The Long Road to Melbourne - Naracoorte Caves

12 October
The drive from Adelaide to Melbourne is a long one, but luckily there are plenty of outstanding stopovers.

400km from Adelaide is the Naracoorte Cave National Park.

This is South Australia’s only World Heritage listed site, and apparently featured in “Life on Earth". Since their discovery in the 1800s, the underground limestone caves have yielded all manner of bones and fossils which have enabled scientists to identify early Aussie “mega fauna”, as well as the history of current species such as the Bent Wing Bats which live in the one of the caves today. Tens of thousands of these bats are observed using infra red cameras. Its one of only 2 sites where they breed, hence the species is “critically endangered” and carefully protected.
Some fantastic skies made the rest of the drive more interesting - cotton wool clouds against an infinite blueness, with the parched land beneath.

South Australia has a real water shortage problem. The Murray River has sustained the region for generations, but it seems that climate change, demand from wineries and generally wasteful habits have meant that its “situation critical” now. I heard that with restrictions on irrigation, the largest wine producers could well go out of business. Stock up on Jacobs Creek - it may not be available 5 years from now!