We leave our family members who are heading off to work, and we opt to have breakfast at the Pavilion, the staff are friendly and the food is delicious. We watch the horse trainers exercising their horses on the beach and in the water, each horse takes its turn swimming behind a small row boat, which is propelled only by oar power. This part of Warrnambool has port facilities but also a beautiful coastline where the water is crystal clear and the kelp long and healthy. The area is important to local indigenous people. There is a Small Penguin colony on Middle Island.
We travel west just a few kilometres and visit Tower Hill, an extinct volcanoe subject to some great efforts to restore the natural vegetation. The information centre was designed and built around a volcano. The bird life is prolific, Black-eared Cuckoos, Fantail Cuckoos and Superb Fairywren are notables. The wattle blossom is absolutely stunning, this reserve is really worth spending time exploring.
We stop at Cape Bridgewater to look at the ‘petrified forest’, it is actually more interesting than petrified wood. The formation is a collection of hollow tubes of limestone called ‘solution pipes’, eroded by millions of years of rainfall. The process starts when water gathers in a shallow pan of sand and seeps downwards dissolving the limestone. The mineral-saturated water then cements the sand, forming hard, trunk-shaped pipes. The basalt cliffs are the biggest in Victoria they are the remnants of an ancient volcano, the black basalt is capped with limestone. This coastline is rugged and full of interesting features.
We continue west reaching Nelson, situated on the Glenelg River no more than a few kilometres from the SA Victoria border. This is a popular holiday destination at anytime of the year the quiet waters and bushland, small boat sheds on the water add charcter the the town.
It’s then onto Mt Gambier and peer into the blue waters on the crater lake.
Piccaninnie Ponds is a must see park. It is a flooded cave system exposed at the surface where you can peer into the crystal clear waters that disappear into the dark depths that reach over 100 metres. You can walk onto the pond via a floating pontoon. There are Magpie Geese are nesting here. Where were there by ourselves, we often wonder how much solid ground is between us and the system of flooded caverns that exist below us.
Robe is our last stop. We have enough time to settle in and then enjoy a fabulous dinner at Food Lab, it has an Italian flavour the decor is querky and makes it a great venue to visit and dine at.
