Relax Bay

Well there are some interesting names to a few of the bays down the Eyre Peninsula - Avoid Bay, Anxious Bay, Coffin Bay; evoking a fear of hungry Greggy Normans floating around. 

But we would describe Streaky as Relax Bay.  The water is nice and shallow like Port Phillip Bay and we were camped right on it, we could have campfires on the beach, there was a full moon which was bright orange like a sunset 1 night, and the weather was generally warm and sunny after that big storm on arrival.

 

We had a fish on the pier on a beautiful night and caught some little snapper and tommy ruffs, the boys enjoyed the skate park and we had some adventures checking out the back beaches and the raw part of the coastline. 

We had some fun at the Yanarbie sandhills but didn't get to ride any waves on the back beaches because the conditions weren't favorable, I seem to be lost in the sandhills trying to find a wave (we expect to do that further down the coast).  We heard about the great waves at Cactus but it was 150km away and we have not been keen on driving much at Relax Bay.  We did get down to Hally's beach though feeling much at home.

We used this opportunity to fix things and clean up a bit and I bought a useless thing that Macca would be proud of- a nut and bolt retriever that is extendable with a magnet and light on the end. 

Arch has been busy carving and making things as well with a new set of blades for his hacksaw.  The boys have continually worked on a huge sand hole each day with our little shovel, which the Child would be proud of, have also got in some paddling practice and have made friends with 3 girls that are our nextdoor neighbours at the moment.

Our first night here we stayed in one of the cabins because it was too wet to set up and the next day we could get a beachfront posi and ofcourse we had got into the whole glamping thing.  More space, more air, more energy, more... 
I just realized I should have done a completely separate blog on lizards as the boys have clocked up quite a collection and here is 3 more: the first 2 coming from Yulara, being a big rainbow skink and a barking gecko and the last 1 being a shingleback here in Relax.

Here is a photo we had of the crew holding up the rock the night before we left.

That doesn't look that relaxing!

The Rainbow in the Stone

We ended up staying 1 more day at Yalura before we left for Coober Pedy and Wooz, me and Nat took a camel ride.  Candy took us out and we loved it.  Nat and I rode Lazy Dazy who defying his name was a great race camel, and Wooz rode Diesel who really was lazy.  Candy answered all our questions, telling us all about camels constantly regurgitating their food, but the most interesting fact was Chewie from Star Wars makes a camel noise!

We decided not to take the camels to Coober Pedy however although it still took 2 days in the car.  We stopped overnight in Marla where there was a moth plague and we would've had 1000 in the van, and a few hundred in the car.  We drove into opal country around 2pm the next day and settled into the Oasis (nObASIS for that name) caravan park and a night of rain which apparently is quite unusual in the desert!  Then we got up early to do a tour with old Rudy which was quite entertaining.  We saw the Serbian underground church,

did some noodling in the mullock heaps, checked out the golf course (you need fluro balls to see them),

and ended up at Umoona mine which had a great history on opals, opal mining and fossils.

Then we packed up the van and went to stay at the Desert Cave Motel to give the boys the experience of staying underground, and we ended up enjoying so much the extra space we stayed 2 nights.  We had great sleeps there with the pitch black nights and no sound but one drawback was it stunk.  The Swedoshs did the big drive in 1 hit so we got to hang out together again and checked out the Old Timers Mine, which won the SA tourist award the day before,

and the Comfort Inn where we saw some awesome opal shells and had great ice coffees and milkshakes.
Then we said goodbye to the cave and headed south to Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula.  We did about 250km to Kingoonya mainly on tar, and stopped for lunch.  It was a godforsaken ghost town and the pub had closed down and we saw the biggest redback I have ever seen.

The next 250km were on the dirt and it was fairly muddy from recent rains.  The roads were long and the landscape sparse with salt lakes dotted along the way. 

The vehicles got a clay mask again but most of it got washed off as we hit a huge storm coming into town.  It was another big day at the office, at least 7 hours in the car but we sucked in the sea air and celebrated being back on the coast at the local pub.

Welcome to the Rock

After a beautiful sunset over Kings canyon the next day was rainy again.  But nothing dampened our enthusiasm as we approached The Rock, not realizing how big it really was.

 This is the view from behind our camp and looking away from Uluru was The Olgas or Kata Tjuta.

There was a glint of sun coming through at sunset but this was false hope as, after a great dinner with the Carrolls (the family we had done the King's canyon walk with), the rain set in.  They were supposed to leave the next morning but the rain had not stopped and didn't all day, and with that their hope of a short route home to Geraldton faded fast, while the water in our annex filled up fast.  So that day was spent in the camper which probably hadn't happened since the Blue Mountains.  So much for the desert being hot and dry!  Checkout the clouds on The Rock.

The next day we kicked into action and visited the cultural centre and rode our bikes around Uluru.  It was a great way to do it, nice and easy compared to walking, and fun going through all the puddles.  There were some great water holes and wave rocks.

A guy offered me $50 for my bike so I told him this was a sacred site and to stop showing disrespect.
When we got back the Swedosh's had arrived and we all fired up for the Mala Walk with Ranger Kim at 8am the next day then hopefully climb The Rock, if only the weather would oblige.  So we got up early for us and enjoyed the talk by the ranger,

but The Rock was still closed so we headed back to camp and the Swedosh's to the cultural centre.  Just as we were cooking lunch we got the text from Tori saying it was open, and the boys were pumped, so we postponed lunch and did the climb and returned a couple of hours later completely hunger flat.  We went up pretty quick (probably broke the family record) but would pay for it the next day. 

 On the way up we passed a blind guy and a big perentie, great effort on their part.

Then the last day at Yulara we decided to back it up with a 7.4km walk in The Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuta.  Kirst was the only one standing strong, the rest of us struggled through it a bit, but the walk was beautiful and a special way to end our visit to the red and rainy centre.

Tomorrow we head off 700km south to Coober Pedy.  See you there.