August 30, Day 493 Eyre Peninsula

We are gradually making our way around the bottom of Eyre Peninsula, we've visited Streaky Bay, Murphy's Haystacks, Talia Caves and even bought wood fired bread from Colton Bakery – an unmanned bakery with an honesty box on the side of the road.

We stopped in at Walker's Rocks with the intention of staying for a few days of fishing but thought it more of a dump than a campsite and they wanted $10 a night! We continued to Sheringa Beach instead for the same price. We only stayed one night there as it was too rough for fishing off the beach.

We are currently free-camped at Mt Dutton Bay near the top of Coffin Bay. It is absolutely stunning and the locals are very friendly. We quizzed two locals on their way out fishing on the best spots, as Terry has a boat, and they brought us a big bucket of Salmon Trout when they got back. About an hour later the same two locals came over and offered to take us out fishing in their boats, so Terry, Geoff and the girls went trawling for Salmon Trout and Shelley and I stayed behind to enjoy some peace and quiet. We threw the lines in off the rock wall behind our camp site and caught 5 King George Whiting, two were too small and had to be thrown back but the others were ok. Geoff and the others came back with another bucket full of Salmon Trout so it was good fishing had by all. The local guys – Lloyd and Bob, had fish cleaning areas on their beach fronts, complete with sink and bench, so Geoff and Terry cleaned up the catch ready for a good feed.

The rocks behind our camp site are an adventure in themselves, we've seen sea urchins, stingrays, a dolphin goes past daily, loads of birds, the girls are having a ball and have been fishing daily with success, will post a photo of Erin with her best catch.

Still making running repairs with Terry's bus, this time the driver's side window wiper failed and needed a bit of spot welding done to fix it; luckily he carries a welder with him so Geoff was able to fix it up. We are still installing our 12 volt lighting and now have a few more lights to see by.

August 26, Day 489 Eyre Peninsula

We crossed the Nullarbor without further incident and on clearing the quarantine station at Ceduna, we pulled straight into The Oyster Bar. At $7 a dozen for fresh oysters, Geoff couldn't help but get a couple of dozen, he loves his Oysters Kilpatrick, not my thing; yuk.

We stayed at Ceduna until Friday so that Terry could get his trailer fixed properly and it gave us girls a chance to catch up on shopping and laundry. We also found a couple of op shops and I managed to score a pair of Jag jeans for $2 and a couple of jumpers for Erin as she's grown so much since last winter. We stayed at the little A1 caravan park in town for $18 a night which is almost unheard of these days, especially for three people.

For the last week, we have been camped at Haslam where the guys have been squidding daily. I even went out one day in the pouring rain and caught two, they didn't seem to bite as much when the weather was clear. Erin fished also and caught a little Leather Jacket, good for bait. Terry caught a King George Whiting and it tasted great so I've put my order in with Geoff to catch some more of them.

The local farmers had oysters for $5 a dozen so we had no end of seafood available.

The weather has been pretty horrible with wet mornings and cold windy days but it hasn't got us down at all. We just don our beanies and (especially in my case) many layers of clothes and go out fishing and walking along the beaches. The girls have been busy exploring and getting fresh air and are finally spending less time on their DS's.

Shelley and Terry are getting the hang of bush camping, still yet to talk Shelley out of TV of a night – though we did manage to coax her out for a couple of nights around the campfire; maybe if it was a bit warmer of a night it would be easier.

August 15, Day 478 Nullarbor

We are crossing the Nullarbor, after almost a year in WA we finally made it to South Australia.

Our travelling companions were still having power issues which looked like posing a problem with our free-camp plans. Their inverter was playing up and they ordered a new one in Kalgoorlie which turned out to be the wrong one so we had to wait out the weekend to change it over. The next new one is also playing up but the old one is behaving itself now so we have been able to stop at many of the roadside camps available.

We have been stopping overnight every 250km or so, no need to rush this. Our last camp (a scenic lookout) overlooked the Great Australian Bight and a few people that stopped for a look said they had seen whales but we only saw a few seals frolicking in the surf at the base of the cliffs, can't complain about that. One of our first camps had a mangy wild camel that just walked around in circles when anyone tried to get close.

Our current camp wasn't our intended stop, we pulled in for water only and when Terry pulled up beside us, we heard a bang then one of his wheels rolled out from behind his tri-axel trailer. We found bits of brake and melted hubcap further behind the trailer, apparently the brake had locked on and caught fire then melted the grease and bearings. Geoff picked up the wheel, which was still smoking, when the tubeless valve melted and the tyre deflated loudly, we all jumped, especially Geoff, then we all had a good laugh. Our afternoon was spent with the guys replacing the bearing and wheel, minus brakes, and us girls watching the Variety Bash cars go by. Some of the cars were very imaginative.

The camps sites have been good with plenty of room to get well away from the road, although a little muddy. Yes, it's been raining most of the way and blowing a gale which means no campfire get-togethers of an afternoon.  Tonight has been our first night without rain and we've managed to finally have a campfire.

We have been very lucky with a strong tail wind and I really feel for those heading west into that wind. I'd say the caravans outnumber the road-trains 3-2 and there have been very few cars and a couple of cyclists. A couple of road-trains have been carrying brand new caravans and we tried to organise a swap but they wouldn't go for it.

For those interested in fuel prices on the Nullarbor, here goes – Norseman ranged from 139.9 to 141.9, Belladonia was 169.9 when we got there for lunch and went up to 172.9 as we left, Caiguna was 172.9, Cocklebiddy 172.8, Madura 169, Mundrabilla 161, Eucla 161, Bordervillage 173.9, Nullarbor Motel 172.9, Nundroo 136.9, Penong 131.9. These prices are diesel, petrol was about the same though.

August 8, Day 471 Ora Banda

After two and a half weeks here, it is our last day, hopefully. We have been ready to leave a couple of times but our travelling companions are having a little power trouble and want to get it sorted before we cross the Nullarbor.  We keep thinking that we are being kept here for a reason, and that we are meant to find the "Big One". Wishful thinking, I know, but stranger things have happened. We have heard about the boy peeing behind a tree and having a rock turn gold, and about the lame horse and the nugget found in his hoof.

We have enjoyed our stay here and are leaving with a little Gold Fever. Geoff and I managed to find 6 nuggets – about 10 grams – as well as some old bottles from days gone by, so we are happy. Erin came out prospecting with us once and got bored very quickly, I went out about 7 days and could've kept going I had so much fun. I think we have found our retirement hobby (never too soon to retire).

It is remarkable how deep some of the shafts we have seen are. I know I mentioned this in my last entry but we've seen many more and it just astounds me how deep and steep they are and how they got down into them let alone how they dug them out by hand. We are out here in winter and even though the nights are cold, the days are quite warm; we've been told that summer here can reach 50 degrees some days and with very little water around, life here must have been very hard.