Days 107-113 - Streaky Bay (23-29 Dec)

Still at Streaky Bay - here until 3 Jan.  Really just biding our time over the Xmas/New Year holiday.  Since Boxing Day we have been invaded with kids, the park is choccas with families majority from Adelaide.  Have to be honest don't know what the attraction is that people want to drive 800kms!  I would think there are nicer places closer to home.  It is a very very popular spot all the same.  Think we are also spoilt by WAs beaches.  We had a lovely Xmas day with three other couples (also travelling orphans).  We all pitched in with food and there was plenty, so much that we had a re-run on Boxing Day.  The weather here is a bit erratic, low 40s to mid 20s probably a flow on from Cyclone Laurence.  The last few days have been in the mid 30s.  Unfortunately the ocean is too shallow to get a good swim can only wallow but at least we can cool off.  There is a firework display on the foreshore in front of the park on New Years Eve and we have been told it is the best in SA so looking forward to that.  Think I may have seen a shark.  All I could see was a fin circling in the water.  I stood and watched it for a while in case it was a dolphin but it didn't dive below or jump, just the fin circling.  It was obviously chasing fish as you could see them splashing in the water.  It was in shallow water about 70m from shore.  Makes you think twice about 'wallowing'.  There is a swimming net attached to the jetty that keeps sharks out.  There was shark caught here in 1990 weighing 1520kgs on a 24lb line.  Took 5 hours to land it.  There is a replica of it in town.  Seems such a shame to have caught it, although this was before sharks became a protected species.  There are a lot of fisherpeople here.  Some of them are just plain greedy, they come back with great hauls of fish and crabs and it makes you wonder if they really need all they catch.  Some people criticise WA for its tougher fishing laws but honestly something has to be done and good on WA for calling the tough shots. Seeing how these guys fish here is criminal.  One guy goes out everyday in a big boat and comes back with at least two crayfish and they are huge probably about 3-4kg each, they would be about 30 years old!  He has caught eight that we know off, gluttony I think.  He uses cray pots and you need a licence.  The photos are of town and the park on the foreshore.  Notice how shallow and how far out the tide goes.  See how we are packed into the park!!

Day 106 - Streaky Bay (22 December)

Some healthy pelicans with some landscapes in the background to give you an idea of our surroundings.

Addendum to the pelican story is that the vet euthanised it as it was too bad to fix.  Also we suspect it was the easiest option.

Days 104-105 Streaky Bay (20-21 December) Week 16

How do you catch a pelican?  Ask John, pseudo pelican catcher.  There are a lot of pelicans here and of course with all the avid fisherman they hang around for the scraps when the fishermen return from a day's fishing and are filleting their fish.  There are fish cleaning stations along the foreshore which is where the pelicans hang out.  Anyway there was a pelican with a badly damaged beak and he/she was unable to feed normally.  The only way it could feed is if a kind fisherman threw scraps for it and aimed just right for it to swallow.  But then it would go into the water and regurgitate the food and another pelican or seagull would snatch it away. A lot of people were concerned for the pelican but didn't really know what to do. I went to the caravan park office to find out what was being done for the pelican and they advised that the vet had been informed and if someone can catch it the vet would look at it.  Yeah right, catching a pelican is not easy without the right technique and this one was quite timid possibly because people had been trying to catch it.  Back to the foreshore and the pelican got close enough to try a rugby tackle and John tried and missed it by centimetres, damm.  That technique was not going to work.  The next day John was determined he was going to catch it.   This time he went to the office to ask what was happening with the pelican and this time was told they had given up trying to catch it.  So it was up to someone else.  Of course each day the park is getting busier and busier and for the pelicans sake it was best to catch it sooner rather than later.  This day it was warmer and the pelican was hanging around the fish cleaning station trying to drink water from a hose that some kind person had left running for it.  It was quite upsetting to see it the way it was.  John called the vet to check their availabilty (its a Sunday) as we didn't want to catch it if they couldn't see it.  The apathetic vet was hosting a birthday party and wasn't available until late afternoon but if it could be caught they would see it.  We then tried to find local wildlife carers and found no one.  Eventually we called the Seabird Rescue Organisation in NSW and spoke to a really helpful man who agreed that if it wasn't caught it would suffer a slow painful death by starving and gave us some advice on how to catch it without harming it.   He tried to find a local carer without success.  The agreed option was to make a snare atttached to a piece of conduit that acted like a fishing line and tempt the pelican into the snare and then flick the line like catching a fish.  The snare goes around the foot.  Sounds nasty but in reality it is very calm and gentle.  So snare was set in place. The plan was to entice the pelican into the snare with fish and Kev would 'catch' it, I would put a towel over its eyes and release the snare from its foot.  Well the whole plan went off without a hitch except I had gone for a dip in the water and because of the sloping beach I had to wade out about 10 miles before it got to my knees and missed the whole thing.   I got back in time to go to see the pelican go into a box and then go with John to the vets house - yes she didn't have a car? and deliver the pelican to her kids birthday party.  When we met the vet she didn't inspire confidence at all.  However we have done all we can do and hopefully the vet will do the right thing.  She murmured something about it still being able to feed and supergluing its beak together??  John rode into town today to visit the vet to see what the outcome was but they were closed!  Watch this space. He was the hero on the beach today and people were telling the story of the pelican catcher.

