Visiting the First Big Thing

After making an early start, and with good driving conditions on the freeway, through Tailem Bend, alongside Lake Albert, then a quick stop at Meningie, lunch at Salt Creek.

Coorong Mullet and a Steak Sandwich, as anticipated, were on the menu, and enjoyed. But it seems that Marlene has moved on from the Heart Of The Coorong roadhouse, so there was no bread and apricot jam served up with the meal.

Since we were making such good time we had the opportunity to stop at one of Australia’s iconic BIG things. At KingstonSE, you can not miss Larry The Big Lobster.

Australia has several of these big tourist attractions, and on our journeys we expect to see several of them and maybe write a little about them with photos.

The legend behind the Big Lobster.

Larry, as he is know by locals stands 17 metres tall, and is regarded as one of Australia’s most impressive Big Things.

He was originally planned to stand over the Tourist Centre at KingstonSE, but council or building regulations did not permit that so he now stands at the front, separate from the building.

There is some thought that Larry is much bigger than originally planned because the builder misread the blueprint, thinking that the measurements were in metres, rather than in the imperial measurement of  feet. Of course that may be one of those Urban (or in this case Rural) Myths.

On to Robe.

Just down down the road from KingstonSE is the historic old port town of Robe. The first overnight stay of our trip to Geelong is at the Lakeside Tourist and Cabin Park alongside the curiously named Lake Fellmongery. A walk down the main street of Robe is almost like a walk back in time with the well restored old stone buildings typical of port towns of the mid 1800′s.  Tomorrow it’s on to Mount Gambier, and maybe beyond.