Took ages to get to sleep (restless legs) but then slept okish. Stu slept like crap though so a slow start. The bed is fairly firm, but moves quite a bit when you move. The shower doesn't seal properly either so water leaks out the bottom all over the floor. Out the door a bit after 10.
Our first stop was Valley Lake to find a spot where we took photos in 1994. Found another spot as well that I mixed up and should have been an afternoon shot.
Then we headed to the northeast side of Blue Lake for a morning shot of the lake.
Next up we headed for the Ian Mitchener Birdhide on the south coast. At first glance all you can see is a bunch of gulls, a black swan and a pelican. But the longer you look the more different birds you see. Stu did a recording of sounds and did a heap of spotting. I took a lot of very mediocre photos (the birds are quite a long way so even at 10x they're still tiny). Stu probably has a list in ebird but it doesn't seem to be submitted. We spent over and hour there and had some snackages as well.
Then it was out to Cape Northumberland to see a lighthouse (from a distance), South Australia's most southerly point, light house ruins and the historic cemetery (overgrown with periwinkle).
Also stopped at the turret lookout but it's not great for 360 views and the flies are bitey.
And went out to Finger Point as well.
Next up we headed out via Blackfellows Caves out to Cape Banks Lighthouse. It's very orange! Stu also did some birdwatching. We saw some crested terns here which was cool.
On the way back we happened on Little Blue Lake so stopped at that.
And did a drive by of Mount Schanck.
Dropped into Coles on the way back to the motel for some supplies.
Back at the motel they'd made the bed and emptied the bin but hadn't changed our towels. Normally I wouldn't mind, but the bath mat was very wet. At least it dried out somewhat during the day.
The motel's blurb on booking.com is completely wrong about a guest laundry - it says "The inn also offers a guest laundry, luggage storage and barbecue facilities". Great. Further down it says "Laundry (Additional charge)", which you could assume means a charge to use the laundry on site, such as a coin-op machine, which would be fine. So we booked the place thinking it had a guest laundry but the turds here lied. It literally doesn't have a laundry at all. I guess the "additional charge" is for them to have it taken off to Jim's Laundry down the road or something. Another point off their booking.com/Google rating when I do it later.
So we grabbed all our washing and headed out to the laundromat. It's stoopidly expensive, but literally the nicest laundromat I've ever been to - clean and modern. You can pay by using an app, or coins, and they have a coin change machine there.
Oh another point on this place.. when we went out to do our washing at 17:47 reception was closed and some people were trying to figure out how to use the kiosk. It's pretty poor that a motel on a main road wouldn't have reception open until at least 18:00 (19:00 would be even better).
Had some beer and our dinner (the Coles here had McCain's veal cordon bleu! Winning!) and watched a couple of episodes of Friends while the washing washed and dried. Then bed.
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