Mt Gambier revisited.

Today we woke to brilliant sunshine, it was even warm enough to eat breakfast outside.    There was a cool breeze, which meant that the day was not too hot, just pleasantly warm.

We decided to walk around the Blue Lake, while we had plenty of energy.    This is a 5 km walk and we had lots of stops to look at the lake.    The Blue Lake also supplies the drinking water for Mt Gambier, and it is so pure that very little chlorine is added to it.

The line up at one of the viewing platforms.

Of course coffee was necessary before we began.   There are also tours of the old aquifer system, if you wish to look at the lake from close quarters.

This lake is called Valley Lake.    There used to be two more lakes, but the water table has gone town somewhat in the last 100 years.    I wonder why?

Darren, Jespa and I climbed up a very steep path until we got to the top point of the crater.    We had wonderful views from up there, and you could see the southern ocean in the distance, with sea mist above it.

On the top peak there is the Centenary Tower, which was opened in 1904.   Usually the tower is open, but all we could hear was music behind the door.    The tower commemorates100 years since Mount Gambier was sighted and named by Lt James Grant aboard 'The Lady Nelson'.

After all the walking and climbing up to the tower, it was time for our picnic lunch, which Darren had prepared of course.    And very delicious.    We remembered the last time we had had a picnic lunch together, up on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.   Where we got told off for taking a sharp knife up with us, and I dropped a jar of mayonnaise on the ground and broke the container.   This picnic lunch was very uneventful.

We could have had a barbeque of course.    Barbeque's are available in most Australian parks, and are very popular.    And mostly free too.

No I am not playing 'dead lions', or whatever the game is that you tell the children to play in order to rest after PE, nor have I fainted.    Just lying there relaxing in the sunshine.    And listening to the school children playing in the playground, which was part of their excursion, and knowing that I did not have to supervise them.

In the afternoon we went on the Engelbrecht Cave tour.   The sink hole below is the entrance to a huge complex of limestone caves under the city.   Of course if you are an experienced diver you can enter the water in the caverns and explore the extensive tunnels and caves.  That was not us!  We only went into the two chambers but we learnt about how the caves are formed and how the underground water filters through the limestone.    All very interesting.

This evening we visited the Umpherston Sinkhole, which was once a cave.   The sink hole was created when the top of the chamber fell to the floor of the cave, creating a perfect environment for the 'sunken' garden which James Umpherston built.    Of course up until about the 1930's water covered one third of the sink hole but the water has since gone.    The garden is glorious, with ivy cascading from the top, and the bottom filled with hydrangeas and other tender plants.   I forgot to take my camera!