Days 102-103 - Streaky Bay (18-19 December)

Drove a marathon 70kms yesterday arriving in Streaky Bay at lunchtime.  Quite a big park and it is going to get busy.  The park fronts onto the foreshore but unfortunately we aren't lucky enough to get a beachfront site.  There is a cafe on site that has lots of take aways and a kiosk for more junk food so really cater for the tourists.  Both spots we have stayed in SA so far are in bays and when the tide goes out it goes out a long way, the beach is very very shallow, barely deep enough for a swim and the sand is more coarse then we have in WA.  Nothing on WA's beaches yet but early days so we'll be generous.  Our second last night in Smoky Bay was really windy so much so we were very worried about losing our gazebo.  John spent a bit of time outside battening it down. The wind was so strong you could feel it pushing the side of the caravan in - our first experience of real wind. A little disconcerting  At one point we had a dust storm and you couldn't see out of the window.  To top it off the whole town had a power cut so it was pitch black, it only came back on during the early morning.  Anyway we got through it unscathed and the gazebo in one piece.  Due to the power cut though we had switched our portable fridge/freezer in the car to run of the car battery and shortly after discovered the car battery was flat - good thing we didn't need a quick getaway during the wind storm.  Next morning decided its time to replace the battery and phoned Ceduna (closest town) to discover they didn't have a battery suitable and he would have to phone around to get one in.  About 1/2 hour later we had a knock on the van and a guy with a bobcat asking if we were after a car battery!  How's that for service!  Apparently he was the distributor for the Eyre Peninsula and is based in Smoky Bay (even more incredible as it is such a small town), he got the details of what we wanted and came back with his bobcat and put the battery in for us.  Can't complain about that service particularly when we reckon we wouldn't have a got a better price anyway else.  Streaky Bay has a population of 1200 in town and 800 rural.  Big enough for two supermarkets albeit bit pricey.  The caravan park is close enough to town that we have ridden our bikes and could walk.  There is a nice walking track nearby through the bush that is dog off leash area.  Other than that we haven't had much time to explore.   Will post more later.

Days 93-101 - Ceduna and Smoky Bay (9-17 December)

Reached Ceduna, the first biggish town once crossing the border. We bought  two new caravan tyres to replace the one that blew and one of the others looked dodgy.  So we now have six new tyres out of the original eight,  Apparently tyres have a life span (6 years?) and ours must have all reached that at the same time.  So lets hope that's the end of our tyre blowouts.  We also caught up with the two couples we had met in Esperance.  There is not much at all in Ceduna, a town of about 4000 people but you can pretty well get everything you need there, ie. tyres, food, grog etc.  The guys did a bit of fishing off the jetty, caught some crabs and a couple of squid.  It was so cold and windy in Ceduna we were glad to leave.  We did our shortest drive ever, 40kms to Smoky Bay which is still cold and windy.  Smoky Bay is a town of 200 people on the coast with only a general store and country club.  Very much a fishing town with lots of holiday homes and not many people, the average age of those here is about 79.   Again not much to do here except sit on the beach, walk along the beach and fish.  We are here for a week when we move to Streaky Bay for the Xmas/New Year period.  The time here will be enforced relaxing (for me at least - John has mastered relaxing very well!)  The weather is picking up each day with the mornings being the best before the wind picks up around lunchtime. By Wednesday it will be 40!  John caught four squid yesterday which we had for lunch, yummy.  This area is famous for its oysters, $6/doz.  We are not into oysters but have been told they are the best especially if they are eaten straight away from the sea and raw (yuk).  We are really enjoying the daylight saving it is so nice to have light until about 9.00pm and it doesn't start getting light until about 5.30am perfect.  We have been here at Smoky Bay for 3 nights and are fast becoming the 'long termers'.  Most mornings we are the only ones in the whole park then come late arvo other caravans pop in for a night or two.  The park owner tells us that come boxing day the park will be full for the next 5 months!  Our site overlooks the local church - each Sunday they have a different religious denomination host the service.  They currently have a nativity scene displayed and the church is lit up in the evening.  There was a funeral here on Friday and I reckon it must have been have been a bit of a highlight for the locals, too many people to get in the church. The photos above are John showing off his new haircut and our new gazebo tent.  It is great for shade and getting away from the mozzies - there are many here.  You can tell we have too much time on our hands when we start taking photos of our lunch (it is the squid though so worth a piccie).  Unless something really exciting happens here (like John catches 5 squid or I finish my third book) we may not add anything until we get to Streaky.

