So begins my final (boo times infinity) and my longest road trip. Adelaide to Melbourne, via Tasmania!
Set off the morning on the first leg to Robe. Going to be away 12 days so packed my bits and headed off, every muscle I didnt know I has aching after the surfing yesterday! Still it was going to be a good 4 hours driving today so plenty of sitting down!
Headed out of Adelaide on the Sturt Valley Road, a fantastic up hill and down dale winding road, through some stunning scenery that you will be pleased to hear I could not take pictures of as there were no places to pull in! Went through the lovely town of Stirling that Theresa took me to last year, had the best lunch there that day but not today.
There was some cracking rain through the Sturt Valley but once I got to Mount Barker it had cleared. Then through Murray Bridge and a coffee (and caramel chunky kitkat) stop at Talem Bend. Then the road took me into the Coorong National Park, wetlands, saltlakes (I think thats what they were) and to a little villahe called Meningie. There was a lovely little craft shop there that I couldnt resist, so after a quick browse and a leg stretch it was onwards and upwards.
My next stop took me by suprise because I knew that I would come across it at some point but not quite sure where, so I was surprised to see the Big Red Lobster appear the town before Robe, Kingstone. Now the Big Red Lobster is indeed what it says, 15m high and it was an advertising gimick that went s bit wrong (or right - was meant to be 1.5 m but they got measurements wrong!) so now is one of many 'big' things around Oz (remember the Galah at Kimba.....) It is actually advertises a cafe of the same name (strangely enough) so I popped in and got s coffee and a fridge magnet for my collection.....
Then not too far on was the beautiful heritage of Robe (after an encounter with a suicidal kangaroo at exactly 2.40pm! I missed it by about an inch!) In Robe many of the buildings dating back to the middle to late 1800's and they are made of gorgeous limestone bricks. It is so quaint, my Mum would love it here! I was looking for Lakeside View Youth Hostel which was my bed for the night. I passed a place that I thought could not be it as it looked to posh, but after enquiring at the visitor centre theh informed me that was indeed the place. It is not actually owned by YHA infact but they book for it, well not any more. As I found out....... The place had no record of my booking and had no rooms available. They had recently taken themselves off the YHA website as I was not the first person it had happened to.
Well to cut a long story short they contact YHA and (hopefully) got my money refunded and told me there was a pub in the town called The Caledonian Inn which is where they sent unfortunates like me with nowhere to stay!
All I can say is thank you YHA for stuffing up my booking! The pub is wonderful, I was a bit sceptical at first at the bathrooms are shared but after taking a quick look I was won over. My room has a sea view (and I can hear the ocean crashing on the beach) and the bedrooms are so oldy worldy with wrought iron beds and chunky mismatched furniture just like I would decorate them!
So after the lovely owner, Linda had sorted me out and given me a bit of a discount I settled into room 5 before heading out to explore the town and find my sunset spot. The coastline in these parts is really rugged and waves crash on the rocks and cliffs. It really reminds me of the Dorset Jurassic coastline, stunning but a bit warmer! Robe is not big so after the main beach I went up to Cape Dombey and the obelisk and the doorway rock (does what it says on the tin....) Round the coast a bit further bought me to Commodore Lookout where there are blowholes. Nothing happening today but with the ocean as it is I could hear them wooshing away! The cliffs are being eroded constantly they overhang quite dramatically, so I was very careful not to get too close to the edge!
I decided on the obelisk for sunset so it was off to the town to go with my left over quiche from last night. Proper cut chips from the chippy in paper with my quiche and salad, overlooking the sea. Lovely. All alone again, even more lovely, but was missing Colin, he would have loved it here......
Well as the waves crashed against the rugged coastline and the sun set on another day, the sky turned the most amazing shade of pink and everything around had a pink hue. The Blueberry didnt pick the colours up to well but the pics arent bad. It really gave me goosebumps.
I am now sitting in the bar of the pub with a large glass of dry white, actually updating my blog on the actual day it happened! Once the pics are loaded is off down the hall to bedfordshire where my little cottage bedroom with the ocean sounds and views await. Onwards to Port Fairy tomorrow and lets hope it lives up to the name and that the YHS comes through.....or not!
Night night xxx
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