Location: Gleeson’s Landing and Port Victoria, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
Packing up and leaving our spectacular camp at Coffin Beach was a challenge, as was farewelling our wonderful camp companions, Kim and Mike. They were off back to Adelaide, while we continued on our way. We topped up our water tanks in nearby Marion Bay, and crossed the peninsula to a council campsite on the other side known as Gleeson’s Landing.
Emus strolling along the road in Marion Bay – this adult male is babysitting the chicks
You cannot reserve sites here – it is literally first come, first served, but there are a lot of water’s edge areas to camp. Ideally suited to self contained caravans, there are a few long-drop toilets dotted around, but they are not necessarily well maintained. We found ourselves a recently vacated area on top of a small cliff overlooking the water, setting up moments before the weather changed.
What started as a hot and humid morning, changed as though by a switch of a button, the wind picking up, swinging around to bring a strong, cool southerly storm, accompanied by showers.
We watch the radar show as the weather changes dramaticallyWe get set up just in time before the first fat heavy rain drops fallThe calm before the storm – mirror-like stillness on the water in front of our site
The storm soon passes, leaving us with a spectacular evening about 10 degrees cooler with an incredible sunset.
The sun disappearing behind the headlandAs the tide retreats it makes a great platform to reflect the wonderful colours in the skyLooking up the coast, a double rainbow in the remaining storm clouds And the last splashes of colour to complete our day
The following morning was cool with a fresh breeze, but it didn’t prevent our adventurous Burmese Princess from venturing out for an explore on the cliffs and dunes.
Tassie exploring
At this point we had been without any internet or phone access for five days, which may sound like heaven to some people, but when you are living full time on the road managing your affairs (and an online global support group) completely in the cloud, meant we were getting a bit nervous. Having most of our family living in the UK also meant we felt a little out of touch, hoping everyone was doing ok and keeping well.
We decided to find ourselves a town to settle down in for a couple of nights, and selected a random settlement half way up the west coast, with camping on the show ground having a full mobile phone signal. We packed up and drove to Port Victoria.
We got settled in and had a relaxing afternoon catching up on news and downloading books to read, before deciding to go out to dinner at the local pub.
Well that was a disappointment. Given it was Friday night, perhaps we should have expected it to be a little rowdy, but I guess we are out of practice with these things. It was unfortunate that a group of 20 or so men were dining there, having spent a good couple of hours downing beers as an appetiser. The atmosphere was not very relaxing. We had no other dining options, so little choice other than to eat our fresh fish and salad quickly and leave! It was probably the fastest meal out we have ever had!
We had a look around town (a tiny settlement with a population of just under 350 people), learning it was once a huge and thriving port. Windjammers were huge multi masted sailing ships which docked here at the jetty to collect grain to be transported to Falmouth (in Cornwall, where we spent Mr A’s birthday, last year) in the UK, and Queenstown in New Zealand.
The scale of these ships is almost unfathomable- the masts towered at twice the height of the tallest pine trees in the town (image was commissioned for a postage stamp – source)The jetty still has been maintained, though is mostly used for crabbing and fishing from these daysWe suspect little has changed since the last of the ships sailed into here in the 1940s
There’s a coastal walk/cycle which leads several kilometres to an Aboriginal reserve,
Lichen covered rocks along the coast
Other than a short walk, we did very little on Saturday, spending the day with Tassie, reading and drinking numerous cups of tea. A great opportunity to recharge the batteries before heading back to Adelaide for a few days.
A good ebook, a cool shady spot, a cold drink, and the company of Miss Tassie – what more could one want?
Location: Hillocks Drive, Marion Bay, Yorke Peninsula
Our caravanning friends, Kim and Mike, had told us about this pretty special place that they had been coming to for years with their family, at the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula. Well they certainly have sent us to a little slice of paradise!
As we pulled up in the van, even with grey skies, the view was just breathtaking. We had travelled 70km down a dirt road off the highway, then through a locked gate at the entrance to the private property called Hillocks Drive that stretched for miles along this remote bit of coastline.
Can you spot our Zone up on the dunes overlooking Coffin Beach?We arrived to an untouched beach….just the oystercatchers had stepped on this fine sandTiny white shells mark the path of the retreating tideQuiet rock pools deep enough for a refreshing dip safe from the waves
We chose our spot with a sea view, got set up and waited for Kim and Mike who were driving out from Adelaide (around a 4 hour drive). Tassie immediately took herself off for an explore, always a good sign we are somewhere bushy.
