John & Sue decided to leave early before breakfast so that they could get up to Lake Eyre for a flight over the lake while it is full of water, so we parted company a few hours earlier than planned.  It was kind of sad seeing their Prado & Vista disappearing amongst the trees.  We cooked breakfast & were on our way by 7am.  The roadside scenery gradually gave way to pockets of farmland & small communities then opened up further to pastures of wheat & sheep paddocks.  Windmills started to become a feature of each property we passed, most properties had at least three windmills, one fallen down, one derelict & beyond repair & one working.  We got a glimpse of the sea again as we drove down the hill to Ceduna, the white wheat silos really stood out in the distance. We stopped at the quarantine station where our fridge was checked for fruit & vegies (the stretching when we stopped was good). We drove down the main street to see what Ceduna looked like (neat & tidy), then drove the loop back out to the highway & on a few more kilometres when we turned off towards Port Lincoln on the Flinders Highway.

Following the coast along past Smoky Bay then Streaky Bay we had coastal sand dunes in view most of the way with crops of wheat right up to the base of the dunes.  Streaky Bay township beckoned with its white wheat silos & long jetty (Ron can’t resist jetties) we turned into the township to have a look & maybe an early lunch.  It’s a lovely little town & first stop was a toilet break, where they also had a dump site, so I took the opportunity to empty our toilet canister, as we have been camping in the bush for a while.  It’s great that these towns have public facilities for motorhomes & caravans, it makes life so much easier.

We moved on & pulled up across the road from the Streaky Bay Sailing Club & naturally had to go & have a look at it.  The clubhouse is an old stone historic building built in 1892 right on the foreshores next to the historic Campbell’s landing in 1864, so I walked around the side to have more of a look & found a young lady working on cleaning the sailing boats on the recently mowed lawn.  The club has 3 Europe dinghy’s, 4 Pacers, a 505 & another (I don’t know its type), all neglected & full of water after the winter rains.  Chatting with the lady cleaning the boats, (I ended up giving her a hand) I found that the sailing club has just about fallen apart & there are no active members, she used to sail there but is now at uni in Adelaide & couldn’t stand seeing the boats in that condition. It’s sad seeing a sailing club in this state, the waters of the bay are absolutely superb for sailing, clear & clean flat water protected by Streaky Bay on all sides.  She recommended the historic Streaky Bay Hotel for lunch as her boyfriend is the chef, so we walked across to the old pub & had a great garfish & salad on the verandah overlooking the bay.  We then went for a walk along the town jetty (of course) & the shark proof swimming enclosure had around 40 pied cormorants standing around the edges, resting, drying wings & digesting before they swam off again.  We were really impressed with Streaky Bay, it has a great feel about it.

Heading down the coast further more wheat & sheep, (the wheat is so green) straight roads, & glimpses of sand dunes, lakes & the ocean.  Port Kenny is very small, although the old hotel looks good (apart from the sign writing).  The scenery does look very good with the blue of the ocean contrasting with the white of the sand dunes & the vivid green of the wheat, with the wildflowers bordering the road adding another dimension.  We stopped at Elliston to refuel & the only fuel station between Streaky Bay & Port Lincoln had a quirky sign pointing to the toilets (4U2P).  We had a short drive around the tourist route in Elliston & saw the historic jetty (don’t know why it’s historic) plus a good look at the bay.  The bay is unusual in that it has a rock reef across most of the ocean side of it with breakers crashing over the reef, I’m sure a lot of boats have come to grief here.

Limestone plains & hills were the feature of the next part of the trip, no trees, no crops & only sheep grazing on the short grass.  It looked very pretty as the exposed limestone rocks looked like snow on the ground in the drizzling rain & low light levels.  Some of the old farm houses were made from limestone blocks & some very industrious farmers had also made dry stone walls, with varying levels of competency.  Closer to Port Lincoln a few mountains rose out of the plains & we started seeing the brilliant yellow of canola contrasting with the vivid green of the wheat, more postcard picture viewing, it was absolutely beautiful.

Driving into Port Lincoln the massive collection of grain silos dominates the port area.  We turned off towards the caravan park & coming down the street to it all we could see was the waters of Boston Bay.  We are very fortunate again, the caravan park is right on the water, has its own private jetty & protected sandy beach, with a foreshore walk leading off either side of it.  Our Karavan has a great view of the bay from the kitchen windows.

Another long day with 607km under the belt.  We didn’t feel hungry after our big fish lunch so we settled for some very nice cheese, bikkies & coffee before sending off a few days of blog (we have mobile reception again).