Australia travel: A mother-daughter road trip in South Australia

Looking for a cool mother-daughter holiday in the wake of Mother’s Day? Dani Wright and her daughter Georgie, 14, tour South Australia’s Limestone Coast on a road trip from Mount Gambier to Robe.

In The Border Mail newspaper dated October 16, 1886, a journalist described Mount Gambier’s Umpherston Sinkhole/Balumbul, a lush sunken garden that began as the folly of politician and farmer James Umpherston, as giving its high society visitors “an uncanny sort of feeling not unmixed with enjoyment”.

Lovingly restored by local volunteers from the 1970s, it still holds up to that promise of serenity on the city fringe with its sheets of ivy draping from terraced walls and hydrangeas showing the first promise of blooms against oversized ferns all the way into the 20m-deep limestone crater.

Mount Gambier is our first introduction to the Limestone Coast, with its unique geology formed as a seabed some 20 million years ago. It wins us over immediately with its beauty and elements of surprise, which seem to be around every corner of South Australia’s second-largest city.

On the way past the library in the middle of town, we come across another, smaller, sinkhole known as Cave Garden/Thugi, which was the original source of water for the early settlers, and just out of town we visit Blue Lake, positioned in a dormant volcano, which changes colour to a vivid turquoise blue in the summer months.

Hikers walk the many trails, such as the 3.6km walking circuit around the rim, and holidaymakers stop to see the views and to leave engraved “love” locks on the wooden rails.

Later, we escape the thunderstorms by descending into the Kilsby Sinkhole in thick wetsuits, flippers, masks and snorkels to see close-up the crystal-clear water that has been much photographed by underwater divers.

Located on a sheep farm, the sinkhole is a classic bell shape, which flares out like a football field at the bottom and is 65 meters deep. Direct sun in the middle of the day sends down a beam of light through the water to illuminate the entire chamber.

Snorkelling at the top feels like we’re in the 1990s film The Goonies as we explore the watery cave with its swallow nests, spiderwebs and a resident pet turtle.

“Look up – it’s nearly as pretty as looking down,” suggests Graham Kilsby, whose family has owned this land for 130 years. “No matter the weather, it’s always the same down here – consistent conditions and 50-60m visibility.”

It’s the perfect controlled environment for beginner snorkellers to practise without the surge of tides or threat of sharks, as well as being a renowned cave scuba diving site (one of 18 in the region).

The next day, we travel to the World Heritage-listed fossil caves at Naracoorte, passing along the narrow 20-kilometre, 2km wide wine region of Coonawarra, packed with more than 24 cellar doors.

Before sampling the wines, we explore Victoria Fossil Cave, where a little boy named Tom tells us he’s never been in a cave before, but in case we’re wondering – he’s not scared.

It’s nice and cool in the caves as we walk, a little scared, deep down two sets of stairs to what feels like a cathedral space covered in honeycomb-coloured candle-like formations of varying shapes and sizes.

“In the past, guides would bang spoons on the stalactites and stalagmites to make music, clambering over the limestone past fairies they’d placed in the caves to entertain the crowds,” says our guide Danielle. “I’d be shot if I did that today.”

These days, palaeontologists pore over the tiniest bones as if they were forensic scientists piecing together a cold case investigation. They’re finding clues about what the region once looked like and questioning the role of humans and climate change in the extinction of megafauna, the large animals that once lived here.

On the way back, we stop at the elegant Brand’s Laira winery to sip wine handmade from grapes off 129-year-old vines and nibble on a lunch platter presented on a long wooden table inside founder Eric Brand’s original fruit-packing shed, now decorated with dusty wine bottles and antiques.

The flagship varieties for the Coonawarra are cabernet sauvignon and shiraz raised in the iron-rich terra rossa soils and while it’s known for bold reds, it’s the flavoursome aromatic whites that take my attention with their elegance and crispness.

I’m glad to have picked up a couple of bottles as we detour to renowned fishing villages dotted along the Limestone Coast.

