Not true!  If you choose Port Kenny, you lose!  Venus Bay was much better…and still woeful.  How is it possible that ZERO places in small towns “famous for their seafood” offer any possibility of buying fresh, local seafood.  Our first night meal at the Port Kenny Pub had crumbed KG whiting and crumbed Venus Bay prawns along with wedges (sorry, chips are off – probably reconstituted, Helen!) in the brownest plate of food I’ve ever seen 👎.  Jeez, there was even two trawlers at the jetty!  And how to turn this disaster into success?

You may recall that we (OK, I) dismissed Streaky Bay as a stopping point because everyone I’d spoken to said they were going there.  You know, “the road less travelled”!  Eventually, days later, we had to travel through Streaky Bay and, naturally, it was gorgeous!  Coulda, woulda, shoulda.  Shoulda you ever find yourself in this part of the world, Drift restaurant, right on the bay is fantastic👍👍.  For lunch, we simply shared a dozen local oysters (yeah, from just around that point over there – I shucked them about 20 minutes ago) and a handful of Venus Bay prawns (they might just be the best in the world!).  We were driving, but a bottle of Clare Valley riesling would have seen me sleep on the beach.  Hmmm, success of a sort.

But, sometimes you win!  In my increasingly desperate attempts to find fresh seafood, we drove to Elliston (60km) but failed to find prawns.  Miraculously though, we did find a man who goes fishing a lot and was selling fillets of whiting from his front patio – bbq’d that night, they were so good, it was almost worth it.  I’m sure they cost a fortune but I was past carin’.

The area had other surprises for us as well.  Geologically speaking, it’s a largely limestone layer of coast set over a hard sandstone base – knew you’d be interested!   It was when you saw the massive seas rolling in from the southern ocean eating out the limestone to form caves and crevices and the collapses that occur from time to time.  The Tub was one such place where the sea entry was still intact but the entire cave “roof” had fallen in – glad we weren’t walking there that day!  Magnificent coastline but if your ship decided to come ashore here, it was goodnight! 

Another headland had a monument to some poor person who accidentally drowned while swimming – if he was swimming there, of course he drowned!  Harold Holt, where are you now?

Our camp at Coodlie Park for a few nights was also very good (for the avoidance of doubt, Lesley chose the camp👍, I chose the district 👎)  Another property which has set up a big area and some limited but sufficient facilities to allow and encourage people to come, camp and stay.  Most of our fellow campers (hundreds of meters away) had boats because, you know, the seafood’s really good around here!  Some rain and some shine but there is NO doubt, that the off-the-beaten-track self-contained experience is wonderful.  Lesley is channeling Rod Somerville and has become our go-to pyromaniac.  Excellent fires every night, fine food and wine and all’s well in the end.    

Despite Port Kenny and Venus Bay, we thought the Eyre Peninsular was worthy of further study but the Nullarbor also beckoned us, so filling up with the last barely-affordable fuel for a long time, we headed for and indeed, straight through Ceduna to the thriving roadhouse settlement at Penong before attacking the Plain the next day.  What could possibly go wrong?