Day 70 Streaky Bay

What an adventurous day we’ve had. As the boys had slept in late after the last few days of travelling, we took them into town and treated them with toast and milkshakes for breakfast. It doesn’t sound like much but after almost 70 days of weetbix, toast and milkshakes hit the spot nicely.
We then headed out to explore the local coastline with Baird Bay looking like a good starting point, about 70km southwest of Streaky Bay.
Once at the bay, we began our exploration by heading to a place named Point Labatt which is famous locally for its Sea Lion colony. The view on its own is fantastic with a viewing platform built into the cliff face some 30-40meters above the point, but when you add in about 100 wild Sea Lions, it transforms from great to spectacular. It’s difficult to explain the magic of seeing so many of these creatures in a truly natural environment, without any impact at all from man. They’re not fed, protected, enclosed or managed in any way by humans and the point is completely sealed off to ensure people can’t get to them and destroy their untouched playground. We stayed and photographed them for a good hour or more before the heat and exposure from the platform forced us to look for somewhere to swim.
We headed west in search of Sceale Bay Beach via the Yenerbie Sand Dunes. The entire area is dirt road only, with access to most of the beaches if you have a 4WD so rather than tackle the sand dunes on our own, we went in search of the beach access road. When we found it, I couldn’t get the Jeep over the seaweed quickly enough and we headed along the sand until we came to a clear spot for a dip. Yet again, we found ourselves on a safe, pristine beach, with no one else in sight.
Speeds Point was our next destination. A great spot with small isolated coves offering tiny sheltered beaches, regardless of the wind direction and then it was on to Smooth Pool which is a coastal rock pool. Again, we jumped in for a swim. The temperature was hovering in the mid forties all day so exploring the coastline and jumping in for regular cooling dips was a great way to manage the heat.
By the time we left Smooth Pool, it was about 3:30 so we took the opportunity to get lost. We’d been darting in and out of all these coastal dirt roads during the day and after a while, they all looked the same. Some friendly locals pointed us in the right direction and we managed to get back to Streaky Bay by about 5pm.
I took Jacob for a paddle on the kayak before a quick shower to wash off the salt and we then headed to the local pub, for dinner to celebrate my birthday tomorrow. It must be our lucky day because when I went to pay for our meal, one of the locals, that wanted to remain anonymous, had paid $20 towards our dinner. Nobody could tell who our benefactor was but never-the-less, it was a gesture much appreciated by us all.
It’s been another big day.
Cheers,
Jorg