We continued up the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula, dropping into Perlubie Beach, not a town but a small collection of holiday homes. At the beach the cheap campground was full, and we decided not to stay anyway. There were swings on the beach for Olive, but not much else there that attracted us. We stopped in the wind at Smokey Bay, a much smaller version of Streaky, for a coffee. At Ceduna we had lunch on the grassy foreshore, but missed catching up with our friend Ben’s uncle Locky, who runs the menswear shop (it was closed for the day). We successfully passed through Ceduna avoiding the family breakdown curse in this area. We had a quick stop at the windmill town of Penong to stretch our legs and ask about the road out to Fowlers Bay. It ended up being 16km of gravel road, which was mostly in good condition. At the caravan park we were placed on the only grassy patch, shared with a Dutch couple with two kids, a 3 mth old and a boy Olive’s age. They were doing well travelling in just a tent with no cooker or fridge. Fowlers Bay was an interesting tiny town, with sand dunes towering over it and looking like they may soon envelop the houses. We climbed the dunes for a great view around, and all ran down again. We won’t be swimming at the beach, because even though the sand is white it is piled high with seaweed.

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Clare and Olive couldn’t resist the $4 pancakes from the kiosk for morning tea, then walked to town to take back some books to the op shop. We all had lunch at the kiosk, to try a dozen local oysters done Kilpatrick style - yumm. In the afternoon Olive played with some local kids on the beach, she makes friends very easily. So for Clare it was also nice to interact with some other mothers. The caravan park is getting busy for the weekend, so we have scored quite a few neighbours for the night.

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We took a 1.5 km stroll along the foreshore into the quiet Streaky Bay. We saw a replica of a massive 5m great white pointer that was caught in the waters near here in 1990. That’s enough to put you off swimming in the bay, except for in the fenced off area. We went op shopping for more ‘new’ books – Olive can’t get enough at the moment. We need to do some exchanging as her book bag isn’t large enough for a continual increase. We sat on the balcony at the Mocean café, which has the best views in town at the water’s edge overlooking the main jetty. We headed home for lunch and a very relaxing afternoon at this idyllic spot. A beautiful day with the sun shining, so we all went for a swim today – not just the kids! We said goodbye to Ashlee, and her parents Glen and Rachel as they headed off at 8pm for the 9 hour long haul drive back to Adelaide - good luck to them. We’re glad we are never in such a hurry – we never drive more than 4 hours in a day, and especially not overnight.

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Our welcoming lady in the wheelchair arrived at the rest stop again early in the morning. She seemed more nutty today after we heard her screaming for help down the street, and then she asked me to check her bandaged and bleeding feet for a stone? We quickly packed up and moved out by 8.30am. We stopped for a break at Wudinna, and then stopped at Murphy’s Haystacks, which are actually a collection of interesting rock formations. We finally made it to Streaky Bay for lunch, which we enjoyed on the green grassy foreshore in town. The Caravan Park is ideally located, the unpowered sites the best again and are literally right on the beach. An absolutely gorgeous tranquil bay, with shallow waters, and we’re camped right on the sand, excellent! Olive’s friend is here too – hooray! The kids played in the park next door, and then went for swim in the crystal clear cool waters. We saw a stingray cruise on by not too far away from us. In the evening we took up the offer of dining at the local pub with Ashlee’s mum and dad – we don’t do that often so it was nice to enjoy the buffet meal over a beer with some adult conversation and a friend for Olive.

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Olive played some more on the jumping pillow in the morning. While in Whyalla, the largest town on the peninsula, we decided to take advantage of the big shopping centre and stock up the groceries and a few other purchases. Rob bought another pair of thongs, this being his third pair for the trip. Clare attended her scan and biopsy appointment. While waiting for the results we drove up Hummock Hill for a view of the mining town, and then headed down to a playground for coffee. At 3 o’clock the results were ready, so we picked them up from the hospital, thankfully all clear. We headed off, retracing our unexciting tracks back to the Eyre Highway and to the town of Kimba. We were welcomed at the rest area by a friendly local lady in a wheel chair, offering her house for us to stay. We couldn’t get rid of her, hassling us till the sun went down. After dinner we walked up to a playground (and a better overnight stop – damn!). Tomorrow we head off to Streaky Bay, which Olive is very excited about and keeps reminding us. Her friend Ashlee from Elliston will hopefully be there.

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On this lovely morning we packed up and headed off early. We had a big driving day, an unplanned 300km backtrack to Whyalla for a medical appointment for Clare. We drove through Kimba for lunch, saw the big Galah, and then stopped again at Iron Knob for coffee. Iron Knob would have to be one of the most desolate places in Australia, maybe topped by Coober Pedy! Basically the town exists for mining of an iron ore rich hill (the knob!), which has been progressively dug up, soon there will be no hill at all. We finally reached Whyalla by early afternoon. Olive was wrapped with this place as it had an awesome kid’s playground and a jumping pillow which was utilised for the rest of the afternoon.

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After we experienced rain all night, we cooked up some breakfast. Packing up camp we took the drive through the main part of the Great Ocean Drive. Along this part there is an annual ‘sculpture on the cliffs’ exhibition, with some of them on display all year round. We stopped at a great lookout for coffee, while watching the surfers down below. We were pleasantly surprised by a massive pod of dolphins frolicking in the waves too. As we headed north along the coast, we had a look at Walkers Rocks, unfortunately there was not much there, along with bad weather! Alongside the road in Colton was a baker’s stand, just like a fruit stand but with freshly baked wood fired bread -  we couldn’t resist. We reached Venus Bay for lunch, another small fishing village. We checked into the caravan park, then onto the only thing to do in this small town (unless you fish) – a walk along the cliff tops around the point. It was an excellent hour long walk which followed the edge of the cliff - a little too close at times – with more dolphin sightings. Our lucky day!

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