After farewelling Sparks and Simone we headed to the nearest big town, Elliston, for a treat. Since we had had the last three nights free camping we decided to surprise the kids with pies and sausage rolls from the bakery. We sat under the shade of a tree and ate our delicious pies then the kids went and had a quick play at this awesome playground. Very grand for the size of the town, it was really cool with quirky things to decorate it and make it fun amongst the play equipment.
We made our way up the road to what we thought was going to be our free camp base for the next week. Pulling up at Haslam and l knew that l didn't want to stay here. It was a diet camping ground with a fair walk to the toilet and the beach looked terrible. One word, it was crap! So we got in the car and turned around, heading down towards Streaky Bay where the Camps 6 book has a free camp at Perlubi Beach. After eventually finding the road down to the camping area, we turned the corner and my jaw just dropped. Spectacular. Paradise. Amazing. All the words coming to mind. We sussed out the beach, which was glorious, only downside was a long low tide out. We had passed the beach on the way to Haslam and Marty and l had both said it would be great to camp down there. Funny how you end up with things you wish for sometimes.. Anyway, this camp spot states that you couldn't ark in the parking area, therefore, we conclude that all the caravan owners and either blind or dumb as they can't read the signs. So we venture down to the beach to inspect the sand, making site it's hard enough for us to drive on, thankfully it was. So Marty gets into the car and drives down into the beach and parks the van. Another first experience for us camping with the van on a beach. It is so cool, we were all very excited. Marty was quite chuffed with himself in not bogging the van or the car in the sand. We did end up slightly tilting to the right hand side, but oh well, that just means that Marty will have to snuggle a bit more!!! Lol.
Perlubi Beach is definitely a 'well kept secret' in travel destinations around Oz. you here more about Streaky Bay which we can see from our campsite across the ocean. The campsite is awesome, $5 pn with flushing toilets, drinking water and there's even these huge thatched sun shelter huts. The water is crystal clear, shallow too which is good for Meg. We even saw a sting ray swim by after we set up. Along with the sun shelters there also a couple of swings. Girls were on them fast, will keep them amused amongst everything else this place has to offer. Feels like we're on the show 'Survivor'. There's was no one else camped in the beach, everyone else had pussied out and stayed in the parking area. Paradise was all ours, for one night at least as the Cronans were coming tomorrow. After getting over our excitement we lounged around in our chairs under the huts whilst the girls splashed in the water and made sand castles on the beach. We ate our dinner whilst soaking up the amazing sunset that was on offer to us that evening. The sky turned to fire as the sun spilled over the horizon, it was absolutely breathtaking. As we uploaded all our photos of our new campsite on Facebook, all our friends sent messages of envy and disbelief. We truly did feel privileged in our lives and very rich at this point. If we didn't decide to do this trip then, we too, would be sitting in front if the tv inside our house after a long day at work instead of witnessing an amazing sunset in a piece of paradise. Think we were in a state if pure happiness...
The next day we got up and took a drive into Streaky Bay for a sticky beak and to get some water. It was only a 20min drive into town. Quite a cute little spot with well preserved historical buildings and the classic seaside feel to it. We had to try and pass the time as we waited for the Cronans to turn up so the girls were occupied and not asking us every 5 mins "When are they coming?". We got a few supplies from the local IGA, glad we didn't need to do a big shop as it was fairly pricey. We headed back to the van and had lunch, took a little swim and then finally Nikki, Matt, Harry, Wil and Emma turned up. The reaction from Matt and Nikki was priceless. I envision this is what l would have looked like to anyone yesterday. Marty and l were fairly shocked when we didn't even need to coax Matty into parking on the beach. He pulled up with ease and our personal paradise was now to be shared, but we didn't mind, we had looked forward to seeing the Cronans again. All the kids were excited to see each other and all us adults knew that we would be left alone for a while. Thank god is all l can say. Don't get me wrong, l love the girls but its nice to have some quiet time too. The kids spent the arvo swimming and exploring the area, also using what looked like an old life guard lookout tower as a new obstacle course. In the late afternoon we had some company of a few utes and blocks turning up a little down from our campsite. We found out that there was to be a bux night happening tonight! So wasn't looking forward to listening to doof doof music all night. But we were reassured when we started chatting to some of the boys as they just seemed like real nice country folk. However, for country folk they didnt seem to have a clue with fire! They started piling up this wood when Marty and Matt started to chuckle talking about that the fire would catch into the hut if they lit it there. Think they must have overheard us all as one bloke looked up, then pointed, the other blokes looked up then they all started moving the wood away from the hut! Then all we could smell was fuel as we watched them douse the wood, we all expected to see a huge fire combust when the lit it. Luckily they all stood back and the flame was half of what l thought it was going to be. Quite funny to watch, looked like a 'Dumb met Dumber' moment. After dinner we all took a stroll up to the point to check it out. I also wanted to suss out the beach to see if l could run on it tomorrow, luckily it's hard sand! The kids saw the huge sand dunes down near the point and we had to coerce them into doing them in a few days. Luckily Marty had found something to occupy them with searching for poppies on the beach to use for bait. When we got back from our relaxing walk, watching another glorious sunset, the kids counted 100 poppies that they'd collected. They were all pretty chuffed with themselves. As the kids watched a movie, Nikki, Mat, Marty and l sat amused watching the bux night crank up. Then it was time to hit the hay as the wind started up and sadly it turned cold :(
Next morning l felt sluggish but thought it was just the late nights catching up on me. Went for my run up the beach, am starting to get longer with my time spent running, currently running for 6 minutes at a time!! So happy with myself and am starting to feel a difference with my breathing and also my body shape. Anyway, after the run l just fell into a heap and lounged in my chair all day. Meg also came down with it and was a grumpy girl for the next few days. Luckily we didn't have anything planned and l could just lie around and be miserable. So the next few days were spent relaxing, fishing, chatting and swimming. As we chilled out we had the pleasure of watching a few dolphins swim by on occasion. Marty tried taking the kayak out to where they were but they swam away. He also tried fishing in the kayak but had no luck catching anything. Not one thing! He had to watch as other blokes came in with buckets of whiting and crabs, all of which we think were undersized! One guy did this daily and spent half the day shelling and filleting the fish stating he eats it for breaky, lunch and dinner. We all were a bit disgusted with him seeing they were so obviously undersized, Marty and Matt wanted to dob him in at one point.... The last few days were great, just what we needed. Chilling and doing absolutely nothing. Great to have chats and laughs with Matt and Nikki, easy people to be around. We have all decided on a 'sort of' itinerary for our Nullabor crossing and we're all very excited at getting towards Western Australia..... Tomorrow the Ellis's are turning up, another family we met in Alice Springs. We still have a few more days here, so should be fun with everyone around.....
Bell Xxx