Friday 10/12 Murphys Haystacks to Cactus Beach Campground, west of Ceduna, SA

We're not in Kansas

    We got out of the LC just before sunrise and explored the Haystacks. Really felt like being in western Kansas or Nebraska.

Murphy's Haystacks

We hear dragons and Kevin gets his head stuck

     After coffee and cereal we drove up to Streaky Bay and saw some more nice coastline and visited a spot called Whistlers Rock. The limestone has a narrow channel eroded from the top of the cliff to a small cave at sea level. As the waves come in air is forced up the channel, which I guess if you're nearly deaf might sound like a whistle. I heard the hole 'exhale' as we approached the cliff edge, it sounded more like a jet engine blasting off. Most of the exhalations were more subdued, and one could easily imagine a large dragon perched just below the cliff's edge, slowly breathing.

Land Shark!

A dad with some dangerous hobbies

     We drove out to Cactus Beach for the night. We took a causeway dividing MacDonald Lake. It is highly saline, with crystallized salt along the shore. Interestingly, the left hand side appeared blue, while the right side was pink. Very odd.

     We ate King George whiting, veggies, rice and salad in the cook shelter. While we ate our Tim Tams in the fading light a guy came over to get some water for doing dishes back in his camper caravan, and we struck up a conversation. He's 33 years old, was born in the US but moved to Oz when he was little. He's been coming to Cactus Beach since he was a kid, surfing with his Aussie dad. He's now bringing his own young kids out, although they aren't surfing yet.

     He told us stories about surfing and fishing. Three of the four people who recently died by shark attack were friends of his. He's fought off sharks while surf fishing. He showed us a scar on his leg where a sting ray speared him, and got 55 stitches in his head from crashing onto the rocks while surfing. A week before his son's third birthday he and a friend were out fishing in the ocean at sunset in their tinny when it capsized and got pulled out to sea by the tide. They clung to the boat for five hours in the dark until the tide shifted and carried them back near enough to shore that they could swim back. “My partner wasn't too happy about that,” he said. Some people. We asked if his partner surfed, and he said, “naw, she doesn't surf or fish”, and we wondered how she liked the idea of their kids taking after him. He said, “she's trying to get used to the idea of it.” Probably doesn't have a lot of choice.