Part 4 - South Australia

ilseluypaert
Dec 28, 2023
2 min read

29 December 2023 - 2 January 2024

Mount Gambier

At Mount Gambier we discover Umpherston's sinkhole (a collapsed cave becoming a big hole in the ground) , and we sleep in real beds for one night, and eat the best pizza's of the nation.

Blue Lake

Each year in November, as the water warms, this lake's regular colour changes dramatically over a couple of days into this intense deep turquoise blue! In automn the bright colour gradually disappears again.

Cape Banks, Canunda National Park

Most legendary day of our trip.... The warmth of the sun, endless nature as far as one can look, the bright blue sky, the surprising colours of seaweed on the beach, the squeaking of the birds, the powerful sound of the waves,... I feel so small, safe and grateful enveloped by the endless peace and calm of nature...!

Naracoorte Caves

This World Heritage site has acted as pitfall traps collecting animals for at least 500,000 years! The caves preserve fossil records spanning several ice ages, the arrival of humans in the area and the extinction of Australia’s iconic Megafauna roughly 60,000 years ago. Paleontologists identified the bones of Megafauna species such as the Marsupial Lion, the Mega Koala and Sthenurine Kangaroos.

We also admire spectacular flowstone, stalagtites and stalagmites in the Alexander caves!

New Year's Eve we have a bbq and gaze at the impressive collection of stars above our tents, before crawling in our 2 little hiking tents (which the kids pitched proudly all by themselves!).

And then all the way back home

From Naracoorte (South Australia) we drive all the way back home: 13 hours through 3 states in 2 days. No highways today, just this single lane roads with picture perfect landscapes....

Nothing better than a 2 hour stop in the local swimming pool when you are driving all day! How fun was this! And afterwords we drive another 4 hours and get closer to home than expected.