Port Fairy to Mount Gambier

20.07.2010 - 20.07.2010

Shiny green water,
How can it be so colourful
I just want to look.

- Melody Campbell-Gordon (4)

On the beach is soft
Rocks are fun to clamber on
Happy when I climb

- Skyla Campbell-Gordon (7)

Melody rocks

In the morning Skyla had her school lessons and we walked through the nearby botanic gardens to find a Narnia-like lamp-post.

Narnia lamp-post

The good thing about travelling the coast on a weekday in winter is the parking bays at beaches are not full. So we were able to park parallel across five parking spaces and there was still plenty of room for others.

I marvelled at the view but also wondered about a few things. I wondered why there was a rock wall here, and why there were houses built on the primary dunes. Rock walls are often used to patch up problems that originate elsewhere - eg a harbour stops the natural flow of sand in one place and that ends up robbing sand from another beach. I couldn't find much information about this afterwards but I did find that this very bay was the site of a groundbreaking planning decision to knock back a coastal planning development on the basis of future sea level rise due to climate change (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/26/2830876.htm. There seems to be a lot going on in Port Fairy. In the main street I noticed signs stating "no pokies for Port Fairy". And I noticed that the supermarket didn't have or offer any plastic bags. I asked whether Port Fairy was a plastic bag free town. "Well, no, you can still get them at **** shop" the girl said, as if I had just asked for some sort of contraband. "No, it's fine, I'll keep shopping here!" I said.

We were going to take a walk to the lighthouse on Griffiths Island after lunch, but in the end there was too much in the water to ponder and we didn't even make it to the island.

Griffiths Island

It was mid-afternoon by the time we set off. It had rained on and off all day but the afternoon sun came out in our faces as we tried to drive north-west. I was able to behold the Codrington Wind Farm (Victoria's largest wind farm) for the first time.

Codrington Wind Farm

We set ourselves up at the Mount Gambier Central Caravan Park and then went to look at the Umpherston Sink Hole. Mount Gambier is part of the Limestone Coast, and limestone tends to dissolve away and form holes when water infiltrates it. Sinkholes form when sections of the limestone are undermined and collapse. Mr Umpherston decided to turn this great big hole into an incredible garden, and then somebody later on decided to floodlight it at night. I wasn't sure about this from a sustainability perspective but I have to admit it was pretty magical for the girls to explore caves and hanging vines and luscious gardens at night.