mt gambier

Blue Lake

a few friends told us that Mt Gambier was nothing to exciting and in fact, we probably shouldn’t really stop there because they’re a bit crazy. we decided to stop anyhow. 

Umpherston Sinkhole

we first explored the Umpherston sinkhole. sounds lovely, no? well, it was. lovely that is. it felt very “secret garden” actually. as you make your way down, you become fully aware of the lushness of it all. thick ivy hanging down, green grass, rows upon rows of blooming pink hydrangias. apparently when the property was still owned by the umpherstons, there was water in 1/3 of the sinkhole, which would have been even more magical.  the family used the space as their own private oasis during the hot south australian summers. now i imagine it get used for plenty of wedding or ball photos. it would be an excellent amphitheater as well.

next up, the Englebrecht caves- so named because mr. englebrecht used the caves as a dump for his distillery (before they knew it was an actual cave, not just a bottomless well. how nice.) we took a guided tour down into the caves and our guide was very knowledgeable about the area. the caves have been open to the public since sometime in the 1980’s, after 6 years (6!) of preparing- read: digging and cleaning out dirt/rocks from the cave's entrance. both caves have water in them and they open into larger bodies of water under the city itself. they are incredibly popular spots for cave divers from around the world. cave diving sounds both spectacular and terrifying. mostly terrifying though. *shiver* i can't imagine being down in a cave, so dark you can't see without your headlamps, needing to carry 2 of everything with you, you know, just "in case" and trailing a long rope with you to make sure you can get back out. see, terrifying.

the guide informed us that there is essentially a network of caves all around mt gambier, which theoretically could give way any day (but not likely for thousands of years) but most mt gambierites are none the wiser. in fact, most don’t even seem to know that they’re living over limestone caves, let alone ones that could collapse.

Englebrecht cave

after a quick lunch, we made our way to the famed Blue Lake. what makes this lake interesting is that the water dramatically changes colour: in winter, the lake is a dull grey-green colour and in summer it’s a sparkling sapphire blue. the colour change was mysterious for many years, but they’ve now figured out that it has to do with the calcium carbonate in the water and the heat/sun in summer. the lake is in a (geologically) young volcanic crater- only approx 20 000 years old. blue lake is the main source of water for mt gambier and has approx 60 000 megaliters, of which 5 000 are used per year.

we did the aquifier tour at the blue lake. it started down near the pump house, where the intricacies of how the water gets to mt gambier’s citizens and the general history of the lake was explained. we then rode an (incredibly snug) elevator (with 8 other people) down 30m to the lake’s edge (not quite actually. still a few metres up but as close as you can get), where we were able to see the actual pumps and get a closer look at the lake. i thought the colour of the lake was great, but it seemed to be as blue as most lakes at home (or elsewhere, for that matter). john disagreed. he thinks that it's much bluer then most lakes.

we stopped in the downtown area for a short while at the end of the day. we were quite surprised by the fact that the downtown wasn’t only nice looking, it was actually busy and had useful things in the shops. most communities of this size don’t have a “downtown” - at least not a functional one. they’d be all “big boxed” up. it was nice that this place was different.

i’m glad we decided to stop in Mt Gambier.  it has a surprisingly large amount of cool things going for it. sometimes it’s good when your expectations are low because you’re more likely to be pleasantly surprised in the end.

xo