OMG can the weather get any worse. Here it is the end of November and we have winter conditions happening here. I know the West Coast is renowned for its rough weather but I'm over it. We woke to terrible conditions and decided to leave Coffin Bay and see where we ended up........literally!

The wind was head on and blowing a gale and some of the gusts were incredible. It took us ovdr 4 hours to do 200km and the poor bus made really hard work of it. The wind was so strong it forced the rain through the closed windows. I had towels up to the windows on the passenger side trying to stop the waterfall.

We stopped at Elliston for a whiting burger for lunch and watched the waves crashing in. We didn't go out to Blackfellas, the well known surf break as it wasn't a day for surfing.

We finally made it to Venus Bay by last afternoon. The caravan park again is sensational, we were right on the beach and the owners were so friendly. We took a drive around town and it took less than 5 minutes! The views from atop the cliff top walk are amazing but the weather was so bad there were no photos taken. The sea was boiling some 4-6 metre waves. After dinner we went for a walk out onto the jetty and although it was a bit calmer we nearly got blown off!

Sunday and it was hard to believe that yesterday was such a shocker - today was beautiful. I even managed to get some washing done. First it was off to Talia Caves, amazing, thankfully they were in their glory as the day was so much better. Then we went to Mt Camel beach - couldn't see anything that looked like a mount or a camel - just looked like a beach. Then the incredible Point Labatt Conservation Park to the sea lion colony - it was just wonderful they were all lying on the rocks and enjoying the sun. It was still really windy but they didn't seem to care, they were quite comfy. There were lots of pups and they were all very safe. From there it was on to Murphy's Haystacks, what an amazing phenomenon.

When we got back to the caravan park we asked if we could leave the bus for a couple of days as we wanted to go to Mt Ive in the Gawler Ranges. All OK with her and she wasn't going to charge us. How nice is that? We spent the next couple of hours packing up the moke for our departure tomorrow.

Then we drove back to the cliffs to see how different it was from yesterday - so much calmer and nicer.

Monday and we set the alarm to get up early for Mt Ive but it was all in vain. The car was almost packed when Kimbo checked under the bonnet to find that the fan belt had a split in it and he hadn't bought a spare - I can't believe it here is a spare parts interpreter and he didn't interpret that we'd need a spare fan belt!!! He wouldn't chance the trip to Wudinna so we made a quick trip to Streaky Bay and had to put off our trip until tomorrow. We drove around Streaky a bit after buying the fan belt and then came home - all this on the same belt having done some 200km!!!! Wudinna is less than 100km. Anyhow one of the wonderful fishermen gave us some whiting fillets to have for dinner.....appeased me! We went for a long walk along the beach to the point and it was really beautiful although not as calm as last night. Kimbo cooked the fish to perfect and then changed the notorious fan belt.

Take two tomorrow!