Adelaide and Surroundings

After arriving at Sawpit Camp in the dark the previous evening, we finally saw how big the place was on the morning of 06.01. There were numerous pitches, fire pits, and seating areas in the middle of the forest.

After a leisurely morning, we headed to the city of Mount Gambier. But somehow, we missed the mountain here?! Okay, the landscape was created by various volcanic craters, but doesn't a city with the name "Mount" somehow need a mountain - at least nearby? :D

We first went to the Art Gallery. Here we saw some really disturbing artworks by Stelarc. If someone wants to look it up, be careful, it's really nasty. Actually, we went to the Art Gallery to watch a film about the volcanic history of the city. Unfortunately, the timing didn't work out. But it's supposed to be a really great movie. :D As mentioned, the area is characterized by various volcanic craters. Nowadays, they are all filled with water. The special thing is that the Valley Lake shines in an incredible green and the Blue Lake, as the name suggests, in an impressive blue. We had a leisurely lunch by the green lake. Here, too, we could watch the Australians doing water sports. We could have asked and maybe even slalom skied.

After only two lookouts on Valley Lake, there were at least five on Blue Lake. And Kenny was thrilled every time and didn't want to say goodbye.

We finally managed to tear ourselves away and drove on to the Sinkhole Gardens in Mount Gambier. This was a huge, naturally formed hole in the ground due to the super sensitive limestone. The garden is planted with numerous pink rose bushes and provides optimal terrain for possums on the rock walls. Fortunately, we also saw a possum. So far, our encounters with these animals have been rather fleeting and always in the dark.

We then continued to Lake McIntyre. Here, there was a small, sleepy nature reserve to see. We were promised wallabies, snakes, and birds. But we only saw numerous birds and briefly the back of a wallaby. We had hoped to see snakes.

We spent the evening in the beautiful Beachport. We first went to Salmon Hole. A beautiful stretch of beach surrounded by cliffs. We strolled along the beach and cliffs for a while and took great photos. A really idyllic place.

Salmon Hole in Beachport

For dinner, we went to the long jetty. We enjoyed the evening with a view of the sea and the sunset.

We spent the night at the Nora Creina Roadstop. Just a rest area on the highway in the middle of nowhere, without toilets & co. Only one other couple spent the night there with us. It was relatively quiet, and we had a great view of wide pastures and a lake in the distance. We could even see kangaroos in the distance again, which took away the few degrees from the resident cows.

By the way, South Australia is the driest state in the whole of Australia. :D Somewhere between the Great Ocean Road and Mount Gambier, we crossed the border from New South Wales to South Australia.

On Monday morning, we started with breakfast at Lake Fellmongery - by the way, also a great, relaxing place for Krissi's yoga session. ;)

Then we went to the Robe Obelisk. Before there were lighthouses, it was supposed to protect the sailors from the dangerous cliffs. Initially, the obelisk was only painted white. It was apparently difficult to see, as you can imagine. That's why it is now red and white striped. Unfortunately, several sections of the coastal path were closed due to unstable slopes. This also included access to and views of the obelisk. So we had to resort to more unconventional measures to take pictures.

The sea here in South Australia is incredibly turquoise and clear. ;) Unfortunately, it's also relatively cold.

Hungry, we then went to Kingston Park. Due to the wind, our gas stove didn't work so well, and it took us a good hour to cook our noodles. Not so nice. And even though we took all measures to protect against the wind. We even used ourselves as a shield. But it didn't help... Apparently, we were sitting directly opposite the Old Court House of the city of Robe. But we only found out afterwards - oops. :D

The next attraction was the Big Lobster. An anatomically correct, but giant lobster right on the side of the road. It was right next to the Caltex, where we wanted to refuel. But that didn't work out because the gas pump was broken and leaking. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? We certainly haven't. :D

So we continued on to Pink Lake. We were supposed to see several of them on our drive. A dried-up salt lake that gets a pretty pink color due to the red earth of Australia and the salt on top. Or is there another explanation? Krissi tasted the salt with the result "Yes, it tastes salty."

The next short stop was the "Birdman of the Coorong" statue. It didn't really stand out, but the free Wi-Fi did. Or so we thought. Because after we had settled in with our laptop and blanket, it just stopped working. Thanks a lot.

So we continued west. A small highlight was the free ferry ride in Wellington. FREE - you wouldn't get that in Germany, right?

We spent the night again at a beautiful, free campground - Frank Potts Reserve.

Krissi started Tuesday morning with morning yoga at the camp. Then we went to Milang, where there is a nice little railway museum. Several volunteers there restore old wagons, locomotives, and the station itself. One of the nice men gave us a tour and explained everything in detail. We liked it so much that we even left a small donation. :)

We then went to the Freeman Lookout. It offered a good view of the bay in front of Port Elliot, where lifeguards were training. We climbed around on the rocks, which was impressive because the waves were crashing powerfully into the surf and shooting up in front of us. But we were careful and kept a safe distance. (Not that anyone would worry :D)

In the Victor Harbour Kent Reserve, we had lunch and then drove to the Bluff Lookout. A big hill that is apparently also used by mountain bikers. We wished we could go for a ride in the mountains. So we had to climb the hill on foot. But the view was worth it. We had a wide view over the sea, Granite Island, and in the direction of the inland.

Several photos later, we walked back down and decided to drive to the camp.

