2. Eyre Peninsula South Australia. 19th Feb to 3rd March 2020

Entry 2 – 19^th February to 3^rd March

Moving on from the beautiful Sheringa Beach we stopped for a look at Locks Well. It was a beach noted for salmon fishing and not recommended for swimming. And yes, the ocean looked very intimidating with its large swells and beach rips.

Our travelling distance for the day ended at about 50 kilometres up the road with our next camp at Walkers Rocks located a bit north of the township of Elliston. Elliston is another town in decline from it’s busy bye gone days as a bustling service port for the local farming community. The local council were doing their best with a focus on attracting the passing tourist trade providing cheap camping areas and dressing up the town with murals, statues, walking trails and scenic drives providing an interest for people to stay awhile.

Great watering hole mural

Big crow

Walkers Rocks was a similar type location to Sheringa Beach where we set camp in a spot with some shelter from the constant ocean wind, positioned close to a sand hill. There was the constant background noise of surf breaking onto the shoreline, providing a soothing background tune.

We did all the touristy bits around Elliston, trying to keep occupied but unfortunately there wasn’t much to keep us captivated for long and the windy cool conditions at the time didn’t help.

Cape Barren Geese

Another different sunset

After two nights at Walker rocks we were ready to move on.

Continuing in a northerly direction, we stopped for a look at one of Elliston’s much publicised attractions, ‘Talia Caves.’ Woolshed Cave the main draw card was closed due to a rock slide damaging the lower access stairs. It had been publicised as a temporary closure since November, now approaching 4 months. A couple of very large overhanging rocks had broken off from the overhead cliff face and we thought it to be a rather large job to make the area safe, possibly out of the local council’s capabilities, we are thinking it may never reopen for public access.

It was a beautiful rugged section of coastline, looking a bit daunting when Steve scampered down onto a rock face a little bit down the road from Woolshed Cave.

Next, we had a look at Venus Bay with a caravan park appearing to be bulging at the seams with caravans and boats. It looked like one of those locations popular with fishing folk. We disconnected the caravan up the road a bit at a location called Murphy’s Haystacks and drove the 80-kilometre return trip to Point Labatt promoted as the only mainland location in Australia where you could view an Australian Sea Lion Colony. We counted 42 seals sunning on the warm rocks, way below from a viewing platform mounted high up on a cliff face. We thought it was worth the drive.

Returning to the caravan we spent time viewing some large “Inselbergs,” (a hill that looks like a rocky island rising sharply from the ocean) given the name in this instance, “Murphy’s Hay Stacks.” We walked around several interesting rock formations, even doing a loop in the opposite direction viewing them from a different angle. It was something different. We camped the night in the carpark of Murphy’s Hay Stacks, enjoying its quietness all to ourselves.

We were about 40-kilometres shy of Streaky Bay our next planned area for exploration. We had previously stayed in the township of Streaky Bay and thought on this occasion we would explore some of the nearby bush camping locations not visited by us previously. Whilst at Murphy’s Hay Stacks we had internet reception and started to plan our next week’s activity options.

One of our requirements was to visit nearby Ceduna Hospital where we were both to have blood samples taken for medical assessments on our return home planned in two weeks-time. The doctor provided forms that showed the location where we needed to attend, minus the opening hours. A check via the internet to obtain opening hours showed this clinic as now permanently closed. The next closest clinic on the form for this company was at Pt Augusta about 400-kilometres down the road and adding to our predicament we received a phone call from our doctor notifying our appointment date had been brought forward by a couple of days.

We researched our options coming up with plans A, B, C and eventually settled on plan D.

We arrived at Streaky Bay on a Saturday to find the information centre closed over weekends. Thankfully the shops were still open and we stocked up with fresh food and filled the near empty tow tugs fuel tank. Our last fuel was obtained at Port Lincoln and it was about a 300-kilometre distance to Streaky Bay. Of interest we had travelled this route and had clocked up 610-kilometres which included our deviations to view the nearby scenery along this route.