We watched the sun go down and light up the red cliffs as Catherine served a cashew nut chicken dish and Mike produced a lovely old Shiraz. We have shared many dinners with these guys now and it’s never an ounce of effort to keep finding new points of conversation. Perfect companions for four days off the grid!
A break in the clouds at sunset makes for a magical skyAnd the sun on the granite rocks lights them up in a fire-like glow
The days just flowed, with Mike putting a rod in early in the mornings, and us wandering along the cliff top walks with their dogs.
Blooming succulents adorn the dunesCrumbling cliffs lead to spectacular viewsLooking out for osprey which frequent this coastlineKim clambers down the cliffLaughter as Cooper the Golden Retriever shakes himself over Catherine and Kim – “What?” his face asks!Not too crowded! Our private campground at Coffin Beach
Dinners were amazing. Mike and Kim are super BBQers, and produced a full lamb roast with all the veg and then meatballs on the last night.
Roast lamb with potatoes and veggies was an absolute hit
We also had a pizza bake off, which they won hands down as I messed up with how I had installed a new fancy Weber ambient temperature probe, finally realising my error too late to save the pizza. Ah well…a valuable learning experience. All the gear and no idea! Next time I’ll be ready.
Dinner was rudely interrupted one night by spotting a Peninsula Brown Snake curled up a couple of metres away from our camp. Given they are one of the more venomous in the world (although quite passive by the standards of other brown snakes) it was moved on with the assistance of Mike’s fishing rod. Never a dull moment in the great Australian outdoors.
Peninsula brown snake – endemic to South Australia (and the eastern tip of Western Australia)And another fine sunset to complete a great day
I took myself off for a ride one day along the old coast road, overgrown, rocky and sandy, perfect for my big old tyres. I could feel this view along Salmon Beach lodging itself in my memeory, ready to be hauled out and revisited on the next trip to the dentist’s chair. A moment to treasure, and not another soul seen on the ride.
High on the cliffs above Salmon Beach
I wondered (as I often do) how many other people had sat at this very spot over thousands of years and what was in their minds. I regularly try and find out something about the traditional owners of the land, by that I mean the First Australians to live here, and regularly come up empty handed. All I can tell you about this spot is that the Nharangga people lived all around the Yorke Peninsula for thousands of years before they spied a tall ship sailing past their coast in 1802, and their thoughts would have been irrevocably changed. This will be the subject of another post dedicated to trying to explain why this part of our history is so often glassed over, or given a politically correct mention at best.
This coast is rather good at sunrise as well!
Another day, Kim and Mike kindly offered to keep on eye on our (no doubt sleeping) Burmese cat while we headed out for a day trip to a national park. Tassie is closed in the caravan when we leave her, with plenty of ventilation, water bowls, litter tray and food…but…peace of mind, especially for this anxious soul. So off we drove to the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park, right at the tip of the Yorke Peninsula.
It is a rugged park of pristine white beaches, framed by the bluest ocean we’ve ever seen. This was nature at its most awe inspiring, and so quintessentially Australian with its harsh, scrubby landscape that gives you a scratch on the legs almost every time we walk through it. I call it the Australian tickle, to go with the Australian wave (swatting away a fly). Rugged beauty at its best. We followed a couple of the walks detailed on the park leaflet, some more rewarding than others. The climb to the top of a short hill to the lighthouse gave us the most inspiring views though.
Beautiful views over Investigator Straight and the offshore islands from the Stenhouse Bay lookout walkThis ‘high energy’ coast is adorned by perfect white sand beaches, often extremely hard to accessThe stainless steel operational lighthouse at the end of West CapeThe lighthouseLooking out over the Wedge and Althorpe IslandsLooking over the perfection that is the long stretch of sand at Pondalowie BeachWe have to pinch ourselves to believe this stunning view before our eyes, with hardly another person aroundA rather boring and hot walk leads to this spectacular lookout at Royston Head, and its beach protected by North IslandThe views from here are exquisite
Just as we were about to head back to camp we had a message from Australia Post to say the parcel I had confirmed was being diverted to Adelaide (because it was delayed), had failed to have been diverted after all and instead just been delivered to a post office up the road! Bless Australia Post. It was the new double deck cover for our inflatable kayak. This now enables us to convert our double sit-on-top kayak to a single or a double open-water fully enclosed boat. I have really been impressed with this kayak so far.