This time we chose the Free Camp at Mount Magnificent. On the way there, we met a confused French couple who couldn't find the camp, so we guided them there. We arrived early and decided to take a walk along the hiking trail after a nice chat with the couple. It was very hot and uphill all the way, with many butterflies and unfortunately the usual flies in the area. Nevertheless, we saw several kangaroos and pastures in the mountains that one could probably find in Europe as well. After a leisurely dinner in the evening sun, we went to bed.

But the night was anything but restful. We were woken up by strange noises. It sounded like the snorting of a big angry cow and occasionally like a grunting, panicking pig. Very strange. When we didn't hear anything anymore, Kenny decided to quickly pee since he was already awake. What a mistake. The noise started again immediately and came towards us! Mentally, Kenny was already preparing to climb onto the car to escape the angry cow, but he made it into the car. However, the noises stayed near us for the rest of the night, and it was difficult to sleep after the shock. However, in the darkness, we couldn't see what was making such loud grunting noises. It wasn't until dawn that we saw shapes moving on the ground and in the trees. They were much smaller than the noises suggested. But what was it now? After careful consideration and half an hour of observation, curiosity outweighed fear, so we left the car to take a closer look at the shapes. Since they were so small, they probably wouldn't be too dangerous for us, right? So we crept closer and in the dim morning light, we made a surprising discovery. There were two koalas. We had been afraid of koalas all night! The little fluffy balls that we usually love so much. Crazy. With this realization, tired, we walked back to the car and caught up on the sleep we missed during the night.

So on Wednesday, 09.01., we slept in. The weather was a bit gray, so we didn't have to feel guilty about it. The koalas were now sitting a bit higher up in the thin, leafless eucalyptus trees. Without the nocturnal discovery, we probably wouldn't have been able to see them.

The first stop of the day was the Nan Hai Pu Tuo Temple. A Chinese Buddhist temple. Unfortunately, it was far from finished, and the highlight, a huge statue, was hidden behind fences. As a consolation, Krissi was given a meditation CD.

It was a pretty hot day, so we went to Maslin Beach. A bay surrounded by steep cliffs. Surprisingly, the water here was relatively warm, so we could really enjoy bathing.

Then we drove relatively early in the day to the Moana Beach Tourist Park. It was time to do laundry, take a shower, and book our camper for New Zealand. It will cost us 1,500 NZ$ for one month. Oh man...

Thursday morning, we had so much to do that we asked for a later check out time and were allowed to stay at the camp until 11.30 am. Then we headed to Adelaide. We stopped at Brighton Beach around noon. Here, next to numerous fishermen, there was an artistic radio mast on the long jetty.

Then we went to the most famous beach in Adelaide - Glenelg Beach. There seemed to be some kind of scout festival going on. It was bustling with children and teenagers in blue uniforms. We strolled along the jetty when suddenly there was great excitement because of a seal. Unfortunately, we could only see it again in the distance, where it was having fun in the waves right at the shore and scaring some tourists, who immediately ran out of the water in a panic. :D

In Adelaide, we first went to the Himeji Japanese Garden. Small but nice and very idyllic.

We spent the evening in Rymill Park. Interestingly, this park is the only one in Adelaide that has a name. Other parks in the city are simply numbered from 1 to 25. In this park, we had a great view of a small lake, shade, space for yoga, and other activities. After a walk around the pond, we slept in the St. Peters district.

On 11.01., we once again broke the 40-degree mark. After breakfast in Rymill Park, we took the free tram to the city centre of Adelaide. First, we went to the Jam Factory. The name is misleading. Normally, artistic workshops are offered here, and you can watch glassblowers at work. Unfortunately, not when we were there. So we could only visit the gallery.

We then walked to the river, along the shopping street, over Light Square and the bus station to Central Market and China Town. Here, we finally found something to eat for lunch. We then took a free bus to Haigh's Chocolaterie. We had booked a free tour at 2 p.m. and saw the factory for half an hour and even got a few samples. On the way back to the park, we took a nap in the park - the high temperatures and our walk had made us very tired. So we decided to drive to the beach. At 5 pm, it was still 36 degrees. So one dive into the water wasn't enough.

We spent the evening at Bonython Park. Krissi also had a phone call with Michael Langner from Radio Erzgebirge to give a short interview about our Australia trip.

We had to get up early on Saturday. We had an appointment with the mechanic at 8 a.m. We now have new tires on our car. That was mandatory for our upcoming outback tour. We spent our waiting time at Broadview Community Cycle - a park - and in the cool waiting area of the mechanic. We were already quite hungry when we went shopping at Coles. We had to stock up on supplies for our upcoming trip. The result was a $98 shopping spree. We also used the shopping center's Wi-Fi to download numerous audio plays for our long car rides.

Hungry, we arrived at the park in Jack Watkins Memorial Reserve. Krissi was already a bit grumpy and then had to share her spot with an Asian homeless person, so she might have been a bit distant. At the available water tap, we were able to fill up our 35l water supplies and were thus prepared for the outback tour.

Our destination for the day was just before Port Augusta, which can be considered the starting point for the outback route. We drove past strange sculptures, pink lakes, Port Pirie, and enjoyed a free shower in Port Germain. This should be the last shower for a few hot days.

On the way to our camp (Chinaman Creek in the Winninowis Conservation Area), we spent 45 minutes on the phone with Mary. She and her boyfriend were about to embark on a 6-month trip to South America. So we had a lot to talk about. In the end, we encountered a 10km dirt road at sunset. Aside from flushing a few kangaroos by the roadside, nothing spectacular happened.

We were once again visited by these big fellows in the camp. Then it was time to go to sleep. On Sunday, we wanted to start our big adventure towards Central Australia.