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.