Exploring

I think The Tantanoola Tiger would make a great title for a song but is infact a local legend, local that is if you live in the Limestone Coast South Australia.  Tantanoola is a quite tiny town somewhere between Millicent and Mount Gambier....as the crow flies. The town is host to the Tantanoola Hotel which has a traditional country pub and a metal Bengal tiger mounted on the roof.

The story goes that in 1884 a Bengal Tiger escaped from a nearby travelling circus.  It was never recaptured but there were many reports of stock going missing local farms.  Some eleven years later a Eurasian Wolf was tracked and shot but the disappearance of livestock continued.  Eventually a local man was charge with stealing livestock and the mystery was solved.  

The town itself has a lovely feel to it, the houses and gardens are well loved.  Sadly the Millicent to Mount Gambier railway line was closed and the link between lots of tiny towns was lost.  But the station and loading shed, here at least, are well preserved and you can almost feel what it was one like.

The population, in 2006, was recorded as 255, though I am not sure what it is now it doesn't look very big.

Tantanoola comes from the Aboriginal word tentunola meaning boxwood/brushwood hill or camp.

We signed up for a Nature Walk offered by South Australia Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources and held at Penambol conservation Park.  
This huge park is looked after by a group of volunteers.  It is heavily forested but has well kept wide unsealed road taking you to the centre where it opens out to native vegetation, a butterfly and a wombat walk.  It is well sign posted making it very easy to do self guided walks here but we were lucky enough to be taken on two short walks by a Butterfly expert and then by a couple of Botanists.

As we gathered for the 'before walk talk' Rick made a sudden dive for the ground.  He'd spotted this little Skink which was heading for the centre of the crowd and in danger of being trodden on.  Taken to safety it then seemed reluctant to leave his hand.

There were plenty of butterflies around even though it is the end of their season.  We're planning to go back between November and April it should be amazing then.

The Botanists talk and walk was fascinating albeit slightly to much information (and latin words) at times.  But they were patient and showed us how to identify some of the trees using the books we have.  This will be very useful and we should be able to put it into practice on the block.

We have had some beautiful evenings at the block and Monday evening was no exception, the moon was almost full and on the rise just as we were treated to a beautiful golden sunset.