Port Lincoln - The Seafood Frontier of Australia

 Only 48km on from Coffin Bay, travelling across to the South-Eastern side of the peninsula, we arrived in Port Lincoln – known as the seafood frontier of Australia. We drove past the port, admiring the many fishing boats and checked into Port Lincoln Caravan Park. We had booked a premium site with great views of the water for our three-day stay. As it was another beautiful day, off came the bikes and we rode the 3.5km along the Parnkalla Trail, into the town centre and along the foreshore. This lovely ride, along the water, took us past the Brennan Jetty and the town’s impressive towering grain silos. On the foreshore we rode past the Makybe Diva bronze statue (Australia’s most successful racehorse) and the Tuna Poler statue. Port Lincoln looked a lovely town, with several foreshore cafes and some boutique shopping.

Day two we headed for a drive into the Lincoln National Park, stopping at Surfleet Point to walk along the beach and then climb the hill to view the Matthew Flinders Monument. The steep climb was worth it, which rewarded us with great views across the bays and back towards Port Lincoln.

Day three we dropped the car off at Peter Kittle Toyota for another 10,000km service and spent the morning strolling around town, having breakfast at a French café and having fun finding some lovely unique fashion finds in the towns many boutiques. Two dress purchases later, Andrew was glad when they called to say the car was ready. That afternoon we rode our bikes the other direction along the Parnkalla Trail towards the port, getting a close-up view of the many vessels that were moored after the mornings fishing.

 

Coffin Bay and the World's Best Oysters

After another hour and a half travelling further south, we made it to the Southern Eyre Peninsula and beautiful Coffin Bay. The first thing we noticed were all the emu’s grazing around the park (another Monkey Mia!). The weather was gorgeous, so after setup and lunch, we headed across the road to stroll along the Oyster Walk. This was a lovely trail, established by the local community, that went right along the foreshore of Coffin Bay. Later in the afternoon, with coupon from the caravan park in hand, we headed across to Oyster HQ for our first taste of Coffin Bay oysters. YUM! They were truly delicious. So wonderfully fresh and creamy. They went down a treat with a cold beer and a glass of wine whilst sitting looking across the water in the late afternoon sun. We now understood why everybody had been raving about the oysters!

The next day we headed into the Coffin Bay National Park, with our first stop at Yangie Bay. We walked the 3km loop up to the lookout and were rewarded with beautiful bay views. It was a stunning day, but quite warm, and so we were very conscious of keeping our eye out for snakes. (on the drive in we saw a rather large brown snake cross the road). We arrived back at the car, having only spotted lizards, but decided that would be the only bushwalk for the day, as it was still heating up. Next stop in the park was Almonta Beach – another pristine, remote beach that went for miles. We then visited Point Avoid and finished our touring looking out to Golden Island. All majestic coastline.

Back at the caravan park for lunch and a relax, until we were warmly greeted by Dave and Mish. It was then back across the road to introduce them to the HQ Oyster bar, which rolled into dinner at the Coffin Bay Hotel. We had a lovely time catching up and sharing travel stories. We bade them farewell after dinner (they were now on a bee line for Sydney to see their son) and we made the quick walk back to the BT in time for Sippy to watch the NRL semi-final.

Day 3 in Coffin Bay, we checked out early, parking the BT at the Yacht Club for our Oyster Experience Tour. What a fantastic day! The weather was amazing with no wind and stunning blue skies. We boarded the boat and cruised along for 16km to the oyster leases. It was then into waders with boots and out the back of the boat for the opportunity to learn all about oyster farming. It was fabulous!

Safely back on board, with everyone still relatively dry, we had a great presentation from the captain and then sat back and relaxed with drinks and a dozen freshly shucked oysters. You cant get much fresher than that! Delicious!!

We then got to tour via some islands in the bay and were delighted to get up close and personal with more Australian sealions. To top off an awesome day, we had two gorgeous dolphins swim and leap in front of the bow for several minutes as we headed back to shore. What a wonderful day of adventure!

 

 

Sleepy seaside Elliston

This morning as we were hitching the BT we noticed a clunky, grating noise from the back right wheel of the Landcruiser. As we still had to cover several hundred km’s before the next car service at Port Lincoln, we made the decision to drive into Streaky Bay Auto to see if a mechanic could assess. They were extremely helpful and asked Sippy to leave the car with them for a couple of hours. Fortunately it turned out to be a few rocks caught up in the drum, so after 2 hours of work (and $120 later) they had it fixed and we were on our way.

