The Young Ones

That is us, The Young Ones! It has been dawning on us for a while, but really hit us last night. We went to the pub for dinner and we were among the youngest there. There was a fisherman and his son, a young twenties couple and a middle-aged couple......then us.....the about a hundred grey nomads. I was quite chipper because I could get up to the salad bar with fewer grimaces that most, and when the bread basket was filled I beat the old codgers to the fresh batch. Oh the joy!

The morning was very calm, we could hear the dolphin breathing and when we heard a car sound we got quite grumpy....even though we could see the car was across the bay about 2km away. Very calm, very peaceful. It was hard to get going.

Eventually we did get going for a walk on the pier. There we ran into one of the fishing boat guys. He was still at Streaky because he was waiting for a part for his boat. If it did not come he was going to have to drive to Port Lincoln for it, which he did not fancy as it was a 600k round trip. He was really friendly and chatty. He asked where we were from and when we said Melbourne, he said “I've been there..................once. Very busy. It freaked me out”. I suppose when you spend 6 days at a time on a boat with one other person you get used to your own thoughts.

We eventually pulled away and did a shop in preparation for Baird Bay. Apparently Baird Bay has a Telstra telephone box, and if you drive 20Km to the top of a hill and stand on the roof of you car facing east-north-east, on a fine day, when there is no wind you may get a bit of Telstra mobile signal. So we needed to bring in three days worth of food, unless we were going to catch fish. Given that Marjan has refused to buy fishing tackle, that is unlikely. Anyway we shopped and packed and said goodbye to our lovely deck.

We drove for 2 minutes and stopped for a cuppa at the cafe with free wifi to send a message to the girls.

On the Flinders Highway today rather than dirt roads. So before we knew it we were at Port Kenny on Venus Bay. We stopped to check the place out. Nothing much to look at, but there was a bit of interesting bird life near the jetty which kept us amused for a while. As we were heading back to the car we met the now traditional whining Queenslander. Are there any more irritating tourists in the world. The weather is never quite right compared to the lovely weather in Queensland. I pointed out that I hate Queensland weather and they moved on before I could continue with the shtick about how awful it is that you cannot be comfortable without polluting the world with air-conditioning, and how everybody sweats so much the place stinks of rot etc etc. Maybe the next ones.

Back on the road to the little holiday/fishing town of Venus Bay. A pretty little place that must be quite nice on sunnier, warmer days. There were a couple of prawn boats at dock and local prawns for sale. I did not fancy 500g on my own so did not purchase any. We did however do the walk around the south head. This took us from the calm waters and sandy beaches of Venus Bay to the wild winds, wild waves and craggy limestone cliffs of the Southern Ocean. A really lovely walk. We were however a little uncomfortable as our fisherman friend had told us this morning of watching people up on the cliffs from his boat, What they did not realise was that a lot of this coast is severely undercut and they are standing on quite thin ledges. We kept well away from the edges.

We found a spot to picnic and had lunch, followed by some postcard writing for the two Sanchez-Smith boys. It was then pushing twoish so we headed off for Baird Bay. Back on to dirt roads. There was some very lovely farming land with gorgeous green hills. The green hills will not last long. We are told as it is just surface moisture livening up the grass. Still it looks good. Some locals, or poor maintenance, was having a laugh and turning the sign posts on cross roads around which almost had us confused. In the end my unerring sense of direction and a lucky guess had us heading the right way. We wound our way into a tiny hamlet and right at the end, along a bit of private road was our new digs; right on the beach.

Alan, the owner, showed us around and explained everything. The place is perfect with about 15m of windows facing the bay....... and huge. Right on the beach so once the weather improves over the next couple of days it should be awesome sitting here watching the pelicans, gulls and oyster catchers. Alan said that the dolphins tend to cruise by each morning as well.......something to look forward to.