Days 89-92 - (5-8 December)

Crossed the SA border via the Nullabor (Eyre Highway) into daylight saving - yippee!

Left Esperance on the 5th and heading for the Nullabor via Norseman.  No a great deal in Norseman except refuel.  They have these neat corrugated iron camels on the entrance statement which is different.  As the trip is so long we did three free overnight camps, the first two in WA and the 3rd in South Australia.  A free camp is basically pulling up alongside the road in designated parking areas.  Some have tables, pit loos and shade.  Others not so luxurious.    Its a long long drive but it is interesting and we think everyone should do it.  We've both done a few times now and each time you see something different.  We did have a couple of mishaps, the first being another tyre blowout (yes another one), this time on the caravan, much more awkward to change.  This was on the longest straight road.  The second mishap was a flat car battery the mornng after our third free camp - we were 150kms from Ceduna.  After much messing around with John trying to jump start the car battery via the caravan batteries (we have 2) with no success, either they were also flat or not enough charge to start the car, John finally gave in and asked one of the other campers (thank goodness they were still there) for a jump start.  I had suggested this first off but after an hour of messing around he find succumbed and asked for help - why do guys do this.  Of course, none of this went without the whinging that we aren't free camping anymore now you know why I don't want to do it!!  My response is that these things have to happen for us to realise what we need - not sure John sees it this way yet.  Anyway this chap was Busso born and bred and he had gennie and a battery charger and was only too happy to help and it worked, so we said our cheerios and took off while the going was good.  Back to the longest drive.  On the WA side is the longest straight road a 146.6km without bends (see pics).  It goes on and on and on.  All the way along the highway we faced headwinds which meant our fuel consumption was very bad and slow.  Our first night stop was past Balladonia roadhouse and was quite pretty with lots of gum trees.  We pulled in about 5.00pm(ish) and had the place to ourselves, went for a lovely walk, it was warm which was so nice after the coolness of Esperance and settled in for a balmy quiet night eating dinner outside (haven't done this since being up north).  About 7.30pm a road train pulled in and sat with the engine running for 1.5 hours - so much for our peace and quiet.  Nothing quite like being in a lovely setting listening to a road train's engine.  He eventually took off.  About 10.3pm three roadtrains pulled in with gennies running so they could sleep with the air conditioning and the drivers were chatting away to each other.  Fortunately after about an hour they took off and we had the place to ourselves again.  We did hear a road train pull in about 3.00am but didn't hear it again and it was still there in the morning.  It seems the drivers pull over for a quick nap before continuing their journey.  Our second night we pulled in a 1 km before Mundrabilla roadhouse next to a water tank.  Again had the place to ourselves until about 7.00pm when a hiace van with trailer and a carload of our indigenous friends pulled in with about six kids. Needless to say our peace and quiet was again disrupted while we listened to them arguing and kids climbing over the tanks - lovely especially when they started again at 4.15am!!  Thanks to those who voted against daylight saving! We did have a speccie sunset though. This particular family pulled into our 3rd nights site and John was ready to take off but we had positioned ourselves so noone else could use the table (advantage of being there early) and they moved on.  Although we have seen them again in Ceduna, must be following us.  Once we cross the border into SA we then get views of the Great Australian Bight, unfortunatey it was windy, cold but we still managed to get some OK photos.  The Nullabor isn't as boring as you might think, the landscape does change and hopefully the photos give you an idea of what it looks like. 

