1 Apr 10 – Perlubie Beach, Streaky Bay

By Craig: After leaving Morgan, Lou and I quickly discussed our next port of call and Easter at Streaky Bay sounded fantastic. We knew our new travel friends Tom and Audrey were heading to Perlubie Beach just north of Streaky Bay and that further encouraged us as it would provide us with adult R and R and an opportunity for Sam to catch up with Henry and Angus again.

To get to Streaky Bay an overnight stop at Kimba was required. Kimba has a great little rest stop, big enough for a dozen traveller's and a toilet. But wouldn't you know it, a couple of galahs showed up at the local tourist attraction.

Lou googled Perlubie Beach so we knew of the town's location but not exactly where the campground was so at times like this, ask a local! Directions were given and we arrived at the free camping spot at Perlubie Beach with some surprise as we were ahead of Tom and Audrey. On arriving we knew of Tom and Audrey's friends, Hank and Sue, who they had spoken highly of due to their experiences together in their northern travels some months earlier. It was only a small campground, in fact really a large car park, so we quickly identified Hank and Sue and set up camp leaving room for Tom and Audrey.

We did a day's drive around the area and some of the highlights were High Cliffs, the Granites
and viewing the sealions at Point Labatt but the storm we experienced at Point Labatt took honours for the day.











Further in our travels as we tagged along with the storm I grabbed a photo opportunity after waiting for quite some time in an open paddock and I finally got the shot with the pelican on the abandoned cart wheel with the lightning strike behind. After several shots one extremely close crash of thunder and overhead bolt of lightning sent me scurrying back to the car.

For me, Perlubie Beach presented a fantastic opportunity to fish for King George Whiting, introduced me to razor fish and I learnt to catch and prepare squid which tastes fantastic BBQ'd with a bit of salt and pepper. On one occasion Tom and I ventured out in his boat for a couple of hours and during our time out we were accompanied by a dolphin across our bow wave but unfortunately no whiting were to be found so we headed home with 'only' calamari to look forward to. As each days fishing closed it was great having 5 o’clock drinks with the rest of the occupants of the campground who I would be delighted to meet up again with during our travels. 'Cheers'




By Lou: We are officially a quarter of the way through our journey now and can’t believe how quickly it’s flown. We’ve got a lot of miles ahead of us but we’ve loved everything we’ve seen so far.

We left Morgan with a view to get to Streaky Bay before the Easter hordes diddled us out of a campsite and to get a chance to camp with the Leavers again. We had only arrived at Perlubie Beach on Easter Thursday and were duly invited by the resident campers to join in a sumptuous seafood luncheon under the pergola on the beach for Good Friday.
We had curry razor fish, BBQ crab, boiled crab, battered barramundi and calamari rings and BBQ'd whiting. It was just amazing to be catered for as almost strangers and to know the produce came directly out of the waters in front of us. What a welcome.

The ensuing week was one of the most relaxing we have had to date. I'm not a keen fisherwoman but I enjoyed a couple of days of hunting and gathering. In the morning we pottered (as you do with a 4HP tinny) over to one side of the bay and went searching for our bait, razorfish. Then it took a couple of hours to prepare them: cracking the shells, writhing around the slimy guts looking for gonads for bait and then cutting out the 'heart' for cooking up (tastes like scallops). Next step was to head out to some sandy patches and try out the bait with the King George whiting and Voila! we bagged a few of those. When we'd caught enough for the night's meal we pottered back over to the rocks and trawled for squid and Voila! entree was sorted.

As much fun as I had I admit it was in perfect weather conditions. We headed out one day in a bit of a chop and I wasn't keen on the swell or the water sloshing into the boat. Our friends stayed close by in their sturdier tinny but the poor old motor was struggling too much. Craig turned us into shore about 2km short of our destination and I hitched a ride back to pick up the car to return and tow the tinny home. As I pulled away in my 'taxi' Craig and Sam started walking parallel to the shore, pulling the tinny along behind them. They reminded me of the movie 'Up' where a grumpy old man and a lonely boy scout drag the man's house behind them with balloon strings.

It was wonderful to watch Sam play with his peers, making great use of our maths Unifix blocks as weapons, and an abandoned shelter as an army base. The three boys played constantly together and slept like logs at night.

What didn't sleep at night were dozens of field mice, and nor did Craig after one furry friend ventured between his knees in the middle of night. Initially he thought it was the loving advances of his wife (soooo likely at 3am) but was then revolted to realise the mice were in our bed! Further investigation found more in the tent so next day there was a trip to the local hardware store where we bought out the sticky pad mousetraps, known by all the campers as 'sticky dates'. They are actually quite revolting as they may stop the mouse in its tracks, but then the helpless squeaking starts and wads of fur are removed in their efforts to escape. Each morning there was a burial procession from each campsite. Craig solved the problem of access by gafftaping openings to the tent but to top it off we discovered they'd made themselves resident in the car and we were unable to get rid of them as they seemed to have too many places to hide.


In one of our drives we came across a small seaside town called Sceale Bay and were quite taken by its simplicity. I was particularly impressed with the materials and workmanship of the public toilet which seemed disproportionately grandiose in comparison to the other facilities in the area, ie none. I must say, it has been the only toilet with a view I've seen since looking over Melbourne from the toilets in the Sofitel Hotel.