Apr 8, Kingston, Coorong Natl Park, Meningie, Goolwa

We had our first Skype with Arika, Sasha & Shanton and found out that Shanton broke his arm and has a purple cast. Sasha got a Hello Kitty shirt from the Easter Bunny.

First stop, Kingston and an Analemmatic Sundial. This type of sundial is laid out on the ground, but it needs a person to cast the shadow for the time. There was a flat stone in the center with a figure 8 carved on it. Dates were marked on the eight. Around the flat stone 15 upright stones were arranged in an arc and labeled with times. To tell time, a person stands on the flat stone next to the closest date, with the sun at his back. His shadow falls on the correct time. There are only 8 of these sundials in the world.
Also in Kingston was a giant crayfish sculpture, Larry the Lobster.

From there we drove along the Coorong Natl Park. Between the road and the Southern Ocean was sand dunes, lakes and salt marshes. There has been so little rain, the salt marshes were dry and lakes were down. Not much in the way of birds here either. On the other side of the road were salt pans, areas where the sea water has dried and left salt behind. It wasn't a very interesting road, the lakes and dunes were hidden behind trees. We saw a sign for a loop road and an overlook and we took the road. It was 14 km of washboard road and no lookout that we could find. Toward the end of the main road we could see the sand dunes and the water and it was beautiful and because of its remoteness it looked untouched.

In Meningie we walked along Lake Albert and drove up to a lookout over the lake. There are 2 large fresh water lakes here, Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina. The Murray River, travels 2500 km from New South Wales to get to the ocean by way of these lakes. At Wellington we took a ferry across the Murray then drove to Milang. There by the lake was a tree with the biggest flock of cockatoos we've seen.
And there was a row of what they called 'heritage work men's shacks' - about the size of single car garages all in a row right on the shore.

At Goolwa, we drove out to see a barrage on the Murray River. It looks like a dam and works a bit like one, but it's main purpose is to keep the salty sea water out of the river. Because so much water is diverted for cities and agriculture upstream, the river doesn't send enough water downstream to keep the salt water from moving upstream. That kills fish and destroys the river ecosystem. The barrage makes sure the river level is higher than the sea and controls the amount of water in the river. It has special kinds of fish ladders to help fish move up and down the river. There are 6 barrages on the Murray, but this was the only one we could see and walk over.

There was also a lookout where we could see the mouth of the Murray, where it empties into the Southern River. That's where we spent the night.

Pictures - Jeanne in the sundial, Samson & Larry the Lobster, River Murray Ferry, Cockatoos, Barrage, Sunset over the Murray