Streaky Bay, EP

On Thursday the 4^th we left Venus Bay and headed to Streaky Bay. On the way we stopped at Murphy’s Haystacks. They were amazing granite rocks and not unlike Devil’s Marbles although there were not near as many.

 Fortunately Ross held up this rock for us to get past.

Streaky Bay is a really nice town overlooking a shallow bay. The pub in particular is well positioned with a great balcony and with good food.

The next day we went for the drives around Streaky Bay. Firstly we went down to Point Labatt where the largest seal colony in Australia exists. We stayed there for at least 45 minutes just looking at their behavior, ie mothers suckling their young, the alpha male scaring off a younger male, a young sea lion going for a swim and then having trouble finding mum and there was a tender moment when he found her. It was so worth the visit. I would have taken a video but having to zoom in meant that I would not be able to hold the camera steadily enough.

We then drove back to Sceale Bay (pronounced scale) which is a little fishing village, no shops at all. We had a cuppa and then moved on and stopped at Surfer’s Beach. There is a view back to Sceale Bay.

Then onto Westall Way which is a loop road and first stop was Speed Point.

Then to Smooth Pool.

Point Westall.

The Granites.

That was the drives to the south so we went back to camp for lunch and then headed out to Cape Bauer. Another loop road, first stop was Whistling Rocks and Blowholes.

Then onto Cape Bauer.

On the way back to Streaky I saw that there was a vehicle bogged on a stretch of beach by the bay. We had a look and saw that they were four young backpackers who had very unwisely gone down to where they were. It had not long happened as they were still pushing. We decided it would be very unwise for us to go down there as well, even though I did have a snatch strap. One of them had headed for help toward the road so we got his attention and he came up to us and we took him into town to the RAA guy, ie the SA road service. The young backpacker was a German guy called Noah. The RAA guy arranged to take him back out with a landcruiser with a winch. The mechanic said that a snatch strap would not do the job in the area where they were bogged. A winch was the only way, he said, short of a tractor. So it was a good thing we did not go and try to get them out ourselves. Better to let the locals who know what they are doing handle it. The mechanic charged the young blokes $350 but if he was successful in getting them out it was money well spent. We are still waiting to receive a text from Noah to see how they got on.

On Saturday we started off fishing from the jetty. No luck again. If we had crab nets we probably could have got a feed. After that I went to the trading post to collect a replacement external door handle for the caravan door. The old one was breaking and I sourced one over the phone from Port Lincoln Caravan Repairs. They sent one overnight and so we picked it up and Ross gave me a big hand installing it. A little tricky but got it done thank goodness.

We then had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water and Linda tried abalone. I had a taste and it was good but not worth the $50 a kilo that it costs. We had a relaxed afternoon and that was our Streaky Bay experience. What a nice spot.