8 November – 9 November 2013 – Streaky Bay

So we had a lazy morning this morning, said goodbye to our new friends and headed into Ceduna.  It wasn’t long before we realised that this might not be the best town to drop anchor for the night.  Instead, we kept on driving until hitting Streaky Bay – and this was much better.  Another family had just pulled in before us, Josh overheard that they too were travelling Australia.  We were allocated a spot right on the beach only two doors down from this family so by the time we got set up and had our chairs in the sand and sun we got chatting, along with our middle neighbours Keith and Min.  The other family, Adam, Jo, Alex and Jackson Watts were from the sunshine coast, QLD and as soon as the kids met in the water, they clicked – that was them taken care of for the afternoon.  We had a great afternoon just having a few drinks with all our new neighbours before the sun went down.  The Watts and us decided to all go to the caravan park’s restaurant for dinner.  It felt a little odd when we walked in and the other tables were all occupied by grey nomads.  The kids pulled up their own table sharing pizza and us adults were able to have some adult time together – it was a fantastic night which ended with a photo session and story swapping back on the beach while the kids all watched a movie together.

The Watts family left today for further travels, and we headed on yet another coastal drive.  First stop was at Sceale Bay where the water was a lovely blue that matched the sky before then heading south to Point Labatt Conservation Park where there was a sealion colony.  We did a count of the sealions from the lookout and there were well over 40 of them.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t get very close to them but we had our binoculars to get a better look.  There was one young pup that was heading for its mum and making a rather odd noise, it actually sounded like a human yelling.  None of them appeared to doing much, other than laying on the rocks warming themselves… I probably would have done the same given the choice.  Josh then decided to take us onto a track, I had no idea where we were…. but we ended up surrounded by a gorgeous wheat field.  We had a quick stop at an old brick shack that was ruined, Josh hopped out to investigate.  He found some stairs that led to beneath the ground but thankfully chose wisely not to venture down them.  We drove on en route to the Westall Way Loop Drive stopping at a few lovely spots such as Point Westall, Granites and High Cliff admiring the rocky cliff edges and magnificent big bays.  Our last drive for the day was along Cape Bauer Loop Drive, north west of the Streaky Bay town.  We raced down the boardwalk to the Whistling Rocks and then to the other side of the walkway to The Blow Holes but unfortunately the swell wasn’t big enough today and no water was being shot through them.  After a race back up the long boardwalk to the car we drove on to Cape Bauer and then The Spit.  We hardly passed a car the entire loop, the only others around being a group of fishermen that had parked on the edge of a high cliff and were fishing off the side of it.  Back at the park we swapped some stories with Keith and Min before venturing inside for warmth once again – this coastal wind is just not letting up.