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Published: April 10th 2010
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The Big Lobster
Just because :) From Mt Gambier we drove back to the coastline, and visited all the little towns along there - Beachport, Robe, Kingston SE. Taking a photo opportunity at the big Lobster at Kingston of course. Although they were all very beautiful, they weren’t unlike what we’d already seen, and also very expensive - even the National Parks. So we kept driving and ‘accidentally’ discovered a hidden Gem on the Coorong.
‘Coorong Wilderness Lodge’ makes it sound really posh, but the prices were good so it’s here we stay. Driving into the place we encountered many more emus scuttling here there and everywhere in front of the car, and we had a couple hanging around as we were setting up … cute (except for when they look at you like they’re going to poke your eyes out with their beaks!)!
The place is run by the original inhabitants of the land, the Ngarrindjeri people, and is operating as an eco-tourism, educational and cultural centre. Apparently lots of groups come through - schools, universities and the like. We stumbled across it by accident and what a hidden wealth of knowledge, a real gem!
Gordy and his dog Junior were great. Junior
Fish Heads
Loved these fish heads hanging on the fence along the Coorong. kept the kids amused with his tricks while Gordy and George shared some secrets of the land and great conversations with us - Bush Medicines, Bush Tucker, Hunting Secrets, Ways of life and even some politics. He even took us for a drive to the gallery and museum at Camp Coorong down the road, where there is heaps of arts, crafts, weaponry, bush medicine and history on display. The people there were just a real inspiration, I really do hope that more centres like this one open up around this great land that we share, and many more people take the time to get to know our neighbours!
Kayaking along the Coorong was quite an experience. I just wanted to get down the channel and across to Younghusband island - apparently the Great Southern Ocean was right on the other side, just a 25 minute walk. Unfortunately, although the goal was in sight, Shay just couldn’t get the hang of the kayak thing, and she spat the dummy. We turned around and headed back to shore, where I proceeded to document her spectacular dummy spit with my camera which just made her wild!!! There are no photos of it
Kayaking at the Coorong
Was fun until the dummy got spat! to share as she proceeded to delete them all while I wasn’t taking notice. LOL - the things parents do for entertainment when there’s no TV!!! So unfortunately we didn’t get to the Southern Ocean from there, but we were lulled to sleep at night with the sound of the wild waves pounding just over the dune - What a sweet lullaby it was!
The other thing I liked about staying here was the fact that Albie Mangle lives just up the road. I don’t know about you, but I used to love Albie’s adventures as a kid. Apparently he sometimes drops in to say hi, but he didn’t this time. Gordy reckoned he could summon him for me, but I asked him not to as I don’t hang with womanizers, I wouldn’t know what to say … lol.
On a more serious note - Everyone knows about the trouble with the Murray River, about how irrigation licences and damning it have caused major problems downstream with soil erosion and funky fish, along with a host of other issues. What I didn’t know though, was the effect it has on the Coorong.
The Coorong is a special
place - you only have to visit there to see that it’s very unique to Australia and probably the world. It supports one of the only known permanent breeding colony of pelicans, among many other salt and fresh water birds … and it’s dying!!! The water is 8 TIMES more salty than sea water and it cant support any fish. Without the fish for food, the pelicans cant breed and the colony may be lost forever.
Apparently the problem isn’t just with the lack of water running down the Murray, but also further south at Kingston SE, the council has diverted creeks and storm water so instead of flushing out the Coorong it’s going straight out to sea, resulting in the South end of the Coorong having been completely closed off for about 8 years!
I’m not sure what I can do about it, but I just thought it was a really crap situation that I had to share. Does anyone have any ideas?
Next stop … somewhere closer to Adelaide, so we can visit the Pandas as promised to Shay.
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Ian Hogan
non-member comment
Still Here!
Hello all! Still enjoying the story of your travels. Such a shame about the Coorong situation. Enjoy the Pandas in Adelaide. I know some people who've seen them.