Off to see the glow in the dark mushrooms!

Just around the corner from where we had been camped is the Umpherston Sinkhole Garden. We got there around 10:00am, and it was already quite busy! It's free to go down and wander around, and I guess because it was a Saturday of the long weekend (Monday is a National holiday here in Australia) and it was a beautiful sunny morning, people were out and about.

Did you notice I said it was a beautiful sunny morning? Yes, we had blue sky and sunshine!

It's an odd location... walking from the parking area it just seems like you're in a nice park like setting. Then all of a sudden there is this big hole in the ground!

There is lots of vegetation.

And quite a few different animals and insects live in the sinkhole.

There are a lot of bees!

And some possums.

The possums were supposed to be sleeping during the day. But this one animal was up and about. They are very tame, and in fact it's a popular thing here to come in the evening to feed the possums.

But we didn't have any food for this fellow. 

You can see how close Ruth is to him.

It's an interesting spot.

Next we headed over to the Valley Lake Conservation area. Again, it's really close to the city itself, but once you are there it doesn't feel like it. When we were walking the other day, we spoke to a lady who told us about this place... she said there's usually nobody there and it's really peaceful and there is lots of wildlife and birds.

And yes, there was lots of wildlife!

This is a little one!

Mom and the little one.

There are not just kangaroos. There are wallabies as well, and we haven't quite got the differences figured out yet. And there are other ones too that look like kangaroos to us, but they aren't. Like I said, we don't have it all figured out yet.

Such as these Tasmanian Pademelons!

The cereopsis goose has a green beak!

Ruth, doing some bird watching.

Us!

A purple swamp hen.

A red wattlebird.

Not many colors... just a little pink on his cheeks and some yellow under the belly.

We had a good hour and a half in there, but we still had other things to see and do. Next up was the top of Mount Gambier!

But there is no real trail up there... only a road. So we drove up, although you still have to climb a very steep path for about a half a kilometer.

Beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.

We could even see the ocean from the top.

This tower was built in 1904.

Looking down on Valley Lake, and the town of Mount Gambier.

We could see where we left Joyce and Bundy... right in the center of the photo!

Kevin, and some scenery along the way.

We're headed up to Grampian National Park for a few days, so we needed some supplies. Back into town and we got some grocery shopping done prior to heading out to see the ghost mushrooms. Yes, glow in the dark mushrooms.

Glow in the dark mushrooms?

Uh huh.. A very rare phenomenon and they just happen to grow near here. And, they're only glowing during May and June. So we had better go see them!

We went and checked the place out ahead of time and found some of the mushrooms. They just look like regular old fungi in the daylight...

But you have to go back when it's pitch black outside to see them glowing green.

We're on our way there now... you'll have to check back in the next blog post to see if I could get any decent photos!

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