At Port MacDonnell, we meet a Victorian farmer who tells us the historic township is famous for its rock lobsters and that anyone can get a piece of the action without the need for a boat or craypot.

In summer, he tells us the town’s breakwater can be lined with around 100 people luring 2-3kg rock lobster out from the rocks with meat on a fishing line before snatching them up in nets as they try to scurry back to their rocky home after their feed.

There’s no one braving the elements out there on the day we visit as the wild winds make even getting in and out of the car treacherous, but the freshest fish and chips and the delightful fishermen’s cottages to view around the authentic fishing village make it worth a detour to the town. Affectionately called The Bay, it’s an unspoilt coastal treasure.

Further down the coast, we hit Robe, the more touristy and boutique-laden fishing town, also famous for its rock lobster. The pure white sand and ice-clear turquoise water are other drawcards to this seaside town, one of South Australia’s oldest.

Remnants of history can be found at every turn, such as the heritage-listed cottages and pretty Caledonian Inn on the main street. There are also coastal walks and Long Beach, where you can drive on to the hardened sand over summer as hundreds of cars vie for spots.

Just out of town, there’s also an intriguing camel milking tour at Humpalicious Camel Milk farm run by husband-and-wife team TJ and Warwick Hill.

We watch as the camels are milked and admire the babies with their long legs and knobbly knees, before feeding them by hand, feeling their hairy lips gently scoop up the dry pellets from our outstretched fingers.

Later, we try the milk, a frothy, tasty and non-allergenic light-flavoured milk, delicious on its own as well as in the humpacino, chocolate milkshake and frozen yoghurt we sample.

They’ve also created a camel milk feta cheese and are now working on a camembert and halloumi, as well as camel pies and bratwurst to add to the menu for the summer afternoon tours that will feature a solar buggy camel safari.

Afterwards, we settle back inside our accommodation at Villa Pescatore, a coastal-chic restored fisherman’s cottage, and shelter inside as rain lashes the roof and wind blows everything outside back and forth in a clanging choir.

The next day, activities are cancelled, shops are closed and without internet connection, we waste time gazing endlessly out of the top-floor window over a restless ocean. Childhood memories of rainy summer holiday boredom eventually make our fidgeting bones relax and our thoughts settle.

Somehow, though, it’s the perfect finish to our South Australian holiday and the slowing down process gives us, just like those escaping the rush of the city and summer heat in days gone by at Umpherston Sinkhole/Balumbul . . . “an uncanny sort of feeling not unmixed with enjoyment.”

Getting there

Mount Gambier is just under a five-hour drive from both Adelaide and Melbourne. Robe is about an hour and a half’s drive from Mount Gambier.

Stay

Aloha Studios in Mount Gambier is a centrally-located studio apartment style option, with Villa Pescatore providing sweet beach-house vibes over the road from Robe’s Long Beach.

Eat & drink

Mount Gambier has a thriving cafe scene, including family-owned and run coastal boho-styled Presto Eatery with a four-shot supersized coffee to wake you up and laneway-located Cafe Melzar with the best granola in town. The Barn restaurant has an impressively large and award-winning wine list, as well as country-style steakhouse meals and famously decadent “big boy” cubed potato “chips” slathered in a cheese sauce.

Robe has plenty of small businesses run by clever young locals to support, including The Pastry Place for pork, apple and fennel sausage rolls made with buttery soft pastry, Union Cafe for Nutella French toast and Salubrious Hour for smoothies and apparel featuring their delightful hand-drawn Robe icons such as lobsters, seagulls and the town’s famous red and white obelisk. Head to the industrial part of town, where the locals shop, for the freshest fish and chips at Sky Seafoods, freshly roasted coffee beans at Mahalia Coffee Store, beer from the Robe Town Brewery or wood-smoked meats from Mike’s Beef Jerky.

For more things to see and do in the area, visit southaustralia.com