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Published: March 17th 2015
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After Kingston we found Robe to be quite a contrast. While Kingston felt like a quiet country sea side town, Robe was full of up-market holiday houses, beautifully renovated historic buildings and people with money to spend. It certainly helps that Robe has a number of lakes in the town as well as a beautiful bay; so many houses have water views.
A walk down the main street showed many eating options, shops selling high class beach and holiday wear, and shops selling objects to make a holiday house that bit extra special.
The town features many old lime stone buildings and a high proportion of these seem to have been very well renovated. But these were not just the standard old houses and pubs; there were stunning shops with quirky courtyards and commercial buildings from the days when Robe was an important port.
One look at the marina showed that Robe is still an important port, although these days it looks to primarily support a busy fishing fleet. A fish and chips shop attached to a fish wholesaler at the marina offered a wide range of fish species, with most obviously
being locally caught. We could not resist buying snapper and chips for lunch. We then drove the short distance to the beach to consume our meal, where we were attended by a crowd of very attentive seagulls. A flock of seagulls always seems to include one that only has one leg, and this time it was there right on cue.
A walk along rugged West beach took us to a surf bay that had obvious rips (and signs) so Greg was itching to try his luck at surf casting. The first late afternoon attempt was hopeless as a strong wind caused our lines to swing back along the beach. The second afternoon was calmer and offered some bites but no catch. Just as well that the steak had already been defrosted.
Keen to find a spot to use the kayak we took a walk to the sea outlet of a creek that connected a number of small lakes. Standing on a walking bridge over the creek right near the beach we were fascinated to watch a couple of 200mm fish sitting in the strong current. Every few minutes they would dash out and grab
some morsel that was washed toward them, then circulate back to exactly the same spot to wait for their next bit of dinner. They did this time and time again. It got us thinking about fish behaviour and how this could be exploited by fly fishing in a mountain stream - but not today.
Walking further upstream we discovered that the water level in these lakes was quite low. In fact most of the lake beds were dry. So much for our plans to paddle up the creek but I guess that being late summer this should not have been a surprise.
Beachport was our next planned destination, but a birthday phone call to a friend in western Victoria got us thinking about alternative options.
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