Coffin Bay to Streaky Bay

20th to 27th March
Whilst still on the Coast we dove into the local produce, with a long seafood lunch at Coffin Bay, including the iconic oysters, the views over the oyster leases were a great backdrop.

Coffin Bay lunch

We camped in the national park, bayside out of the wind, though we did a few walks beach side... plenty of breeze and white sand there.

Whilst Coffin Bay is a very small village, with only a couple  of streets, it’stheiroysters that put them on the  map.
The water and food source in the bay is ideal for quickly growing oysters, though they now farm the pacific oyster rather than the local oyster whose stock were depleted in years gone by.

Streaky Bay Jetty 

As a contrast Streaky Bay was a bigger village, very neat and plenty of good food and wine. Kevin tried fishing for squid with some locals, but no luck, so we settled for seafood in the pub.

Powerhouse museum 

The town has an impressive powerhouse museum with over 460 working engines.... local enthusiasts even started the old chaff cutters, motors and water pumps up for us.

We were lucky enough to be invited to a BBQ with some locals we met at Speed Week, a fun night and great to make new friends in interesting places.

 

The Eyre Peninsula

7th to 20th March
We’re now heading along the coast line for the next few weeks, first stop Whyalla. Its still a working port shipping out Iron Ore, with mining a huge employer in the area.

HMAS WHyalla

Up until the mid 1970’s there was a thriving ship building industry in Whyalla. HMAS Whyalla was the first mine sweeper build for the Navy for WW2, now back on display in an impressive maritime museum.
We’ve plenty of power with 2 solar panels to run our fridges and LED lights, but every 10 days or so we head to a caravan park to do the washing and take advantage of a long hot shower.


The beaches along the peninsula are white sand, blue seas and clear water. Despite it being March the water temp is around 19C, and mostly we have the beaches to ourselves. We spent 5 days Camping and hiking in Lincoln National park, before heading into Port Lincoln township for the cage diving with sharks.... luckily we both came back from that day.

September beach

Our first stay in Lincoln National park we camped at September Beach, then after a weekend in town we camped at Surfleet cove.
We did several 4 to 10km bush walks over the forntinght, a great way to see the bird life, wrens, lincoln ring necked parrots and silver eyes, ..... and scenery though it’s mainly heath and mallie country.

This part of the coastline is know as the seafood frontier, we’ve seen plenty of fish cage farming, oyster leases, eaten the king George whiting, coffin bay oysters and crabs.

Fresh caught and cooked crab.  

Sunset over the bay

Next stop Coffin Bay for some oysters straight off the leases..

Iron Knob and Speed Week

1st to 6th March 2019
The coastal fringe is now behind us, and we’re heading towards Lake Gairdner for some salt lake fun.

Sunset at spears creek

We met our travel buddies Graham and Wendy at Spears Creek campsite, a working sheep station where we overnighted before heading to Iron Knob.

Iron Knob is a mining town that supplies iron ore to Whyalla Onesteel (formerly BHP). The heat wave had the temp at 43C, so we stayed at the pub that night rather than camping. We spent the day at the bar, and in the publicans swimming pool, trying to cool off.

Kev and Graham poolside

The annual DLRA (Dry Lake Racing Australia) event is held on the Lake Gairdner salt pan, 160km long and 40km wide. The event sees motor cycles, trucks, cars, custom vehicles and historic’s complete for race times.
Vehicles hitting speeds of over 200 miles per hr where not uncommon.

DLRA marshalling grid 

Before going onto the salt each day we had to blow the dust off our cars, and then once parked put tarps down to make sure we didn’t drop oil onto the salt.

There were spectator areas by the pits and start line, and most drivers and their crews were really happy to talk about their vehicles.


The 120km’s of  gravel and corrugated  tracks to Mount Ive’s Station and the DLRA campsite was worth it. An amazing few days in the heat and salt watching everything from a postie bike to a jet scream by.

Spectators 

Jane in the drivers seat

The Yorke Peninsular

24 to 30 February
We had a week to spare before speed week dry lake racing on Lake Gairdner so thought we'd explore Innes National Park, right down on the 'foot' of the Yorke Peninsular 'boot'.

The peninsular is about 300km from tip to toe, and we drove though unending fields of wheat or stubble, till we entered the national park. The beaches were white sand, clear water and perfect for swimming. Kevin liked the surf beaches, but I preferred the still waters of the rock pools.

Pondalowie surf beach

Inneston, now abandoned and turned into a national park, was once a thriving gypsum and salt mining town  from the late 1800's till about 1930.

Many of the old buildings are still there, we walked the historic town, and as usual Kevin managed to find an old wood fired bakers oven... not working though.

wood fired oven.. still in great condition

Cape Spenser lighthouse

 Each of the Headlands have light houses to assist navigate ships through the Spencer gulf, though there were shipwrecks scattered off the coast and beaches a plenty. Testament to the harshness of the southern ocean.

relaxing camp-side

We had 5 nights at Innes Nat park, and each day we swan, bush walked and relaxed... a great location. We camped near the 'fisherman's village' which is a handful of old shacks that existed before the national park was declared. Mainly used during the cray season Nov to May, and on a limited lease hold so wont be there for much longer.

If you are looking for bush camping and great beaches, with very few other people, this is a must when visiting SA.

browns beach .rock pool,

Kevin checking out the surf