The Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

What can we say? After the stunning Esperance, South Australia was hard-pressed to compete. We spent a few days outside Port Lincoln catching up on food shopping, laundry and caravan repairs. The kids spied the library in town and had a great morning lounging around reading their great collection of books.

Mikkira Station – we camped at Bett’s Farm in their “Koala Paddock” – her family have owned this station since 1923. It was amazing seeing Koalas up so close (literally a metre away!) although the flies here were horrid. It was a hot day and a cool change came through at dusk which caused a few massive gum branches (as big as trees) to fall. The sound was unbelievable and scared the English tourists who were camped near the trees! In the morning we did a quick walk to the original station cottage. A fantastic look into pioneer living as it was still furnished with some original furniture.

We then attempted to camp at the caravan-friendly campsite in Lincoln National Park. However, it was one of their first really hot days for the season and the bees started swarming really badly so that the other campers were all packing down and advised us to move somewhere else…quickly! The bees were trying to find any fresh water possible including the camp toilets, drink bottles and even attempting to get into water tanks under caravans! The flies & march flies were just as bad so we ended up moving up the north west coast to the lovely little town of Coffin Bay. We were going to try the campground at the National Park here too except they had a burn off planned (it was cancelled later due to the hot weather!) so we ended up at the lovely caravan park opposite the bay.

Coffin Bay is named after Matthew Flinder’s friend Isaac Coffin we were relieved to find out – and the town is famous for oysters. We chilled here for a couple of days – it was one of the friendliest parks we’ve been in for quite a while. The locals were great - recommending fishing spots to Ellie so we had a try at fishing in the channel & off the pier. A fellow fisherman donated a Snook Fish for our dinner as he preferred others he’d caught! We drove out to Coffin Bay National Park the next day and had a walk along Point Avoid and Almonta Beach – definitely wild and windy. A mother Emu with 6 emu chicks ducked around our car at one point which was an amazing sight!

The next day we drove through other sleepy little fishing villages such as Venus Bay and Port Kenny to Perlubie Beach – a $5 a night beach camp that the locals upkeep. There were beach shelters & swings for the kids and LOTS AND LOTS OF FLIES. So. Many. Flies. The only relief was to walk right out in the shallow water and they wouldn’t bother you….as much! The next morning we left early to meet some very special people at Streaky Bay….GRANDPARENTS!

Murphy's Haystacks

Perlubie Beach

My parents drove from Melbourne to meet us for 4 lovely days. The first day we took a picnic down to Point Labatt to see the largest mainland Sealion colony, then a tour of the Westall Loop including High Cliffs (sandstone cliffs),  various lookouts and Smooth Pools (granite swimming hole). Low & behold our adopted travelling grandies turned up on the beach here too! So we were able to introduce them to the kids’ real grandparents!

The next day, after a scrumptious pancake birthday breakfast for Kieren, we drove around the northern loop out of Streaky Bay and tried our hand fishing on the back beach. Unfortunately it was rainy, gusty and altogether a bad day for fishing! It was, however, a great day to listen to the Whistling rocks (the tide didn’t seem to be high enough for the blowholes). The whistling sound is from the force of the air pushed up through little holes in the rocks when waves pound the cliffs. That night we celebrated Kieren’s birthday with a delicious pork roast (yay!! ovens!!) and cake. It was great fun having such a lovley family dinner!

We rounded off our stay at Streaky Bay with a lazy day – a spot of fishing (only Abbey caught a little stripey), walking along the pier and a visit to the craft shop.  

My Milo Mermaid!