Thursday morning we quickly had a Continental breakfast and checked out of our B and B....only one of two accommodations I let Steve book totally on his own, and now I know who will be booking all our hotels from now on. Today on the road was not going to be nearly as beautiful or exciting, but our one big stop in Mt. Gambier proved better than expected, with a picnic of sourdough olive bread and local 12 month cheddar with a half a bottle of leftover Pinot Noir by the famous Blue Lake.
This is a town of volcanic craters and sinkholes turned into beautiful sunken cave gardens. Checking that Steve was not 'drink driving', as the Aussies say, we headed for Robe, our destination for two nights. Now consider the difference in language here. We only have drunk driving where you must be below a legal impaired limit to drive. Here they take it far more seriously with a zero tolerance policy where you simply can't drink and drive, hence the name. We were even told in Noosa not to drive to a restaurant just beyond walking distance so we could have some wine- they use a lot more taxis just for a night out. Maybe that with the gun laws here are the things we should think about importing.
(Steve says: " google 'Robe, Australia', and see how we have arrived at the end of the world.." )
We finally pulled into Robe around 4:15pm, grabbed a map at the Info and found our little beach town cottage, the Blue House at the Dunes. Robyn was waiting, keys at the ready, we put the car in the carport and went in. Surprises only mean unexpected, so some are good, some bad, but I scored with this pick.
It was painted periwinkle outside, with a blue and white motif inside. A lovely backyard with late day sun, a washer and long clothesline, a firm bed and a very cool breeze.
The residential architecture all over this coastline is incredible. There are so many modern and prefab homes, glass and metal, high on cliffs and cantilevered to almost tipping. Robe is part old with stone houses and steep metal hip roofs like you might see in Quebec City and part Summer of '42 beach cottages and part modern.
The town is all of three blocks long with one supermarket, seven restaurants, a couple shops, and a market. But here that is all you need because the main event is doing the cliffside walk just around the corner from our place. It goes up and down, in and out and around the ultra modern lighthouse and striped obelisk warning boats heading in from the ocean. The five or six beaches in and around the town are small, not really for swimming. We are told the water on the bay side is a bit warmer than the freezing ocean swells. We will see later today when we head to Long Beach, a couple kilometers down the road.
I am reveling in the cool temperatures as Steve complains. Today the high will be 80 and by Sunday when we are in Adelaide, it will be 101, so Steve will get his heat. Luckily, even though we are on the coast, the humidity is ZERO! No hair frizz, no sweating, and the clothes on the line dry quickly.
This morning we walked into town and are sitting at " No.4 ", a fabulous little coffeeshop with fresh farm eggs and house made sourdough toast, and even local smoked ham on Steve's eggs Benedict.
We are at a farm table, outside in the sunshine, where the sky is the closest thing I have ever seen to the blue of New Mexico and not a wisp of a cloud.
Now I know how many times I have written, over the course of our travels, that we have stumbled upon the perfect little town, but I will say it again. This is my kinda beach town. Quiet, serene, turquoise waters, walks on the beach, late days in the backyard with a glass of rose and a good book (reading the new Alice Hoffman Dovekeepers)...and days that feel like the best September day on a NJ beach, minus all the people & humidity.
The only thing bad about Robe is that we only planned for two nights here; even Steve says he could have stayed a week. And if we had, we probably would have taken the offer last night from Mark and his adorable son, Sam, sitting next to us in Don's Malaysian restaurant, who offered to take us out in his boats when he went to pull up his crayfish pots. Crayfish is the big catch here; not small like New Orleans, but like a lobster up to five kilo....available in the restaurants but mostly for export to Asia. The cost? $125AUD per kilo....that is about $50 a pound and that is just what the fisherman get. I doubt we will taste it because at that price, the restaurants here don't even have it unless you pre-order.
We are really loving this road tripping along the coast. The only issue is our ipad is completely full and we can't load too many more pix. We picked up another small tablet a few days ago and a new micro adapter to upload the photos on it but we haven't got it to work yet. So while I will keep writing about our adventures, there may be fewer photos. I guess we will just have to bore everyone when we return with a great slideshow!
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