valve with a new return valve. Again, must have been an apprentice job. We must have been lucky that we haven’t had such high water pressure coming from the caravan parks tap before (and we used a few since the last service job!). Well another challenge to fix.
Wednesday 26-Mar
First thing to do is get us a new pressure reduction valve. Luckily a plumber only 20 minutes away has one in stock. So we’re up to Stawell. A town with a lot of gold mining history and a good plumber 😊
While we were there we did some shopping to stock up the fridge.
The afternoon we took the car to see the McKenzie Falls. It is a great day for some walks and enjoy the scenery. To get to the bottom of the fall you have to go down 260 strenuous steps (and up again). But it was great to do some hiking in this beautiful national park.
