Holes in the ground

Australia has a lot of practically untouched places due to its size and relatively small population. This gives you the chance to see things we don't have at home. One of these was a salt lake in the Coorong National Park. This lake enables you to see limestone being formed. Sounds a bit dull but it was totally weird. The lake had a pinkish purple colour to it and the edge was white. The soil around that was black and spongy and even further to the edge it was hard limestone. We could be on another planet the way this looks. The type of algae living in this lake is where many scientists believe all life formed from and that's why the whole region, called the Limestone Coast, is internationally recognised, supposedly. We walked around a couple of these lakes for nearly two hours and saw one person as we left. Most of the places along here we end up visiting are empty.
We stopped at one of the best campsites on the trip that evening, Sea Vu. Our spot overlooked the ocean and a little bay and we got out for a sunset stroll along the beach with the surf crashing in. We slept to the sound of the waves and thought it didn't get much better than this......well a bit warmer and it would've been better but you cant have it all!
We reached our next big town, its a city apparently but only 20,000 live here. Mount Gambier. Its an odd place. Described in our Lonely Planet guidebook as, - like a lush oasis set against a volcanic backdrop - What utter shit. Its grim. Its a logging town, a massive industry around here named the Green Triangle. Ive never seen anything like it as far as tree cultivation goes. For a day of driving we pass nothing but trees being grown and harvested for the wood industry. Its a massive undertaking. Huge areas are cut down for wood and paper but even bigger areas are replanted for the next 30 years or so in a constant turnover of trees in this area.
Back to grim Mount Gambier. Ok, its not all bad. The reason I said this place was odd is because of a couple of things. One of them is that on the edge of town is a large volcano. Extinct and now half full of water. The volcano is called Mount Gambier, unsurprisingly, and the water inside is named Blue Lake. This, if you haven't already guessed, is because its blue. Genius. But it really is bright blue and even more so in summer. There's no explanation for it either. Its baffled science.
The other reason Mount Gambier, the town not the volcano, is odd is due to its sinkholes. These are large holes in the ground that are in a couple of spots around town....I mean city. These large holes have been made feature of. One is a garden-cave type scenario and the other is a barbecue area. The strange thing about the BBQ hole is that at night people go down and cook their food on the provided electric bbqs, which are everywhere in Oz, and the possums come out. At night possums stroll out from their cave homes for feeding, they live in the sinkhole but are tucked away during the day. Its like a bloody open air zoo this country. Its hard to imagine people come down into this hole at night, it is floodlit, to scoff food and feed possums but that's exactly what they do.
Bill Bryson mentioned this place in his book on Australia but I cant remember what he said other than he saw an amazing 3-D woman thing in the tourist information centre. We went in but I was too stingy to pay to see it. Besides, Australia is pretty expensive. Shopping is dearer than England. Most chocolate bars are 1 pound and a packet of Tim Tams, like Penguins bars, are nearly 2 pounds. Beer is more expensive too so we have opted for the drink of champions, boxed wine. For about 6 pounds you can buy 4 litres of suspect wine. It will do. It helps keep us warm in the van so of course its a necessity.
We head on along straighter than straight roads with huge logging trucks passing us in both directions. The speed limit is 110 km an hour but we keep the van to a steady 85 because when you go over that the fuel gauge goes down way too fast.
Another grim port town, Portland, was passed through and stopped off at briefly for fish and chips. Australians pride themselves on fish and chips and pies. Pies are well overpriced but quite good and fish and chips are ok. The fish is excellent and mostly fresh, you pick what type you would like from a kind of fish counter, but the chips are consistently terrible throughout.
On the way to lovely Port Fairy we spot many brightly coloured birds and I spot one a bit too close, it hit the van window. Only clipped it but it scared the bejezus out of us. They're clearly not as quick as our quick witted pigeons!