Chasing Pelicans

Our six nights in Robe came to an end, so it was time to move on.  It was not the end of the holiday yet, as we were heading further from home, to Meningie on Lake Albert. This involved driving through The Corrong which is a vast coastal ecosystem with a combination of freshwater lakes, saline lakes, lots of dunes and a beach that stretches for around 200 km’s. The highway does not get the traveller right into The Corrong, so we took a few little detours along the way to experience some of the nature and history on offer.

One detour was to Chinaman’s Well. In 2015 in Ararat we found out about the Chinese gold prospectors who landed in South Australia to avoid the Victorian taxes and then tried walking hundreds of kilometres to the goldfields. Today we found a fascinating piece of history linked to this – a well built by some of these Chinese settlers. Many did not attempt to make the difficult journey and many perished. Some set up camp to cater to the travellers. This well is an example of that.

The top of the well is one carved piece of stone. 900 metres away we found where they ‘dug’ the top out of. We had to wonder how they got that heavy stone the distance in the soft sandy ground, then how did they lift it to the top of their stone well?

There was a failed attempt at carving a top nearby. It had a large crack in it, so it must have been abandoned.

The salt lakes were quite dry and crusty, no chance of sinking in the mud!

We next took the ‘Loop Road’ which turned out to be a very corrugated unsealed road. The car and van shook violently as we slowly trundled our way along the 10 km detour. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed a couple of short walks in search of some more geocaches.

Back on the main highway we came across the only settlement in The Corrong, Salt Creek. It is basically a road house and not much else. We treated ourselves to an ice-cream before continuing on.

At Jack’s Point we saw our first pelicans – in fact we saw hundreds of them. They were all flying. They were all heading the same direction and they just kept coming. Obviously they had places to be and things to do!

Walking around it was important to watch where one was going as there were lots of these guys with large webs...

We arrived in Meningie and went straight to the Lake Albert Caravan Park. We set up, right on the shores of Lake Albert. It was a lovely spot. It was ours for the next few nights. 

The sun sets across the lake, so we were hopeful of some photogenic evenings! The first night was quite golden...