Today we returned to one of my favourite places in Oz, the historic town of Robe. It is as beautiful as I remembered, with turquoise water and miles of sandy white beaches. The place is getting yuppie, but has not lost its original charm. There are lots of the old typical SA limestone cottages, most have been carefully restored. Robe is located on a large bay (Guichen Bay) which is good for swimming and home to a small fishing fleet moored in Butler harbour next to some expensive leisure boats. There are lots of beautiful walking tracks which have been upgraded since our last visit in 2013 and now double as bike tracks.
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Robe has four caravan parks but two are in very exposed locations and this place does get really windy. We previously stayed at Lakeside, but after studying Wikicamps again we opted for Robe Holiday Park which is hidden in the Bush. We found an absolute treasure with beautiful grassed sites sheltered from the wind. The park is run by a lovely young family who have spent the last few years cleaning up the neglected site.
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There are a number of lakes in the area, many have good fishing while others look pretty salty. Lake Fellmongery is on the outskirts of town and was named after the Fellmongery business originally located around the shores (Fellmongery is the process of removing the wool from sheepskins by soaking and drying the skins). The lake is now used for watersking.
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​Tonight we headed off to photograph the obelisk at sunset. I got some nice shots on a previous visit but only with the point and shoot, so this time it was two cameras and a gazillion photos and I am so hoping to get THAT shot to blow up and hang on the wall. Gourmet BBQ chicken wings for dinner and finally a decent shower, what more could we want – definitely no inclination to go home or even worse back to work. Edit to say the park is great but the showers must have been designed by a man – say no more!
Day 5 Robe
Bit cloudy today but not unpleasant. We took the dogs to the back beach this morning and explored long beach on the other side in the afternoon. Found a great cheap campground at Wrights Bay, right on the beach. Did I mention there is no shortage of beaches in this area, miles and miles of them and in SA you can drive on most of them.
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Unfortunately the season had not been kind to the beaches an a lot of sand has washed away and been replaced by seaweed. The light was incredibly soft just before sunset and the seaweed and other items washed up on the beach photographed beautifully.
We got chatting to a local lady and some nomads with two huskies and before we knew it the sun was setting so we ducked over to the next bay at Boatswain Point for more photos. Found a track down to the beach and a nice view of an island and Robe on the other side of Guichen Bay. Nearly got bogged in the sand on the way out, needed a run-up and 4WD low to get out. I guess we can finally say that after 3.5 years we have been four wheel driving in the Dmax!
