Sunday 16th October - Monday 17th October

Sunday 16^th October
Woke up to a clear brisk morning, looks promising – lots of blue. It is amazing how much attention you pay to the weather when you are camping. We had some promising sand dunes to traverse today. Chauffeur led the way and soon we were on the other side of the headland. Oh my, what a wow. Pounding waves, spraying up the cliffs – 180 deg views, beautiful colours. Lots of photos etc. etc. We found the track into the dunes, and the men became boys. It really was lovely, couldn't wait to tell Benny, and hopefully he will make it here soon. Dunes much better than Yeagerup and even Michael was impressed even after his trip over Big Red and The Simpson. Perfect picnic spot came up for lunch so we sat digesting our sustenance – feasting our eyes at the same time. Moved on and around the corner found an even better vista. Eventually we came to the end and we headed back to Port Lincoln to pick up a few fresh veges and fuel. Now we were headed to the Western End of the peninsula – Coffin Bay NP, 50 Km west of P Lincoln. We drove out deciding we were very impressed with this corner of Australia and will need to do a re-visit (wonder if a house swap is possible?) Then Coffin Bay blew us away – chocolate box seaside village. Paid our dues at the NP entrance, aired down and we were away. The info office lady had told us a couple of parts of the track were only passable at low tide but there was a campsite before then. Although only 28km in it took us quite a while and even though we possibly could have caught the tide right it was time for a sundowner so we set up camp at Black Springs. The light was right, the wind right, the temperature right – and the beer was cold – perfect! Cheers! Around the fire (first one in ages) I decided I would try to cook up a lamb shanks camp oven dinner tomorrow! You should have seen Michael's eyes light up.
Monday 17^th October
The wind is up – coming from the north ish, could possibly mean the south side of the peninsula could be pleasant (apparently a good salmon hole). Meandered further down the peninsula, a mixture or rocky limestone (uncomfortable for the passenger) a few boggy bits or soft sand. At one point the track was dug out between some dunes making the sides quite steep and only just wide enough to drive through. I became aware of feathers outside chauffeur's window – it would seem, in it's dash to get in front of us it slid down the side of this cut out and into the side of Dmax. Fortunately, no one was the worse for wear, although I don't know who got the biggest surprise. Why is it that these silly birds run towards you and then like to stay in front of you – I can just him them calling “come on, this way, this way!” Further on we rounded a corner and in the middle of this boggy puddle was a very short emu. All we could see above the bog was the top half of the emu's legs. Chauffeur was just contemplating just how deep this bog could be when the emu stood up and ran off (yes down the track in front of us :) Heh, it was just having a visit to the local 'spa'. How much do we pay for a 'rejuvinating' mineral rich mud bath? Silly me I could just hold up the traffic and have a little lay down in one of these pools. All the scenery lovely and after chauffeur shooed off a million birds sunning themselves on a rock cast in his lure. Seems the rock was better off as a sun bed than a fishing ledge so we moved on again. This drive out here had inncluded a km long beach run, only possible at low tide. It was beautiful – the water calm, with the palesest shades of aqua through to deep blue, white dunes – I was in heaven (oh yes, the sand was fairly firm as well – chauffeur giving me a lesson – if you free coast along for a ways after you take foot off pedal you're on terra firma). Finding a nice camp spot we settled 'in' for the afternoon. It was a record setting day – we had only travelled 29km!!!! Chauffeur up to his usual top standard, had collected firewood and set the foundations for our camp oven fire. Whilst he went off to 'lose some lures' I was left in charge of maintaining this fire and keeping the camp oven (bedouurie) simmering with our lamb shank rogan josh. Michael reckoned it was good enough to reproduce at the annual Ninghan cook off! That was a complement as some of the food produced over that long weekend is excellent. Forecast for tomorrow is fantastic!