The Great Open Spaces of South Australia – December 2006

The Great Open Spaces of South Australia
We had five weeks total to spend in Australia, and I was unfortunately sick for half of that time. After making it through the Adelaide Hills and beautiful Victor Harbor with its clear turquoise water and Little Penguins, we found ourselves on the Fleurieu Peninsula, where two of my most vivid memories are the nightmarishly fierce headwinds and the swarms of flies, which are downright hellish. We worked hard against the wind, feeling as if we were standing still (everyone told us that we should have started in the east and pedaled west, but we found that out too late!). I have never seen such strong winds that lasted for such a long period of time. They never let up. And the flies swarmed in upon us in droves, even while we were pedaling. They managed to even fly in under the fly nets and especially loved the cavities – the ears, the nose, the mouth, and the eyes. They would rest there as long as we would let them. They are so bad that Australians are said to have a special “Australian salute,” which consists of waving the hand in front of the face, in the manner of swatting a fly.

Otherwise, the landscape of South Australia was characterized largely by wide open spaces. Houses and ranches, often situated on a spread of several thousand acres, were few and far between. The towns were small, populations usually only numbering in the hundreds. Only two towns in the whole state number over 15,000 inhabitants! There often was nothing in sight for enormous stretches. We saw the occasional kangaroo or emu, especially at dusk. One kangaroo even came to a halt within about 8 or 9 feet of me as I slept under a tree (or so says Stephane, because I missed the whole thing!).

We stopped in the town of Mt. Gambier, the “Blue Lake City” of volcanic craters, caves, sinkholes, and underground waterways that is built on the side of a dormant volcano. Its famous Blue Lake was so clear and so intensely deep blue and yet bright at the same time, that it looked as if someone had dumped gallons of blue paint into it. It was astonishingly unreal. It is said that the lake, which fills a crater formed during a volcanic explosion, goes from winter grey to turquoise in early summer to a deep blue by mid-summer, and gets its color from crystals formed when it gets hot each summer.

Because I was sick, I unfortunately slept through the Christmas Eve caroling, Santa arriving in a pick-up at our campground to throw candy to the children, and Christmas Day barbecues (a bit subdued this year because of the cold weather). But we were invited by Ben and his family to share in their Christmas meal just two days before Christmas, and it sure was nice to be in a real house with a real family right around the holidays (not to mention all the great food!). So thanks to them all – it was a real treat!