We had a slow start to the day and eventually got away at about 9:35.
It took us 2:20mins as we had a leisurely drive down the east coast stopping off at Arno Bay and Port Neill on the way.
Arno Bay surprised us both, (wished we had stayed here last night instead of Cowell) it’s a very sleepy little town (Home to Clean Seas Tuna) off the highway about 35km south of Cowell. It has a very nice looking, well grassed caravan park, a jetty, a beach and a pub! The best little town (the sign on the way in said “Population 250”) we have seen yet. We went for a bit of a drive around the village and stopped at the jetty. I took a walk out along the jetty (no dogs allowed) while Deb looked after Aiko under the Norfolk Island Pines on the foreshore.
We then drove on for another 32km to Port Neill. We pulled up in the shade of some large Norfolk Island Pines (these seem to be planted everywhere along the coast here), and I took another stroll out onto the jetty. There were about 6 people out the end fishing. There seemed to be lots of Garfish out in the water but not many were being caught, as one old guy out there said, “There’s plenty of water between each fish!”.
We hit the road again and were pulling into the caravan park at Tumby Bay around 11:55, yep 2hrs 20mins to do 117km, definitely an unhurried morning. 🙂
We checked in and had a choice of a couple of sites, we opted for the one with the best afternoon shade as the forecast was for a 40C+ day. (fortunately only made it to 31 at 5pm) The CP is right on the beach and about 1/2km from the jetty.
After lunch we went out for a drive around town, there was meant to be a nice Rose Garden somewhere in or around Tumby Bay, but we couldn’t find it. We made it out to a point where there was a beacon light on a tower you could climb and “on a clear day” apparently you can see out to the Sir Joseph Banks Group of Islands about 12km off the coast. A direction sign at the top said we were about 255km from Adelaide. Just before we left, Deb picked a sprig/branch of Gum Tree blossom for the van. 
We then drove down around the new marina area, admiring some of the large homes and boats in the area. Away from the marina it seems fishing is the highest priority when it comes to housing. Lots of houses seem to be an after thought to the huge boat shed on many blocks!!
Deb relaxed in the afternoon and I went down to the jetty to wet a line. It was pretty windy and I was the only one out there, and with good reason, no fish!! Still it was a relaxing way to spend a few hours. Steak for dinner tonight, lol. 🙂
Tomorrow we head to Port Lincoln, about 50km away, for 4 nights. Tomorrow is meant to be a hot day with temps in the 40’s, and Port Lincoln seemed the coolest place to be on Eyre Peninsular. It will be interesting to have a good look around this famous Tuna fishing town. A little trivia for you, apparently there are more millionaires in Port Lincoln per head of population than any other town in Australia.
Carly has told us that Ella is now reading our blog to the rest of her family every morning, and doing her best to get her mouth around some of the strange and unusual names of some of the places we are visiting. I hope there aren’t too many hard one today. 🙂
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