Day 43 – October 13 2012

Before we left Kingston this morning we stopped & took a photo of Larry the Lobster, the giant statue that makes a statement about the main industry in town, he sure is large.  We also had a look at the sundial in the park, this sundial is unusual in that it uses a person as the pointer, standing in a particular spot depending which month of the year it is.  We then headed to Cape Jaffa, an even smaller fishing village & from where the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse came from.  Cape Jaffa has an elaborate & new harbour complex built, with house blocks to fund it.  There are a few houses built there, but it looks way out of place, there is no other infrastructure around to support the community.  Again Cape Jaffa relies on fishing for survival & crayfishing when in season.  We walked out on the small jetty, the rails were lined with hundreds of terns facing into the wind & as we walked close they took flight, one by one.  An amazing sight.  From the end of the jetty we could see the platform rising out of the sea where the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse once stood.

We said our goodbyes to the sea & turned inland, where we stopped on the side of the road just past Naracoorte for lunch to finish off our fruit before we crossed the Victorian border.  We turned off the Wimmera Highway onto the Nihll-Harrow Road & followed it until we reached the central section of Little Desert National Park.  We stopped at the Stringybark Walk & had a short walk around the loop to get a feel for this desert & to wake us up, Tereza was sleeping & I started to get tired.  The wildflowers are just starting to come out, there are a lot of plants that will be out in a few more weeks.  One plant that is spectacular is a small orchid that just pops out of the ground, this orchid is so small, yet extraordinarily beautiful.   There are not many birds around.

We continued the drive to Nhill & then down to Dimboola, where we turned into the eastern section of the Little Desert National Park.  We only drove a short distance before we reached our destination at the Horseshoe Bend Campground on the banks of the Wimmera River.  There are around 15-20 campsites & we chose a nice one away from the other campers.  After setting up we went for a short walk along the riverbank, again admiring the wildflowers & the large numbers of all different species of birds.  It is very nice to be once again camping in the bush.  We had a nice BBQ & I’m a little tired after the 352km of driving today.  We had another good day.  The weather is starting to warm up again, it reached 20 C today.