EYRE PENINSULA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

From Port Augusta we drove south along the east coast of Eyre Peninsula. There are plenty of campsites along this coast and we thought we might stop our first night at Port Gibbon. However, when we got there we discovered a very crowded and pretty ordinary campsite behind the dunes of a beach which was very uninteresting. It didn’t appeal at all as there wasn’t much room and there were lots of vans squashed in beside a small toilet block so we continued on and discovered a lovely little camp at Poverty Bay.

 

Some of these old air-raid shelters on the way into Poverty Bay
were being used by the farmer for storage.

We parked the van in an open area overlooking the beach and a rocky headland. Since the weather was good we stayed a couple of nights and really enjoyed walking along the beach and doing a spot of fishing. I only managed to catch a little puffer fish but it was very relaxing and the scenery was lovely, especially when we saw several dolphins cruising around in the bay.

 

The view from our camp at Poverty Bay.

Another lovely sunset.

There was also a colony of bees nesting under the cliff and poor Leo was having a hard time with them raiding his water bowl until I put out a plate of water for them which they emptied about three times while we were there. They must have to travel for miles to get water when it hasn’t rained for a while here.

Our grateful neighbours.

From Poverty Bay we continued south and had a look at several sites in the camps book, including Carrow Wells and Cape Hardy beach, all of which were OK but unless you like beach fishing there wasn’t much to do.

The beach at Carrow Wells.

At Lipson Cove we discovered a lovely little cove with an offshore island which was obviously a favourite breeding spot for sea birds. There must have been hundreds of cormorants, seagulls, terns, pacific gulls and pelicans and the camp area is very roomy. There are basic toilets and a good choice of camp-sites. John hopped in the water to see if he could walk over to the island but it was quite deep and he got a hell of a fright when a group of dolphins swam right past him.

The island rookery at high tide. You could almost walk out there at low tide.

One of the local egrets. There is no shortage of these along the SA coastline.

Wheat fields behind Lipson Cove.

Our camp at Lipson Cove.

The rocks vary here in both colour and composition.

This cairn was on the headland at Lipson Cove.
I wonder who "Wallaby Sam" was?

We took a drive into Tumby Bay on our way to Port Lincoln and it looked like a lovely little place. It had much more appeal to us than Arno Bay which looked a bit dry and uninviting. It was our intention to stay a night or two at Port Lincoln and we even thought we might look at doing the ‘dive with sharks’ thing. However, we discovered that they didn’t allow dogs at the caravan park right in town so we decided to stock up on groceries, fuel and water and empty the loo (there is a dump point on Windsor Avenue opposite the Wayback Football Club although it isn’t in the camps book) and then off we went to Farm Beach. We did look into going down south of Port Lincoln along what they call Whalers Way but it was $30 just to go down there and when we asked at the information centre about what was down there they mentioned things like spectacular coastline and koalas, both of which we have seen aplenty, so we gave it a miss.

Farm Beach, just past Coffin Bay is a great camp at only $5 a night for a good sized campsite. There are toilets there, a cold shower if you need it and a water tap with good quality water. It is a very popular spot and we would definitely spend more time there if we came back this way. It is easy to launch the boat off the beach if fishing is your thing. If not, there are plenty of interesting places to visit, including Coffin Bay and the national park and Mt Dutton Bay. We really enjoyed our drive around the inlet exploring the little fishing villages etc.

 

The marina at Coffin Bay.

Mt Dutton Bay looking across toward Coffin Bay.

Little Douglas, just beyond Farm Beach is also a lovely spot especially if you want to take a swim in sheltered waters.

 



The beach at Little Douglas.



Lagoon at Little Douglas.

The area seems really popular for yachts and other boaties who are looking for a sheltered mooring. Our first morning here was lovely as the rainy weather resulted in a heavy mist which hung over the area for several hours and created a very different atmosphere along the beach.

 

Boats moored at Farm Beach.

 

Another unusual feature of Farm Beach is the enclosure full of old tractors which are used by the locals to launch their boats at the beach. It would undoubtedly be of real interest to anyone who had an interest in old tractors.

This one was my favourite!

Another really nice thing about Farm Beach was the nightly gathering under the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ where many of the campers would meet for drinks, conversation and lots of laughs each afternoon. Many stories are told and when the local oyster guy arrives, you can also treat yourself to a dozen Coffin Bay oysters for $7. He will even shuck them for you if you get on his right side.

Since we were due in Venus Bay in a couple of days we left Farm Beach after 3 nights and continued north up the west coast of the Peninsula.

Coastline on the way into Point Drummond.

We decided to take the side track in and have a look at Point Drummond, where we pulled up at the carpark overlooking a beautiful white sandy beach to have lunch.

Leo desperately wanted to go down to the beach and play with the other dogs.

The beach here went for miles.

