We’re heading south today towards the Great Ocean Highway, spending a few nights along the way. Today is our longest drive of the trip – some 4 hours from McLaren Vale to Penola, in the heart of the Coonawara wine region (Cab Sav mecca – some say it’s the best in the world).
Genius that I am, I convinced Mary we should add another hour to the drive by taking the ‘scenic route’ through the Coorong National Park along the coast then on to Robe, one of South Australia’s great beach towns. It was a very odd ride along the supposed ‘ocean road’ along where you have no view of the ocean but a ton of looks at mud flats (we’re guessing it’s a different perspective when the tide is in). The ride was still interesting with varying landscape and flora. Some unexpected bonuses were a free ferry ride across a river near Meningie and a view of Meningie’s ‘Pink Lake’. The lake is really pink – with the coloring caused by a chemical produced by an aquatic plant to protect it from the sun’s rays. BEST OF ALL – we were able to see ‘Larry, the Giant Lobster’ in Kingston! Too cool.
Robe is a nice little beach town. We picnicked along the water front overlooking the beautiful Guichen Bay, then stopped at the ‘Robe Brewery’ on the way out of town. The brewery isn’t much to look at, but the samples were all pretty good. Their niche is to recreate historical beers and to brew styles using local wild ‘bush-tucker’ fruits and herbs. Some very unique offerings.
We’re staying in the Coonawara wine district in the small town of Penola. We’ve rented a historical property, ‘Georgie’s Cottage’, for a few evenings. The restoration of the house is quite well done. Alas, there’s no wifi & very little consideration for the charging of electrical devices (important for us dweebs). Downtown Penola is only a few blocks away. Amazingly, no wifi anywhere! Geez. A tender at one of the pubs where a network showed as available said when asked: ‘wifi, I don’t know’, ‘Password, I don’t have any idea’.
Dick
———
Out early for our drive to Penola. Dick has convinced me we should add an hour or more to our trip to take the scenic ocean road from McLaren Vale to Penola. I’m sure scenic means a lot of things to most people, but when I hear ‘scenic’ and ‘ocean’ in the same sentence, I’m assuming there will be some water to look at along the way – not so much.
The town of Robe was quite attractive, and we find a park bench overlooking the inlet and have a grazing lunch. The birds are quite well behaved and don’t pester us for food while we eat
Leaving Robe, we happen upon the Robe Brewery, an upstart still finding their way. Dick has a sample of their offerings and I partake of their Porter, not bad.
Another hour, and we arrive in Penola, a very small town. We get situated and take a walk around town. We are going to be wireless for the next few days. At the few pubs we stop at, no one seems to know what wi-fi is. Kind of charming in a twisted kind of way.
The house is realty quite unusual. It was built in 1850 and is one of the oldest residential structures still in existence in Penola. It has been beautifully restored and there are a number of outdoor seating areas to enjoy the gardens. The house has been provisioned with fresh eggs, mushrooms, bacon, bread, juice, milk and tomatoes. Tomorrow we will have an omelet before our day in wine country.
Mary