Streaky Bay was a wonderful surprise, rather like thinking you'd eaten the last Tim Tam in the pack and then reaching into the tin and fetching out one more delicious morsel. As usual, we left our run a bit late to our destination and arrived in Streaky at tea time. We had decided to have fish and chips for tea and found a restuarant that was so good, it made fish and chips look like your dogs dinner. Our plans for a speedy takeaway quickly morphed into a full sit down meal after reading menu options that included wild blacklip abalone salad and marinated king George whiting. We made the excuse to ourselves that this was the anniversary dinner that we'd missed out on in November- although we've been applying that reasoning to several jaunts since then- and had the most wonderful meal, overlooking the Bay. If you ever find yourselves in Streaky Bay at any of the appointed eating moments in the day, I strongly recommend you go to M'Ocean and try - well, pretty much anything, to be honest, but I could recommend the seafood antipasti and the abalone salad.
The next day we returned to the town to explore a little more. Streaky Bay boasted a wide main street with trim looking businesses. Older, tin buildings were prettied up with murals and there was a long jetty with a netted swimming area halfway along, sporting swathes of silver bait fish and a gallery of interested cormorants. The bay was super sheltered and faced North, meaning the prevailing winds blew offshore, creating a smooth, blue canvas out of the sea. The boys tried their hand at catching Tommy Roughs (herring) with slightly above usual luck -which meant we caught 3, none of which were big enough to eat. Our fishing prowess continues....thank goodness for Foodland- we'd starve if we had to rely on the hunters in the family. Ned and Occy also had a daring swim, in with the fish in the netted area and followed it up with a gelato from M'Ocean just in case they weren't cold enough. We still managed to miss the servo with the biggest Great White replica, something I only realised two weeks later, after rereading the excellent children's book "are we there yet" again by Alison Lester, which tells the story of a family trip around Australia. b*****. Tom pointed out the Op Shop where he bought a beloved vinyl jacket back in 1999, that literally saved his skin in a skateboarding accident later on in the year. Sadly the shop was closed so there was no opportunity for the follow up purchase of similarly useful vinyl items. Not so upset about this one...All in all, we were left with the impression of a prosperous, healthy community that would be a delight to live in.
We left Streaky and explored the loop southwest through Point Westall which looked to be the most westerly point of the Peninsula. Tom surfed Granites, a long left that needed more swell to really work than the day provided. We camped that night in the ludicrously tiny free camp at Tractor beach, after a fruitless search for the Point Westall camp the previous night. We eventually discovered that the site had been shut, which was why we couldn't find it. Whoever designed the Tractor beach site had obviously never tried to park a caravan or even a campervan in any of the sites as the room to swing was nonexistent and complicated by the use of massive rocks lining the sides of the tracks. However, skinflints can't be whingers and we negotiated the boulders to safely exit and head south towards Elliston the next day.