LIMESTONE CAVES

Days 16-17  May 11&12, 2022

Grampians NP – Horsham – Naracoorte – Cape Jervis – Kangaroo Island

It was predicted to rain today so we packed up early and headed north out of the park.  The landscape flattened as soon as we left the park boundary. For the rest of the day we drove through grazing and agricultural fields that stretched out as far as we could see in all directions. The landscape looked uninspiring under a cloudy sky.  We have driven through here in springtime when the fields are a blaze of yellow canola crops with the sharp backdrop of the rugged Grampian range.

A stop for breakfast at Horsham was such a surprise. Great coffee and delicious food. The only thing missing was the now obligatory sourdough toast and avocado we city dwellers have come to expect.

Our plan was to spend the rest of today and tomorrow visiting Naracoorte. It is the location of the worlds largest fossil deposit discovered in a series of limestone caves. 
We had a few hours before dark to visit one cave and planned to return tomorrow for a guided tour of a more distant one.

However our intenerary had to be quickly adjusted as we discovered that our next destination to Kangaroo Island hit a snag. We had accomodation booked but the only ferry booking we could get was for tomorrow afternoon and we can’t get off the island for a week.  We had figured that being out of season it would be relatively easy to get there but the channel crossing was down to only one ferry and Covid has scrambled travel plans for most of us meaning demand is high as there are a lot more people travelling now.

Cape Jervis where the ferry leaves from is 450km away so we need to leave here early tomorrow.  Futher fossil cave exploration will have to wait for another trip.

The next day we had a long drive to reach the ferry terminal in time. More flat grazing and crop growing coutryside till we reached Mt Barker in the hills above Adelaide. We stopped briefly at the decorated wheat silos at Coonalpyn and the nearby huge salt lake which under good light conditions is completely pink. There are quite a few pink salt lakes in South Australia.

From Mt Barker it was nice to start heading south and see the ocean again. Dark skies ahead with rainy periods predicted but much milder air temperature. This will be our first time visiting Kangaroo Island.