Catch Of The Day

When deciding on this trip we were introduced to a book called "Are we there yet" by Alison Lester. It is a kids book about a family who take off around Australia and the places they see along the way. On the way to Streaky Bay we had our first "are we there yet" moment and saw Murphy's Haystacks. They are a group of rocks (inselbergs) that from a distance look like haystacks. The kids enjoyed running up inside the rock and sliding down on their bottoms.

From Murphy's Haystacks we went in search of some bush/beach campsites. Unfortunately they were a long way from the beach or full of march flies, so we decided to head into the town of Streaky Bay, the road into town was dirt and being graded, and had recently been watered, consequently our van was covered in thick sticky red mud.

Arriving at beautiful Streaky Bay we decided to stay at the caravan park, in an unpowered site, which was right on the edge of the beach. It was so tranquil and peaceful looking across bay and not a breath of wind. As we were driving in the kids spotted Oliver, their friend they made at Port Lincoln. As soon as the bikes were unpacked they rode off to find the rest of his family. (leaving Nick, Josh and me to set up camp).

The next morning we set off to explore and find a good swimming spot as it was going to be a warm 38 degrees. As we were driving the kids spotted many shingle back lizards. "Stop the car dad stop the car" yelled Zach. As Nick was slowing down Zach jumped out of the car, and without hesitation caught one of the lizards - Steve Irwin Style. Matt followed as well but a bit more hesitantly, & caught one too.

We found a place called The Granites. A beautiful sheltered area with large granite rocks, many of which formed rock pools, and a lovely beach area for swimming and snorkelling. We came here 3 days in a row, once enjoying it with our friends Sara and Hamish and kids, with BBQ sausages cooked on our little webber for lunch. We caught in total 16 fish here (I think they were some sort of coral or flower cod, but the boys think they were groper - either way they tasted good). One of the fish Josh caught was huge- about 50cm long and at least 1kg in weight. The snorkelling in the rock pools was pretty amazing, there were fish galore, little zebra striped angel fish, longer grey ones, squid and much more. Matt & I were snorkelling together, and Matt (the avid spotter) saw a large strongy on the sea floor. I aimed with the hand spear and got it. Unfortunately I had a bit of a girly moment and squealed, through my snorkel and the fish struggled off the spear and got away much to Matt's disappointment.

More highlights of Streaky Bay were seeing Australia's only mainland colony of sea lions, viewing whistling rocks and seeing the replica of the largest white pointer shark caught on a reel at the shell service station in town (this was also another "are we there yet moment) and Matt caught a large razor fish, which sliced the tips of his fingers) in the bay in front of our van.