Australian Adventure: Limestone Coast South Australia

(Barramundi Farming and coastal towns)

One night in Kingston Caravan park – waste of money really when there was free camping available just down the road at the jetty. So that’s where we stayed the next night. Kingston is a bit over-rated as a holiday destination, nowhere near as good as Robe or Beachport.

We left Kingston early to get to Robe, looked around the marina and town – lot’s of historic old buildings (well old for Australia anyway – after being to Europe quite a few times it sinks in how young settled Australia is).

Went to the RoBarra Barramundi grow out farm and got a royal tour (they don’t normally allow visitors). 50+ massive tanks filled with Barra’s ranging from about 4 inches up to 10kg and more. One of the biggest issues for industries is getting sufficient water which requires expensive licences and controls from the govt. Well RoBarra got around that by putting in a drill going down 1km (much deeper than a standard bore) where they reached artisan water which apparently goes under a number of continents. It comes up from down there under it’s own pressure, so no pumping is needed, and is about 30C when it gets to the surface. This temperature is ideal for the growing of Barramundi fish. A very interesting visit.

We found a great camping location at Southend overlooking a natural bay with a small town (no pub – that’s small). Got the KLR650 out and had a great ride a for about 10km along the long beach. nice.

Most nights we do BBQ’s which is fine and easy, and of course BBQ’s must be cooked whilst drinking beer Smile

The weekend of 3/4 Mar was spent camping at the Mount Gambier show grounds – good to be connected to 240v and water plugged in. Lise and I had a night out at an Indian restaurant, a treat for us – Cooper had to wait in the truck outside.

4 Mar at the showgrounds they had a harness racing meeting on. lot’s of drinking, betting, etc going on. But as we were camped right behind the stables we spent the evening being wafted with manure smells and lots of flies.

Also got to empty our black and grey tanks at the showgrounds.

South West Victoria 5 – 13 March

Great free camping at Dartmoor just over the Victorian border, 85km from Mount Gambier. On the junction of two rivers, creeks really, had our first camp fire. Stayed three nights. There was a fresh spring water outlet that continuously flows, we emptied our water tanks and refilled with spring water.

Next stop was Wannon Falls for more nights of free camping, another great spot. A guy pulls up in a 1969 GTS Monaro (327ci with TH350, for those who want to know).

We chatted and had a few beers. We met his wife later as they both wanted to know more about our rig (we are getting used to people coming up and chatting about our trailer and set up – everyone is impressed). Andy and Cindy invited us over for drinks and pool which was only about 500m from the camp site. We had a great night, Andy has his garage set up as a proper man cave, lot’s of motoring memorabilia, vinyl records and play, bar, pool table – we all had fuzzy heads the next day.

Hot Rod Show – Cavendish, Victoria

Andy told us about a small hot rod show which was being held at a nearby town, Cavendish, on the 10-11 March. So of course we went along. about 50 or so cars, most old school hot rods, 1930-1940’s, some earlier some a bit later. Some real nice ones. Saturday night they had a band playing from the back of a truck and a massive camp fire.

One young bloke stumbled and fell into the fire about 4am, we got burnt fairly badly, his mate (who was also as drunk as a lord) got very agitated when it appeared the ambulance call centre operator was not real sure of the location of the oval where we where, so even though he was nearly paralytic he decided to jump in his pristine HT Premier Wagon and high tail it into town to guide the ambulance in. But alas, he lost control of his car, skidded in front of the police station and went straight into a road sign and light post. Wrecked his car, he hit his head on the windscreen (smashed the screen). The cops were pretty good about it and only charged him with driving without a seat belt, even though he had drank enough for ten men. The guy who got burnt is ok, doesn’t need skin grafts – very lucky.

The hot rod fraternity are very nice people, we didn’t meet anyone that we did not like.