Elliston to Coffin Bay

Sorry folks, Blogspot have yet again cocked up my ability to upload photos to the Blog. If I wait any longer I will forget what we have done, so, for the time being it will be words only.

Having topped up the water tanks and washed some clothes, it was time to move on from Elliston. We were keen to do a bit of bush camping and get away from the caravan park lifestyle for a while. The aim was to stay at the National park at Coffin Bay. Earlier in the trip we had purchased a Parks Pass that entitled us to enter and camp at National Parks in South Australia for a two-month period. The pass cost just $65.00 and we were keen to put it to some use.

Just 38 Km down the track from Elliston we turned of to Sheringa Beach. This beach offers cheap camping with a permit obtainable at the Sheringa Roadhouse (which is located on the Flinders Highway about 100 metres from the turnoff to the beach. Like all of the well-made gravel/limestone roads we have used in SA, this one was in good condition and would be accessible by standard two-wheel drive vehicles and non-offroad caravans.

The campsites are basically of two types. The first type is the formal camp area at the south end of the camping areas. This has reasonably delineated camping areas and there are two long-drop thunderboxes nearby. Beach access is via a sandy track that goes a short distance through the coastal dunes. Like many of these places, you must carry out all of the rubbish that you create. There are no rubbish bins and there was no water. Bring your own.

The second camping style is a series of individual nooks along the cliff face to the north of the beach. These afford the camper some quite spectacular views of rugged, rocky, coastline. There is wooden stairway access to a couple of very small coves along this section. The coves appeared to be safe enough to swim at, provided one studied the wave pattern for a while first, just to be sure no big breakers roll in unannounced.

We were tempted to stop at Sheringa but the day we were there it was particularly windy and the campsites were very exposed to the wind in the direction from which it was blowing - so it was a case of sticking with Plan A. I guess it is a symptom of our being "beached out" that we didn't even take a photograph of Sheringa Beach.

The Flinders Highway had so far taken us through a lot of farming country with mostly coastal vegetation that tends not to be overly green, nor very tall. The further south we progressed, the evidence of more rain was in the height and size of the trees. We began to see many eucalyptus species that were as high as 30 metres. There were even some freshwater lakes (as opposed to the predominance of salt lakes that we had seen up until now.) This reminds me of something that I haven't mentioned previously......

We have seen a lot of waterfowl (ducks, geese, swans) that you would usually see paddling around on freshwater sources, bobbing around in the sheltered bays of the Eyre Peninsula coastline. I have not experienced seeing these particular waterbirds inhabiting saltwater environments, until now. One can only guess that the farming has caused most of the inland lakes to either dry up completely, or turn into salt lakes - forcing the waterfowl to adapt. And adapt, they have!

Anyway, back to the story. Within an hour we had reached the turnoff to Coffin Bay, leaving us just 17 Km to the townsite. As you drive into Coffin Bay you immediately see just how protected the waters are. The area is also reasonably hilly, enabling people to build houses on the slopes and take advantage of the views. The other impression is the amount of trees in the area. You go for long periods of time travelling this peninsula without seeing substantial tree growth, and this reawakens you to their presence.

Panorama shot from lookout at Coffin Bay

We drove through the town of Coffin Bay and made our way to the National Park. The plan was to set up camp there and use it as a base to explore everything in the area. The road to the campsites was bitumised but very windy and narrow in places. It took us at least half an hour to cover the 20 Kilometre distance. When we arrived there were two signs. One was a symbol of a caravan and pointed to the left and the other was a symbol of a tent and pointed to the right.

The problem was that the water was to the right, at least 200 metres from where the caravans were supposed to park. This would mean a fair old trundle to the water with the kayak, made worse by the fact that it would be all uphill on the way back! The second problem was that the campground for caravans was nothing more than a dustbowl that had been denuded of any trees. There was no shade to peak of and the dust was blowing everywhere in the wind.

We parked up and took a walk down to the water's edge to find that the small cove was very shallow, obviously didn't get much flushing by currents and was lined with stinky mud instead of beach. On the walk back we went for a look around the tent camping area and saw that these had been well set up with nicely defined bays set amongst some well established trees for shade. We could possibly have got the caravan in there (and while we were there, another caravan did sneak in) but we didn't want to break any rules.

Our jobs at Cossack require us to enforce the camping guidelines of the Shire of Roebourne and it would be hypocritical of us to be enforcers at home and transgressors while away. National Parks, a message for you.... The area set aside for caravans at Coffin Bay is a disgrace. Why should tourists in caravans be treated any differently to people in tents or camper-trailers? We pay the same entry fees! Lift your game (and expect a formal complaint from us as well.)

Jetties and foreshore at Coffin Bay

So we decide not to stay at Coffin Bay. There were other campsites but these required driving through very deep sand - no problem if you aren't pulling a 3.5 tonne caravan behind you. There was also a caravan park at Coffin Bay but we figured that because we needed to pick up some supplies at Port Lincoln, we may as well stay at the caravan park there.

Off we trundled for another 40 or so kilometres to Port Lincoln. We set ourselves up in the caravan park and had a quick look around, before calling it a day and returning to the van to dream up Plan B. Plan B is the topic of the next blog. See ya.