The Eyre Peninsular

Spending another day in Streaky Bay - ie not having to drive anywhere - was as appealing a prospect as winning the lottery (which co-incidentally, would come in handy about now!), but it was cold, windy and a fair drive still to Adelaide so we left on Friday morning.

Rock Formations

Murphy's Hay Stacks are an interesting collection of oddly-shaped, pink granite inselbergs in the middle of a wheat paddock just outside Streaky Bay. Local legend says that Murphy's Hay Stacks acquired its name from an Irish agricultural expert who saw this landmark in the distance whilst travelling on a coach. Apparently the learned Irish gentleman was very impressed and informed his fellow passengers that the farmer must have harrowed his land to produce such a great abundance of hay! We wandered around the Hay Stacks enjoying the sun and found a lovely fat shingleback lizard trying to escape notice in his camouflage clothing. He didn't take Eagle Eye Marcus into account.

What you lookin' at?

The Eyre Peninsular (western side) scenery included some rugged coastline, many ruined stone cottages and buildings, and drystone walls. The land was rocky, marginal sheep country and there were plenty of dry salt lakes to be seen. We had never seen any before this trip.

Port Lincoln was our destination and the van park we chose was huge, almost empty and located on the edge of Boston Bay. Our tent and van faced onto a fishing jetty ... so you can guess where Lachie disappeared to! Marcus and Ella went fishing as well and Marcus caught a lovely whiting, which Lachie filleted. The wind was howling and the freezing temperatures eventually drove us all back for hot showers and a retreat indoors.

Saturday morning started with a sleep in, although Lachie went out fishing. I joined him for a while, but it was colder than the evening before - is it really December? - and we went back to warm up. The wind was incessant and unpleasant, confining us to the caravan, tent and Blunderbuss. We were all dead beat, dog tired and done for after all the driving (almost 2000 kms since Tuesday) so we spent the rest of the day reading and had a much needed Hermits rehearsal. Lachlan discovered a novel use for the tuner ...  he can burp in concert E flat. Such are the lengths we go to for amusement when we are stuck inside!

E flat, Ladies and Gentlemen
A boy totally committed to musical development!

No-one would get out of the shelter of the
Blunderbuss to get in this photo!

The wind did its best to transform our tent into a zeppelin overnight, so no-one joined Lachie on the jetty on Sunday morning. He managed to lose one of his thongs overboard during a particularly vicious gust before losing his fishing enthusiasm in the icy gale. The locals are apologising for the weather - apparently it should be lovely at this time of year. It certainly isn't. In an effort to escape the vile wind off the bay, we went into town to have a picnic lunch near the sculpture celebrating the Port Lincoln-owned Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva. Makybe didn't seem to mind the wind but our teeth were chattering so we jumped back into the Blunderbuss to find something to do inside, somewhere - anywhere! - other than the caravan.

The marina was chockers full of boldly hued fishing boats which we duly admired from inside the Blunderbuss. The kids spotted the Leisure Centre as we circled around the marina and, as we were at leisure to stop, I took them inside for a fabulous afternoon of waterslides, the challenge of the inflatable rat race and the Tarzan Rope. Dave sat inside the Buss playing his guitar and all were happy. Well, I was a bit bored sitting on a chair but I think I may have mastered the art of looking fondly upon the offspring's antics while dozing! I was so cold I couldn't contemplate getting into the pool! After some more interior entertainment - draughts, accordion, drawing, and Ella wrote a list: Things I Miss About Home - we couldn't take it anymore so we drove off to find somewhere out of the bloody wind for dinner. The kids were very excited at the Mandarin - we rarely eat out and they have had a hankering for quite some time to try fried icecream! We enjoyed the meal but realised as Dave went to pay that he had lost his credit card. It was almost a long evening of dishes but I remembered my wallet was in the Buss.

We were all up early on Monday morning, thankful to pack up and get out of the infernal wind. Dave's credit card turned up at the office and the packup went smoothly despite the encumbrance of many layers of clothing ... until a huge gust of wind picked up the Oztent and deposited it on top of the Blunderbuss! That was a new packup scenario. We often leave a town wishing we could stay a little longer, but we were all pleased to leave Port Lincoln and its diabolical weather.

I would have thought the Nullarbor
would have been a Death Star, but
he made it through!

The Lincoln Highway took us north up the eastern coast of the peninsular. We made several short stops and reached the industrial centre of Whyalla for a late lunch, where the undeniable charm of the steelworks helped us decide to push on to Adelaide. We managed Port Augusta by 3:30 p.m. and were enormously cheered to see Paul French, in his stormtrooper costume, walking along the highway. He is walking from Perth to Sydney in full stormtrooper getup to raise money for charity. We had heard of his fundraising and were excited to see him. May the Force be with him! The highway was busy and we couldn't stop so this photo comes from Getty Images.

We were pleased for the extra hour of daylight saving as Adelaide was still many kilometres off. Dave drove on, musing that there would have been no way he could have driven so far at the beginning of our journey. We bypassed Snowtown (the Bodies in Barrels murder scene) which seemed a rather grisly tourist spot and laughed as we spotted the Loch Ness monster in Lake Stirling, just outside the town of Lochiel.

We eventually made it to Adelaide after 671 kms and found a central city caravan park by sheer luck just before dark. Also by sheer luck, they had one site vacant which we gladly took.

Stay tuned ...