On our final day we enjoyed cooling off in the rock pools on ‘our’ Coffin Beach.
The water temperature in the bay is just over 20 degrees centigrade….…but the shallow water in the rock pools would be nearer 30 degrees….This pool is a fish nursery – Catherine’s toes are tickled by fingerlings (baby fish) as they hunt for snacks
Later, Catherine joined Kim, Mike and the dogs for a walk along the aforementioned Salmon Beach, while I enjoyed some quality time out of the sun with Tassie and a good book!
Salmon Beach – no footprints on it yet todayIt takes a bit of scrabbling to climb down the cliff and dunes to the beachThe dogs appear to levitate themselves into the water for a swim, however!Mike sets up a couple of fishing rods, hoping to catch tomorrow night’s dinnerThe dogs are put on leads when we are near this pair of hooded plovers, an endangered speciesMore water time for the pupsAnd Mike is successful in getting a couple of fish
Well, what a campsite this has been. Catherine and I just love spots like this where you can spread out without worrying about the neighbours. The sound of the surf at night. The brightness of the stars. Trailing our feet in bath warm rock pools as fish inspected madams red toenails. Memories burnt into our heads.
We know how lucky we are to be experiencing this when so many of our friends are in lockdown. We could so easily have stayed in Victoria and now been stuck there. South Australia has so much to offer, especially when the weather is unseasonably temperate as it is right now. That means its not in the 30’s!
Even Princess Tassie gave it her purr of approval…even a bit of sunbathing on the sand!
Location: Price, Ardrossan and Coobowie, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
Leaving Adelaide, we drove to the Yorke Peninsula. Within an hour of Adelaide’s CBD life is so different, a flat, sparsely populated agricultural landscape, lined by salt marshes and sleepy seaside towns stretching out down a long boot shaped peninsula.
The Yorke Peninsula sits to the west of Adelaide
Europeans started to exploit it in the 1800s, mining salt, copper and gypsum, and clearing the land for agriculture. As we drove down on a grey Friday morning, the wind was whistling unencumbered across the flat landscape, making for quite a bleak yet beautiful environment. These days tourism is a big part of the region’s income, with 99% of visitors being from Australia, and 88% of these being from South Australia.
The tiny settlement of Price was our destination for the night. It sits a couple of kilometres from the coast, separated by samphire covered tidal flats. Samphire is a green succulent plant which lives in the salty water, and tastes a little like asparagus but with salty and spicy undertones. It’s apparently quite popular with top chefs around the world who are keen to integrate unique flavours in their dishes. I doubt it was on the menu at the local pub though, with strong smells of chips wafting down the street as we walked past…that plus the fact it is protected in Australia.
The Wheatsheaf Hotel est 1884 – we didn’t go in but heard the locals cackling at the end of the night!The samphire tidal flatsA paperbark tree at the edge of the samphire flats
Price sits on the Walk the Yorke pathway, a 500km hike/cycleway which follows the peninsula coast, so we decided to stretch our legs along a nearby section.
Looking pretty stormy, but the worst of the weather is further north nowThe tidal flatsTough trees in these parts
The following morning we continued our journey south, stopping for a tea break and stroll at the next town of Ardrossan. Named after a settlement of the same name in the west of Scotland, the weather was somewhat Scottish, with blustery rain showers and strong wind. It did not take away from the beautiful palette of the scenery, with the coppery red clay cliffs, creamy yellow grasses and turquoise waters inspiring future paint colours.
ArdrossanStripes of colour in Ardrossan
We continued on our way, setting up in a busy campground at the interestingly named settlement of Coobowie. Meaning ‘wild fowl water’, the town is described by the tourism website as a water bird haven, a mecca for birdwatchers. We kept our eyes peeled as we did a windy walk around the coastline, spotting just the usual suspects of pelicans, black swans, seagulls, oystercatchers and lapwings. We walked along another section of the Walk the Yorke trail, but we’d suggest this segment was more suited to cycling, with somewhat uninspiring flat, straight trails.
A shallow harbour – this boat was going nowhereA Singing Honeyeater captures our attentionThe tides go out a long way hereFeeling windblown on the beach
It was a lovely peaceful stopover. The following morning, Sunday, we packed up and continued down the coast to Hillocks Drive, a private property offering bush camping just north of Marion Bay, where we were to be joined by our friends Kim and Mike for a few days.
