Road Trip 2014: Portland to South Australia

After leaving Princetown and stopping at a couple of lookouts near the 12 Apostles, we were headed for our next stop, Portland, via Port Fairy. It was particularly cold and wet this day so after having brunch in Port Fairy and hesitating on whether to visit the lighthouse or not, we ended up skipping it (another time perhaps) and just moving on to the accommodation in Portland. We ate at Rebecca’s Cafe for brunch, which was quite good, and had a great selection of cakes as well.

Portland, well, there isn’t much to say about Portland, pretty much your average regional town, not much to do or eat in town, maybe any attractions are outside of town. We did get out to have a look at the Cape Nelson Lighthouse but it was only a brief visit due to the weather. I would have loved to stay longer but the better half and the little one were in the car and it would have been very rude to keep them waiting too long. I would definitely hope to stop by in the future better equipped (an umbrella maybe) and more time to snap this location, very nice indeed. We stayed at the Victoria Lodge Motor Inn, it was okay, nothing special, clean and tidy.

After Portland, we headed to Robe in South Australia, via Mount Gambier, we had a wander around Blue Lake before having brunch and continuing on to Robe. Cafe Melzar in Mount Gambier was okay, but the portions were a bit small for the price. Driving on to Robe (em took a quick look at the sink hole garden) we were well and truly in South Australia, the timezone having changed, and the roads becoming very monotonous and boring with nothing interesting to keep the eyes from drooping.

We stayed at the Best Western Motel in Robe which had a nice, big room and a spa, but it was a bit too loud (Oscar is a light sleeper) so we weren’t able to give it a go. There isn’t a lot to do in Robe itself, a couple of walks around the town, see the Obelisk, I think the area is mainly for food and wine tourism, as for such a little town, it seemed to have a good selection of dining options. The two that we had time to try out were Sails (fine dining) and Provedore, a French bakery. Em had the lobster special at Sails while I tried the steak and an octopus salad, pretty much everything in the lobster menu was great, my octopus salad was very good and massive (it was virtually a main), the steak and prawn main was again, massive, the sauce I remember was a bit salty, otherwise, a very fine dining experience. We only had time for a take away breakfast from Provedore before heading for our longest day of driving. So a couple of rich, buttery croissants, and an orange friand were pretty much going to have to suffice until dinner time. They were very fresh and very French, absolutely delicious and well worth the extra step before leaving.

Six hours in a car with an unsettled baby, yikes, and finally we got to Cape Jervis where we could all get out of the car and relax for just a bit (on the ferry) before driving an extra forty minutes from Penneshaw to Kingscote where we would spend four days on Kangaroo Island. Next on dtraCorp…

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