Fun in Robe

While in Robe we wandered around looking at the small number of shops, took in the many old cottages and buildings around town, walked the coastal paths and stopped for ice creams at a very eclectic ice cream shop!

The busts of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders watch proceedings from the middle of ‘Royal Circus’.  Alongside them is a historical and small Customs House. Those inane city planners of the 60’s and 70’s thought it’d be a good idea to build a very ugly and boxy council office there too, just to mar the vista.

Long Beach is, as its name suggests a long beach. It is a beach that you are allowed to drive onto and along. We did this a few times over the course of our stay. It is handy being able to take boogie boards and the kayak as well as snacks, cameras and other beach essentials right onto the beach with no carrying or carting required!

One visit to the beach was purely to see the sunset across the waters:

There was a seafood outlet in town that we visited a couple of times where we bought fresh fish and prawns caught that morning and enjoyed them for dinner!

Not far from Robe, but it might have been hundreds of miles away we ventured down a 4WD track to Stoney Point. We had the place to ourselves. More rugged coastline, small sandy bays and this area also had lots of sand dunes which we had fun leaping off. This area is part of the Little Dip Conservation area, so as the name suggests a little dip was in order. Not for the kids this time though as it looked a little rocky and dangerous to venture in too far.

There were some colourful and varied shells on the beach:

This sunset photo is across Lake Fellmongery, behind the caravan park:

Ruins to Kingston SE

We set out to see Kingston SE (the SE stands for South East, as the South Australian’s have two Kingstons!) which is only 50 km’s from Robe. We took the very scenic route chasing some geocaches which made for a great day out. The first stop was up an unsealed road where we found the gorgeous little Lawries Hill Church, built in 1855. It was restored in 1988 after becoming derelict. It sits all alone in a sloping grass paddock.

The next detour was to Wrights Bay, then back to the highway where we stopped at the ruins of a homestead that has had a couple of different existences – as a stage coach station / post office and as a bark mill. Apparently they stripped bark from wattle trees which was dried, ground up and used for tanning.

If it wasn’t for another well placed geocache we never would have found the derelict Cape Jaffa School which was among scrub a little way back from the road.

At Cape Jaffa we went along a sandy 4WD track and found ourselves at the ruins of the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse Keepers Cottage. Stopped there for morning tea – which of course included ripping open a pack of the iconic jaffa lollies! Fascinating history here – the lighthouse was offshore a few kilometres and keepers took turns in going out to man it. Much of their time was spent painting it as it was made of steel. The lighthouse was dismantled and now sits in Kingston SE.

After this fascinating detour we found ourselves off to Kingston where we went and saw the lighthouse.  It was then time to go introduce ourselves to a famous local – Larry. Larry is a slightly oversized fibreglass lobster!

We had lunch in Kinston SE, found a few more caches, walked along the pier and noticed the beaches were covered in tons of seaweed before heading back to Robe. 

Roaming towards Robe

Lake Bolac is about 270 km’s from home and it is where we spent the first night of our autumn 2017 holiday. This was our first major caravanning holiday (other than a weekend in Echuca late last year) since our 3 month trip to the UK which included 9 weeks in a motorhome.

Not a free camp, but a cheap camp at only $15 per night for the whole family, we set ourselves up lakeside. No power but basic toilet / shower facilities. The kids set to gathering some wood - firstly to build themselves a fort and then some firewood which enabled us to get a nice campfire going. It went so well, we were able to cook our sausages and potatoes in foil among the coals. The kids thought this was a novel way to have dinner!

Next morning we packed up and continued west, which took us through Dunkeld, Hamilton and Casterton before crossing the border into South Australia. Had a quick photo stop at the border and then a lunch stop in the attractive little town of Penola. This was alongside a park that stood in honour of Mary MacKillop, Australia’s only saint. Lots of places claim her or make reference to her… almost as many as do Ned Kelly!

Later in the day we arrived at our destination – Robe.  We went straight to Lakeside Caravan Park, where we’d booked in for six nights. Lakeside meaning alongside Lake Fellmongery, although as we discovered, it has no real access to the lake as it is behind much greenery. From the steps up to the amenities block you can see the lake better! Lovely spot though, quiet and large sites. 

After settling in,we went and had a look at the rugged coastline up around the Obelisk. Robe is part of the ‘Limestone Coast’ and the jagged rock and cliffs is just that – very jagged limestone. The waves crashed against the cliffs and rock stacks. We enjoyed a walk around this area, past the ruins of the old gaol and to the Obelisk itself.

Echuca - Nov 2016

It was a long time between caravan journeys - just over 12 months in fact. The reason being that we took an overseas trip to the UK, which had its own blog entry elsewhere: https://dazjet.wordpress.com/

So to dust off the caravan cobwebs we took it to Echuca for the final weekend of November. A familiar destination, somewhere we've been countless times. This time we were with a Canadian family, on exchange in Australia for a year.

It was also the first outing for the new tow vehicle. We stayed at Echuca Holiday Park - the closest to the town centre. Not the cheapest, but a great location.

This little guy came down out of a tree right by where we were sitting each evening, searching for any little tidbits he could find!

Having been on a few paddle steamers at Echuca, we found one we had not been on - PS Arbuthnott and enjoyed a leisurely paddle along the mighty Murray River.

The kids enjoyed a game of tennis at the caravan park:

We visited the 'Great Aussie Beer Shed' while in Echuca which was run by an interesting character and had lots of memorabilia related to farming, signage and of course, beers. A couple of unusual exhibits included an old bell, rung to signal final lap in a race at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics! 

There was also an old soldier's memorial that once graced a public area of Echuca that the city decided to bury in a rubbish dump for a number of years! It was dug up and now sits in the beer shed. What were they thinking, these city leaders?

On the way home we stopped for some lunch in the pretty town of Rushworth, complete with knitted and crocheted Christmas decorations adorning the trees: