After a quick snack-lunch at Naracoorte Town, our group — an inimitable ‘dirty dozen’ (comprising of a motley bunch of 30-odd-year-old men and women and one 68-year-old — me!) — drove to Robe Beach, 110 km west along secondary roads, prominently sign-posted. The road to Robe was accompanied by miles and miles of picturesque vineyards, which stretch right till Melbourne.

Situated along South Australia’s magnificent Limestone Coast, this historic seaside port has an abundance of attractions. We found the town a perfect place to relax, swim, play some beach volley ball and when tired, settle down on the beach to play some parlour games.
We had a good night’s rest before the drive to Mt Gambier and then on to Melbourne, a total of almost 600 km next day.

Mount Gambier

Also called “The Blue Lake City”, Mount Gambier is South Australia’s second largest city. It is midway between Adelaide and Melbourne and almost equidistant from Robe and Naracoorte. Nestling amidst volcanic craters, lakes, caves and sinkholes, it attracts cave-divers from around the globe. Underground waterways and two State Heritage Reserves — Mt Gambier Crater Lake Complex and Cave Garden Reserves — are located here.
One of 57 International Geo-parks, the Crater Lake Complex has four crater-lakes, aptly called Blue, Valley, Brown and Mutton. The peak of the extinct Mount Gambier crater was first sighted on December 3, 1800 by Lieutenant James Grant from the HMS Lady Nelson.
The limestone that underlies Mount Gambier, called ‘Gambier Limestone’, was formed 30 million years ago, when the land was covered with a warm shallow ocean. It is made up of fish bones, fossils and shells and is 300 metres deep near the coast.
Here’s one shocking fact: it takes 500 years for the underground water to move through the limestone from Blue Lake to the southern ocean!
The entry point to view the Blue Lake is at a sharp curve on a road with a small overhead crossing; one might miss it but for a sneak peek into the blue that catches one’s eye. That is when we screeched to a stop, forcing those behind to swear! After parking the cars wherever space permitted, we trotted into a subway that led us 25 metres down to the Rook Wall and then for the Lookout, we had to climb up the overhead walkway. We ran as if the water would evaporate before we saw it; that was how beautiful a view it was, which mesmerised us. We could not believe that it was built mostly by men-volunteers and refreshment-supplying-women-volunteers of the local village. But we forgot everything the moment we set eyes on the placid blue waters stretching in a circle — an amazing sight.
Blue Lake is so vast that we found it difficult to capture its entirety in a single photograph, despite a 3.6 km look-out-walkway all round it at considerable height! The lake serves as the city’s water supply reservoir with 36,000 million litres of water and an average depth of 70 metres.
Interestingly, the lake mysteriously starts its colour change from steel grey to an unbelievable turquoise blue each year in November, and it gradually changes back to its more sombre winter blue/steel grey from March.
There are many theories on the colour change: the most common is that the top layers of the lake get warm in summer, creating a chemical reaction with the cold bottom layers, turning it to its brilliant blue.
We were told that Blue Lake is at its best in March (we were lucky that it was blue around Christmas). We learnt that Mt Gambier Limestone is not only used in buildings but in making toothpastes, talcum powder and bottles and that Mt Gambier has one of the longest main streets in Australia!
‘The Lady Nelson’ is the local tourist information centre. We saw the ghost of the pioneer who worked with local aboriginals, Christina Smith, ‘come alive’ in fascinating 3D Spectra-vision, as she stepped down from the photograph to tell of her experiences in the 1800s!

The writer is a travel enthusiast