After reluctantly leaving Streaky Bay, we headed straight to Sheringa beach where we set up for the night , however a 43 degree day combined with 43,000 flies got us up early in the morning to get the hell out of there.We did manage to get an abalone from a professional diver and it was the size of Ruby's head and delicious!We headed south to Coffin Bay National Park for a few nights and shared our camp site with a huge number of very thirsty bees.The next few days were spent 4wding and exploring the parks beautiful beaches, fishing for lots of seaweed and doing some bush walks through this remarkable area.

We called in to the Oyster sheds in Coffin Bay on the way to Port Lincoln and picked up about 28 Oysters for $12!Bloody bargain and once we cooked them up, they went down sensationally (can't do the al natural way).These oysters, though delicious, managed to give all us a rotten case of eye stinging, nostril burning farts so we had a wide berth around us at the Port Lincoln caravan park.The wind and rain set in and we ended up staying in Port Lincoln for about a week, not a bad place to be I can say.We caught up with the lovely Bec in Port Lincoln who I am sure most of the Kalgoorlie crew will remember well - we had many sessions together at Judd's in Kal and it wasn't too different 10 years on.

At this stage we were still travelling with our friends Gerard and Nicole and we celebrated Gerard's birthday at the Port Lincoln Cup.It was such an awesome day and the racecourse were suitably pleased that we left about $200 and around 2 hours of memory at the track.Poor Nic being 5 months pregnant had the arduous task of getting us home via the pizza shop with all belonging's still intact, not an easy task.

We did a full day of exploring in the Port Lincoln National Park and Nath and Gerard went Salmon fishing with Bec's partner Ben and FINANALLY they had some luck.They caught over 20 salmon in the few ours they were there and kept a few to bring home and cook up for dinner.After leaving Port Lincoln we headed up the east coast of the Eyre Peninsular and pulled in to Whyalla which reminded me of a slightly nicer Port Hedland.Needless to say, we didn't stay for too long - just long enough for another unsuccessful snapper fishing attempt.

We left early from Whyalla towards Burra and went through the Mount Remarkable National Park on the way down.We stopped at Port Augusta tourist Bureau to have a chat to the lovely ladies about the area.They strongly advised us to not tow a trailer in to the park, however thinking it was probably just a rough road and we have an offroad camper, we thought we would give it a crack.Well….it is actually b****umen the entire way but is so steep we nearly burnt the clutch out getting in there.We were so petrified on the way out that we put it in low range 4wd drive on the way out and crept out a snail pace, I even had Ruby on my lap in the front ready to bail out if the clutch gave way.Obviously we are here to tell the tale now but will probably listen to the wiser ladies next time.The park itself was stunning and we did a magical 2 km walk through alligator gorge very much like Karrijini.

When we did make it to Burra we fell in love with the place.It is a beautiful historic town right near the Clare Valley so perfect for wine lovers (me and all my mates!).Wecamped at a beautiful spot called Burra Creek Gorge about 25 kms from town, right on the water and full of cheeky possums who come out at night and run amok (they pooed on Nath).

We thought Burra might be full of weirdo's since our mate Beaver is from there (ha ha) but it was such a gorgeous town full of historic old buildings and friendly locals that I would recommend any one travelling across that way should drop in.We went to the tourist bureau and you pick up a key to get in to all the old buildings around town - it is so well set up and it finishes at the old pub in town which is a bonus!

The next day we drove to Clare and spent the day hopping from winery to winery and felt very much like we were back in Dunsborough.It is a stunning area and nice to see a few trees after travelling through drought stricken South Australia for the past month.We could definitely have spent a lot more time in this area, but being on time restrictions, we pushed off to Mildura.We have just pulled in to the most picturesque camping spot I have ever stayed in.We left town and headed in to the Kings Billabong wildlife reserve and took a 4wd track off the main track and ended up with a camping spot right on the Murray River.So as I sit here now, we are kicking back in this beautiful spot, under a big shady tree, watching all the water skiers and houseboats cruising past -not a bad spot to call home for the next few days!Till NSW - lots of love, The Birds.