Leaving Streaky Bay township, we travelled along the Westall Way Loop Drive with a few campground options along the road. We settled for Speed Point campground, another beautiful setting providing a most relaxing atmosphere.

It is always a special sight when the conditions are right for a gorgeous sunset and Speed Point excelled with an ocean sunset.

Speed Point was another location a bit out of the way with no facilities, less frequented by most travellers with a gorgeous setting, providing a most relaxing atmosphere. We were enjoying a peaceful state of mind, helping with some further constructive thoughts for our bloods, predicament. On the Monday morning we phoned the local hospital whom provided us with an appointment time the following morning to facilitate our blood requirements.

We moved to plan option E, relocating to a caravan park a few kilometres just north of Streaky Bay.

The following morning, we attended Streaky Bay Hospital where we were drained of the required bloods and continued exploring the local area with a drive on the Cape Bauer Loop Drive north west of Streaky Bay. We viewed some rugged coast line with some beautiful beach locations.

After a couple of nights in a caravan park we were ready to relocate to another bush type setting. About 20-kilometres up the road Perlubie Beach ticked many of our wish list elements.

Arrival just after low tide

Just out of harm’s way at high tide

More stunning sunsets

Perlubie Beach was a fabulous location with nice sand under foot and a vehicle drivable beach. Near the entrance road onto the beach were six brush topped shelters with caravans setting up on the three sides of each enclosure leaving the beach side open. The many young travelling families seemed to gravitate around the shelters, creating a wonderful child friendly environment. We were at the age where we appreciated a quieter atmosphere and set camp a couple of hundred metres down the beach, distancing ourselves from the busy sheltered area.

Unfortunately, strong winds appeared mid-afternoon of each day with fine sand granules finding its way into the caravan through any slight opening, causing us to lock all windows whilst the wind blew. After two days we even moved our caravan to face the opposite direction to see if we could improve our comfort from the 40 kilometre plus winds with the door on the opposed side to the oncoming wind.

Thankfully the wind would subside around 6 pm most days

We did participate in a daily happy hour with our neighbours with a growing group of more senior sedate people happily chatting each afternoon for a few hours until we all drifted away for our evening meal.

We walked daily along the beach enjoying special time in a great setting providing a harmonious setting for everyone around. Perlubie Beach was another beautiful summer location.

We had stretched our time lines as much as possible soaking in a copious amount of time at Perlubie Beach. It was time to head home, attending appointments as another part of life.

Departing Perlubie Beach our first stop was at Streaky Bay car wash, where we did our best to remove as much sea spray as possible from the tow tug and caravan. We headed east with a targeted destination of Kimba about a 200-kilometre drive for the day. It was our longest days drive for over a month and our bodies felt weary by the time we arrived at Kimba.

Kimba was another innovative town doing its best to attract the passing tourist trade to spend time in its town. There was a large free camping area with showers and ample toilet facilities, numerous murals located around town, a promoted nature trail with plant identification signage and sculptures which drew our immediate attention.

Nearby 8 metre granite sculpture titled “The Australian Farmer” at Wudinna

Day two’s allocation of driving was around 160 kilometres where we stayed a night at Port Augusta catching up with one of Mary’s primary school friends. The chatter between the two girls seemed endless. It was wonderful to see two school friends enjoying one another’s company.

Day three we commenced driving just after sunrise with a required day’s drive of around 350 kilometres to our home base for medical appointments the following morning. It was a long, long day.

It was now seven years since we both ceased working life to pursue a retirement activity focused on travel. We unquestionably were still thoroughly enjoying our travel lifestyle with in this instant leaving a required return to home till as late as possible.

Like so many of those locations we had visited in Australia, Eyre Peninsula was another one of those locations we would like to allocate an extended time line to explore further, including some of its inland regions for a time in cooler weather.