Australia: South Australia- Port Lincoln and Streaky Bay

The farthest drive to a Kmart that we've ever made.

Our first regional work opportunity was lamb marking in South Australia. We spent two weeks at the job. Like us at the beginning, you may look upon the photos of the sheep with their lambs and go "Aww, aren't they cute!" Yes, they are but after picking up over 2000 of them, chasing them into the pens (on one farm, it took us 6 attempts to muster them from the top of the rockiest hilly field to the pens), running to catch the escapees and being kicked in the face, nips, chest, arms (you name it, it probably got a kick) and being scraped by the burr on their fleeces, they are no longer quite as cute to us.

We had two long weekends off in our time there. We were begrudgingly "encouraged" to leave the farm and go somewhere else for both weekends (and what would have been every weekend) rather than hide ourselves away in our van, pretending to be adults by reading books, and saving money.

For the first weekend, we drove the 300+ kms to Port Lincoln, the southern most tip of the Eyre Peninsula. It was a pretty little town, renowned for its tuna fishing and diving opportunities. We didn't dive; it was cold and expensive. Instead, we went to Kmart in an attempt to purchase items that would make our van warmer to sleep in and the job more comfortable, as of course we decided to go south for winter. Logical. The photos in Lincoln are mostly of a pair of pelicans that went for a swim at sunset. It felt like the right type of artsy photos to take.

On the way back, we stopped off at Elliston Historic Jetty for our Chinese takeaway leftovers lunch. Although sunny, it was pretty breezy with plenty of chop on the water. We parked up at Streaky Bay before making our way back tentatively to the farm, making the most of the internet connection before being cut off again.

We spent the second weekend at Streaky (rebelling at feeling forced away by only going out for the day). The Jetty attracted many people, hopeful of catching a fish or squid so I thought I'd try my luck. At any other seaside town at home, I'm sure I'd quite easy be able to buy a crabbing line rather than buy a proper rod but no-where sold anything. The closest was a circular squid line that to be honest could make the least cack-handed person in the world look cack-handed. Even with the delicious lure of bacon, my hook remained empty. We were told after that even the trawlers weren't having much luck so at least I felt like I wasn't being too useless!