Naracoorte, SA

Monday 9 Nov 1998

Leaving Mount Gambier to our rear, we penetrated deep into Blessed Mother Mary McKillop land which has its heart in Penola. We avoided virtually all of the propaganda by focussing on the wine of the Coonawarra.

While parked by the Penola Information Centre occurred one of those bits of serendipity that makes life on the road so immensely fascinating. A lady knocked on the door of the Motley obviously keen to say something. She admitted to being amused by the URL on the back of the truck. She is a self confessed performance poet and playwright who is researching a play about the life of Mary McKillop as a woman who achieved outstanding things in the secular world during her life. She is the owner of a property on Kangaroo Island; well owner is not quite the right word because she considers that she hold the property in trust for everyone, both present and future generations. She left her contact details and begged us to call and stay (free) whenever we get to Kangaroo Island. .

Compared with McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley, the Coonawarra is, above all things, flat. This provides little opportunity for the sudden discovery of a new, beautiful scene or viewpoint. The possibility of somewhere "pretty" took us to the Rymill Winery. The approach up a slight rise along a dirt road leading passed a small wood. Turning into the winery one suddenly sees the obviously new, obviously architect-designed building, very unusual, not at all in the traditional mould of the winery.

Having tippled and tasted and bought, we moved on to the prime target of the day, Bool Lagoon. When we visited Bool Lagoon in February we found Hacks Lagoon nearly dry and all the other lagoons completely empty. There were only a few birds still around

This time we hoped that visiting earlier in the season would ensure that we would see the site at its best.

While there was lots of water in Hacks Lagoon, there were only a few birds, mostly Black Swan, Musk Duck and Masked Lapwing with a few Australian Shelduck. The rest of the reserve had only a little water. We saw no Brolga this time