. . . . Ricks Extra Long Summer . . . .: To adelaide

A quick update today as we are off up through the middle to Alice Springs over the next few days and dont expect a whole lot of internet coverage.....

On our second day in Apollo Bay, at the superb YHA Hostel, we headed out after breakfast and did the usual sightseeing. The Grotto, London Bridge, The Arch and The 12 Apostles were all ticked off, interspersed with a few rain showers, but it was a good day out. We kept coming across the same people, while we were out, including a group of pilots who were flying along the coast in microlights. An afternoon of vegging out followed with a hot bath and a snooze before dinner. Its a hard life!!

We left Apollo Bay the next morning and drove North along the coast. On the way we stopped at The Bay of Martyrs. This is a lovely;y beach and was made even better by the wild sea that was breaking along the shore. We climbed over a few rocks to get a better view of the sea and to take photos. I decided to time the tide and climb onto a rock that was surrounded by water most of the time. It turned out to be a stupid idea, as a minute after standing there a massive wave came in and soaked me through!! I ended up getting changed in the car park and putting my wet clothes in the boot of the car till we arrived at our next hostel. We also stopped later in the day at Mt Gambier, a nice little town that has a deep blue lake in a crater left behind by a Volcano. Its a strange place, but a nice place to stop off for an hour or two on a long journey.

Our stopover tonight was at a nice little town called Robe. This is a small town on the coast with a couple of lakes, but more of a retirement town than anything else. We were staying in the YHA Hostel on the shores of one of the lakes and after a bit of shopping to get fish fingers for dinner we moved in. It wasn’t the greatest Hostel we have stayed in. The manager was a pregnant woman with a small kid who kept running up and down the corridors. The room was big enough as was the kitchen and bathrooms. But the lounge and TV room were both cold without heating (we nicked a heater out of a different bedroom). The manager even took our stuff out of the dryer when it was still wet, to wash sheets. (We then discovered that you could get the washing and drying for free by opening the payment drawer that wasn’t locked) She even kept BOTH front doors open, so the Hostel was really cold.

It was a nice enough Hostel, spoilt by poor management, which is a real shame because it is in a lovely old house.

We left early next morning and drove for 3 hours to Adelaide, passing a 5 metre high lobster on the way. After booking into the Hostel and dropping the car off, we wandered around Adelaide for the afternoon, feeding the ducks and swans by the river as well as visiting the Adelaide Oval and the city centre.