1995/11 Australia trip - Mount Gambier |
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At the NQ depot, we were soon on our way in EZQ105, very similar to the first two, except that it seemed a bit peppier, and loaded it up with enough food for a couple of days. Fortunately, Adelaide is a well laid-out city and we were able to skirt the centre easily and take the steep climb up into the eastern hills. We were headed for Mount Gambier, which is a little town built around a few volcanic lakes.
The road went through an English-like landscape, small fields and hedges, but probably too dry to really be England. Generally dry and yellow fields, surrounded by gum trees. The farming was a mixture of sheep and vineyards. We could have stopped for a tour and tasting at a couple of dozen vineyards, but that would have been the end of the day if we had!
As it was, we got into Mt Gambier at dusk, and went looking for those lakes. We found them, but really too dark to see anything. We found a campground advertising “en-suite bathrooms”, and just had to find out what they were. It turned out that each camp site had a little brick building with its own shower, toilet, and sink, something you never see in the US. So, we paid our extra $2 for this novelty and reveled in our own private loo. The young lady that opened up the office for us promised extra delights at the local caves where the possums would come out at night, but we were too tired to care.
Later, I was trying to get some change after the office had closed. Eventually, I got their attention and they opened up, but told me I should have called 911 on the phone by the office. I told them that it wasn’t THAT much of an emergency. They had no idea that the number they’d chosen was the American equivalent of 999. In Australia you dial 111 for fire, police, ambulance.
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Mount Gambier (6.56) |
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The excitement of the en-suite bathrooms was short-lived, as we were off early in the (Thursday) morning, despite both of us feeling queasy. The tea had tasted strange so we thought that the water in the camper was probably bad, and we changed it before we left.
We wanted to have a good look at the crater lakes, which are grey in the winter but turn bright blue in the summer. Not as spectacular as Oregon’s Crater Lake, but still pretty at the right angle.