March 13-14 – Streaky Bay

We did another mussel collection walk this morning and found a good area of rocks with large mussels. We packaged them up and they were straight in the fridge. We packed up camp and drove out without meeting any oncoming vehicles on the track.

We stopped in Coffin Bay to buy some oysters which the place is famous for. The original – natural – oyster industry had collapsed before the end of the 1800’s and it’s now a perfect site for growing pacific oysters and many are brought down here to be fattened up. Ours were only small but for $16/doz we thought we’d have a taste. Lach eagerly tried one but that was it for him – the unusual taste was too much. Cam didn’t get much past some juice before he pulled out of the race. Amy doesn’t eat oysters so Josh got 11 tasty little morsels – happy days! A very nice morning tea.

We hit the road and decided to push for Streaky Bay. We’ve been getting so captivated and lost in some of these regions that time has just disappeared and the Eyre Peninsular is one of those places! It’s a massive chunk of Australia and so much to see and do. We decided that we needed to push on. Apart from some brief side trips into Locks Well Beach and the town of Elliston, we stayed on the highway and arrived at the happening little coastal town of Streaky Bay. The foreshore caravan park is where we pulled up and when they say foreshore….they mean you literally are camping as close to the water as you want. You roll out of your tent onto the beach!

The caravan park has a massive problem with starlings – thousands of them – roosting in the trees above the caravans. The amount of bird droppings at dusk and overnight is incredible. Fortunately our camping area was well away from the intense roosting area. Each evening at dusk they fire off a gas gun which sets off the roosting birds into a swarming flock. The funniest was some of the oldie caravanners walking around banging chopping boards and other items together hoping that the birds wouldn’t roost above their van and their car.

We had missed our Monday class lesson due to some poor phone reception in Coffin Bay and we rescheduled for Wednesday morning. The caravan park had a dining/TV room that was quiet and perfect for the lessons with Miss Swan. Once the boys were finished we found that the school packs we had been waiting for had arrived at the Streaky Bay Post Office so we headed down there. As promised, the boys got their scooters to ride into town and we walked/scootered around the town seeing what was around. We picked up the school packs and stopped in the skate park where the boys had fun for a while.

We decided that with a high tide at about 2pm, we’d have a fish off the jetty that stretched out into the bay from the main street. Using squid we caught a few small fish – two of them Tommy Rough (or Herring) which have no size limit and we took some fillets back to the caravan park to cook up as a taste. The wind started howling out on the jetty and we packed it in. Fortunately each evening the wind tended to eventually die down and the nights were calm, mornings even a bit chilly.