We headed down the scenic coastal route of the Eyre Peninsula Thursday arvo (30/10), having spent Wed night out in the sticks (the Nullarbor). That evening, for our return to sleeping in civilisation, we stopped in at Smoky Bay. This is a small, pretty, but not stunning place – perhaps somewhat overshadowed by the cloudy inclement weather. The main feature here is the Jetty!
Looking back to Smoky Bay from the Jetty
swimming enclosure. Not sure why its needed?
The caravan park here was very stark – basically it was all white seashell (crushed) ground, with no grass. To top it off the trees had recently been pruned, so no green at all! Practical I guess, and everything was all very clean and very well maintained, but doesn’t give any ‘softness’ to the place!
Fri morning we braved the variable and sometimes rainy weather, driving further down the coastline. Streaky Bay is larger than Smoky Bay, also with a fishing industry.
Streaky Bay
Looking back towards Streaky Bay, having driven towards the cape. Note the wheat so close to the edge of the ocean (background; foreground is just grass)! Heaps of wheat all around here.
We pulled over to look at Murphys Haystacks, though thankfully they weren’t far off the main road. After seeing what they were, we didn’t even bother getting out of the vehicle, or paying the entry fee to walk and get a closer look…
yay, what excitement….. I understand they are a pretty pink colour though!
It would have been great to go and see the Sea Lions at Baird Bay, but over 40kms of dirt road each way turned us off that idea.
Venus bay is a nice enough spot, but the weather was horrible… Bay on one side, ocean on the other.
like most of these towns down here on the coastline, it is primarily sea based industry
ocean side
We did the shortish dirt roads to the Woolshed Cave and The Tub. Both features on the limestone coastline. We aren’t actually on the ‘limestone coast’ area; that is south east of Adelaide; but it seems much of the Australian coastline is lime based! If you’re wondering, The Tub is a collapsed cave.
Woolshed Cave
The Tub, or one corner of it anyway!!
We spent Friday night on the side of the road near Elliston, then had a look around the small town and its scenic ocean drives Sat morning.
A quick drop into Sheringa Beach, for a look, a stair climb, and some lunch. We had the place to ourselves!
looking north west at Sheringa Beach
Our final stop for the day, and the night, was Coffin Bay / Coffin Bay National Park. Coming into Coffin Bay, its nice to see the scenery start to get a little green for a change! It’d been completely dry till now (aside from the occasional salt pan/lake) – wheat and grass have both been the same golden brown colour!!!
Coffin Bay township is, once again, aquaculture focused. Here you can see the Oyster farms in the bay, and the boat ramps are busy with commercial boats coming and going.
Looking out over the Oyster farms at Coffin Bay
A lot of Coffin Bay NP is 4wd only, but there is one camping area standard vehicles can get to – Yangie Bay – as well as a couple of lookouts and a beach. Talked to a guy at Almonta beach who said there had been heaps of fish in a gutter there over the last week, but not that day it seemed… Having been cooped up travelling the Nullarbor, and bad weather, it was good to stretch out the legs and do a walk at Yangie bay. It provided a good view over the waterways looking back towards the Coffin Bay township.
from the sandhills at Almonta Beach. Check out the width of the surf zone!
Almonta beach
the boys can’t help themselves… Sand cliff = must jump….
View from Golden Island Lookout. Some pretty cool looking sand dunes in the distance!
View from Point Avoid. Yep, definitely avoid if in a boat!!!
Yangie bay, from the edge of the campground
view from the walk lookout
So a mixed entry into SA – some good weather, and some bad weather, some nice scenery and some rather barren scenery. Next stop: Port Lincoln. It’s on the eastern side of the Eyre Peninsula which means it has to wait for the next post!