Wednesday 16th February
Quick stops in Ceduna to pick up spare light globes for MM and then it was on the road to Fowlers Bay.
Passed through Penong where we had originally intended to turn off, down to Cactus Beach to see the (allegedly) world famous surf breaks. However the guy in the info centre at Ceduna told us that the gravel road down there was “shocking” so we decided against it. Penong (like Ceduna) claims to be the gateway to the Nullabor but it goes one step further and claims to be the last “store” for 1,000 kilometres. Think they might be stretching that a bit as there are several road houses and petrol stations in that distance. But to be fair I guess none of them call themselves stores so Penong wins on a technicality. About 20 km’s down the road we realised that the sign would have made a good photo opportunity had we thought of it at the time, so here’s a photo of something else to make up for that oversight
Forty km's later we turned off for Fowlers Bay as instructed by Tammy (our GPS system), just before she completely lost the plot, and any idea of where we were. Luckily it was a straight road in.
We were very glad to to know that the road had recently been graded because if it hadn’t we probably wouldn't have made it in, it was certainly getting a bit rattly in MM at some points. But German engineering yet again triumphed over dodgy grader driver work and so this week's score MM 2 - Dirt Roads 1. (Cactus Beach road considered a no contest because we didn't attempt it so it doesn't count).
As we crested a hill just before we arrived at Fowlers Bay it all seemed worthwhile. Magnificent white sand dunes and then the bay opening up before us. That would have been a really good photo too.
Fowlers Bay is not so much a town as a caravan park, a kiosk (which is the caravan park office)
and an accommodation house run by Lorraine’s husband, (you know Lorraine who got her hair done in Ceduna at the same time as Di).
At check in we got chatting to the owner who has only recently (5 months ago) taken over the park with her husband. Her name was Simone but we shall remember her as Action Girl. In our short conversation we found out that she has been a sky diver, a competitive quad bike racer, goes sand surfing in the dunes, her and her husband have the contract for whale watching from Fowlers Bay, have plans for great white shark, cage diving at the reef 20km’s off shore, as well as whale cage diving to add to the whale watching tours and she is doing a business plan to set-up an up market day spa in the dunes. She manages to fit this in with running the park and looking after a 5 month old baby. To be honest I was exhausted just talking to her.
However she did inspire me to try the sand surfing, so twenty bucks later and sand board (like a snowboard) in hand Di and I trekked off to the dunes. To be honest it was only a hundred metres from the kiosk but lets call it a trek anyway. Now the real trek was getting up the dunes. I think the future popularity of sand surfing relies entirely on someone inventing a tow system to get you to the top, because believe me walking/crawling up is very very tiring. Di seemed extremely excited at the prospect of me trying this new experience and very supportive. It was only then I remembered that I am heavily insured. I am sure she was just happy to see me happy though.
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| This is the shot that nearly made it on to the Fowlers Bay Caravan Park web-site. We boarders call it "carving up the slope" I think. |
Having mastered the sand board we popped back to the kiosk and swapped it for the sand toboggan. Just for the experience.
The climb to the top wasn’t getting any easier (but I later discovered about 15 kilo’s of sand in the pockets of my shorts and shirt so that may explain things)
The view from the top though - what can I say
All good things must come to an end and on the run that ended with me in the only bushes for a hundred metres we decided to head back to the van for wine o’clock.
Simone did offer to look at the photo’s that Di had taken with a view to publishing them on her web-site but given she has a family to support now I decided not to hold back the business by having photo’s of me on the website.
I did ask if it is OK to swim by the jetty. Simone’s Mum looked horrified and shook her head and muttered something about sharks and giant stingrays, Simone said no problem. Just don’t go out too far “remember we do breed great white sharks here in South Australia”. Next stop MM.
Back at MM I had what would have to be the best beer I have tasted in a long while and I’m fairly sure that my body will stop hurting soon.
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