We set off early-ish for this drive as we knew it would take a while. About 1/2 hour in to the drive we were confronted by two very large fast Emus running across the road just in front of us. Luckily we had time to slow down and as I said, they can run! It was a bit of a heart starter, but also magnificent to see these birds in the wild doing whatever the heck the want….
We stopped at Dunkeld for a coffee - chose the wrong coffee shop - as you do when you don’t get a chance to ask the locals, There was a little local butcher with the business name ‘Only EWE’ writ large out front, Cracked me up. Some people are clever.
We continued on through Arrarat which looked like a beautiful town. Evidently the only town built by Chinese ingenuity through the gold rush era.
As we were leaving Ararat we were travelling at about 90, which is what we tend to sit on. We do this to ensure we can manage the 4.2 ton in an emergency. And we approached a crest with a right bend, I was driving and we had a bus behind us that was dying to overtake. but leading up to the crest it was double lines. I slowed down only because I thought a crest and a bend….. can’t see a thing…Well we topped the crest to find a ute with a trailer on our side of the road, overtaking a line of about 10 cars, with nowhere to go. Luckily I was doing about 65 on the crest and bend and was just able to slow and swerve without hitting the ute or having the bus hit us up the rear. The bus used his horn but who he was blasting I don’t know. I don’t think he could see the ute at that point - just my break lights. I have to say it was the scariest experience I’ve had driving. It took our breath away for a while and then after that it was high fives that we were not behind the bus that wanted to do 100. It could have been a disaster - a very nasty disaster,
Anyway we continued on regardless and found that we had to dump all our fruit and veg just before the border to SA. Oops - should have eaten those earlier. Then on to Mt Gambier woolies to buy - you guessed it - fresh fruit and veg….Then on to PORT Macdonnell which is only about 1/2 hour from Mt Gambier.
Well this is the cats pyjamas. Love it here. Its not developed but the foreshore has been upgraded. There’s a lovely cafe, a pizza joint, a pub and a grocery store. What more do you want? The views are to die for, with the beach being safe for swimming.
The only Caravan Park is old and small, but grassy and protected from the winds off the Southern Ocean. It’s pet friendly and well run. Its a bit of a hike back into the village as the CP is on Woolwash Beach 1.3 klms east of the village just up the coast. We’ve walked it every day. We like it here so much we have extended to 6 nights.
We rate this small port highly - 8/10 and we rate the Caravan Park 8/10 also even though its old and small and a little far from town. The sites are big and grassy and private. Really top spot.
We head to Robe on the 23rd March.