40km further south along the Flinders Highway we stopped in to walk around Murphy’s Haystacks. These ancient wind-worn rock formations date back 100,000 years. After a few pics we were back on the road and headed for Venus Bay, and Talia and Woolshed Caves. We enjoyed seeing the latter cave and again marveled at the rugged coastline, Unfortunately we couldn’t see Talia Cave due to road closures. We arrived in Elliston late in the afternoon and took a walk up to the beach and along the headland, before having another feed of King George whiting – cooked perfectly by Sippy on the BBQ.

The next morning was cool and drizzly, and not feeling great due to a cold picked up a few days earlier, we had a lazy, lie-in morning and caught up on posts and blogs. As the sun came out we walked over to the Elliston bakery at lunchtime for a great country beef & mushroom pie and some home-made biscuits later in the afternoon completed the Great Ocean Drive and admired the sculptures around the headland. 

The Eyre Peninsula / Streaky Bay

We had a relaxing start to the morning, enjoying the serenity and isolation of our free camp. We ate the last of our fruit and checked our fridge was clear of fresh vegetables, ready for our biosecurity border check 2km west of Ceduna. We took a quick detour to check out Smoky Bay (not much there) and 200km later we arrived at Streaky Bay. We parked in town, strolled down to the jetty, did a quick grocery shop before the local IGA closed at 1pm (Sunday) and headed to lunch at the Drift Café. The Eyre Peninsula is known as the Seafood Frontier of Australia, so we were keen to indulge. We ordered the local specialty of King George whiting and were not disappointed. It was delicious! We then checked into Island Caravan Park, 7km out of town, being allocated a great site backing straight onto the bay. After a quick set up we were off for a stroll along the foreshore and then back to the BT for dinner.

Day Two in Streaky Bay was all about exploring the rugged coastline. The area offers 3 amazing coastline scenic drives, and as we only had one day in the area, we were keen to explore all three. We started with the Westall Way Loop which took us past Tractor Beach, the magnificent Highcliffs and then down a 110 step stairwell to the Granites. Here we walked among beautiful, orange-coloured boulders which sat in lovely, crystal, green waters. We also viewed Smooth Pool and drove past the white sand dunes behind Yanerbie Beach. We then continued south, down to Point Labatt to observe Australia’s only mainland sea lion colony. These sea lions are Australia’s most endangered marine mammals, so we felt very blessed to be able to perch above the cliff and watch the adults sun bake in the heat while the little pups played in the waves and pools close to the shore. There were also many sea birds congregated on the rocks amongst the sea lions.

Back via the town we visited the Streaky Surf shop and purchased a sweat top each before stopping via the Streaky Bay Marine Products to pick up some King George whiting and Evans oysters for dinner – yum!

We finished the day touring the Cape Bauer Loop, stopping to walk down to Hally’s Beach and along the 360m boardwalk to Whistling Rocks and the Blowholes. The swell was big and the wind blowing, so we heard the rock pipes in action and copped a far bit of sea spray!

Crossing the Nullarbor and into South Australia!

Driving out of Cape Le Grand National Park, we passed back through Esperance and then up to Norseman along the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway.  We stopped at the lovely, little town of Ravensthorpe for some lunch in their town park and took a photo with the van in front of the beautiful painted silos, depicting the flowering cycle of a banksia – very striking. There wasn’t much to Norseman, with the visitor’s centre closed for lunch hour when we arrived, so after a top up of groceries at the local IGA, it was onto the Eyre Highway to commence the 1,200km journey across the Nullarbor Plain.

We managed to travel 500km on Day One, pulling into the Woorlba Rest Area just past Balladonia. There were a few vans already set up for the night, so we parked in a secluded spot, set up the chairs, put on the fly nets and sat looking out across the plains as the sun set. Very relaxing.

Day Two and we were excited to cross the South Australian border and reach the Bunda Cliffs. Recently many of the free camp spots along this section of the Eyre Highway had ‘No Entry’ signs erected, claiming conservation issues. We are unsure if this is due to safety concerns, as there are many fractures now appearing along the cliff lines. As the sun got lower in the sky we were getting concerned that we might miss our opportunity to camp along the cliffs, but thankfully we saw a few vans set up for the night at the Bunda Cliffs Lookout. We don’t think you are supposed to camp there, but 4 other vans had made the call to stop for the night (in silent protest to all the free camps being blocked off) so we were happy to join them after travelling 591km. We got a great view of the cliffs, with excellent light for photographs being thrown onto the surfaces in the setting sun. It was lovely to go to sleep that night listening to the pounded waves upon the cliff faces.

