Now in Streaky Bay and soon to be travelling through Smoky Bay.� Must be loads of jokes about 'con'men taking the ham, or which is the 'rasher' of the 2 towns.� No I haven't had a drink!

After a couple of days at Port Lincoln we headed off up the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula calling in at Coffin Bay, named by Captain Matthew Flinders (who charted all the waters around much of southern Australia) after a friend, not because it’s one big cemetery.  A very picturesque place, but as the weather was threatening rain – very much wanted in this part of Australia – we decided to continue up the coast and actually did drive through some light rain.  On the radio we heard reports of heavy rain around the area – it’s a very important issue here.  We ended up stopping for the night at Elliston, a pleasant little town.  There was much more vegetation on this side of the peninsula, although there were also great areas of dry semi-desert.  A great spot to stop on this leg is Cummins Point which is on the edge of sheer cliffs with evidence of much crumbling into the sea.  This turned out to be a bit of a highlight as we were lucky enough to see a school of dolphins playing in the surf – and one lay on its back for a wee while enjoying the big waves and the sun on its belly.  Next day it was further on up the coast uncertain where we’d spend the night.  The sky was a bit overcast and with weather uncertain we stopped at bonnie wee Venus Bay for a coffee and shelter from the rain,  As we drove further north the sun came out and gave us a wonderful view of Murphy’s Haystacks – fantastic rock formations of red granite half covered with green lichen.  They were pretty impressive from the road and even more so up close – see photo album. Streaky Bay has been a place of interest for us as a possible place to stop – perhaps the name appealed – and as soon as we hit the delightful main street with the sea sparkling in front of us we knew this was for us – in fact we stayed two nights.  Disappointingly we weren’t able to get on the abalone farm tour (abalone is an expensive seafood delicacy for which this area is famous) but Eric managed to sample some in one of the local restaurants that evening where we had a delicious meal.  Out campsite was, surprise, surprise, another Foreshore and this time if we were a few yards further on we’d be in the sea.  This is a real fishermen’s spot with loads of fish gutting tables where the pelicans gather greedily for the chance of a tasty morsel or two.  The Streaky Bay Hotel, where we had a pre-dinner drink, was a better than average pub by Australian standards (in general we’ve been disappointed with the standard of drinking establishments which are rather barn-like and lacking charm, even tho’ many appear in the historical pub book ‘The Australian Crawl’.   

After four months of living in Annie we thought it was time that she had a freshen up, so we gave her a good spring clean, even to the extent of taking the carpet out, washing the floor and shampooing the carpet!  Riding round the town on our bikes we found everything closed and realised it was a public holiday for Anzac Day.  Surprisingly no-one (even the tourist information) had mention to us that everything would be closed.  We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if we’re lottery winners. (yes we won $42 - now for a night on the town!!