Kingston SE

Didn’t take long to decide to stop again. An hour after leaving Robe we are setting up at the Kingston Caravan Park on a beachfront site.…just looked too good to go past. And lobster sandwich for lunch it is. On a walk down to the beach, we immediately encounter two dolphins swimming parallel to and within thirty metres from the shore. Locals tell us that they have seen pods of up to fourteen dolphins along this beach, including some that come right to the shore’s edge chasing small fish.

Evening fishing from the jetty is generally unproductive, but gave us a magnificent view of the sunset over the Great Australian Bight.

Met neighbours Mick, John, Pam, Janet and Charmaine. Mick had caught around 60 Tommy Ruffs and offered to show us how to get fillets from these little fellas. We joined in the filleting frenzy. Bet was quick on the uptake, but Ken’s fillets left more on the fish than he removed. An invitation to join them for tea leads to a meal of the freshly filleted fish consumed with plenty of red wine, including a bottle of the local Ralph Fowler cabinet sauvignon.

Down to the jetty again for Bet to have a crack at squid jigging. We spot a sea lion basking on the beach. No luck getting squid, so it’s off to the seafood kiosk for a lobster.

That’s it. Time for a bourbon.

Robe

An  hour and a half drive from Port Fairy and brings us to the Blue Lake of Mt Gambier. And at his time of the year, it is at its bluest. Just the spot to break our journey for a picnic lunch. And with the crossing of the border into South Australia, in an instant we have gained half an hour. Technology takes over. The car clock automatically resets, as does the time on our phones. A further two and a half hours drive and we are in Robe.

The Sea-Vu caravan park in Robe is completely booked out of sea view sites. Even at this time of the year, it appears you need to book months in advance. We do however secure a sheltered site, which was fortunate, as the first night brought squalls, which forced us to wind up our awning. Those on the open sea side would have caught the full force of the winds. Still, it is still only a short walk to the beach, to the main street, to the Caledonian Hotel, and to the fish and chip shop. The hotel serves garfish, chips and salad for $15 – delicious!

Robe is an eclectic mix of the historic and the commercial, and seems to be caught between a fishing village environment, and a tourism attraction, without really achieving either.

A day trip up the coast and an exploration to Wrights Bay and Cape Jaffa in search of fishing spots. Wrights Bay has a camping ground where you can park your van or pitch your tent for a small fee per night for those who are self sufficient. That’s all there is, so we drive down to the beach as have a crack with the surf rods to no avail. Cape Jaffa, further north is a fishing village smaller the Robe, where millions of dollars have been invested in creating a residential marina complex and sub-division designed for millionaires. However, it appears that the buy-in rate has been minimal. We have a picnic lunch in a local shelter, and are greeted shortly by members of the Naracoorte Angling Club, who have made this the meeting place at the end of a two day fishing competition. The crux of their completion was not the number of fish caught, but the number of different species. One bloke turned up with snook, flathead, gar, trevally and King George whiting. So we ventured down to the marina and managed to pull in a trevally and a whiting that were eating size, and plenty of undersized trevally that we returned to the water.

Monday the weekend tourists have disappeared from the main street, and we take a leisurely walk around Robe, looking at the historic buildings (dating back to 1835) mixed between newly built houses that stretch upward to gain a view Guichen Bay.

That’s it. Time for a bourbon.

Port Fairy

So we’ve hitched up Matilda and off we go. For those new to Ken’s & Bet’s travels, Matilda is our 20’6” Galaxy caravan, where we rough it in comfort. An easy four and half hour drive along the Princes Highway, including a roadside stop at Winchelsea for lunch, finds us at our first destination – Port Fairy.

The Southcombe Caravan park has nearly 500 sites, and at this time of the year, the caravanners and campers are spread thinly, leaving plenty of room for all. This is in contrast to the March Labour Day long weekend, where this park alone hosts 4000 visitors to the Port Fairy Folk Festival.

Once one of Australia’s busiest ports, Port Fairy has transformed from a thriving whaling industry to agriculture, fishing and tourism. 

During the three days here, we have taken the historic buildings walk around the town, gone swimming and snorkeling at the nearby Pea Soup Beach. The beach is a short walk over the dunes from the caravan  park, and has also been the location where Betty has tried her hand at fishing. She has not been able to catch anything but two small sand mullet, which will be kept for bait when she gets to the crabbing waters. Conversations with other fisherpersons reinforces the fact that there is not much being caught around here at the moment.

We made the one hour interpretive walk around the nearby Griffiths Island, the island being the centre of the whaling industry in the 1830s, and the site of a lighthouse since 1859. The island is now the home to a large mutton bird (short-tail shearwater) colony. The sand is riddled with their burrows, but during our late morning walk all the adult birds would have been out to sea gathering food, and the youngsters well hidden inside the burrows.

That’s it. Time for a bourbon.

Proposed itinery