Strange lights on a windy night

The winds on the Eyre Peninsula had been so strong that we could barely drive. It had taken us three days to go the 200-odd kilometres down to Port Lincoln at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula. We kept having to stop because the car couldn’t cope with the winds.
We headed into Lincoln National Park. We saw a lot of stumpy tail lizards crossing the roads, and lots of squished snakes. We even saw one that we think was a Peninsula Brown Snake slithering across the road.
(The ranger later warned us that there are a lot of both Tiger Snakes and Peninsula Brown Snakes around, which we could well believe after having seen quite a few squished on the road, and even one slithering across the road. None of us, but least of all me, really wanted to go for walks knowing that.)

The wind had settled as we set up camp only about 20 meters from the open waters of the Southern Ocean. If I’d thought to checked the Bureau of Meteorology’s website, I’d have seen that they had a gale-force wind warning for gusts of up to 100km an hour for the area. Actually, most of the state. Maybe then we wouldn’t have been so keen to park 10 meters from the ocean and beach.
Peter and Jarrad went fishing … Peter actually caught something, but as Jarrad didn’t know what it was, they threw it back.
The wind whistling through the campervan in the early hours of the morning woke Peter, Susan and I. I tried to ignore the rocking of the van, but the whistling was too much. The campervan rocked in the breeze, but unlike the gentle rocking of a car or train driving, this kept us awake.

Peter, Susan and I read most of the night. Jarrad’s usually a really heavy sleeper, even he was awake for several hours from the wind. I had nearly dozed off when Susan called out.

“Mum! I’m really scared. There’s this light that keep coming on and every ten seconds or so. Do you think it’s those Min Min lights we’ve heard about?”

I went to open the door of the campervan to look out, but it was blown back in my face. I settled for peering out the window. “No, it’s the lighthouse, darling. You can see it’s light as it turns around. Remember, the lighthouse is only about 500 meters from us.”

She relaxed and went back to reading. I cursed quietly about being disturbed when I’d been just about to drop off. I’d just relaxed into my book again when Peter called out,

“Mum, what were the Min Min lights again?”

“No one knows. The Aborigines have reported them before white people came here. No one knows what causes them. Some people think they look a bit like car headlights. They might even be luminescent bacteria, or just a strange reflection of light off something.”

“So, are you sure that it’s OK?”

It’s the lighthouse. The Min Min is just a light, if it even exists. The light you can see is the lighthouse. Be quiet before you wake up the little ones!”

There was little point in moving when such bad weather was everywhere…but 20 meters from the Southern Ocean wasn’t the best place to shelter in such fierce weather. I know I should be grateful for this lifestyle, and enjoying it. But it was one of those days that I was just feeling grumpy and annoyed. More to the point, I was tired from not having had any sleep…and Peter and Susan were tired, too, and were constantly bickering.

So, what to do? Jarrad went and fished for the day, while the kids all played in the ocean. Me? I spread out on the couch, reading my book, and drinking tea.

Oh, and enjoyed the scenery and wildlife.

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Amy and Jarrad

Travelling Australia in a campervan since 2009 with our four children aged 4, 7, 10, and 11. We are a family living on the road. Stopping to work in rural and remote towns as we need more money, we love this lifestyle. The four kids are homeschooled as we work our way slowly around Australia.

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