Robe Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Seemed like a routine for K to be awake early and asking for milk. I got up and did the necessary before going back to bed for a little snooze before waking up again to update this blog. So far I had been diligently keeping up with the updating but not sure for how long more.

Same thing with mommy as she got up to prepare K’s meal. Due to the good amount of sleep that we all had, K actually woke up earlier today. Switched on the TV so that we didn’t have to attend to him as we continued our packing and preparations.

We needed to top up the boiling water and found the water that came from the boiling flask to be slightly cloudy. Didn’t want to take any chance, I went over to the reception and the staff used his to boil a flask for me while I brought the containers over. While waiting for the water to boil, we had a conversation about the long journey ahead, and if there was any places that he could recommend to break the drive. Other than our planned stop at Meningie, there was a Salt Creek service station and other smaller towns available between Meningie and Victor Harbor.

For breakfast, mommy had bought a banana bread loaf from Foodland the previous day and split it into 3 portions and she ate up one portion herself. While I was going to eat my portion, I realized some whitish stuff on the external that looked like it was mouldy. Checked the best before date and found that the best before date was 2nd May 2017, almost a week earlier! Quickly threw the rest away and hoped that mommy would turn out ok. That didn’t fascinate K as he wanted his breakfast so I drove to Robe bakery and coffee lounge to get some banana muffin for him and a pizza for myself, that costed about aud10. He loved the muffin while we returned to the cabin to eat.

After loading everything into the car since mommy had already packed while we were out at the bakery, we started our long journey on the road. 30 mins from Robe was a small town called Kingston. I saw that the petrol price was aud1.27, much lower than the aud1.33 in Robe and so decided to top up. Got a Mahalia coffee latte there while paying and then we drove a 50 meters down to a huge model of a lobster. Stopped there for some photos and K to run around at the tail before leaving again.

The journey to our intermediate stop at Meningie was another 1.5hrs away and both K and mommy fell asleep while driving there. We went past huge area of flat lands and supposedly water but it wasn’t a nice view. The roads were long and straight and I went a little faster to catch up on some time. We managed to arrive into town at 1215 and parked at the visitor center, skipping the Salt Creek service station altogether.

Just on the opposite side of the road was a cute cafe called My Friend’s cafe and we decide to have our lunch there. Pastries were sold and we got ourselves a sweet chili chicken wrap and a ham and cheese croissant, earl grey tea and a bottle of juice for about aud20. K had his lunch of macaroni and soup and was having quite a good appetite.

We then went over to the playground near the visitors center and K had his fun running around. It was a nice view of serene Lake Albert nearby and weather was great, clear blue skies and cooling.

After the using the toilet there and changing K’s diapers, we hit the road again at about 130pm, another 2 hrs drive. This time around we would be getting onto M1 for a bit and other highways so there was a mixture of freeway and smaller roads. The smaller roads passed through more towns and had more bends and therefore harder to move fast. Again both fell asleep as we approached Victor harbour.

We arrived at the huge town slightly after 320pm, and saw the horse (with lovely hairy legs) that was supposed to be pulling the carriage to Granite island, leave. Although we planned to take that horse drawn carriage, we couldn’t make it on time as that was the last ride for the day. Went to Hotel Victor and checked in. Brought everything up to our room that had a nice view of the coast and went back to the car to wait for K to wake up.

Drove to the Esplanade carpark and went down to take some photos of the bridge to Granite island. K woke up soon and while we walked to the bridge together to have a look, we decided to skip crossing the long bridge as it was getting cold.

We drove to Victor Central mall which had a Target and Woolworths supermarket. While mommy shopped at Target and bought some stuff, K sat on the kiddy ride. After that, more groceries shopping and we had to buy more stuff to bring over to Kangaroo island the next day as we expected things to be expensive on that island. Bought 2x10l water dispenser, worried that drinking water maybe scarce too! With that, we got 5 free Marvel tags that we gave to K.

After the visit to the mall, the skies were already dark and we decided on having McD for dinner. Drove and parked at the carpark there and ordered some gourmet burger meals to go. K noticed the indoor playground and spent some time there while waiting for the burgers.

We left for the hotel finally at about 630pm and after bringing the heavy bag of groceries to the room, K played with the marvel tags and my camera and watched TV while mommy cooked. I went out to top up more gas, as we didn’t have time the next day to do it, I brought along the receipt for the Woolworths groceries as it would give 4cts off for Woolworths co-op Caltex gas station, which was just at the same location as Victor Central. True enough, it was aud1 off my bill of aud30.

After returning to the room, K was just finishing his meal and I gave him a bath after that. Then we all settled for the night at about 10pm, after some videos and TV later, expecting to wake up real early to catch the 9am ferry to Kangaroo island the next day.

Woke up at just before 5 as K was asking for milk. Made it in the cold dark room. Other than the warmed mattress, there wasn’t any other source of heat. Quickly got back into bed to get warm and sleep.

The cold was just making everyone so lethargic. Even myself as a early bird didn’t wake up till it was over 7, couldn’t care less about the sun rise whatsoever as I didn’t like the frigid cold. Or maybe it was also fatigue that contributed to overstaying in bed.

Finally when mommy woke to start her daily routine, and I trying to complete my blog, that’s when we started to get things going and packing. The sunshine that shorn through the windows seemed to provide some heat relief to us and warmed up the rooms a bit. As we picked up on the activities, it felt a little better.

K was well asleep till almost 10, even after raising the curtains. I got most of the stuff packed and some things preloaded into the car. Mommy microwaved the pizza for breakfast and we caught a little of reality TV called Mystery Diners that was quite interesting. When K finally woke, he looked pretty well rested and was behaving nicely and walking around and playing with the rooms toys.

