Nelson & Mt Gambier Region

I’m camped at Nelson as far south west as you can get in Victoria and it’s freezing, but I’m snug inside the heated caravan. Mt Gambier is only 35 Km from Nelson so I headed into town to get some supplies, there is only a small shop and pub in Nelson. The Blue lake is the main feature at Mt Gambier so I put the drone up. It was quite windy so this is the best I could do in putting photos together as the drone doesn’t have a panorama setting. The blue lake doesn’t fit in one shot at 150 m high, the maximum I was allowed to fly in this area. The lake still has a blue tinge but it was a cold, overcast bleak day.

The volcano that created the crater lake last erupted only 4,600 years ago, relatively recently. The lake is formed because the bottom of the crater is below the water table. The photo below was taken at ground level.

Mt Gambier is one of a 100 Km long chain of extinct volcanos that run from Mt Burr down to Mt Schank halfway between Nelson and Mt Gambier. Mt Schank is above the water table so does not contain a lake, I am told, because it was much to cold, and with a howling gale, for me to undertake the 1-1/2 hour walk to the top. The volcanos in this area exploded when the molten rock rose toward the surface and hit the water laden limestone. This caused a massive pressure and blew apart the limestone allowing the molten rock to flow to the surface.

From here I headed for Allendale East where there is a mural on a school hall. It is a small town, so small that my two GPS couldn’t find it. The mural was excellent with amazing detail for such a large painting.

There was also a kids game mural on another building that I liked.

These murals inspired the kids to paint their own, which they did on the school hall.

And they did another on the toilet block.

Today is my birthday so I made up a hamburger roll and headed to Pritchards campground in Lower Glenelg National Park for a picnic lunch. Deen and I camped here a couple of Christmases ago and Marg and I picniced here a number of times, so it was full of good memories. It is a beautiful spot, a bit noisy at the start as a group of school kids were setting off down river on kayaks.

Once the noise subsided all the little birds came out including a beautiful blue wren. He hopped around and on my table and gave me an opportunity to catch him on the camera.

After lunch I put up the drone and disturbed the peace, it was windy up high and the drone had trouble staying level but I was able to level the photos in Lightroom. The campground is on the left of the river and has plenty of trees as you can see. Most sites have their own fireplace and some have picnic tables. The campground is divided into two parts and sites 10 to 20 are in a separate area toward the top of the photo and are more open. National Parks have planted bushes and trees which are starting to separate some sites, 16 to 20 are the best in that section.

There is a jetty and a boat ramp at Pritchards and the boat ramp is 50 – 100 metres from the campground so that means less noise for campers in the early morning.

So that’s Nelson and surrounds, great spot for a quiet holiday. Tomorrow I’m off to Goroke and then into the ‘wilds’ of SA, if there is such a thing.