Turning Right

Best pies in South Australia - really (Port Wakefield)

Beach walk to Beachport Beach

Harbourmaster's House, Robe

Busts of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin, Robe

Chinese Memorial, Robe.  As Victoria taxed each incoming Chinese ten pounds poll tax, they instead landed at Robe in South Australia and trekked 400 kilometres to the gold fields in Victoria, during the 1850s.

The Obelisk, Robe, gradually being undermined by the wild seas.

Wonderful coastal scenery around Robe

Originally built on Margaret Brock Reef off Cape Jaffa, at the end of its service, the lighthouse was dismantled and reassembled at Kingston, 1974.

Main street, Kingston, on a Sunday afternoon

So, having decided not to stay at the Robe Naturist Park, we spent some time in the beautiful town of Robe, and travelled on to Kingston where we free camped overnight at a lovely grassy spot near the town jetty, along with a dozen others.

Robe was a most interesting town, with many beautiful stone houses, all neatly kept, though again with a very quiet main street - most of the shops were closed after lunch Saturday.  It is in the south east limestone coast of South Australia, lying on the southern shore of Guichen Bay.  Guichen Bay was named by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin after Admiral de Guichen in 1802, as he was charting the south coast of Australia.  Robe is one of the oldest towns in South Australia, founded by the colonial government as a seaport, administrative centre and village only ten years after British settlers formally established the Province of South Australia.  (Named for the fourth Governor of South Australia, Major Frederick Robe, who chose the site as a port in 1845).

As with most places we pass through, this one warranted more than the day we gave it, but if we did that we'd never get home!

And speaking of getting home, we've made the momentous decision to Turn Right instead of Left.  We added up the kilometres between Port Augusta and Darwin, via Perth and coastal WA and decided that Turning Right was a better option, as we weren't putting enough time into exploring WA.

So here we are in beautiful Port Augusta, cleaned, watered and shopped, ready to take on the Stuart Highway tomorrow.  We've had a lay-day here to gird our loins for the long road up the Centre of Australia, and look forward to the very different sights we'll see to what we've already put behind us.

I hope there will be internet in various centres along the way, but if you don't hear anything for a while, we're not lost, just out of range!  We still intend to be home by December, but if you hear nothing for a month or two, better send the Cavalry!!!