Another small trip into Ceduna needing to fuel up, we actually had difficulty finding the fuel station we were looking for, as it turns out they seem to be a pump attached to a shop rather than a service e station with brand names, we finally fuelled up at a place then jollied on down the road to our next location, we were heading for Streaky Bay which for some reason always brings up the vision of rashes of bacon sizzling in a pan for me… the local race course had a sign “streaky bay races” that bought another image to mind of men running around naked flopping in the wind… “uuurgggghhh” I hear you say…. And quite agree.

On the way down we had called into Smoky bay, simply an oyster farm shanty town and Perlubie beach that everyone on you tube raves about… and really couldn’t see why… took a photo of the rules you had to obey, so many and so weird like “No camping above the high-water mark?”  so what? when the tide comes in you get wet ?That doesn’t make much sense! There were way more do not’s then do’s!

Streaky bay was a nice little town, clean, fresh, had the obligatory jetty, fish and chip shop, some older stone buildings that are just gorgeous, and mice…… Yep Flynn had cousins that had migrated south to Streaky Bay, we saw quite a few dead mice and one dead rat, and later on heard rumours that that area of the west coast of the peninsula had , at the moment, real rodent problems.

By now we figured Flynn had packed up his little red polka dot handkerchief, tied it to his stick and gone a wandering and we were currently Flynn free.

After a wander of our own around town, we bundled back into Little Bus, who we had parked next to, well we don’t really know what it was so let’s just call it a contraption, had to take a photo and in fact so were others, It was from WA, was basically a ute with the back end of a Kia carnival people mover bolted to the tray, complete with sliding doors, tailgate, wheel arches, tank and everything else. ,

Marvelling at their ingenuity and wondering what the local coppers would have thought, we drove off shaking our heads and undertook a local 30km scenic drive. We had checked in at the local visitors centre enquired about the road conditions to be told, Oh yeah its good, no problems for a 2WD and it’s regularly maintained… WELL Let me tell you something!

Yes regularly maintained of you can count maybe once in a blue moon, corrugated to buggery and it should have a sign that states “It is advisable to get your dentist to check the security of your fillings before undertaking this road!” …;. No not quite that bad, but not far off! We chose it because it talked about raptor breeding sites and we do like our birds, it also had blow holes, whistling rocks and spectacular coastal scenery… and on this level it did not disappoint, the blow holes where amazing, the cliffs even more so and I don’t think we have stopped uttering the word “wow” ever since!

Streaky bay was a town we would go back too, once they had the Flynn’s under control.

We headed south even more, thinking of taking in a sea lion colony at Point Labatt, but the sky was getting greyer, the air colder and with a hint of smattering droplets across her windscreen we pulled into what I was looking forward to the most that day…. “Murphy’s Haystacks”,

These are really simply great lumps of pink granite that have been weather over millennia (1500 million years to be exact, give or take a few) to form weird and wonderful shapes jutting upwards from the surrounding paddock, Entry is a donation into the honesty box of $2 each and we could camp there in the car park for $10, It had a flushing loo, honey for sale and off course the rocks.

Maybe it was the atmosphere or maybe it was simply the rocks themselves but to say they were ethereal would be quite an understatement. We wandered around and I have literally taken hundreds of photos, we kept using our imagination “that’s Ellie the Elephant, Sammy the snail, the four matriarchs, and what kind of looked like a hooded cobra, or a dog, or a big yawning hippo…. Or all of the above depending on the lighting. Just before Sunset, a car rolled up and this old guy got out with a bucket, turns out he was the land owner, a guy by the name of Dennis Cash. His mother was a Murphy, the last male Murphy not having had any children, meant the family name of the farm would go to someone else, Dennis who had been away at boarding school (in his own words, “not studying much because I was having too much fun”  He came home and was sent to help his Uncle Pat on the farm, simply put he never left and that was over 60 odd years ago. We chatted and Dennis said that the best thing he ever did in his life was opening up the rocks to the public, at first he was against it due to the risk of vandalism, fire and general public stupidity, I for one am grateful that he changed his mind, To which I told him and I do believe it made his day, he doesn’t really care about the money side, as the pleasure it gives him is what is most important so I hope we all continue to look after this place for him….. Cheers Dennis, and thanks again.

Sunset saw me take another circuit, the light so amazing , you could palpate the sense of power in the air, and they had been here for so long that the earth simply changed around them, Not unlike when we were standing in the standing stone circles in the UK. Once as the light finally fell, the moon came out and the whole place changed again, serene sentinels standing guard over what lay below?… who knows?

I returned to the bus, where Jo sat patiently, having tea ready, and understanding my fascination with light and photography and weird subject matter. Showed her my new 41 photos and videos and finally fell asleep.  Next morning it was up at sunrise and again to the rocks, sunrise on the other side leant still more power and visual splendour to the area. A gentle mist/rain made it seem a bit surreal, Jo walking around could feel it too, but eventually we had to return and start another day in our Adventures.

I think if I had to choose the best time to see these, then sunrise would be my choice, if you can get out of bed that early.

Having put together a small video, you can see it here on our youtube channel