The colours of Tumby Bay

The air is brisk with a savage bite here in South Australia, perhaps reaching 10oC if I stand on tippy-toes, as the warmest air rises.

Still, it doesn’t stop two skimpily clad bodies rushing over the foreshore’s fluorescent greencoloured grass and plunging into the arms of its intoxicating bay.

Tumby Bay, on the shores of the Eyre Peninsula, has always drawn a carefree, easygoing crowd, and had its first visit by Matthew Flinders back in 1802. He named the bay and nearby island after the village of Tumby, located near his own birthplace in Lincolnshire, England, although I can’t imagine it projecting the same alluring shades of blue.

Backed by the rolling Koppio Hills, this historic seaside village provides a tranquil haven for many of the area’s retired, hardworking sheep and wheat farmers, together with enthusiastic fishers, ex-city dwellers and ocean lovers. Perhaps its biggest catch