Surrounded by sand

Finally on our way to Fowlers, we turned off the highway and down to the Bay. The first 10km were fine, but the following 12km on an unsealed road were a little rough with the caravan. The patches of fine corrugations causing us to shudder at our cautious speed of barely 10km/h. Without the van we could fly over these at 70 without even noticing, but with the van in tow, a little more care was required. Fortunately, despite it being slow going and us wondering whether it would all be worth it, we didn’t lose any doors and our wheel bearings weren’t shaken loose. Fowlers Bay was a nice spot, the park right on the beach, our van parked under a shady tree and no internet or phone reception. Even better for the kids (and for us), a family with some children they had met initially in the Flinders Ranges and then in Port Lincoln. Needless to say, we didn’t see much of the kids for a day or so. Fowlers Bay is one of the best spots to view migrating southern right whales. We were regrettably a little early. 

In the early evening a camp fire was lit and the kids pulled out some marshmallows they had been saving for such an occasion. Jeremy claimed he had ‘a marshmallow tummy ache’ for the following 4 days - he insisted it was the marshmallows. After a few conversations over the campfire we had planned the following day - a venture to Scotts Beach to the west and beach drive, perhaps even tackle some sand dunes. 

On a day of perfect weather we set off to discover a near perfect beach. Beautiful white sand, crystal clear waves gently lapping at the shore, the water was beckoning us to become immersed. 

We travelled half the length of the beach, trying to remain in the hard sand which seemed difficult and I realised that we had neglected to lower our tyre pressure. But given the early challenge of driving on full tyre pressure we decided to give the dunes a miss. After selecting a beautiful and what would appear safe place to swim on this deserted beach, I hadn’t realised it would be so dangerous to get my gear off and go for a swim. Having seen me naked just about every day of their short lives, my family took a sudden interest in trying to photograph me in my birthday suit. They succeeded. 

Another really memorable swim - no dolphins or seals this time but an eerily large shadow moving across the shallow water in front of where we were swimming. It turned out to be a dense school of fish - you might be able to see it in the background below. 

We had signed up that evening for the camp cook up and we weren’t disappointed. Not only a night off cooking, but excellent fish balls and smoked fish as well as chicken patties, sausages and several salads all consumed around the camp fire and washed down with ice cold beer and some red wine. We were glad we had taken the trouble to come to Fowlers Bay.