Onward thru Adelaide

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First thing Monday morning we were up to continue our trip thru Adelaide and to the Flinders Ranges. But first we stopped to check out the Blue Lake in Mt. Gambier. Little did we know, but 5,000 to 6,000 years ago volcanic activity caused an explosive eruption in the Mt. Gambier area. The eruption left three craters, two of which filled with water from the local aquifer. The one lake, Blue Lake is a spectacular deep blue color and is surrounded by a park with paths and viewpoints. The smallest of the carters wasn’t as deep as the others and only collected a bit of a lake before being overtaken with vegetation and fill. We skipped the third crater as we understood it was also filled with water, but not as blue as the Blue Lake. After a bit of a walk around and some pictures we were on our way to Adelaide. While there are a couple possible routes, we decided to take the “B” road running along the shoreline as opposed to the “A” road more inland. In US terms both the A roads and B roads are two lane highways the only obvious difference was the A road was maybe a bit wider and maybe the shoulders were better maintained. In either case the speed limit (in South Australia) is 110 km/hr or about 68mph which is a comfortable speed for the road.

We stopped in the town of Millicent for a break and bought a lovely wooden pot made by a local artist. A couple hours further on we stopped at the seaside town of Kingston. Back in Mt. Gambier we’d bought a baguette and some cheese and soda (not wine alas) at the local grocery, so we drove to the beachfront park and enjoyed a light picnic. However, the real purpose of the stop was to check out Larry the Lobster. Kingston is the center of the Australian Rock Lobster industry and Larry is the face of the industry. From Kingston we pressed on toward Adelaide meeting up with the M1 for the run into Adelaide. The M roads or motorways are the equivalent of US expressways, complete with the traffic and trucks we experience in the US, however, since the speed limit is the same as the A and B roads, and the network isn’t that extensive there is less incentive to use them. Since we had been at the beach in Kingstown, we didn’t realize we had climbed until we came down several hundred meters of grade approaching Adelaide. Once in town, we had our first real navigation error of the trip. Despite having a pretty good map, and Adelaide being laid out in a grid, we missed our turn and were on the wrong side of town before we could figure out where we were. However, we were able to recover and make our way to our B&B in North Adelaide. Once there we met the owner Rodney Triss for a nice chat and then took his recommendation for a nice restaurant within easy walking distance. At this B&B we had a 3 room guest cottage to ourselves filled with antiques and feeling very English. The only downside was it was right under the glide slope for Adelaide Airport so we got to see the bottoms of a good portion of Qantas’ fleet. Even so, we slept well and awoke for the long drive to Wilpena in the Flinders Ranges.

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Photos

The Blue Lake
in Mt. Gambier SA

Larry the Lobster
He'd make a heck of a lobster roll

Paperika Cottage at the Buxton Manor
we had the whole cottage to ourselves