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<\/a><\/p>\nThere was an “Instagrammer” on our flight sitting just across from us.<\/p>\n
She spent the entire flight using various filters on her photos with very intricate detail, trying to eliminate God knows what from her face.\u00a0 She was wearing a ton of makeup to begin with, so I’m not entirely sure what improvements all of this work was doing, but she was very focused on it.\u00a0 It was honestly quite sad.\u00a0 Bottom line, if you see a photo on Instagram, rest assured it’s been heavily doctored!<\/p>\n We picked up our rental car and proceeded to drive east towards the little town of Robe.\u00a0 Along the way we stopped at a little spot that called Granite Beach.\u00a0 I thought we might see some more “Remarkable Rocks”, but it was just a few boulders in the surf.\u00a0 Still, pretty surf!<\/p>\n After arriving in Robe and checking into our hotel we took a walk along the nearby peninsula, and ran across the ruins of prison (known as a Gaol) that was built to house convicts that were on their way to Adelaide.<\/p>\n This sign about a nearby shipwreck of the Admella is interesting in that this little prison had several escapes since it was easy to dig through the limestone walls.\u00a0 They ended up reinforcing the walls with boiler plates from the wreck.<\/p>\n This was one of those reinforced walls, but it was an interior to an interior wall, so I’m not sure this was an original placement.<\/p>\n We continued our walk along the waterfront of Robe, and the southern coast of Australia continues to impress with its rugged appearance!<\/p>\n The limestone consistently makes for a lot of arches.<\/p>\n The next day we made our way east towards Mount Gambier, and made a scenic drive of Beachport on the way.\u00a0 Gorgeous views of the coastline!<\/p>\n These south coast beach views will never get old!<\/p>\n We arrived in Mount Gambier with some extra time to kill, so we visited the local #1 attraction, the Umpherston Sinkhole!<\/p>\n A sinkhole as a #1 attraction?\u00a0 This one is quite unique, as it’s been transformed into a garden space, complete with palm trees!<\/p>\n I’ve gotta say I’ve never seen a more attractive sinkhole!\u00a0 At one point in time these would have been a cave that ended up collapsing thousands of years ago.<\/p>\n The sinkhole is well known for having a lot of Australian Possums, that mostly come out at night as the locals come here and feed them fruit.\u00a0 As we were leaving I was lucky enough to spot one of them right next to the stairway leading out.\u00a0 Sorry buddy, I didn’t bring any fruit!<\/p>\n Attraction #2 is The Blue Lake, a former volcanic crater which changes color throughout the year based on the various levels of differing elements in the water.<\/p>\n Fortunately it remains bright blue through the end of March!\u00a0 This is the main water supply for the locals in Mount Gambier.<\/p>\n The next morning, after breakfast, we visited the much smaller sinkhole called Cave Garden, which is smack dab in the middle of town, right next to City Hall.<\/p>\n There is actually a cave in the bottom of this sinkhole, but it’s not accessible.\u00a0 Not that we were hankering to get in there.<\/p>\n Here is the beautiful City Hall building from 1882.\u00a0 Love the old clock that chimed 11 right before I took this photo.<\/p>\n We drove further east, and were going to be too early for our next check-in, so we stopped in the little town of Hamilton and visited their Botanic Gardens.\u00a0 The gardens were not the highlight though.\u00a0 It was these guys up in the trees, making an incredible racket!!<\/p>\n A little closer look.<\/p>\n These are Flying Fox Bats, who have to be the bats that influenced the Dracula stories!<\/p>\n I’m Batman!\u00a0 There were about 300 of these bats in the trees.\u00a0 Quite creepy.<\/p>\n This sign was rather low key considering how many of these bats were there.<\/p>\n There was one pretty spot in the garden!\u00a0 No bats nearby either!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n