Eyre Peninsula

One of many sunsets

We've spent the last week working our way around the Eyre Peninsula wondering who owns the beach houses in the little "towns" we run across since this seems a long way from anywhere for regular holidays.  For my birthday, we stayed in Elliston, one of the bigger towns, where we were lucky it was Friday night since that meant the pub was serving dinner.  There were no other dining options, unless you count half-price donuts at the bakery before they closed at 3:30 pm.  It was parma night at the pub, although other options included steak and fish.  The rural folk just don't do vegetarian, so I opted for fish and hoped it was locally caught.  It's been a week since my birthday now, and I'm still stalking a piece of chocolate cake.

For the most part, the fact that this peninsula is largely uninhabited suits us just fine.  We take Turquey down roads not intended for vehicles built over 20 years ago and camp wherever we like.  It seems safe to disregard "no camping" signs when you're 50 km down a washboard road and haven't seen a human in three days.

Who says 4WD only?

The Mud Maps program Eric bought shows us lots of little places to visit along the way to break up the monotony of one gorgeous, deserted beach after another.

Sea cave

Lions of the sea

In our surfing atlas, this area is listed as "The Avoid Coast" due to the prevalence of great white sharks.  Eric has gone out twice as I anxiously watched from shore, ready to sound the alarm.  Of course, there are a lot of dolphins in the area, too, so I have to swallow my terror after seeing the first fin and wait to see if it has friends and comes up regularly for air.  We've see dolphins at least every other day; I just wish they were more willing to pose for pictures.

We seem to have left emu country, which is a relief.  They are fun to watch, but they tend to panic and run along the road right in front of your car for a ways instead of just exiting to the other side.

Emus are not very bright

Now we're just killing a few more days at the beach before hitting Ceduna for our 16-week baby checkup and then it's off across the Nullarbor.