We lost our drone on the Eyre Peninsula!
We have very rarely used our drone. Steph has always been conservative when we have used it, but Eyre Peninsula was so stunning we agreed we just had to get it out and push the boundaries a little. We regretted not using it on the Fleurieu Coast and the Yorke Peninsula, so had to get it out this time. Sure enough…. Trouble struck.
JD was out fishing in waist deep water, when he noticed the drone high in the sky heading out to sea. We were staying on Fitzgerald Bay at one of the many free camps there.
Wow it was high, but good on Steph for having a go, and having the confidence. One last cast when suddenly a MASSIVE splash came up from the water. At first JD thought a dolphin or something, then he realised the drone was no longer overhead. No noise. It was gone. Forever. Never to be found again. It was scuttled at sea, a shipwreck for crustaceans to inhabit forever going forward.
Speaking of ships, just up from our campground was Whyalla where the HMAS Whyalla is open for tours. We went along to find out about Whyalla’s proud shipbuilding history. It was a great place to visit and we spent a few hours looking around including the ship tour. You can comfortably spend half a day or more there, and they have a great picnic/bbq area too. There is a nice waterfront area to check out too.
Being on the Eyre Peninsula, waterfront was literally everywhere. The peninsula itself has a great name in the South Australian tourism industry, an absolute must do!
We had a great few days fishing at Lipson Cove. We ended up with a few Tommys, a couple of Australian Salmon and a Whiting from right on the beach. We had a great cook up and ate very well whilst there. Lipson Cove is simply amazing, make sure you visit when next in the area! It is really close to Tumby Bay, so we headed in to check out the Jetty and the local artwork.
We had planned on doing some fishing, and Harry had a great idea to use a burley bucket on the end of the crab net line. Unfortunately despite Harry’s clever scheming, we were undone by some bigger fish – Scuba Divers! A team of 10 to 15 divers jumped in shortly after we started fishing, cutting laps under the jetty looking for the bearded sea dragons that live all around the jetty. We had to come up with alternate plans to get a feed. Fish and chips it was!
With Lunch sorted and limited fishing opportunity, we decided to head around town to check out the Tumby Bay street art.
The artwork was fantastic, and it was so close to Lipson Cove we were able to just pop up for a day trip before returning to camp.
We were sad to go, but after 4 days it was time to keep moving. We packed up and headed to the very bottom of the Eyre Peninsula.
The Port Lincoln Tourist Park was a great spot for us, we had a brilliant site and even got to meet our first travelling families on the road. Hopefully we can catch up with some again on the road, but already we have met people going all kinds of different ways around Australia. It was great to get some tips and some new skills. We learnt how to collect our own bait from the sand using a bait pump.
We were in and out of the main street for last minute supplies and groceries, as Port Lincoln was really our last major town stop prior to heading across the Nullabor. We made sure to pick up a bait pump for future use.
After stocking up it was back on the road. We got good news from our insurance company that our drone was covered and they would help us purchase a new one. We were able to pick one up from Harvey Norman before leaving the last big town before the Nullarbor and before the stunning Perlubie Beach.
When you arrive at Perlubie Beach there are shelters which you are allowed to use for camping. But it turn’s out you can’t actually use all of them, and it got us into a bit of trouble! We got bogged in some soft sand. Luckily these were in our Toolkit.
We’d never used our Maxtrax before and it turns out they work! We ended up getting out, and with no other spare shelters, we headed down to a spot further down the beach. Not a bad consolation prize.
Harry got to work pumping for bait. He ended up bringing in reinforcements from his brothers. Turns out, we don’t need to buy bait anymore! The boys love looking for bait and keep coming up trumps.
The next day Where to next in Oz popped up to us to let us know they were heading off and we could jump into their spot. Just in time for the boys school work to kick off. The shelters made a stunning classroom.
Whilst having a fish JD was invited out in Catchya Gone’s Tinny, and we ended up scoring a few fish for dinner. One King George Whiting and two Tommys or Australian Herrings.
We ended up spending a great few nights with the Roving Russos and Catchya Gone, those guys were great and between us we had 7 kids all of similar ages. They played all day everyday together, and even got to go out on a donut tube for a bit of fun.
The boys were extremely lucky, and so were we. The location was absolutely stunning, facilities great with flushing toilets, we had caught some great fresh seafood, had great company and the boys had a heap of fun playing with all of the kids. We were pinching ourselves.
And you know what, it only got better as the sunset over the horizon. It was time. Takeoff time. We flew the drone to stunning results, check the video above!
The sunsets were beautiful, especially when you look at the overall combination of the tide going out at the same time, looking out to the west. We’ll never forget them. Amazing.
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