DAY 56 - 14/04/2010 - Killarney Beach, SA & Mount Gambier, SA

We woke up early at Killarney Beach. The sound of crashing waves nearby helped me sleep well. All there is here is a few powered sites, an amenities block, a kids playground and a large sports oval. Nothing flash but I found out that they offer free use of washing machines here, which is a first. You can pay anything from $3 to $5 a load anywhere else. So before we left I got my washing done.

Today we will be crossing the Vic border over to SA. Before we do that I wanted to visit Port Fairy. I have been told it is a place to see.

We pulled into Port Fairy. Everybody was right. It is such a pretty town and full of character with all the 19th centuary houses and buildings. Huge pine xmas trees line the streets. A river runs thru the town and there are houses, picnic areas and restaurants on either side of this river. There are old timber fishing boats docked along the way. A timber boardwalk and old fashioned light posts line the river. There was a fish and chip shop overlooking the river that had a big sign which read "Voted best fish and chips in Tourism Vic" in so many years running. So we had to try some didn't we. It was nice, but not the best I have ever had. Coffs Harbour was and will be hard to top.

While we were eating lunch we overheard someone say that a tall ship, Endeavour was due to sail in at 1.30pm today. We drove up to the beach to see it sail in. The weather had turned a little and the water was becoming quite rough. Finally the ship came into view.

Port Fairy Beach

Waiting for the tall ship....

taadaar

Then we drove back to the port to wait for it to come in there. It seemed to take for ever for it to sail into port. When it finally came into view it was a great site. It was huge. They let off 2 canons which totally took us by surprise.

the Endeavour sails into Port Fairy

We left Port Fairy and later crossed over to SA but not before disposing all our fruit and vegies at the quaranteen bin just before the border. I nearly cried. I had so much to throw out and didn't want to risk the fine. As it turns out, the checking point was not far from the border and it was CLOSED!  errrrr. what a waste of food. No more dwelling.

By late afternoon we arrive in Mount Gambier and we set up camp at the Big 4 Blue Lakes Caravan Park at the top of the mountain which we find out today is a dorment volcano and better still we are beside 2 water filled craters, Blue Lake (hence the name) and Valley Lake. I was gob smacked at how blue, Blue Lake is. It looks like a person has thrown a trillion blue loos into the water. Its really amazing. We will take a closer look tomorrow earlier in the day.