Travels to the Limestone Coast – Review – Update

Please disregard previous post

Twenty six Probians, including three from the Probus Club of Breakfast Point and two visitors flew to Melbourne, then boarded the coach for our 6 night tour of parts of Victoria and South Australia.

The tour included the Grampians, the Coorong National Park and the Limestone Coast on the Fleurieu Peninsular, Hahndorf nestled in the Adelaide Hills and Glenelg, a beautiful seaside suburb of Adelaide.

Our first two night stay was in the Halls Gap in the Grampians which have recently been ravaged by bushfires. However, even though was plenty of evidence of the fires, there was still plenty of beautiful scenery and flora and fauna to appreciate and plus fresh air to breathe.

Here at Halls Gap we listened to a talk from a senior firefighter at the Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre. Our driver, Malcolm, then skillfully negotiated bendy roads to two lookouts for stunning views across the park.

Onwards then to Hamilton for a delicious meal of pizza in a beautifully restored country hotel, followed by a visit to Portland and a talk by a local oceanographer at the Maritime Discovery Museum.

We crossed the Victoria/South Australia border arriving at Mount Gambier for the next two nights, visiting the Umpherston Sinkhole on the way. It was created by the collapse of the roof of cave and is now a beautiful garden. 

From our base in Mount Gambier, we visited the Limestone Coast and Kingston (and made acquaintance with Larry the Lobster), Robe and the Woakwine Cutting (google this one …it is an impressive engineering feat) and the famous Blue Lake which occupies an extinct volcano crater and is the water supply for Mount Gambier.

A visit to Penola and a talk about Mary MacKillop which included a visit to the Mary Mackillop Interpretative Centre and was followed by a barbecue lunch and wine tasting at Wynns Coonawarra Estate Winery.

Next stop after leaving Mount Gambier was Meningie, Lake Albert. Then to the historic German village of Hahndorf for a wander through the shops and cafes or, an alternative unscheduled visit to the former home of Hans Heyson, The Cedars where presently an exhibition of drawings and paintings by Nora Heyson is being shown.

We left Hahndorf for our final two nights at Glenelg, Adelaide. From Glenelg, we visited Goolwa where we cruised on a perfect day to the mouth of the Murray River where it enters the Great Southern Ocean. We were entertained by seals sunbaking on the water’s edge and flocks of majestic pelicans.

We lunched at Victor Harbour and some of the group walked out to and around Granite Island before a visit to the stables of the magnificent Clydesdale horses that are used to pull the tram along the causeway from the town to Granite Island. 

Our final destination was en route to the airport, to the Adelaide gardens to view a glass exhibition by American glass artist Chihuly…another surprise excursion.

We certainly covered a lot of ground and experienced some beautiful parts of Victoria and South Australia.

We were fortunate to have beautiful weather every day and to travel with a friendly, happy group of Probus friends lead by Adam, Tania and Malcolm who looked after us so well. 

Judy Mitchell