Day 40 - 16/1/14 - Mt Schank -> Carpenter Rocks SA

We began our fourth day of 40oC temperatures by climbing up a 5000 year old volcano. Jacko was initially worried about the whole volcano think as I think he was expecting it to still be spewing lava and said it didn’t even look like a volcano when we reached the rim. After a short science lesson he understood that volcanos aren’t mountains whose top pops of like a champagne bottle as they do in Ben 10 cartoons and other outstanding bits of educational material. It was quite spectacular as Mt Schank stands out like a beacon on an otherwise flat plane, so much so that it was actually named when an early explorer sailed past it kilometres of the coast. 

Dodgy photo I know!

 We headed further inland and found Blue Lake on the outskirts of Mt Gambier. It is formed by the same limestone phenomenon I described in yesterdays post except the ‘hole’ was formed by a volcanic explosion 25,000 years ago that would have been similar to a H bomb exploding. It is 5km in circumference, 70+m deep and in the summer it turns a iridescent blue in the summer.

We weren’t expecting much so it was pretty awesome. In Mt Gambier we also went to the vistor centre which had a very interesting interactive display about all of the local history.

Being a devout Catholic family, despite the oppressive heat, we headed north on two religious pilgrimages. The first was to Penola the town where Australia’s only saint, Mary Mackillop, first settled in Australia and started her first school and order. With the heat reaching around 43oC we were about the only people in town and I was worried that my thongs were going to melt the road was that hot.

 After seeing a few of the town’s sights we headed a few kilometres to the 2^nd of our religious sites for the day, Coonawarra! I have visited a few wine making regions and none are quite like this one. Usually they are spread out with paddocks or grass and crops interspersed – not this one. Every spare cm of area is used to produce grapes to the point where the cricket pitch was eventually torn up and turned into a vineyard! The area is about 16km long and at its widest only spans 2kms and is one of the best areas for growing Cabernet and Shiraz (which happen to be my favs). The grapes get their intense but balanced flavours because of the limestone plate that runs very close the surface, around 2m, under the red clay soil. The vines roots can’t penetrate the limestone so they concentrate on producing high quality fruit using the limited water they have. 

You can see the clear levels of soil and limestone - God bless the Coonawarra!

Once you step outside of the very distinct wine growing area the soil is a black clay and is no longer any good for grapes! We tasted at a couple of wineries and were really lucky as some fang dangled tasters had visited Wynns that morning so they had opened some of their REALLY nice bottles and I was able to partake in their silky smooth luxury! Lucky I am so religious otherwise I would have missed the experience!

We headed south as were amazed how much cooler it was when we arrived at Carpenter Rocks  (Not Carpenters Rock). We went 4kms south and set up camp at the base of the Cape Banks lighthouse, which was pretty cool in itself! The water was like a millpond so the boys and I grabbed our snorkelling gear and headed to the beach. A couple of guys had caught 7 crayfish (aka lobsters) diving for them so we were quickly in the water and on the lookout. We did manage to see small one darting into some rocks but with the light fading and two boys in tow I decided to leave it be.

We headed back, had dinner and set up our new purchase – a TV! We had survived 40 days without one but with the tennis on and the cricket one dayers ramping up we dished out $98 for some mind numbing time!

The boys went to bed and De and I sat outside, the only ones at the campsite, with the gentle beam of the lighthouse rotating above us. A pretty cool place to stay!

My favourite shot of the tip thus far!