A Hunting Shop

Up at our usual ungodly hour and breakfasted on our lovely deck, looking out at the boats and fast moving weather.

We were heading a little further south today to Point Westall, Cape Blanche and the Calca Peninsula. Mean much? Well it will now.

The loop around the headland of Point Westall is mostly notable for the gorgeous granite at a number of the beaches. It underlies the top layer of limestone that we have seen all around here. At a place called the granites the granite and lichen reminded me of Point Conran in East Gippsland. The water however was a whole other colour, In the right light it is turquoise and so clear.

We kept wandering around this headland and stopping at various places. It was about 14C but the wind made it feel a lot less. We were also getting very regular rain squall, but the weather moved so fast it was literally rain one minute and sun the next. We noticed quite a bit of private land down to the high water mark. This continued all day, obviously no competition for land.

We found a limitation to some places. The Subie could not get all the way through to Point Westall. The rocky road looked like it was going to be too much for the Subies clearance so after a look from outside we called it a draw and backed out. No point losing an undercarriage for a view.

We just kept driving and viewing. Fisherman's Paradise, Yanebie, Speed Point. It was blowing a gale, and the occasional rain squall would catch us, so we did not spend a long time at each place.

A longer stretch past some sand dunes and salt lakes saw us arrive at the town of Sceale Bay. Local tourist info described this place as “a popular destination for locals and visitors.....It has a permanent population of 40 people ...over summer the population can easily treble”. We had to look. I must say the highlight was the toilet....although to be fair it was squalling whilst we were there and a windy squally beach is not the most attractive place.

So onwards, ever onward, to the Scala Peninsula a quite interesting looking place between the very turquoise Baird Bay and the very wild Southern Ocean. We got out at Cape Labatt to look at the sea lion colony. We had to keep our arms down as otherwise we may have taken off. It is a fairly exposed spot and the wind off the sea was blowing so hard I could not steady the camera for a shot.

We wound our way back down to a less exposed spot on Baird Bay and with the car as shelter we picnicked by the water.

Next stop was Murphy's Haystacks , for the geologically minded these are pink granite inselbergs, for others “look it up!”. We spent a bit more time here, partially because of the beautiful rocks forms and partially because the sun was warmer, the rocks were warm to sit on an there was plenty of shelter from the wind.

Our final stop was at a hole in the ground where Eyre could reliably get water. It is still there and still has water. Marjan's comment was “It's pretty manky!” Yes it was.

Finally into town where we had coffee and cake for afternoon tea and used their free internet to publish our three previous days' blog. As we drove into town Marjan lamented “What I really need is some sort of hunting shop”. I will explore this comment, to the peril of my mental health, whilst dining at the pub tonight. We have been having beautiful whiting from the fish shop next door, but we are yearning for a change.

This probably will not be published for a few days. Our next stop again does not have internet, and I very much doubt it has a cafe with internet or even a cafe. We are going to try to get a swim with the sea lions at Baird Bay weather and freezing water permitting.