Our next port of call was going to be the Cape Banks campground, in the Canunda National Park, only a relatively short drive away. Leaving Mt Gambier, we headed south to take a look at Picanninnie Ponds. 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.

Picanninnie Ponds

We drove into Port MacDonnell past a coast that looked bleak and uninviting. The endless stretch of rotting seaweed giving it a unique odour.

Close to Port MacDonnell, there was supposed to be a penguin colony, which seemed to have long gone. However there were some large local penguins on display.

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

 

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 and very dusty but easily manageable for the cars and caravans.

On arrival at the camp a couple of the sites were quite tight but ours was wide, so we shared it with Gordon and his 22ft mobile palace.  Trevor and Clare had the smallest site but it turned out to be the most sheltered 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, which was painted orange and very distinctive. There was a small seal colony on the rocks at the point and so we walked out to take some pics.

I got so excited with the wildlife photo-op I 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.

 

We packed up and headed west along the coast aiming to have lunch around the Beachport area.

First stop was Southend Beach – the end of an extremely long stretch of beach. It was again white sand with turquoise water and obviously a great fishing place.

We continued on then to Beachport stopping at Surf Beach where finally there was a wave albeit a bit small. Gordie and Trev decided to stay and have the first surf of the trip while we all went on into Beachport itself for a coffee and a look around.

Beachport has a very long jetty extending way out into the bay so we walked the length after a coffee at the café just across the road from the jetty.

Beachport had some lovely old buildings – all in the style that seems very characteristic of South Australian buildings with large edge blocks on the corners

Trev and Gordie arrived back from their surf and grabbed a takeaway coffee and we drove on to Salmon Hole a beautiful swimming location on the other side of town.

We decided to have lunch nearby at the Pool of Siloam – a great place to park but the pool looked a bit murky. A local bloke came past and was going in for a dip – all was revealed when he told us that he was going in for his daily treatment for his skin!! Apparently the water in the lake was 7 times saltier than the sea and very good for your skin….

Driving on then towards Kingston our destination for the night, we stopped at Robe for a look but there was not much to see so went on to Pinks Beach, another long beach that was a popular spot for driving 4WDs – seems most beaches here are used as alternate roadways. The water here was warmer than Salmon Hole as it was a huge shallow bay – and Rosie was hoping it would be much the same at the place we were staying….