The dawn broke over Mt Gambier and we awoke to the creaking sound of the Wells awning being packed up – Rose and Dave were up early and way ahead of us all in the pack up game.

Leaving Mt Gambier, we headed south to take a look at Picanninnie Ponds – a location recommended to Kerry by Dave T. The ponds are a well-known dive and snorkel site as the water is crystal clear and it has underwater limestone caverns. The visibility is said to often exceed 40m. Unfortunately, the day was overcast and cold with an icy breeze. The ponds were really beautiful, and the water was very clear – the depth at the pontoon was 5.9M.

Parking was tight with Klaus getting the gun spot and Trev taking one for the team with a real lean on the van!

Rose and Kerry worked the camera, but Trev took the honours (must run in the family!!)

We drove into Port MacDonnell past a coast that looked pretty rough and uninviting – lots of seaweed on the beach giving it a unique odour.

Close to Port Mac there was an alleged penguin colony – which seemed to have long gone however there were some large local penguins on display!

After a coffee at Port Mac we continued on along the coast towards Shelly Beach.

Cape Northumberland is the most southern point of South Australia, so we took an obligatory group pic and had a walk.

Klaus and Beryl were feeling very romantic…..

The coastline is beautiful but rugged with obvious reefs out from the shore – no wonder the coast has a long history of multiple shipwrecks.

Camel Rock sat between two rocky outcrops and the water surrounding the rocks was crystal clear.

The destination for the night was Cape Banks Lighthouse campground in Canunda National Park – a “free” camp area. The road in was unsealed – our first offroad drive this trip – dusty limestone road (the Pearl was thankful it was not the red dust!!)

On arrival at the camp a couple of the sites were quite tight – Gordie had the drive through site, but he was not impressed and so Klaus offered to share his site with the Hunters…. our site was so tight as our van was the smallest – but we nabbed the Hunter’s site and as it turned out it was the gun spot with the best shelter from the Antarctic gale that was blowing. As we drove past the Wells site a large black snake slithered into the bush, so we were on snake alert.

After lunch we went for a walk up to the lighthouse – painted orange – very distinctive and then went down to the beach. There was a small seal colony on the rocks at the point and so we walked out to take some pics.

Klaus got so exciting with the wildlife photo-op he did not notice the limestone pothole among the seaweed and suddenly face-planted into the mound of seaweed on the beach. He gave us all a real shock and Trev helped him up – the spiky seaweed had left a real impression as had the limestone with some bark taken off a knee or 2… fortunately the damage did not appear too great – and Klaus had managed to save his camera…

The beach was littered with many varieties of multicoloured seaweeds and finally the sun made an appearance which brightened up the view with the turquoise blue water and white sand making a great contrast.

You could drive on the beach, but we decided to walk along instead – getting windblown all the way. There were a lot of interesting insects around – Gordie made friends with some March flies on the beach that would not leave him alone… and there were a few bull-joes (large black ants with a VERY mean bite) inhabiting the area….not to mention ladybugs and centipedes…and the Hunters had a visit from a spider in their van…

On our return from the walk, we enjoyed happy hour in the protected Loveday camp, then had dinner in the vans out of the incessant wind. It looked very stormy, and thunder was heard in the distance however fortunately the storm circled around us.

The sunset over the sea was beautiful and made for some great pics – including the orange lighthouse. We settled in for the night to the sound of the ocean – always a good way to go off to sleep!