Sometimes seeing is believing. This was our experience today as we walked around Mount Gambier and marvelled at the extinct volcanos, numerous blow holes and the geological formations that stand proud on the otherwise flat plained landscape of South Australia.

Our day started with a circular walk around Blue Lake, the perimeter around the largest of the extinct volcanos.

What you notice most is the blue colouring of the lake,t is so vivid and emanates from changes to the algae in the water each November through to March. Outside of these times of the year, the water reverts to a grey colouring.

From there we went to the next geological site, Umpherston Sinkhole, which sits on the east of the city in an unassuming park.

The hole is significant in size and depth and oddly has a Victorian sunken garden at the base. It’s magical looking both down, and once inside up from the base, with the hanging foliage enveloping the edges like curtains to the land above.

The added inclusion of palm trees and rich green planting makes it feel like an oasis to the area around it. The city has several of these sinkholes, however Umpherston is the most impressive and well kept.

Departing the sinkhole we ventured over to the main tourist centre where a replica ship called the Lady Nelson proudly sits. Like many a ship navigating around the South Australian coastline it had an unfortunate ending, having been destroyed by natives in the early 1800’s.

We visited another sink hole and connecting caves in the centre of the city, aptly called Cave Gardens. Again these appear hidden away, sitting behind the Main Street appearing to have ‘landed’ from another world.

To better understand how these volcanoes and connected sink holes came into being we watched a fascinating documentary at the local Riddoch arts centre. the daily showing called Volcano, the story of Earth, Fire and Water, mixes aboriginal tales with the scientific knowledge and history and chartered how the landscape came into being after a number of violent eruptions on the South Australian fault line that divides it from the Antarctic plate. In total there were 5 eruptions in Mount Gambier creating three notable volcanic sites, side by side creating Blue Lake, Valley Lake and Leg of Mutton Lake.

Added to this there are numerous smaller lakes, formed from sink holes that were exposed when the land above collapsed.

We ventured to Little Blue Lakes, where the sink hole is up to 70m in depth and is a regular swimming and diving spot for the locals. When we arrived there were several young boys jumping into the hole from the outer rim and drop of 15m. Rather them than us!

Our nights stay was at a nearby pub, called the Bellum Hotel where we had secured a free camping site. As is the custom we went in for a beer and were taken aback by how busy it was despite being in the middle of nowhere. There was a lot of Friday night drinking being had, which did raise eyebrows as to how people got home as everyone appeared to be in their pickup trucks!

Before our camping ground was another extinct volcano, Mount Schank, which was formed about 5,000 years ago, at a similar time to the other volcano’s in Mount Gambier and along the fault line that runs all the way into the state of Victoria, roughly 750 miles away.

Tomorrow we head back along the coast to the seaside town of Beachport and on to Robe where we intend to relax and enjoy the beach’s and swimming.