Streaky Bay - Elliston

At Streaky Bay we booked into the waterfront Caravan park, presently the only Caravan Park but plans are underway for an additional park to be built. The park was around 3/4 filled and we were 'lucky' to get a site at the end of a row [we like corner blocks] and had plenty of space, that was until another caravanner had set up in the wrong site and was asked to moved 2 places down next to us, that's OK ... we are not that bad to live next too, but these people wrote the book on anti-social attitudes and we barely raised a grunt in acknowledgement when we said hello, oh well each their own.


We did have a guy walk past and strike up a conversation about Effy's and then BT's as they do, this bloke turned out to be a BT and Effy owner and local of Streaky Bay, his name was Terry [Trance his nickname] a nice enough bloke and easy to chat too, at 1st i thought he may have been another BT Streaky Bay owner whom we had been given his contact details, Loyd and Heather Smith, Trance knew these people and gave us directions on where they live. We decided to go to the Streaky Bay hotel for lunch as we had heard the meals were good value. We can 2nd that as we had the most scrumptious meals, I had a mixed grill which was XXL and all for $16 and Vickie had a Chicken Schnitzel with bay sauce which also was very large, the bay sauce consisted of 8 - 9 prawns in a seafood sauce, Vickie loved it.

Little did we know that we would be back there again later that night, after lunch we went and visited Loyd and Heather, we had heard from John and Wendy Standing who had met them previously that they were a nice couple and again we can vouch for that. Very easy to talk too, we had the ownership of the BT's in common but also many other things and the chat came easily. Heather suggested we meet again later that night for a meal and that bought us back to the Streaky Bay Hotel again that night. This time Vick had a Thai stir fry and i had King George whiting & chips, the meals were dearer but equally as lovely along with a great salad and hot vegi bar. A few beers and good company it was a lovely end to the day.





Our plan was to leave town the next day and head to High Cliff which is on the tourist route on Wallend Way, 20ks out from Streaky Bay. We were pleased to be back on the road and leaving caravan parks to those that like & need them. We have previously stayed at High Cliff and knew exactly where to go and how to tackle the track to give us a camp site right on the edge of a cliff overlooking the bay. We have seemed to have struck the low tides during the best part of the day and the bay was not the best for rock fishing but we walked and explored the area with Vickie searching for shells.

We stayed 2 nights at High Cliff but on the 2nd day we had a call from Heather warning us that the forecast was for high winds and 44c temperatures, all the schools on the Eyre Peninsula had been closed for the day, bunch of wimps we thought, but it was the threat of bush fires that caused the caution and after the recent Victorian Fires we can understand the reasoning. As it turned out the temp only reached around 40c and the winds were predominately in the morning, during the day i told Vick i was going to cool off, she seems to recall me saying 'going for a swim' anyway off i went ...... and as i do i got interested in something and walked along following a track, the track went along the cliff edge right the way to the area named after 'High Cliff', i didn't realise i was gone for a while and when i made my way back to the van i couldn't find Vickie, so i went down and sat in the water. After a few minutes i could see her walking back along the beach and it wasn't until she got closer that i could see she was crying and very upset. Poor Vickie had came down to the beach after i left and couldn't find me, she had searched up and down and got to the point where she was screaming my name, all this made her more of a panic as she thought i had either drowned or fallen off a cliff. She walked to another camp a Klm away and with tears in her eyes asked the campers if i had been seen, it was about this time that they spotted me on the beach back to our camp. I had some apologizing to do and it was very upsetting to see my beautiful 'babe' so upset thinking she had lost me ....


Tuffing up and getting over all that we battened down the hatches as the heat increased along with the wind and flys, it became uncomfortable so we did what all tough campers do, retreated to the van after starting the generator and having the A/C on. The next day we packed up and left taking a slow scenic route along the Wallend Way, we have been along here before so we only stopped at the places we had not previously visited. At Smooth Rock we came across a guy walking up the track, Patrick and his partner Barbara were from Switzerland and had a flat Tyre in their car, he had attempted to change it but the car they had bought had the wrong wheel spanner. We took him back to his camp and went about swapping over the wheel and pumping up the flat which appeared to be a slow leak, they were a lovely couple and we were only too happy to help. I am a great believer in 'what goes around comes around' and enjoy helping where i can.

What a VIEW when your doing business :-)


Another quaint place was Sceale Bay where it must have the most photographed public toilet in existence, well maybe not but it's worth a visit even if you don't need to go ... so to speak.

We stayed the best part of the afternoon at Venus Bay fishing off the jetty, we did OK with a mixed bag of trevally, Aust Salmon and one Tommy Ruff [Herring] more than enough for a couple of decent meals. There was a great fish cleaning bay with resident Pelicans just hanging around waiting to do the garbage disposal thing, At Venus Bay they wouldn't have much of a smelly bin problem with these big boys & girls doing the cleanup job.


We spent the night camped 4k's off the road at a location over looking a very fishy looking beach, i gave it a go the next morning but the weed was causing havoc with the line & bait so we again made the move and went and checked out Talia Caves which was an interesting place watching the waves crash against the smooth rocks.



I was in awe thinking what size waves must hammer through the rocks & channel to have made the cave what it is today. We met another vanning couple in the car park, Pete & Dawn from the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria they were doing a similar trip to us except in the opposite direction, we exchanged 'travel cards' with web site details, theirs was www.wereaway.com who knows we may meet up again somewhere in the NT.




Along the highway we came across the small town of Colton, not much here but there is a bakery of sorts, a tiny property off the side of the highway sells fresh bread and if your lucky sticky buns, when we got there all we had a choice of was bread & rolls so we bought both.



We are now at Elliston, staying in the van park close to town. We have hit the bakery for lunch and been for a touristy drive around the area along with a walk along the jetty, we love SA jetty's. This afternoon i spent the time giving the Effy a bath and general sorting out the gear that gets put back in the wrong place, tomorrow we may do something different and go fishing.


As usual more photo's can be seen here