Adelaide to Melbourne

 It had rained overnight and the radar map showed more to come as we set off to Melbourne.

This is perhaps my favourite drive that takes a whole day. It has distinctively different parts and there is usually not much traffic.

An overcast day.

Our last crossing of the Murray River and the aptly named Murray Bridge.

For years we have stopped to get petrol at Tailem Bend where there is a fine view of the river.

The flood plain.

Car ferry across the river. I believe the Beatles wrote a song about it -

'Ferry, across the Murray'.

At certain times of year, the water in the lakes around here has a pinkish tinge.

We came to the Coorong area where there is a lake between the road and sandhills by the ocean.

Sometimes the lake is quite wide.

The remains of a volcano in Mount Gambier. In late spring, the water turns a deep blue.

The rain kept coming in little showers all day.

Finally, we came to our guest house at Cape Bridgewater. It as blowing a gale so we did not linger outside.

The Cape.

We had stayed here 10 years prior in 2012 and the owner claimed to remember us. He keeps details of every guest over the years and if you displease him, you are not allowed to come back. Of course, I have a blog from back then with much better photos and more about the petrified forest at the Cape.

Even the breakfast was the same.

One of the nice features of the place is the kitchen where guests can gather and talk. We had conversations with a couple from Adelaide and also a couple from the Netherlands who were living in Mildura. The husband was a project manager working for a mining company. Mildura was quite a change from Holland and also Mississippi where they had been working a year ago.

It absolutely poured that night, but we headed off in the gloom to Melbourne.

We arrived at the Twelve Apostles National Park but we did not linger because of the rain.

There was plenty of wind. On a nice day, it is a glorious experience. Not so much this day in the wind and rain.

A lot of effort has gone into restoring the vegetation to prevent erosion.

London Bridge. The island was attached to the land but the arch fell down in 1990 leaving two tourists stranded. They were rescued by helicopter.

I first went to this area in 1973 and at the time, you just drove up close to the attraction and could walk all around it. This is where you parked beside the Thunder Cave blowhole but it is no longer accessible. The walk to the viewpoint is now over 500 meters. In rainy weather, we didn't want to get wet so we returned to the car.

For much better photos on a sunny day, click here.