On the road home – Day 2

y margcalFirst posted on March 2, 2014

In the morning I did a self-drive tour of Robe. It is a glorious place with some very expensive looking (holiday?) homes. However, as with Victor Harbor, also a popular destination, I’d rather not stay there. I don’t know what the alternative to Victor Harbor is, but for Robe, for me it’s Beachport, a much quieter spot a little way down the coast.

My car near the red and white striped pyramid, symbol for Robe  

Gaol ruins at Robe

However, I didn’t visit Beachport on this trip. Unhappily, my homeward plans were changed at the last moment. While at the Adelaide zoo I got a text message that the old school friend in coastal Victoria, whom I’d planned to visit en route, was going to Melbourne for treatment for a recently diagnosed, very serious health issue. I’d planned to take two nights to get home but having got as far as Robe, I decided I could go straight home the next day, via Penola, Hamilton, Ballarat.

The Robe-Penola road was probably the most minor route I travelled on but while the road surface was fine, it was narrower than more significant routes and seemed to carry more trucks. To be honest, that was scary. One truck in particular was inches – seemed like single digits – from me. I was glad to get to Penola and a more major route again.

At Penola I went to the Mary McKillop Centre. I wanted to tell the people there how much joy I get every time I look at the quilt I won in a raffle on my first visit there, about 10 years ago. It’s a beautiful thing, entirely hand-stitched by a then 80 year old lady from Mt Gambier. Imagine my surprise when I told my story – the ladies on duty exclaimed, “She keeps making them!” So she must be 90 now and I bought more tickets in another quilt raffle

As well as libraries, when I go away I usually do a church crawl too but not this time. However, I did visit the church at Penola, said a prayer and lit a candle for my school friend.

               For my friend - the candle at 12 o'clock

Then it was lunch (very slow service) and from that point I pushed on to home through Casterton, Coleraine, Hamilton (abortive hospital library visit and rest stop at the tourist info centre), Dunkeld and then Ballarat. 

       “Blackboy” grass tress – on the road to Casterton 

       Casterton – was once a fine building 

                    Casterton, rising up out of a valley 

                           Coleraine Railway Station ...

... it’s been a while since the last train!

     Wannon Falls near Hamilton ... the water is - where?

I know it’s evil but it was easy to have tea at Macca’s on Bakery Hill in Ballarat – don’t tell anyone! The break at that point allowed me to get into Melbourne having missed the peak hour traffic, cutting about an hour off the driving time doing it that way.

Finally, it was home after 562km that day for a grand total of 1,856km (480 + 367 + 447 + 562) for the four says (in total) driving to Adelaide and back. I didn’t work out how much the petrol cost but it would have been cheaper to fly!

THANK YOU to the ALIA  Vic Library Technicians Group for organising the library tours and dinners in Adelaide which were the impetus for this little road trip.

On the road home – Day 1

y margcalFirst posted on March 1, 2014

I got away from the Glenelg motel reasonably on time! I missed the turn-off I wanted (view of signs blocked by big trucks) but picked up my desired road after instructions when I filled the tank with petrol – yet again. Driving through the McLaren Vale wine area, I reached Victor Harbor late morning – morning tea substituting for breakfast. I wandered around the town and, as well as eating, bought some gifts, not realising until later that in doing so I was supporting “a worthy cause”. The quality of their products is excellent and the doll’s house furniture fabulous, a much more extensive collection than the web site shows.

Overlooking McLaren Vale

Victor Harbor’s logo is a representation of its horse-drawn tram which plies a route to Granite Island and back – all 600m of it! I’d planned to take a ride but our timetables didn’t coincide. I walked it instead, passing the tram as I did so. Nice to know I can walk faster than 1hp  :-)

Leaving Granite Island

Heading to Victor Harbour

Leaving Victor Harbor I got a huge surprise – the tumbling cubes house that I’d seen on a fancy houses TV show. I’d had no idea where it was.

Tumbling Cubes House

Then it was on to Goolwa, a proper lunch, the library visit before heading to Strathalbyn, last visited 40+ years ago. I had memories of its bandstand, surrounded by dripping gum trees. How much its setting has changed over the years I have no idea, but it was a beautiful sunny day – hard to take photos with my phone, the sunshine made the screen almost black – point, guess and click!

Next stop, of a sort, was Wellington to wait for the punt to cross the Murray. That had changed little in 40 years! I am surprised there isn’t a bridge by now.

Waiting to cross the Murray at Wellington

Dry salty lakes near Meningie

I’d thought of stopping the night at Meningie but it was a bit early in the day so I pressed on to Kingston SE. I did stop first at the shores of Lake Albert. A couple walking by stopped to chat briefly, said they were annual visitors and that the place had changed beyond recognition – the lake was full, it hadn’t been for years, farmers having to keep adding lengths to the pipes which drew water for their stock and crops.

Driving along the Coorong was one of the main reasons I chose the coast road home but it too was different to my 40 year old memories, more vegetation, fewer sand dunes ….  the smell! But still good to do.

The Coorong

At a point about where the Coorong finished, I spotted a sign “The Granites”. I had no idea what it referred to but the road was sealed so off I went – to see huge, I do meanhuge!, lumps of granite near the water’s edge. They looked rather like whales. I don’t know if it’s safe to swim there but if you could manage to clamber up the rocks somehow, it looked like it would be great fun sliding off again into the water.

The Granites

Kingston SE is home to The Big Lobster …. oh dear! Say no more :-(

It was time to stop, I thought, and enquired at a motel. One room left – a bus load of tourists was in. I had my doubts at that – how much clattering and banging as they left at what time the next morning? When they said the only room was on the first floor, great views – I chose to drive another 40km to Robe rather than lug my bag upstairs.

I got to Robe with not a lot of time to spare to get tea at the local pub. My meal was accompanied by the sound of a man at the next table sniffing. I ordered a cup of coffee and when I was trying to decide where to sit, the young woman behind the bar said “Go through to the lounge” – it was wonderful! I don’t know why others weren’t using it …. apart from the sound of the pokies coming from the gaming room :-(  Beautiful old (comfortable!) furniture, historic photos, napery, silverware, visitors books from days gone by.

Robe Hotel

Driving back to my motel after dinner, I discovered Robe, like Warracknabeal, was also  in a bit of a time warp. It was now quite dark and the tree in the middle of a roundabout …. had its Christmas lights twinkling madly!