Sadly, we left Robe behind this morning with the goal of
reaching Victor Harbour in the Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. It was a
really nice town, and we enjoyed our brief stay there.
Today’s drive leaves us speechless!
We started out driving through the dunes, then entered an
area of pasture land with sheep on the right and cows on the left. It amazed us
to see the use of rubber tyres placed over young trees, presumably to protect
them from the kangaroos, and also, painted in white to mark driveways. These
rubber tyres were everywhere. Back in Uxbridge a couple of years ago, the
council was fighting one of the local farmers for stacking rubber tyres on his
property because of the negative effects and toxicity they had on the ground.
Obviously no consideration of that here.
The use of the land in this early stage of our drive was varied: we
passed vinyards, potato fields, clear cut timbered areas, areas of reforestation,
a limestone quarry, and forest. Then we saw a sign to Cape Jaffa and turned off
to the left down a narrower, but very good asphalt road. Again we were amazed!
At the end of the road was a huge, newly built
development which highlighted a harbour – or “anchorage”, and the sale
of lots for house building. There were a few beautiful, modern and fairly large
houses already built each with its own “anchorage”. It reminded us of the
“development for the future” in China. Someone has invested a packet of money
in this dream. There was a small modern working harbour with fishing boats and
lobster creels; there was a “ready-mix” plant (well, the Australian equivalent
of this) obviously for the purpose of building the harbour and the new homes
because we were “miles from anywhere” at this point – i.e. isolated!
We turned back onto the highway and our next visit was to
Kingston, a town founded in 1858 (for reference, Uxbridge was founded in 1808).
Here we came across a golf club and apparently it was the Kingston golf club
that was playing a tournament with the Robe Golf Club on Wednesday when we saw
all of the players in the hotel in Robe!
Heading out of Kingston we were back in the Dunes. We came
across a sign marked “The Granites” and thought it sounded interesting so
turned down the road. It led to the ocean. What an ocean!!! It was as long as
our eyes could see! To our surprise a vehicle appeared from nowhere and drove
right on to the beach and was off at great speed! We read a sign that said the
next beach access was 26 km to the right and 12 km to the left….that meant at
least 38 km of beach. It was magnificent! Is there anywhere else in the world
that has beaches like Australia??
Now, we were getting really remote. Sandy roads cut off at
regular intervals from our first class paved two lane road. We drove along
roads protected by bands of trees keeping sheep and cattle in fenced pastures
hidden from the highway. Every so often we would see a long drive way (0.5 k?)
heading up to a sheep or cattle “station”.
We drove through the Coorong National Park. We thought we
had landed in Mars at the time when the lakes that Scientists are trying to
prove existed did exist. Randall?? It was bizarre. It is a system of lagoons
divided from the ocean by dune ….something similar to the Outer Banks in North
Carolina. There were also dead flat areas of sand with tufts of low bushes in
them which looked as if they contained water in some season but not now. And,
it was flat. Very flat. The largest of the lakes was Lake Alexandrina. The
water was a dirty browny green and I could imagine scary octopus monsters
emerging out of the waters and threatening us!! This whole wetland area supports a number of
different species of birds. We were privy to a group of pelicans out for a
swim. It was interesting to watch the interaction between them. First one would
lead, then one would decide to go In a different direction and they all
followed; leadership seemed to be shifting from one to another. A truly
fascinating area.
In Wellington we took one of the few remaining cable ferries
in Australia across the Murray River. A short ride – about 3 minutes!! The
ferries originated in 1839 and were installed to carry gold from the mines in
Victoria to Adelaide. It was a dangerous
crossing in the past mainly due to sand drifts from the lake region and recurring floods. There
have also been several sunken “punts”!
We went through wine country and passed numerous wineries
including Wolf Blaas. We stopped for a coffee in Milang Bay, and then drove
around Clayton Bay in circles for a while as our road signs to “Goolawa”
literally disappeared, but once again reason prevailed and we found we had
chosen the correct road to lead us into Victor Harbour around 6:00 p.m.
We took
a reccy around town, found 3 motels, chose one to investigate first and here we
are at the Apollon Motor Inn in Victor Harbour. Once again they promised us
reliable Wifi and once again, it has been a struggle all evening.
Victor Harbour seems a nice little town – about 14,000
people – on the beach; a nice main street and neat boutique shopping area.
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