Adelaide to Mount Gambier via Robe

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2nd March 2011 – Adelaide
A beautiful autumn morning in the city, breakfasted then out into the glorious sunshine.

Walked down across the River Torrens to the Adelaide Oval.

The ground is open to the general public (FOC) as part of the city charter. We were able to wander at leisure through the ground.
There was an event going on, awarding the head groundsman, who was retiring. A red carpet had been laid out, which we duly walked across.
The guests all had to walk across the ground to get to their lunch (we could’nt even gate crash. We had a lovely walk back along the river.

The main part of the city in the grid formation is surrounded on all four sides by parkland/gardens, so it is only a short walk from the centre of the city to a quiet place.
On the way back called at Haighs chocolate shop, they have been made in the city since 1915 and are well known in the area (they taste nice too!!)

3rd March 2011 – Adelaide to Robe

Picked car up this morning and headed out of Adelaide to Robe, a small coastal town on the way to the Great Ocean Road.
The trip is about 390k, drove down to Kingston SE into the Mount Benson wine area. Lots of cattle country on the way down and arrived early afternoon.
Motel accommodation – nice owner who told us where to go in the area.
We were only here for the night before heading off again.

Trip around the coastal area which culminated in a drive on the beach.
We only drove a small part of it, but you can drive even without 4WD on this beach and people were!!

The beach drive is 17k (over 10 miles) and apparently one of the longest beach drives in Australia.

4th March 2011 – Robe to Mount Gambier

We left Robe by 9am, heading to Beachport for breakfast.
Quite a cool morning but Beachport was lovely and we wished we had stopped here the night before.

Another long jetty, 2nd longest in South Australia apparently!!

Active fishing town, mainly bringing in the famous Australian Rock Lobster.
Good breakfast (set us up for the day).
Then headed out for Mount Gambier, we had no accommodation till we arrived.
No problem, found a motel in the middle of town.

Decided we needed to book accommodation for Apollo Bay – we needed a base for a few days and to view the Great Ocean Road.

Mount Gambier sits on the side of a dormant volcano, and the sights were all around the crater and high points.
The Blue Lake sits in the middle of the crater and supplies all the water for Mount Gambier. The rest of the terrain is made up of tourist walks and picnic areas within the volcano area.

Found nice restaurant (fish again) LJ - Blue Grenadier, me – Gummy Shark

PS. Saw roos (see pics) & ostriches on way today.

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