South Australia has Australia’s most underrated road trip
This trip began with pangs of disappointment but ended with the discovery of one of Australia’s best, but little known, road trip adventures.
Disappointingly, there are no balloons or brass bands waiting for me at the South Australian border when it reopens – after 251 days – to its Victorian neighbours on December 1. But that’s the only let-down on a revealing road trip to the Limestone Coast.
The surprises start at Mount Gambier, just over state lines, South Australia’s second-largest city and one of its most dramatic. The city basically clings to the side of a volcano, which seems unwise but the effect is striking.
At the summit is the Blue Lake, surely Australia’s most beautiful water supply. Fed by an aquifer, every year in late November the crater lake’s colour changes magically from grey to a blinding Caribbean blue.
The Kilsby Sinkhole near Mount Gambier.Source:Supplied
There’s a terrific 3.6km walking circuit around the rim, so the shimmering spectacle can be admired from every angle. This region’s defined by its craters, lakes and sinkholes, or cenotes, filled with crystal-clear waters that lure divers from around Australia.
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For non-divers, there’s the Umpherston Sinkhole on the edge of town, a sunken pleasure garden designed in 1886 by the former state MP James Umpherston.
It’s a surreal sensation to descend the wooden staircase, Alice in Wonderland-style, to an open chamber with ivy cascading down stone walls, terraced flower beds and trim green lawns, crowned by two lofty slender palms.
The Limestone Coast is a new name for an ancient landscape that started life as a seabed some 20 million years ago. The term captures the area’s unique geology, but undersells its breadth of experiences, from volcanic plains to exceptional wines and a coastline of lovely, lonely beaches.
An hour’s drive north of Mount Gambier is a small town (population 137) and a venerable wine region. It’s compact, with just 5000 hectares of vines, but more than 20 cellar doors along a 15km stretch of the rose-lined Riddoch Highway.
Long Beach on the Limestone Coast near Robe. Picture: SATCSource:Supplied
The flagship varieties are cabernet sauvignon and shiraz raised in the iron-rich terra rossa soils, but cellar door tastings offer diverse wines and experiences.
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