After a small struggle to changed K’s diapers and pyjamas into clothes to go out in, we got into the car and left at about 1030am, leaving the keys at where we found them and a Airbnb message to inform of our departure. Then we drove 30mins to Tower Hill reserve, where we could see wildlife. K had his banana flavored bread which he liked it while on the way there.

Upon reaching, we entered a single lane road that went downhill and some curves before reaching a public carpark. Immediately near to the BBQ area we saw an Emu loitering around. Went close to have a look and then proceeded to the nearby map to see what we could do. Choose a trekking circuit route, Wagon Bay circuit, that would take about 30mins and following the signs, we were off.

Carrying K with one arm was rather tiring as we walked on dirt track damped from the morning dew. There wasn’t anything to see (or couldn’t spot anything) except for 4 emus out in the open at the beginning of the circuit near the information center. The lake view was kinda ugly and so was the surrounding near the track. Made the best of it and had K sitting on my shoulders and we were playing “crashing” into the trees that generated lots of laughter.

We didn’t take long to walk around the circuit after which we walked to the visitors center where it was stated that animals such as koalas, echidna and kangaroos could be seen too, at this crater formed park. After we were done with the visit, we left for the carpark.

Mommy mentioned that koalas can be seen as reported online and I tried to find one myself but failed. Noticed somebody else pointing at the trees and I went over to shoot a photo of a lazing Koala before we drove back to Port Fairy.

30mins later, we arrived at a bakery in town, called the Village Bakehouse, that seemed crowded and went in to get a pie and chicken sandwich and a latte for about aud20. Then we drove to the end of the street where the visitors center was to use the toilet before embarking on a long 2 hrs drive to the Blue Lake at Mt Gambier.

K started to ask for lunch and mommy fed K at the beginning of the drive. Drove smoothly and it was all good. K finished his food and 1 hr into the drive, he fell asleep. The rest of the journey was pretty smooth, roads were in good conditions and very straight most of the time. Other than the usual open fields and farms and the tall trees of forests, there weren’t exceptional interesting sights worth mentioning.

We arrived at Mt Gambier to find a sprawling town, unexpected that the lake was just next to the town and thought it would be in some hard to reach places. In fact, the lake water was being utilized by the town itself. We parked at one of the many viewpoints around the lake and just as K woke up, we got off to the viewpoint for photos. It was 2pm but due to a change in time zone, we actually saved half an hour traveling towards Adelaide.

The Blue lake was indeed blue but it was dependent on the colour of the skies above. At some point it looked slightly turquoise. Didn’t spend too much time and drove to another viewpoint that had a tower and I went alone to snap some photos while mommy and K stayed in the car.

There weren’t anymore attractions for the day and we drove towards Millicent at 3pm, a mid size town to visit the supermarket. It was about 30mins drive away and again K was pretty well behaved listening to his music on the handphone.

We arrived at the information center of Millicent and parked there to use the toilet and the a stop on the playground for K. There was huge wind turbine propeller on display, probably a town that had wind farms as their source of energy. K had fun at the small playground and found accomplishments in trying to scale the rope ladder by himself. It was a challenge to get him back to the car though. Just a few minutes drive down we parked in front of Woolworths but it was closed on Sunday.

Change of plans and we drove to Robe, our place of stay for the night. It was about an hours drive. The drive was a little difficult at some point where the sun was shining into my face, making it hard to see the road in front. I was particularly worried about animals getting onto the road and would like to see as far as possible on a 110km/hr speed limit road but that made it impossible. Some parts of the drive there was drizzle too. Luckily we drove out of the rain cloud (it was pretty obvious too as the flat surroundings exposed the whole sky above) when the road changed directions.

Along the way we saw a Kangeroo standing close to the forest. That was a first for this trip, after almost 10days on the road.

We entered Robe got into the parking lot of Guichen Bay motel and did a check in. The staff at the reception was very informative giving me all the details of the supermarket and the restaurants around on a map.

As it was still early, we drove around the small town for a look and saw the port where all the yachts were parked. Then we drove to the Foodland supermarket just opposite our motel to get groceries. K had fun with the trolleys and the swing gate till mommy finished her shopping.

Robe was just celebrating a Chinese festival thing (missed the fireworks that happened a day before) and had 2 Chinese restaurants. Interesting that to find Chinese influence here in this small town.

After putting in our barang barang into the room, we walked to the Robe Chinese restaurant next to the motel to have dinner. It was quite busy with at least 6 tables and we had to wait quite a bit as the restaurant seemed understaffed. K entertained himself walking around, playing with the bell on the table (and was later taken away from the staff who said it was disturbing the other customers), going through the ropes at the doorway to the toilets and touching the lion dance puppets. But he was famished and wanted to eat already. Unfortunately this wasn’t fast food.

When our food arrived, the fried rice, chicken omelette and clay pot tofu, we all digged in. The chef came out to apologise in Cantonese but it wasn’t his fault. K ate the fried rice and the egg and veg but was soon done with it while we gobbled the rice. The meal was about aud57.

Went back to the cabin to bath and the usual night routine of watching videos and TV took place. Happy to have the aircon back to heat up the room and around 930pm we turned off the lights, since K was cranky due to a lack of nap time in the day.

South Australia 2017 Day 10 – Robe to Victor Harbour – Kingston Lobster, Meningie and Victor Central

South Australia 2017 Day 9 – Port Fairy to Robe – Tower Hill Reserve & Blue Lake