The Blue Lake is a huge, water-filled volcanic crater near Mt Gambier
Setting off on the morning of Friday 15th from the Grampians, with the car crammed full to the brim with Pom, Dutchmen and extra backpacks, I noticed the car was rather unsteady on the road, so I slowed the pace down. I thought, at first, that the car was giving up the ghost, this early in the trip. But no: in fact a serious wind storm had started up, which buffeted us all the way to Mt Gambier, across the border in South Australia. Apparently there was a cyclone in Western Australia, and we were feeling it all that distance away.
The town of Mt Gambier is built on the side of three huge volcano craters, one of which – the Blue Lake – is full of water, to a depth of over 70m. It's quite a sight, driving round the rim of a huge crater, full of deep blue water: for half the year the lake turns grey, for some unknown reason, and the town has a festival to celebrate when it goes blue again. Any excuse for a party in Australia...
However, the township of Mt Gambier didn't look all that thrilling, so we decided by unanimous vote to drive to the beach 29km away, to a tiny little fishing village called Port MacDonnell. The sign that greeted us proudly proclaimed that Port MacDonnell has the largest fleet of lobster boats in Australia, which didn't exactly sound that thrilling, but in fairness the beach was beautiful, and the sea was pure blue. After struggling to put up our tents in gale force ten, we hit the beach: some things about Oz are spot on, even in the wind.
South Australia is the driest state in Australia, but when you're a Pom you're never far from rain, and the winds gave way to the most almighty rainstorm I've spent in a tent for a while. Luckily the tent held up well – no leaks at all, and it didn't take off in the gales – but the car didn't fare quite as well. I first noticed the problem when I opened the back door in the morning and noticed that my fold-up table was soaking, along with most of the parcel shelf behind the back seats. The worst was yet to come... my rear stereo speakers, which are in the parcel shelf and face upwards, were full of water: I looked through the grilles and I couldn't see speaker, just pools. They seem OK, but if my stereo blows, I'll be gutted. I've sellotaped the window seals up, because they're obviously completely crap, but hopefully that cyclone will have blown itself out when I tackle the Nullarbor Desert. I don't fancy opening my car door, only to have torrents of water pour out onto my feet...
Anyway, on Saturday we went into Mt Gambier, did a bit of shopping, and I left the guys on the main road so they could hitch to Adelaide. As for me, I headed north to Naracoorte, where I saw some truly beautiful caves, and then I turned due west to Kingston SE, about 300km south of Adelaide down the coast. It was here that I discovered that it's illegal to park on the side of the street if your car is facing against the traffic, which is why all the cars parked along the pavement in Australia face the same way, namely in the direction of the traffic. That sounds like a strange rule when you're used to haphazard English parking, but the reason? If you're facing the wrong way when you park your car, the police will give you a ticket for parking too far from the kerb, meaning too far from the kerb on the other side of the road! Some things are too strange for words.