The contrasting landscapes here are quite spectacular and since the weather was perfect, we decided to stay the night up on the headland, overlooking the Point. We had views out to sea over the headland and lovely beaches to our left and right. The local abalone fishermen have built a ramp (road) down through the cliff to the beach where they can launch their boats and since it was a long weekend for the Adelaide Cup, by evening the beach was filled with camps and four-wheel drives. That afternoon, I counted 16 kids playing around in the rock pools below us. What a lovely sight!

Point Druummond.

 

The ramp down to the beach - Point Drummond.

This stairway led to the beach on the northern side of the Point.

John was very tempted to jump in the water and take a look for some abalone, but since we still had lots in the freezer, he didn’t bother. We’ll probably regret it later. From our vantage point up on the headland, we could clearly see dolphins frolicking around in the surf at the beach and next morning, they were even in the little rocky cove right in front of us. We stood for a good half hour just watching three of them feeding on something in the shallow water. This was really a beautiful spot but only in good weather. If the wind came up you would be blown away. There is a sheltered camp back from the beach but there are no facilities at all so come prepared.

From Point Drummond we followed the coastal road north again, calling into Leo Cummings Monument Lookout which gave us an excellent view of both the rugged sea cliffs and Lake Hamilton, a large salt lake to the east.

 

Lake Hamilton

 



Coastline at Leo Cummings Lookout.

 

Then it was on to Elliston where we filled our water tanks at the information centre and then parked down at the foreshore for lunch.

 

This lovely sculpture of a squid was on the foreshore at Elliston.

Just north of Elliston we discovered the bakery at Colton. It is just a little shelter beside the road but the bread, buns etc are all baked in a wood-fired oven and it is all fantastic and just $4 each.

 

Before we got to Venus Bay we took the side-track into Woolshed Cave and The Tub, which are quite spectacular rock features along the cliffs.

Stairway down to Woolshed Cave.

Woolshed Cave.



The Tub. At high tide the sea comes in through the gap centre-left.



The caravan park at Venus Bay is not exactly green and shady but the people who run it are excellent at their job. Nothing is too much trouble and it is obvious that they go out of their way to keep everybody happy. There is very little in Venus Bay in the way of shops etc. – just what is at the van park and a small café/general store. Most of the people at the park take the 70 klm trip into Streaky Bay to stock up on groceries. On our trip up there, we called in to take a look at Murphy’s Haystacks, a group of large rocks which have been eroded into very unusual shapes.

 

The inlet at Venus Bay is very sheltered and this is obviously why it is so popular with the oldies who still love to fish. The fishing itself isn’t exactly exciting. The whiting are plentiful but not really very big and catching them seems hit and miss, although some of the more seasoned locals seemed to be able to get a feed most days. We had more fun catching wrasse in the channel in front of the jetty. At the end of the day though everyone managed to get a feed of fish or squid and have some fun out in the boat exploring. You can fish off the jetty if you don’t have a tinny but we didn’t hear of anyone having much success. The jetty is used as a base for several scallop trawlers and I’d guess that you could get a feed of scallops there is you were inclined to ask.

Lookiing down across the little hamlet of Venus Bay toward Port Kenny.



The birds here were very well fed!



Their favourite spot was in front of the filletting hut.

John and Deb had a reasonable day with the whiting.

 

 

 

 

After a week at Venus Bay, we headed to Wudinna and then back east along the Eyre Highway with our friends Gloria and Geoff, who had come across the Nullarbor from WA to meet us. If you are ever over near this area, it is well worth going a little further west to Minnipa and spending a night at Pildappa Rock, which is a very large granite outcrop where you can camp. The rock itself can be climbed and the drainage system which was constructed in the early days to catch and store water can still be seen. It is a very pleasant and interesting place for a stopover.

The Eyre Highway has some very long straights.

A stop at Kimba for lunch also gave us a chance to see The Big Galah (what a fine looking specimen) at the roadhouse which claims to be “halfway” across Australia.

Then it was on past Iron Knob to Port Augusta. Next day we left Geoff and Gloria here to get some repairs done and drove down to Kadina via Port Germein to catch up with our friends Neil and Sue again.



The mine at Iron Knob.

YORKE PENINSULA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

From Adelaide we drove to Port Wakefield and pulled up at a little area beside the local caravan park for lunch. It was difficult to see where the “port” was as the only area of water we could see was a small lagoon which had been created by building a concrete wall across the local creek. The caravan park seemed popular though and the bowls club was right across the road. We also noticed that there were no less than four bakeries in town. Obviously everyone travelling to and from Adelaide stops in Port Wakefield for lunch.

Since the folks who bought our old Bushtracker lived in Kadina, we decided to go straight there so that we could get the local rundown on the best spots to visit on the Peninsula. Neil and Sue made us feel right at home and straight away, John was off down past Moonta catching crabs using an unusual rake to scoop the up from the shallows. They got a lovely lot of crabs so of course chilli crab was on the menu.

