Robe & the Coorong

We had been told that Robe was a nice place to visit and that we should try to have a look, so we found a National Park Camp spot about 10Km’s from Robe and had 1 night there - it wasn't free, but $12 isn't too bad.  We drove from Mt Gambier to The Campsite and left the van locked up so we could go and explore Robe. 

Our campsite at Robe

The Visitor information centre gave us a ‘Robe scenic Drive’ tour, and it listed about 17 things to see around Robe.  We followed this tour, and had a good look around the town.  One of the things we found was the old Goal Ruins, which Mike and the kids had a good look at, while Liz watched from the car.  Liz’s foot was slowly getting better, but was still very painful and swollen, and if Liz used the crutches for too long, her foot would really start throbbing L.  

The Old Goal Ruins just outside of Robe

Another item on the list was the Obelisk that had been built right on the coast.  We really enjoyed looking around Robe – it would be a fantastic place for a holiday and we can see why there would be many Adelaide holiday makers who would visit there each summer.

Robe's Main beach

The Obelisk near Robe

We knew that we had a long drive ahead of us the next day as we wanted to travel from Robe to a Campsite on the Coorong, which would be about a 300Km drive.  We drove through Kingston SE and passed the Big Lobster, so just had to take a photo!

Now that's a Big Lobster!

We came to the Coorong area, which is two very long lakes – stretching 100Km’s long, but only getting to 3 metres deep throughout most of the lakes.  There is lots of wildlife (especially bird life) along the Coorong, and we passed the Pelican Observatory, and stopped in for a look.  We saw hundreds of Pelicans flying in large flocks around the area.  It wasn’t too far from Breeding season, so there was lots of activity.  We hiked to the Observatory hut which looked out onto the ‘Pelican Islands’.

Look a Pelican!  It's beak can hold more than it's belly can

Josh reading about the Pelicans

Looking out over Pelican Islands

We reached our Coorong Campsite by about 4pm and setup the van for the night.  The kids wanted a quick swim in the lake – little did they know that it was only a few centimetres deep, but nonetheless, we went for a splash around and had a bit of fun in the water.  It was a really beautiful spot, and we had it all to ourselves for the whole night.  The stars that night were amazing, we haven’t seen that many stars for a long time – it was great.

A quick dip at the Coorong

Our Coorong Campsite

The view from our Campsite

We were really happy that we stopped in at the Coorong, even if it was only for 1 night, because it is a magical area.  Even though we wanted to stay on there, we also wanted to Rendezvous with one of Mike’s school Friends (Andrew Phillips) who now lives and works in Adelaide, so we left the Coorong, bound for Adelaide the next day.  We looked at the map, and saw there was a free Car Ferry that went from Narrung across the lake, and so we took that short cut instead of driving all the way back around the lake.

The Car Ferry at Narrung - we only scraped the caravan a little!

Just on the other side of the car ferry, there was a small lighthouse and some historic buildings, so we stopped and had a look around there too before heading toward ‘the big smoke’ – Adelaide.

The lighthouse between Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina