Today, I waved goodbye to Encounter Bay and began the trek toward the Great Ocean Road. My stop for the night? Mount Gambier. Situated almost exactly halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne, this town is famous for a landscape shaped by fire and water—it sits right on an ancient volcano.
The star of the show is the Blue Lake. During the warmer months, the water turns this intense, almost “unnatural” cobalt blue. It looks like someone dropped a giant bottle of ink into the crater! Apparently, it’s all down to chemistry—light refracting off tiny grains of calcium carbonate that rise to the surface in the heat. It’s one of those things you have to see in person to believe.
Mount Gambier is also famous for its “sinkholes,” created over thousands of years as water carved through the limestone. The locals have done something incredible with these geological craters, turning them into lush, walkable gardens. I spent some time exploring the Umpherston Sinkhole, which was originally part of a grand Victorian estate back in 1886.
Walking down into it feels like entering a hidden world of viewing platforms and sculptures. Interestingly, there used to be a lake at the bottom, but as the water table dropped over the decades, the lake vanished, leaving behind this protected green sanctuary that’s now used for geological research. The original Victorian residence was demolished in the 60s, but the sinkhole remains a stunning reminder of the past.
To wrap up the day, I took the RedSands camper for a quick detour down to the coast at Brown Bay Beach to catch the sea breeze. It was the perfect quiet moment before the main event begins tomorrow.
Next stop: The Great Ocean Road is calling!
