The Limestone Coast

The ferry back from Kangaroo Island was definitely not as smooth as the way over. The rolling swell had me reaching for the sides of the boat. The outside deck, usually a place which eases my sea sickness, was no relief this time as the vessel was carrying livestock trucks and the smell threatened to push me over the edge. But we eventually made it back to shore and I thankfully managed to hold onto my breakfast.

Jetting down the coast we made sure to stop through Murray Bridge to see the Bunyip, as recommended by Tate. We were sorely disappointed to find it was out of order, but we were able to imagine what a sight it would have been from what we could see.

It was a pretty miserable day, wet and windy, but this didn’t deter us from stopping in at Kingston, Robe and Beachport on our way down. It was a shame about the weather, as each town would have been glorious for a swim and to stay longer. We still walked the length of each jetty where we could however we were shocked to see the Kingston Jetty twisted and smashed up, with pieces of jetty strewn far up the beach. We looked it up and apparently the coast had been hit by 7 metre swell in May 2025 that had destroyed the jetty and many others. We found this was the case at Robe as well, with the jetty in a similar condition.

From Beachport we left the coast to go to the inland town of Millicent. Following directions left by Gran, we found the farm we grew up on. It was a very special moment.

Gran’s farm!

At Millicent we went to the Millicent Swimming Lake, which was an awesome free public swimming lake in town. We didn’t swim though due to the cold weather.

From Millicent we made our way down to Ewen’s Pond. The freshwater, aquifer fed series of pools had been on my snorkelling bucketlist for a long time for its crystal clear waters.

We donned our wetsuits and jumped in. It was absolutely freezing, even with our wetsuits on. But the cold was worth it for the sight. The first pool was deep and filled with fish and freshwater plants. It was magical. Then to get to the next pool, we swam into a shallow channel and let the slow current pull us along. By the time we got out I was near freezing but smiling ear to ear from the experience.

We then headed for Mount Gambier via the Little Blue Lake, another swimming lake, all freezing. We decided we hadn’t thawed enough to hop into that one.

We spent the night in Mount Gambier at the caravan park and the next day opted to walk into the centre of town to explore and see some sights. We went to the three different crater lakes, the Cave Garden and did a tour at Engelbrecht Cave. The tour was very interesting with the cave once used as a piggery and distillery waste dump. Just chuck it down the hole aye? The cave has since been cleaned out by Lions volunteers and is a popular cave diving site now. The water in the cave apparently connects to the Blue Lake, Little Blue Lake and Ewen’s Pool all as part of the same aquifer.

We stayed another night in Gambier and were tempted to stay another as well, but weather forecasts suggested storms for the region so we decided to move on and head north. We couldn’t leave Mount Gambier without visiting the stunning Umpherston Sinkhole though!! All in all we thoroughly enjoyed Mount Gambier. There was so much to do, it was very beautiful and very interesting.

We made sure to check out the Naracoote Caves on our way north and do a tour of the fossil cave. It was incredible and there was a jaw dropping amount of fossils in the cave.

We crossed the border into Victoria near Naracoote, bound for the Grampians. And with that, the South Australian leg of our trip was complete. We both agreed that the Limestone Coast was our favourite region in SA, just so much to do and unparalleled beauty. First state done!