DAY 25: The Great Southern Touring Route

After breakfast we collected a hire car just a few doors away from our hotel, loaded our baggage and set off for the first day on the Great Southern Touring Route towards Melbourne. Getting out of the city was very easy despite it being Saturday and we were soon on our way to the Murray River and South towards the Coorong National Park, a 110 kilometer long wetland comprising two lagoons separated from the sea by sand dunes.

We stopped for a picnic lunch at a charming lakeside town, once a very busy port and trading centre, Meningie, where a flock of Pelicans floated past! We sat surrounded by white cockies who made such a rumpus and another rather shy bird we have yet to name.

Following the Princes Highway we drove for many kilometers alongside the national park which was full of birds including more pelicans and some in flight but we were too far away to photograph them. We stopped at a hide in the dunes and could make out many more pelican shapes, and other birds across the opposite side of the first lagoon, but they were too far away to photograph but it was a real thrill to see pelicans in the wild. We drove on through wheat lands and beef and sheep pastures and small isolated homes and pine forests to Kingston and on through small vineyards to our first overnight stop at Robe.

We stayed in the first house to be built in Robe for the Government Resident in 1846. It was amazing with verandas and ironwork and inside very tall coved ceilings and the decor could only be described as quaint!There were yellow roses from the garden in a vase on the table, home made cookies on the jar and provisions in the fridge for a DIY breakfast. Lots of history about the house, its previous occupants and information about the local area were provided in folders and we felt it was such a shame we were really only passing through.

In the evening we strolled to the local pub and bistro, enjoyed their salad bar and tasty crispy mullet on creamy mustard mash and fajitas, though they could have had more of a spicy kick, and met interesting local folk who chatted about their travel experiences and recommended several places to see before we left their town.

Back to our lovely room in Robe House to relax, download photos and consider the next day of our road trip.

 

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