Aussie Road Trip - Days 5,6,7 Mt Gambier

After a long journey, we reached Mount Gambier in the late noon. After driving around the town in search of a cheap hostel, we finally settled for one which has free vcd rental, which was a really good thing as we were getting sick of the Australian television - having watched reality shows on adultery consecutively for the past few days.

In total, we stayed in Mt Gambier for three days and in the duration, visited many amazing geographical landmarks.

Valley Lake & Blue Lake

Mt Gambier is known as "the city of craters, lakes, caves & sinkholes" and it used to be a volcanic area. However, the craters have long since became inactive and now they are lakes which tourists flock to every year. I had previously visited another crater lake in my life - the famous Lake Toba of Indonesia. The beautiful memory I had then made me look forward to visiting Valley Lake and Blue Lake of Mt Gambier.

These two lakes were exactly the first locations Mich and I headed to. After living the slack life in Aussie for too long, the hike up Valley Lake was an onerous one for Mich. Despite this, her fear of heights was greater than her fatigue. Panting and whining, she can still threaten and drag me when I repeatedly venture too close to the edge of the cliff to take photos. Soon, we reached our destination which was a stoic tower overlooking Valley Lake.

Look at that confident smug on my face, the hike up the crater was an easy stroll for me... can't say the same for Deario though.

There was a caretaker at the tower, a nice old man whose job was to explain the history of the tower and its surroundings to tourists. He told us that he lives not in Mount Gambier, but in a smaller town nearby. In his younger days, he had worked as a tour guide in that town and after work everyday, he would bring his dog to the beach and fish till evening. I was quite intrigued by his sharing and was amazed that anyone can lead such idyllic life. This old man's life and ours seem worlds apart. Chatting with strangers from another culture is a wonderful experience - you never know what kind of stories you will get to hear. This is one of the things I like about backpacking.

As for the view up at the tower, it was really breath-taking. To our left were Valley Lake and the sprawling Mt Gambier town while to our right were the shimmering sea, farms and a few plateaus. In Singapore you can't possibly get such a wide unblocked view of the landscape. Take a look at the video below:

We lingered on the tower for quite some time before moving on to the Blue Lake. The Blue Lake was so named because its water changes from an unimpressive grey to the bluest blue in autumn and winter, though no one can really explain the cause for the colour change. When evening comes, many of the local residents would come up the crater lake for a jog around its circumference, which was a pretty nice activity. In another lifetime, I might have loved to live here and spend my days peacefully with Deario and perhaps a pet dog. But for now, we're contented to strolled round the lake once in the sunset.


Umpherstone Sinkhole

After dinner, when the sky was dark enough, we went to check out the Umpherstone Sinkhole which is well-known for its possums inhabitants. The reason why we we journeyed there only after dark is because the possums are nocturnal animals and they sleep in the crevices of the sinkhole throughout the day. When night falls, however, the possums come out to the garden to scavenge for food. In appearance, they resemble both the raccoon and the cat, except larger. In anticipation of feeding these cute animals, Mich and I had brought along some bananas. Of course, I was the one doing the feeding as Deario is typically very scared of contact with animals.

What a docile animal the possum is. Very greedy though, check out the piece of banana in its paws - that's chunk #6.

This is the sinkhole in the day. It used to be a subterranean cavern but was transformed when its ceiling collapsed during an earthquake hundreds of years ago. A landscape designer later decorated the sinkhole with a mystical-looking garden and this place has ever since been one the popular places for the locals to hold their weddings. Pretty neat, except for the musky smell of possums.

Engelbrecht Cave

On the second day, we visited this impossible-to-pronounce cave known as Engelbrecht Cave. This cave looked like the entrance to Hell from above the ground as the passage leading into the gathering dark seemed to descend forever. As the guide led us down into the bowels of the earth step by step, the gathering dark slowly blot out the sun and I felt the pull of ritual and a sense of tingling anticipation.

Yet another downward passage awaits us at the end of the passage. Like a mirror universe, stairway echoes stairway until we're deep inside the earth.

What awaited us at the bottom was a strange twilite world. In this world, silence is the only sound you hear and time seemed to be at a standstill. Nothing lives down here and even the air feels dead and cold. A subterranean river laid within the cavern, its greenish water still and covered with a thin film of dust.

We spent some time indulging in the eerie atmosphere of the cave before coming up to the surface. The guide, who gave a good discourse on the history of the cave, told us too that cave diving is actually permitted in Engelbrecht Cave and annually, some 4-5 divers come here to challenge themselves. The numbers may seem small but that is because Engelbrecht Cave is a "level 4 cave diving spot", which is the toughest level and there are less than 20 cave divers out there who are capable of tackling level 4 caves.

Princess Rose Margaret Cave

We visited another subterranean landmark known as the Princess Rose Margaret Cave during our stay at Mt Gambier. The Princess Rose Margaret Cave is a limestone cave formed by water from a river above seeping down through cracks and faultlines in the limestone, dissolving the rock and creating fissures and tunnels.

While the Engelbrecht Cave gave one a sense of lifelessness, the Princess Rose Margaret Cave is very much alive. As drops of mineral-carrying water drip from the ceiling, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites and other spectacular limestone formations are actively being grown. Semi-translucent and backlit, these flow stone form sculptures and miniature landscapes that could be from another planet.

Progression in the cave is unhurried however, and it can take around 50 years for stalagmites and stalactites to grow a centimetre. In some parts of the 700,000 year-old cave, a drop of calcifying water might fall on a stalagmite just once a day. Being in the cave is a humbling experience in itself. Confronted with the cave's pristine quality, I cannot help but be keenly conscious of man's mortality and frivolity in the enduring world. Someday, you and I will be gone like a vapour in the wind.. but the earth will still go on spinning.

Potter's Point

On one of the nights, Deario and I drove up to the highest point of the city, known as Potter's Point, to see the city lights. The night-time firmament up on the hill was brilliant with a march of stars on a meadow of velvet. We stood embraced in a clearing among the pines, moved by the wondrous sight, feeling at once awe-struck and encalmed. How I wished, at that moment, that I could lie down with Deario beneath the heavenly dome and together sing songs till we fall asleep!

Alas, the wind was too chilly and soon we had to seek the warmth of the car. But someday, in some distant summer night..

Departure
We had seen many other curious sights in our three day stay at Mt Gambier but I wouldn't be able to finish narrating all that. Where words end, memories take over. Mt Gambier was the last stop for our Great Ocean Road trip and with the conclusion of our stay there, it was finally time to head back to Melbourne.

All the travelling around and sight-seeing has made Deario a tired girl. See how hungrily she was munching her breakfast!