2015/11 Australia trip - Coffin Bay |
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We stopped for coffee at Walkers Rocks, which turned to be a nice sandy beach with flowers around the dunes and some offshore rocks. There was nothing 
to say whether Walker was the hero that spotted them or the klutz that ran his ship into them.
More interesting was the scenic drive around Elliston Cliffs. These cliffs are heavily eroded limestone with many caves and overhangs. 
We saw black heads in the water there and were discussing whether they were seals or sealions, when one of them got up onto his board and surfed the incoming wave, ending the discussion.
At the clifftop, one of the locals gave us some local history. The island we could see is called Flinders Island, one of a few around Australia. The surf wave is called Blackfella's, in memory of the hundreds of aborigines that were killed here back in the 1800s, most of them forced to jump from the cliff. He said that today there are many aborigines living in the Eyre Peninsula but none have chosen to live in the Elliston area
He also said his barometer had recorded its lowest value in 30 years last week when storms pounded the peninsula with gales and floods, about the same time that we were pounded in Cape Le Grand.
Further around the drive was a series of quirky sculptures, presumably to attract the tourists. Some were quite good and some weren’t; results of a sculpture competition perhaps?
Further south, we had lunch at the Cummings overlook, an exceptionally scenic spot, bordering Lake Hamilton on one side and rugged sea cliffs on the other. The flowers weren’t as numerous or varied on the Eyre Peninsula, but we found these few on our way south.
A gravel road gave us a shortcut through Kellidea Bay park to the town of Coffin Bay. The road was busy with wildlife, particularly emus; we saw a Dad emu with umpteen chicks. As usual, Mum emu was off playing bingo with her friends.
Coffin Bay is a typical seaside holiday spot, literally the gateway to the Coffin Bay national park and peninsula. There’s no nasty story behind the name; Flinders chose it to honour his friend, a Sir Isaac Coffin.
The blacktop entry road ends at Yangie bay. The campground there was busy and likely to get busier at the weekend so we headed for 
one of the more remote ones. These are all on 4wd tracks, and involve crossing beaches and dunes and limestone rock. We don’t always bother with 4wd if it’s a short trip, but the closest campground was two hours of slow driving away, so we set the camper into 4wd low range, and dropped the tyre pressures by half to get more traction. Our Troopie coped well with the sand but the limestone sections were rough and bone jarring.
The park had plentiful wildlife and we were kept busy dodging emus, kangaroos, plovers, and goannas. Goannas are large lizards and 
we’ve seen them all over Australia, but these guys behaved differently when startled; east coast goannas will climb a tree (or sometimes a human!) but these locals just freeze, not a good tactic when a car is approaching.
We ended up at Black Spring, shaded by trees and overlooking a picture-book beach. We had some distant neighbours but they were quiet. We took a hike through the bush to the actual spring; topped now by a pump installed by the local 4wd club.
Saturday November 7th
It was a stormy night and morning, with a cold wind coming off the bay and right into the camper. We set out to explore the rest of the peninsula. It was easier going with more sand dunes and less limestone. We came up behind a pair of emus who decided to try and outrun us, galloping ahead of us. They ran like a pair of horses, keeping step. It looked hilarious, so we just watched and forgot to grab the video camera.
We made it to 7 mile beach, but no further. There were signs warning us to only drive on the sand exposed by the tide, partly because of the danger of getting bogged, but also to protect birds’ nests. We had no idea of the tides, and were traveling alone so we reckoned it was too much of a risk. While walking on the beach we found this wreck of a truck caught by the tide. The day had warmed up so we splashed around in the water for a while, though the water was still 
quite cool.
We drove back to the trailhead for Black Rock, a trail that went up and over the dunes, down to the beach on the other side of the peninsula, too far for us but we could do some of it. The trail was informal; just markers to follow. The meadows were a carpet of tiny flowers, pink, blue, and yellow, so many that it was impossible to avoid walking on them.
The place had a Jurassic Park feel to it with its gnarly trees, and with goannas and emus and roos appearing from the forest and rushing across our path. We walked far enough and high enough to see the view over the dunes to the sea and a line of distant cliffs. By that time I’d had enough with back and toe pain and Sandie was getting fried, so we returned to the campsite. The chilling wind was now a soft breeze, welcome on a hot evening.
Sunday November 8th
Our beach looked beautiful in the early morning sunshine; we were camping under the trees in the middle of the picture. The flies were out in force but we were leaving anyway, heading for Lincoln national park on the southeast corner of the Eyre Peninsula.
We went back along the track to Yangie Bay, dodging traffic coming in the other direction. The traffic looked to be day-trippers trying out the family’s expensive SUV on a 4wd trip into the dunes, some of them looking a bit white knuckled. Luckily we didn’t meet anyone on the steep climbs, which were mostly single-track.