Like Willie Nelson said.

We’re on the road again! After Waz watching the countdown widget on his phone for a year, it finally said zero months/days/hours/minutes and he was officially retired. Naturally this needed a new retirement car. For a man who will wear shorts that were created in 1293 from burlap and stitched together with the hair of donkeys if it means he doesn’t have to shop, he created a time/space vacuum when he roared into Toyota, grabbed the next available, and redirected it to a 4WD outfitter in Adelaide for the works burger. It has more extras than a Lord of the Rings movie, and is constantly dinging him to ‘sit up!’ and for ‘driver inattention!’. Now there’s two of us in the car.

Our first stop was Lake Bumbunga, known for its pink colour caused by bacteria and algae that produce the magic colour. This location promises a spectacular photo were it not for the procession of travellers inexplicably trekking out to take photos of the man-crafted Loch Ness Monster embedded in the Lake.

Opposite the lake was Copper Coast Meats, a shop of doors and doors and cabinets of every meaty thing you can imagine. Odd location? Yep. Duck and fennel sausages? No worries.

Our first day destination was Coffin Bay for oysters, a more polarising snack I have not encountered. Parking was impossible, so I slowed to 40kph to let Waz roll out at the oyster vending machine and I drove on. After taking several turns I found myself at a single width, dead end, narrow road and proceeded to execute a 90 point u-turn with the ‘driver assist’ system screaming at every cm that I was about to collide with something. It was like having an ancient relative in the passenger seat that didn’t know I had a trailer behind me. The promise of Waz’s oysters with his own red wine vinaigrette at the National Park campground got me over the line without joining in on the screaming.