Map of South Australia

Click on picture to enlarge (as with all pictures on blog to see better quality)

Days 86-88 Esperance (2-4 Dec)

We say au revoir to Esperance tomorrow (5th Dec) heading east across the Nullabor.  We plan on it taking about 3 days to get to the border (depending on what we see) and then we will stay at Smoky Bay and Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula for Xmas and New Year.  Our final days in Esperance have been spent getting organised for the next three weeks.  This included getting four new tyres for the car, John installed a smoke alarm in the van and a fire exthinguisher in the car so should be covered for all dramas now. This is our last opportunity to shop for Xmas in a good sized town where prices are reasonable so have stocked up on the Xmas food and other goodies.  Today (Friday) we did the Ocean Drive tour again which really is spectacular but drove the opposite way round from last time.  Still too cold to snorkel or swim.  We have enjoyed Esperance it really is a lovely spot and well worth a visit.  Can throughly recommend a trip here.  Just pick the time of year that you come.  We would like to come back one summer to enjoy the great beaches.   The shots of the beach are at 9 mile beach which we think would be great snorkelling.  The bird looks like a goose so we called it a sea goose but don't know what it is.  Finally here we are playing rumikub on Dennis' last night.  (You'll be happy to know I have had my haircut since this photo).  The next time we update the blog we will be in South Australia some 937kms from Esperance to the border. 

Day 85 - Esperance - Duke of Orleans (1 Dec)

Interesting day today we decided to visit Duke of Orleans which is a bay 88kms east of Esperance.  Unfortunately not the best day to visit as it was very overcast and cool.  Starting to wonder how many warm days Esperance has!  So off we went, picnic onboard for a scenic day out.  About halfway to the bay the road changed to gravel and about 10kms away we blew a tyre, the tyre actually overtook us!  Luckily John realised what was happening early in the dilemna and pulled over.  This is our second tyre in 3 weeks!  We only bought the spare when we were in Kalgoorlie.  None of us have ever seen a tyre blow quite like this.   Needless to say we are getting 4 new tyres tomorrow.  We continued on to the bay and we were glad we did - even though we didnt' see it at its best due to the weather it really is very lovely, more rugged than the beaches in the national parks.  Again the beaches are so white!!    We braved morning tea in a semi protected bay (see pic).  There are so many banksias in this area, they are quite lovely particularly as on one side of the road they were flowering in various stages and on the other they had been burnt by fire.  There is a caravan park near the bay that we checked out, it was not bad and unbelievably there weren't any tourists.  I am sure school holidays is a different matter. 

Day 84 - Esperance (30 Nov)

Visited the Mermaid Leather factory.  Believe it or not they make leather out of fish skins!  It is very strong in fact stronger than animal leather and they can tan it to all colours.  They only use fish that has been caught and processed for food and they have a contract with the local fisheries to buy their discarded fish skins.  Every part of the fish is used - even the scales.  It was very interesting to see how they use the skins and what they use it for, ie, shoes, handbags, jewellery, car seats in fact anything that you would use leather for.  Mostly they use barramundi, shark and schapper skins although any fish skin can use used. They are the only commercial producers in Australia and one of 9 in the world so they have a niche market. Here is their website if interested.  http://www.mermaidleather.com/

Day 83 - Esperance - Cape Le Grand National Park (29 Nov)

Had a great day exploring the Cape Le Grand National Park 50kms east of Esperance.  Packed a picnic lunch to see if Esperance really does have the best beaches.  The first beach we hit was Hellfire Bay which has been voted the 2nd best beach in Australia (the 1st being one in Sydney) and I have to say it is tops Meelup Bay (sorry to our Busso/Duns friends but it does).  Unfortunately the photos don't do it justice, the water is so blue and the beach so white it is absolutely stunning.   If only it was warmer and we could have gone for a swim and snorkel!  We had morning tea here sitting on the rocks surveying the stunning view.  Next we went to Frenchman's Peak which is 262m high.  It has a lovely Aboriginal yarn (story) which we have photographed for you.  The views from the summit that look over the park are meant to be stunning and John and I may go back and walk up there.  Next we went to Rossiter's Bay and then Lucky Bay.  Lucky Bay apparently has been known to have kangaroos lazing on the beach and John thought this was a big joke until we saw 2 roos (mum and baby) bouncing down to the beach from the road.  We didn't see them on the beach but they are around.  (I've cheated and added in a photo below that the Esperance tourism use).  The views in this park are spectacular and the water is blue as can be.  There are some interesting rock formations and some even look like animals as if they have been sculpted.  Quite amazing. We have never seen as many Xmas trees in one place as in this park and there are some other pretty flowering shrubs as well.  This is one of the prettiest national parks I have been in and we would like to go back if we have time.  To see more detail on the photos click on them to make them full size.