Thursday March 8th

Today we drove further east and passed through still more arid areas, most of which are sheep or cattle farms.

We drove into Beachport, a lovely small seaside town.
http://www.wattlerange.sa.gov.au/
We walked out to the end of the fishing pier which is 700 yards long so goes right out into the bay. The water was a beautiful turquoise colour and very clear.

We strolled along this beach and clambered around the headland, enjoying the lovely weather and paddled in the sea as there were no warnings about crocodiles or jellyfish here.

We drove round Bowman Scenic Drive which runs mainly along the coast with views like this at every turn.

Further on this drive we came to the Pool of Siloam, a saltwater lake with seven times the salinity of the sea.

Half an hour further on we stopped at Lake McIntyre which is a native wildlife and vegetation reserve created from an old quarry. We walked around, being careful where we trod, as there were warnings that we might encounter three types of venemous snake.

The water was low so the views from the hides were not so close to the birds but there were many concentrated areas of various types.

We followed the drive to Woakwine Range wind farm which has 135 wind turbines that provide one eighth of South Australia's energy needs. We found a good contrast with the old-fashioned windmills that still pump the water to the fields.

We are staying tonight in Mount Gambier and, after checking into the motel, we drove up to Blue Lake, a volcanic crater filled with water that is an amazing shade of blue from November to March. It then slowly reverts to the same grey colour as the other lakes nearby.
http://www.mountgambiertourism.com.au/