We decided to travel down the western side of the peninsula first and arrived at Moonta in time to try one of their famous Cornish pasties at the Cornish Country Kitchen. The pasties were delicious but the PR skills of the lady serving us left a lot to be desired. We have since heard of other encounters with the same lady which reinforced our opinion. Don’t let her put you off the pasties though. Moonta is full of Cornish history as many miners came to the area in the 1860’s to work the nearby copper mines. Moonta is famous for the Kernewek Lowender, the world’s largest Cornish Festival which is held every second year in May. And yes it’s on this year.

From Moonta we drove south to Maitland and Minlaton. Driving through this area, one gets the impression that Yorke Peninsula is just one huge wheat field. Everywhere you look, are huge expanses of wheat/barley.

Seeing this smoke in the distance, we hoped it wasn't near where
we were headed. We had had enough of fires in Tassie!

Every field has its own rock pile – the farmers here must hate rocks. However, they have certainly learned to put them to good use. It is not unusual to see long stretches of rock wall and every farm seems to have an old fallen down house built from stones nestled amongst the many grain silos. You will also come across the ruins of many lime kilns on the Peninsula, which provided the lime to construct the stone buildings. I was also quite taken by the number of old wooden-wheeled wagons which people had placed at the entrances to their farms. Judging by the excellent condition of these wagons, there mustn’t be a white ant problem down here.

One of the many impressive rock walls we saw.

Renovater's delight!

There are several camps just to the south of Moonta but John had seen them when they went crabbing and they were pretty ordinary – unless you want to chase crabs of course. We were told Port Rickaby is nice but the camp there is a caravan park so we continued on to Warooka and then headed north-east to Point Turton, which was a surprise to us with lots of brand new houses along the beachfront. The road then turns to dirt but it is not rough and it follows the coastline on a very scenic drive. There are only a couple of camp spots along the top of the 'boot' which is Yorke Peninsula and most are either on rocky coastline or are back up off the beach.

Coastline along the top of "The Boot".

 

At Corny Point we stopped to have a quick look at the lighthouse and the lovely view east and south.

 

Driving south again the road turns east again at Point Annie and meets the main road to Marion Bay. All of the camping spots along this road are well signposted so it was easy for us to find the turnoff to Gleesons Landing where we ended up spending three lovely nights. What a glorious spot.



Gleesons Landing

I noticed these unusual native grasses used very effectively
in landscaping down here.

This lovely beach is just over the headland and accessible via steps at this end.

If the weather is good then the headland is great to pick up a breeze but if it gets windy, which it did on our second day you can move down beside the beach where there is a bit more shelter. There are toilets and bins there if you need them and it is cheap at $10 a night or $35 a week. That $35 covers you for any seven nights in any of the council run camping reserves on the southern peninsula.

Leo loved it at Gleesons too!



 

The bay at Gleesons Landing is part of a lobster breeding reserve but you can go just over the headland if you want to dive for crays, or put pots in if you have a boat. Most of the other campers there were locals from other parts of the peninsula and they were all chasing crays as well at the lovely snapper which you can catch down here. John managed to get a nice cray for us as well as a couple of black lipped abalone, so we felt pretty spoilt that night as we sat down to crayfish, crab and abalone for dinner.

The stretch of beach in front of our camp was a haven for several types of waterbirds so of course I spent a lot of time birdwatching. I was lucky enough to see red-necked stint, banded lapwings, red-capped and grey plovers, terns, pied oystercatchers as well as ruddy turnstones which gave me a real thrill as I hadn’t expected them here. There was also a large flock of chestnut teal and two resident pelicans which appeared as soon as anyone looked like they might be cleaning fish etc.

 

The sunsets here were absolutely stunning and again I just couldn’t stop grabbing for the camera. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Gleesons Landing. It will be top of our list if we ever return to this area.

I first saw these strange fluffy seeds on the Great Ocean Road. Don't know that tree they come from. Reminds me of the kapok from the flowers which are the floral emblem back in Bowen.

Can you spot the little white snails on the leaves? They are
everywhere on the Peninsula as well as up near Adelaide. At the
Seppelts winery we were told they can become so prolific that the
top of the grape vats were saw can be totally white!

From Gleesons we went down to Marion Bay and parked the van in a vacant block beside our friends’ beach shack so that we could leave Leo there and take a drive into Innes National Park. There are plenty of camps in there but being National Park most are well back from the beaches. However, the park itself has some lovely scenery and many areas of interest so it is well worth making the effort to go in.

The jetty at Stenhouse Bay was once used to ship ore.
It now forms part of Innes National Park.

This salt lake in the park had little salt pillars all around the waters edge.

