We’re staying in Streaky Bay, SA and we pop in to Perlubie Beach to check out the free camp (as you do) and discover caravanner’s nirvana.

A wide sweep of sand on the northern end of Streaky Bay. Some vans are parked on the hard stand behind the dune the others are on the beach. You read that correctly, the BEACH, on the sand. There are rustic tea tree shelters and most vans have their own shelter from the sun glare of the beach that at present seemingly stretches out forever. A crazy bunch of very happy campers greet us to say that they meet here annually as it is half way between their homes in the Victorian High Country in the east and Perth in the west. They chat and laugh and tell us that they must keep an eye out for the tide but it is worth it as last night (when we thought we’d found paradise in a bottle of Cointreau) they sat in the shallows until 11:00pm slowly moving their chairs out with the tide and they told us that they knew when the tide was coming back in as their “arses got wet”. All that I can think of is my favourite Zac Brown Band / Jimmy Buffett song Knee Deep:

“Wishing I was knee deep in the water somewhere

Got the blue sky breeze and it don’t seem fair

Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair

Sunrise there’s a fire in the sky

Never been so happy Never felt so high

And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise…”

Woody and El Prado drive onto the beach in the Jeep and our new friends all shout “Toy 4 wheel drive!” When the Jeep starts to bog in the sand someone yells “look he’s got the instruction manual out!” Cheeky buggers. Woody slips the Jeep into Sand Mode and drives away spoiling what was looking like some free entertainment.