We’ve loved Victor Harbor, and really enjoyed staying here, but it’s time to move on. We plan to head down the coast today to Robe. Interestingly, there was a mass-exodus from the caravan park this morning. We ended up having 4 other sites occupied in our area by Monday night, and all but one packed up and left this morning. They’re going to have the whole area to themselves.
We left just before 10am. The plan was to head straight to Robe – but as there is no direct road (Lake Alexandrina is in the way), we first needed to head north to Murray Bridge before heading south again. Google says the trip will take 4 hours, but with our stops every hour or so, and travelling at 90, I knew it would take longer (the trip ended up taking 5.5 hours).
The first leg was windy roads and great views as we headed up the mountains. We joined the M1 highway just before Murray Bridge but decided to head into town to take a look. We stopped at the side of the road at a fruit and veg shop where Teresa bought some salad for tonight.
After Murray Bridge, travelling down the east side of Lake Alexandrina, the scenery changed to be mostly flat. It reminded us of the flat plains on the way to Mildura. The road headed to the coast the followed it the rest of the way.
This section of coastline has a long lagoon called the Coorong running parallel to the coast separated by a high sand dune. The road is on the land side of the Coorong so while we saw a lot of water, we didn’t see any coast.
Salt Creek
We stopped for lunch at a place called Salt Creek (this location on the map – looks like we’re in the middle of nowhere!). Just a takeaway store and a couple of houses really. There was a historic oil rig that was placed here because this area was one of the first places where they drilled for oil in the state. The information board praised oil so much that I figure the whole monument had been paid for by oil companies.
Lunch was pre-prepared by Teresa. Prosciutto and sopressa from Mercato Adelaide on top of Sourdough bread purchased from a Port Elliot shop. We’ve been looking for “Eat Local SA” signs on shops to taste the local produce.
After lunch, as it was the first of the month, I needed to send a new lot of email for the Photography Dash. I love how modern technology allows me to send tips to subscribers all around the world while sitting in a caravan on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere!
Robe
We arrived in Robe just before 4pm, and checked into the caravan park. We had decided last night when we booked to get a ‘sea view’ site and pay a little extra for it. There was only one other van in this area – the vans behind us are higher, but the front points away from the view. I’m calling that area the ‘cheap seats’.
We weren’t disappointed with the site – the view here is absolutely stunning! Wow!
We setup the caravan then headed into town to do some sightseeing. Teresa had seen a sign on our way here advertising crayfish, so we asked the park manager. She pointed us to a local fish shop that was still open. Crayfish here are $105 a kilo so we purchased a small one for dinner.
Before we headed back, we thought we’d take a look around Robe. This was our second Wow moment for this town! Ragged cliffs jutted up from the sea The south side of the town is exposed to the southern ocean, so it was quite windy and those winds were generating some massive waves. The vista was again absolutely stunning.
After looking around for a bit, we headed back to the van for crayfish salad for dinner. It wasn’t as tasty as other crays we’d had, but it was still nice.
We finished the day listening to the sea crashing on the beach below us.
Tomorrow will be another driving day. We were originally planning to stop at Mount Gambier for one night, but will instead travel onto Portland and spend a couple of days there.