We are on holiday!

Wednesday 14th September 2022

It was windy and rainy during the night and we woke early to the sound of thunder! We got the kids up and did a quick pack up of what was left, but in the meanwhile the storm skirted around us, and we were left with an eerily calm morning – the ocean was the flattest we had seen it! We went for a little walk onto the low tide rocks to enjoy the beautiful morning, but with thunder rumbling and purple skies around, it was time to move on. We farewelled our camping companions – Richard in his combi insisted I take some creationism literature with me. I informed him that Richie and I were both evolutionary biologists and that I would only read them for the entertainment value. He seemed fine with that, and in fact seemed sure I would realise the error of my ways once I perused the material. You never know! 😉 I left Speeds Point regretfully – it has been quite nostalgic to stay here, and really so beautiful. It would be lovely to have longer.♥️

We drove into streaky bay for breakfast and coffee, since we had packed the trailer the night before. The kids had some pretty mundane food in a nicely done up cafe, in an old building in town. We then ended up in a surf shop, where Bonnie was trying to convince us she needed a hairclip, and the owner suggested we look at a life size shark model in the local shell station. Not only did we find the shark, based on a 5m+ shark caught in 1990, but also an amazing selection of indian curries! Armed with mango lassi and curry for breakfast, we sat and overlooked the jetty, thankful for a bit of local advice!

During all this Otis had managed to trip yet again, skinned a knee and headbutted a bike rack on his way down. He was unable to partake in the curry and lassi because it hurt too much to eat, which was a little concerning. We gave him a dose of paracetamol and jumped back in the car, where he soon fell asleep.

I read a little bit of the creation magazine given to me, but so far have only found articles mocking scientist’s claims that fossils could be X millions of years old, because of course these events could only be explained by Noah’s floods, 4500 years ago. Admittedly I haven’t read many articles yet – at this stage it was insisted that I go back to reading Harry Potter out loud – but I am yet to be convinced! I will await a little more evidence….

We stopped in at Kimba to utilise the dump point and playground. These are located at the sports grounds, along with an impressive free camping area. It’s interesting the way some towns embrace the RV movement and really provide for them, whereas others are very strict about no free camping within a shire. I used the opportunity to search some accommodation options – the forecast was not camping friendly all the way to Adelaide so we had sadly decided to cut our Eyre Peninsula visit short and get to Adelaide sooner, spending a night somewhere in-between. Whilst I was looking in the Wilmington and Quorn areas, a combination of availability and reviews led me back to Melrose. In a way, this was where it all started – the camping at least, so it made sense to go back there!

Otis was very hungry at this point, and rejecting anything on offer – which is very unlike Otis, who just loves food. We moved on to Port Augusta and found a bakery to buy some of his absolute favourite – bread. Unfortunately even this couldn’t entice him to eat, so he must have been hurting. 😥 We got caught in quite the storm there, which we sat out at the Wadlata Outback Centre – I’m not even sure what that is except to say it has a roof and toilets! Given it was closing in 15 minutes we weren’t going to pay for the experience, whatever it is!

We drove the rest of the way to our accommodation in Melrose – under the Mount. This place is great – it’s set up mainly to accommodate bike riders, which makes sense given the location! But it would also be an amazing place to get together with a group of friends or family. It has a bunch of motel style ensuite rooms – we had booked a two bedroom cabin. There is a central outdoor gathering area with tables, chairs, lighting and fire pits, a small pump track, a room with couches, fireplace and table tennis table, and a large kitchen with anything you could possibly need – all cooking utensils, crockery, cutlery, glasses, a large table, a very big tv, board games, books, an arcade style computer game! The whole set up is very well thought out, I loved it there!

We had showers, then didn’t quite know what to do with Otis, who was obviously hungry but still refusing to eat! We left him watching cars on YouTube while Bonnie and I played some games in the kitchen. Otis and Richie came to join us and we cooked some dinner, and finally got Otis to down some more paracetamol, and he ate a bowl of noodles – thank goodness! This obviously opened up the floodgates because then he ate two bread rolls – poor guy usually eats quite a bit and would have been starving! We put on a movie – the tv is connected to Netflix – and hung out for a few hours – we were the only people there! The owner popped in at some point and said we got lucky, they’re booked out for the next little while!