On my last real day of sightseeing before heading out onto the Nullarbor for the three day nonstop drive back to Perth, I decided to check out a few parts of southern South Australia on my way to Adelaide from The Grampians. The regions I have been traveling through in Victoria and South Australia seem very similar to Perth, so things look quite familiar to me: lots of wheat fields that are a bit dried out and hot this time of year. There are some refreshing differences, however, in the architecture. Both Victoria and South Australia have done a very good job of preserving their heritage buildings and keeping their small country towns bustling. Western Australia seems quick to destroy old buildings in favor of building new ones which is unfortunate. Many country towns in Western Australia also seem about half closed for some reason.
The first place I headed to, at the recommendation of some friends who had the change to explore the area when they lived in Adelaide, was a coastal town called Robe. Robe had beautiful turquoise waters and a well preserved historic main street. After spending about 4 hours in the car to get there, I had to test the waters and have a swim for a little while.
Of all the places I’ve swum over the past week, including Wilsons Promontory, Robe, and Apollo Bay, the water has been refreshingly cool but definitely tolerable – except for Apollo Bay on The Great Ocean Road, which was so cold I thought I was going to start losing some limbs!
After Robe I took the coastal road straight up along Coorong National Park to McClaren Vale in South Australia’s famous wine growing region where I took a quick spin around some vineyards and stopped in long enough for a cup of coffee (as one does while they’re driving). Afterwards I also made a quick visit to a German themed town named Hahndorf before finishing my drive up into Adelaide.