The next morning only a few kilometres further on the Eyre Highway, we took the dirt road turnoff into Bunda Cliffs 1. The posts for the ‘No Entry’ sign were in place, but luckily no sign had been attached as of yet. This area afforded a spectacular view of the cliffs facing west, so up went the drone and Sippy captured some great footage of the BT on the edge of the cliff. We were really lucky with the calm, warm weather as I don’t think you would risk putting up the drone in the normal blustery conditions along this coastline.

It was then onto the Head of Bight, a marine protected area, where we were lucky enough to view three Southern Right Whale cow’s and their calves meandering around the bay. It also provided more fantastic views of the Bunda Cliffs and out to the Great Australian Bight. Female Southern Right Whales travel between May and October to give birth and nurse their calves in the shallow, protected waters in the Head of Bight. Other adults travel to these areas to mate.

After travelling 281km we pulled into Cohen Rest Area to free camp for the night.

Lucky Bay in Cape Le Grand National Park

 

We were “lucky enough’ to be able to nab a spot for two nights in beautiful Lucky Bay, which is situated within the Cape Le Grand National Park (thanks to Sippy’s great planning with the accommodation). This is a highly sort after stop over as we had heard all along our trip around the country – “You must stay in Lucky Bay!” It certainly didn’t disappoint, with stunning crystal, turquoise water and gleaming white sand, nestled within a beautiful bay that had huge boulders and rock faces meeting the waters edge.

We pulled in around 10am, only needing to drive an hour from Esperance, and were ‘lucky enough’ to find a great site, very private being at the end of the strip, which had just been vacated and afforded sweeping views of the bay. We settled in, donned the cossies and headed for the beach. Once again, although a tad chilly, we couldn’t resist having a swim in that beautiful water, so in we went. The outside temperature was in the high 20’s and the sun was shining, so we really had no excuse!

After lunch we decided to walk the coastal trail to Thistle Cove, about an hours walk each way. We were really enjoying the coastal views and admiring the many delicate wildflowers on the path, until about 40mins in Andrew, walking behind me, noticed what he thought was a stick being kicked up by my hiking sandal. On closer inspection he froze as it was as a 30cm grey/brown snake with its little head reared up at him!  Had totally missed it and had walked right over it. Luckily it had missed me, but Andrew took a good look at my feet and legs for puncture marks just in case. Of course being mid-September and a rather warm day, the snakes and other reptiles were venturing out to also enjoy and bask in the warmth. Silly us had only worn hiking sandals and not taken the snake bandage (which we always do and we wear hiking boots when bush walking) – typical and lesson learnt. We weighed up continuing but thought it best to not risk walking further in our crocs and sandals, so we turned around and enjoyed a cold beer back at the BT instead. As we took a walk around the park later that afternoon, we saw another two similar snakes – so we think it was a wise decision. (Note: we took a picture of the snake and when we had reception we posted it on Snake ID on Andrew’s FB. It turned out to be a legless lizard (LOL) but still glad we made the sensible decision to not walk further without boots and a bandage.

Later in the afternoon we had a visit from the camp hosts warning us of the impending weather front that was due to hit during the night. We had also checked with the weather through our Zoleo, and had a message from Paul Baker in Perth, so we knew what was coming. We went to bed with the awning in and everything bunkered down. Sure enough, the wind howled at 50km/hour most of the night and most of the next day. The poor people camping opposite us were in a tent, which they hurriedly packed up when it started blowing madly and they spent the night sleeping in the front seats of their 4WD. Sippy went over to offer assistance and told them to just come knocking if they needed anything (which made me feel better as I was worried for them). We were safely tucked up in the BT while it rocked and swayed all night.

Day two, although still very windy, we headed off to explore the area. First stop was Thistle Cove (this time arriving by 4WD rather than walking). Viewing another stunning beach, we enjoyed walking around the rocks, taking photographs and watching a whale off the beach. We then ventured on to Frenchman Peak with the intention to climb to the top and explore the cave. Unfortunately the wind was so ferocious that after scaling about ¾ of the rock face climb we decided to abort as we felt it too dangerous. It was very scary and very unpleasant. We will have to leave this one till next visit. We then crossed back to the ocean side and headed down to Hellfire Bay. Much to our delight we found this beautiful beach very protected from the gale force winds, so we lay in the sun for a bit and engaged to have a swim in the beautiful clear water.