After Marion Bay we set off across the southern end of the peninsula along the coastal road which is all dirt but again well formed. We decided not to go into Butler’s Beach even though we are told it is a very nice spot. At $22 a night we thought it a bit expensive especially since you have to drive back to the homestead to have a shower.

The rugged coastline on the southern side of the Peninsula.

We visited most of the other camps along this road but the beaches were generally uninspiring until you get to Troubridge where there are some nice camps nestled in behind the beach. You also have brilliant views from Troubridge Hill and drive right past Wattle Point Wind Farm. One thing I did notice along this road was the abundance of bird-life. So if birds are your thing you would enjoy this area.

The unusual red brick lighthouse at Troubridge Hill.

One of the many old deserted houses.

Arriving at Edithburgh, we were really happy to discover an easily accessible water tap on the foreshore not far from the local jetty, so we stopped for a bit to hose the fine white chalky road dust off the car and van. If you need to top up water tanks, this would be an ideal place to do it. The town itself is very picturesque and it was obvious from all the ink stains that there were plenty of squid to be caught from the jetty. There was also a great walking track running right along the foreshore so I took the opportunity to take Leo for a walk while John was busy.

That night we pulled in at Port Julia Oval which is a very pleasant camping spot maintained by a local community group. Again it was very reasonably priced at $7 a night with toilets and plenty of shady trees about. I spent a lovely morning strolling along the foreshore and the bushy residential area where I saw at least 10 different species of birds.

After Port Julia we headed up to Ardrossan and then inland through Arthurton back to Kadina and out to Wallaroo where we spent two days at the caravan park near the SeaSA ferry terminal so that John could do some testing on our van batteries which didn’t seem to be holding a full charge. Wallaroo is a lovely old town. It is like the whole town is one big museum. Almost all of the buildings are very old but still being utilised. I really enjoyed a leisurely stroll up the main street to the Shire Hall and back toward the huge silos which store the grain which is shipped from the port. The ferry operates across Spencer Gulf to Lucky Bay but at $400 one way it is hardly something we would contemplate unless we were in an awful hurry.

A ship loads grain at Wallaroo harbour.

We then spent three more really enjoyable days in Kadina with Neil and Sue who have now been entered on our list of wonderful new friends, along with Kim, Rob and Angie. Kim and Rob are two  Kadina locals who we just happened to meet at the pub in Dunalley, Tasmania. John managed to drain all of the batteries down and recharge them twice, which brought them back up to speed. Apparently if you are too kind to these batteries, which John was, they develop a “memory” and stop fully recharging. While in Kadina the boys also headed out hunting crab again. They got a lovely lot of crabs so we had crab soufflé for dinner (thanks Joel) and then cleaned the rest and pickled them in vinegar. It will be interesting to taste the results.

 

Crab souffle complients of Joel at right.

It was a real treat for us too when Neil took us for a drag in his lovely old Ford sports car. What a hoot it was cruising down to the fish & chip café at Wallaroo. The fish & chips were great too, eaten overlooking the harbour. We were rather sad to leave Kadina and hopefully will be able to repay the hospitality to all in the near future up in North Queensland.



There were ten of these little New Holland Honeyeaters taking a dip in the garden pond. Too cute!



How cool is this car?

On our way north to Port Augusta, we took a side track into the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, turning east at Port Germein and heading up through Port Germein Gorge.

The little town of Port Germein boasts the longest wooden jetty in Australia. It's not hard to work out why it needed to be.

The beacon light looked pretty ancient. Don't knnow if it is still used.

We were surprised to see Broome Pearling's name down here.

Neil had advised us to take this much more scenic route. The coastal road is rather flat and featureless but there were some lovely vistas across the wheat fields.

 

Again there were also some amazing old buildings!

We were going to stop overnight at the showgrounds at Melrose but they didn’t look too flash. There is a stand of gnarly-trunked old gum trees though just north of the town which is quite extraordinary.

 

Artificially contoured hills in the southern Flinders Ranges.
The ridges prevent erosion in heavy rains.

We continued on through Wilmington, where we saw two huge trees absolutely covered with little corellas. I hadn’t seen anything like it since our trip up through the Gulf and these were right in the middle of town. They must drive the locals crazy.
 

We decided to take a punt and go off the beaten track to the camp at Hancock’s Lookout, 13 klms west of Wilmington. It was a very good decision. The view from the Lookout was spectacular. What a wonderful spot to camp for the night. We could see all the way to the north of Spencer Gulf to Port Augusta, south to Port Pirie and right across the Gulf to Whyalla.  They say that on a clear day you can see right out to Iron Knob. What a view!

I would recommend this drive to anyone coming from the east to Port Augusta. The road down through Horrocks Pass would be awesome on a bike and there are magnificent old gum trees all along the route. It is easy to see why so many landscape artists fall in love with the area.



Looking back to the ranges as you come down toward Port Augusta.