The Blue Lake and Gardens of Mount Gambier

The town of Mount Gambier is a typical stopover on the road from South Australia to Victoria and before you head to Portland this is the last place where you can get rid of your fruits and vegies before crossing the border.

Its illegal to travel between different states and bringing any organic foods or drinks with you and therefor you're supposed to deposit your groceries in a quarantaine box about a km before entering the next state. Of course we forgot to think about this strange Ozzie law and instead did some grocery shopping in Mount Gambier..smart thinking. So there we parked in our car in front of the quarantaine box, looking out over the middle of nowhere alongside the road while eating as much fruit as we possibly could before driving to Portland in Victoria..

The botanical gardens

Before heading to Portland we decided to stop in Mount Gambier, not just to stuff up on supplies but also to visit some local attractions like the famous Blue Lake and the towns botanical cave gardens.

Besides these attractions Mount Gambier is a very quiet town and hasnt too much to offer tourists. The Blue Lake was nice from the Apex lookout near the visitors centre. The down part was that it was a bit cloudy so we didn't get to see the best colours the lake has to offer when reflecting the sunlight.

The botanical cave gardens were very interesting and beautifully decorated with wildflowers and paved paths. A bit out of the town centre we wanted to visit the Engelbrecht Cave as well but it turned out that we could only access the caves on a guided tour so we passed.

In the end we did get to see some of Mount Gambiers local sights and that was what we wanted but we were glad we didn't booked for a sleepover.