As we got closer to the day that we had to leave our wonderful little cottage in Angaston for a week, we had to make a very important decision. Should we just find another cottage in the Barossa? Fly back to the beautiful beachs in Broome? Or try something completely new?
I started scouring the map for nice little beach towns and finally ran across Robe, South Australia, which looked great online. But we learned long ago that the internet lies (see Trans-Siberian Express). So I emailed our Aussie friend Hamish, who comes from South Australia, and asked what he knew about Robe. He replied with two words:
Robe rocks.
That was enough for us. We made reservations at another charming little 1850s cottage right in the heart of Robe.
Depending on who you talk to, the town’s population is either 1500 or 2000 and swells to either 15,000 or 20,000 when summer (and tourists) arrive. We got lucky because the summer holiday season begins the day after we leave and hotel rates double.
It’s a gorgeous little town filled with lots of fully-restored buildings constructed of big blocks of limestone way back in the 1850s. It’s slow and casual and absolutely delightful. The streets are lined with great restaurants, beautiful shops and galleries, and a famous ice cream shop (that one was particularly important to Jamie). She says it’s like a smaller Corona del Mar and I say it’s like a smaller, older Laguna.
Of course, we’ve come several hundred miles south from the Barossa, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s considerably cooler here. So instead of comparing it to Laguna or Corona del Mar, maybe we should compare it to some small, charming beach town in Northern California.
Maybe Bodega Bay.