Moving Down the Road Thursday 2/08/08

Today is a moving day. Our only mission today is to move from Victor Harbor south to Robe with our weekend destination being Warrnambool in Victoria. The day is overcast and spitting rain so once again the weather works perfectly in our favor. The clouds and cool temps will make it easy for driving and crappy for anything else.

We check out Victor Harbor since we didn’t even have a peek at it last night. It really is a charming place with a bustling business district near the real harbor and their big deal is a trolley that is pulled out along a causeway to a neighboring island by some Clydesdales. Everybody has an act.

We have to head north and east to eventually go south and our route takes us through some substantial vineyards including a couple we have heard of in the past. We happen across an entire flock of "Galahs," an ostentacious gray and pink parrot that Peter pointed out to us on Tuesday. Our pal Holly would be so proud of our newly acquired birding capabilities. When we reach Wellington the road runs right into the Murray River, but thankfully there is a ferry waiting to take us across. One of us sings "Ferry ‘cross the Murray" from Gerry and Pacemakers (1964) (sort of) while the other considers terminating this trip on the spot.

This is an easy day and therefore an easy post. We stop for lunch at Meningie which is the largest dot on the map and the options are not good. Mary grabs some chips and dip at the grocery and John adds a diet coke and a steak and mushroom pie from the bakery. We eat at a picnic table in a park along the shore and are entertained by one seagull that spends a half hour chasing all the others away from our table. He is not rewarded because we think he is too crabby.

Our only other stop is at Kingston, home of the giant lobster, where we stop for gas. This may be like the place where we didn’t stop for green mussels in NZ as every café is advertising lobster (crayfish). Our lodging in Robe is a Best Western and a bit different than our KI stop but more in line with our budget. Our host recommends two restaurants, "Sails", a seafood place where we think we might still get a lobster, and the "Gallerie" with more standard fare. We walk through town and Sails is having a special banquet this evening to celebrate the Chinese New Year (year of the rat) so we book a table at Gallerie. We also peek in at the Chinese restaurant that is not having a banquet tonight.

Mary has a cheese and spinach stuffed chicken and John has roast Kangaroo with sweet potatoes, beets and broccoli. The roo is tender and mild and yet the server swears that it is wild. We might have found our favorite dish for the next 7 weeks. We also find a Cabernet from Woodstock where we had lunch on Monday so we can mix the familiar with the unfamiliar. We hope for a sunset but the clouds roll in again so no luck.

An easy day and early to bed.

Today's Local Headline: Oops! The Australian (Adelaide City Council has a group of homeless Aboriginals removed from a park as the National government is preparing an official apology for the historical displacing of Aboriginals.)