Great Ocean Road Day 3

This morning we woke up half an hour later than planned. We had to move from our original sleeping spot after a car drove through some wooden bollards, started shouting at a random person sleeping in the park, and then drove into a tree tearing the door off their car. They then held the door on while they sped away. Shortly afterwards, another car went into that same grassy area with the now missing bollard and then made a loop around the block, entered the parking lot where we were clearly looking for the car from earlier. It was off-putting to put it mildly. We ended up at a rest area 15 km outside of the town.

We drove 15 minutes back into town and stopped at Umpherston Sinkhole on the edge of town. A man called James Umpherston bought the property and turned the limestone sinkhole into a beautiful garden. His Victorian house was at the back of the land behind the sinkhole before it was demolished in 1964. Now just a beautiful garden with benches and walkways, it used to have a pond and small island in the middle with a little boat! James really went all out on developing the tourism factor for this sinkhole. Today it doesn't have a pond, but it is a beautiful place with flowers and vines as well as lots of beehives in the limestone and it has a tiny pond (more puddle size) with a fountain.

After the sinkhole, we went over to Mount Gambier and the Blue Lake. You can walk and/or drive through entire way around the crater where the lake sits. We didn't have time for that, so we parked up at the viewpoint and had a look. It was a deep blue, and at the edges it was a cerulean color. It was beautiful, and it also provides water for the local residents too.

We said goodbye to the Blue Lake and left Mount Gambier behind. We had a 5 hour drive ahead of us to Adelaide! Now that we were away from the coast, the Great Ocean Road behind us, the drive was pretty flat and pretty boring until we got closer to Adelaide. Then the roads got pretty windy and hilly. It really put my manual driving to the test! But we got there ok around lunchtime, if not a bit tired and hungry because we didn't have time to stop for breakfast. Ian, Allan's friend in Adelaide kindly picked us up from the suburban area as there was no public transport. We went back to his house for some quick showers and a cup of coffee before we were on our way again!Read more