Streaky Bay

Sorry about the delay updating the blog - blogger.com have had an issue that prevented the uploading of photos. I have had the words typed up for days, waiting for them to fix the problem.

Streaky Bay Locality Map

Sue and I like to think that we are experienced travellers and experienced travellers go to great lengths to not let the weather at a place influence their opinion of that place, especially bad weather. And so it was with Streaky Bay that we had to try very hard not to think negative thoughts as we huddled out of the fierce winds and the rain squalls.

We did manage to fit in a 14 Km round trip on the bicycles before the rain set in. We rode from the caravan park, almost to the boat ramp (more about that later) and back and then into the town centre and back. It is probable that Streaky is a pretty place, but with grey skies making the ocean seem grey as well, it was difficult at times to even make out the horizon. The water looked rather unappealing.

We stopped at this shelter on the way back from our ride "almost" to the boat ramp.

The town itself it the largest we have been to since we left Ceduna and would be less than an hour's drive from Smoky Bay if we didn't deviate off on side-trips. It has a couple of supermarkets (both of which practice robbery without violence), a couple of servos, a pub, a smattering of restaurants, a hardware store, a rural merchandise store and a few smaller shops. It is quite hilly and some pretty impressive houses have been built on the hills to take advantage of the ocean views. Many historic building are scattered throughout the town.

Streaky Bay viewed from the shelter in the photo above.

Part of the Streaky Bay foreshore, viewed from the pier.

Streaky also has a couple of imposing grain silos and the mandatory jetty (or pier). In Streaky the jetty is a focal point for the hospitality industry with several restaurants and the pub all located to maximise their views of it. The jetty also has an area about 2/3 the size of an Olympic pool attached to one side of it and this area is enclosed in mesh so that people can swim there without becoming White Pointer fodder. A 1500 Kg White Pointer was caught off Streaky Bay in 1990, so you see why people get a bit jittery about them.

You can see the shark cage on the right hand side of the Streaky Bay pier.

Streaky Bay also has the unfailing knack of having cycle paths that end abruptly in the middle of nowhere (hence the almost getting to the boat ramp that was mentioned previously.) We managed to find the ends of several of them.

I'm told by several people at the caravan park, that the fishing is good at Streaky Bay, but no-one went out during the two days that we were there due to the bad weather. The caravan park is the largest that we have stayed at since we got to SA. Our site was one row back from the beach. The beachside sites attract a premium price and you have to wait for someone to die before you can get onto one - not surprising, due to the Christmas school holidays. Our site was $28.00 per night. The regulars reckon it's getting pricey, but having come from the north, it is bloody cheap by comparison!

Our site at the caravan park. Note the grass in the foreground!

Also due to it being school holidays there were a couple of hundred kids running amok the whole time we were there. Now I know why we like bush camping so much. There are a couple of scenic drives not far from Streaky. One goes out to Point Labatt, where there is a seal colony and the other goes out around Cape Bauer. We took the latter but the rain got so bad that we couldn't see much. The bits that we were able to see were quite spectacular.

In summary, Streaky Bay is definitely more up-market tourist oriented than the other places that we have visited prior. It is not our cup of tea but I can see why it would appeal to some people. The van park was neat (and even had grass), busy, and full of mostly unsupervised, rowdy kids. The shops are basic and expensive, but the hospitality side of things has plenty on offer.  I give it a 6/10 rating.