Robe to Adelaide

February 28 to March 6

Found a good truck wash in Robe and after some 3,500km I decided to wash the layers of bugs and dust off the motorhome. More great weather so more walking and mountain biking trails, and beaches. We are ticking off some of the “40 Great South Australian Short Walks” (according to a brochure).

Robe "Obelisk", another great overnight site

Kingston SE Sunset, a good camera would have helped

A couple of days in Robe and then onto Kingston SE for a couple of days. This area of the Limestone Coast is very RV friendly and very relaxing. It is also the “Lobster Capital” and you can easily get fresh lobsters from the fishermen. However you’ll still pay $80 a kilo!! The commercial licence can cost $60,000 per pot for the privilege so I guess someone will pay for it?

I was keen to do some fishing but the area is heavily covered by sea grass. So much that they regularly bulldoze the beaches and it can pile up a metre deep as it decays. You have to fish with floats to keep the bait out of the sea grass, and only catch “bait” for shark fishing off shore.

Coorong National Park Walk, Salt Creek

We headed up the Coorong National Park, a long coastal wetland where we stopped for two walks, one intended and one where I misread a sign. We saw two emu’s and a massive wombat nest, so still worthwhile. We stopped overnight at Narrung on Lake Alexandrina, and needed to take two ferries (free 24 hour ferries, must be cheaper than building bridges?) on our journey to Langhorne Creek. A great campground in town was within walking distance of cellar doors and a micro-brewery!

Granite Island, Victor Harbor

On to Goolwa the next day, visited the Barrage (one of five long “dams” up to keep the Murray River backed up during low rainfall) and Murray River mouth. Due to the barrages they continuously dredge the mouth to keep it open with no river flow. I can now see why the Murray River management is so controversial.

We are staying at a Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA) member’s property for a couple of nights while we visit the Fleurieu Peninsula (south of Adelaide). This is a great system where members with appropriate property can offer to “host” guest members (ie. us).

Transport, Granite Island Tram style

We went into Victor Harbor to walk Granite Island and (being Saturday) check out their farmers market. We inquired about taking the motorhome to Kangaroo Island, but with the ferry costing over $600, we decided not to indulge.

On Sunday we traveled out to Cape Jervis (where the Kangaroo Island ferry departs) before cruising up the coast to stop at Normanville Caravan Park (washing day) Sunday night. As the Clipsal 500 V8 race was on in Adelaide, we thought we would wait until Monday to hit the big city. Unbelievable winds all day Sunday, had to be 70km/h, great for drying the washing.