Elliston & Surrounds

Next day was a driving day, so we drove around the scenic cliff drive, which is also a sculpture trail with some of the local artists’ sculptures providing focal points around the 30km circuit. Some were good, some were head scratchers while we tried to figure out what it was but; as with the rest of the west coast of the peninsula; the scenery was yet amazing, tall cliffs and powerful waves.

Most of the sculptures were interesting, but if we had more information on them, then they may have meant more. Apparently you could get something from the tourist information centre (which being a Sunday was closed) which may have helped.

Then our journey continued south down towards our next stop for the night, a quick stop at lake hamilton to visit a historic 1850’s eating house that had been restored, still amazed that something this old still survives intact today, it was unlocked and you were welcome to wander inside. We were also surprised that no one else pulled in to have a look, but then other people have different things that interest them…. Maybe the fish were biting somewhere!

Just down the road from the eating house was a lookout. There was a commemoration for Thought it might be a nice place for lunch so we turned in, as it was the lookout was up a steep hill but Little bus seemed eager to go so we bounced up to have a gander, vertigo inducing cliffs, and nothing to stop you from falling over…… to your death!

Some of the Osprey eagles that have their nest out on the pinnacle of stone would probably enjoy the change of diet from fish!.. as for us it was soup and bread.

We reached our stop by about midday so on impulse decided for a 80km round diversion to a town in the middle of the peninsular then back again, spending a very cold night as the temperature plummeted to about 3 degrees in the morning, we had shared the camp with two cyclists who we had seen on the Nullarbor, and they had frost on their tent so it must have been cold….. They averaged around 25 km/h riding loaded bikes and they were older than us, Good on em.

Mount Greenly

With the heater on full we left our campsite with the idea of going to Mount Greenly and intending on climbing this peak, it’s a height of about 370m above sea level, rocky topped. We had allowed the whole day to do this, and then read it would take only 45 minutes, a grade 3 walk….. looking at it no way was that going to be a grade 3 walk unless they had put stairs in…. which they hadn’t. We went past at first then finally after finding somewhere to turn around pulled up in the little heavily sloped car park. Straight away we loved it, the Port Lincoln parrots at a water trough didn’t seem disturbed by our presence, nor did the Willie wagtail or Holland honeyeaters.

Looking at the mount we decided that we would do part of the walk, the scenery was already amazing, so we will just go up there… a bit. Putting on our outdoorsy walking stuff, boots braces , bino’s and walking sticks we set off, climbing gently then more steeply up a ragged, winding, rough track, kind of marked, but only at the start, then we hit a small ledge, the views were amazing and we could probably have stopped there, but just above us was another small rocky tip, then another, finally we reached a false top, but about 200m above the car park so pretty good, and amazing views all around, over the lake and beach, little bus even littler here a small grey speck in the carpark.

Flowers, bushes and birds continued to accompany us, then we found a comfortable spot, and sat for a while, just enjoying the silence and serenity, watching the birds soar and twitter in the bush. I smirked looking up from my comfy seat against a rock , Jo was standing admiring the scenery but was just in a classic pose for a fashion shoot showing off our outdoorsy equipment, had to take the photo

Then back down and now we were ahead of schedule, decided to head into the place where they filmed Galli[poli, looked at the last section of the road which was a 4WD track decided not to and returned back to the main highway, so the most exciting thing there was atractor wearing a hat!

Coffin Bay, remembering it from a long time ago, now it’s a little tourist trap, oysters are the main focus and the national park. The vast majority of the national park is 4WD access only and with Little Bus only being 2WD meant we couldn’t really access the majority of it. So mulling it over lunch whilst overlooking the bay and small marina, we decided not to do the national park but press on to Port Lincoln.

The Dunking of the Vegemite Sandwich

While we had lunch 3 other campervans pulled in (little Bus is such a trend setter) so while we had normal soup and buttered bread Jo was dunking her vegemite sandwich into her potato and leek soup (well some people!). As we luncheoned looked up to see a family of emu’s happily walking down the centre of the road… on the white line, this is apparently common practice for emus and kangaroos here in Coffin bay, probably why at this time of year the caravan park was fully booked.

So having decided to move on we had to find somewhere to camp for the night, , the national parks only 2WD campsite wasn’t that appealing (maybe Flynn’s influence) so it was off towards Port Lincoln, tomorrow’s accommodation today, a privately  owned block of land where we can set up, fully contained for $20 a night, overlooking the town and the port. We got to Bayview campsite and found an added bonus in the amount of birds here, small fairy wrens and some finches, unafraid of the new grey square bus sitting in the middle of their territory; pretty sure we will be coming back here tomorrow after exploring the area.

Port Lincoln

Well that all changed… Into town this morning, fuel, visitor’s information and a quick walk around…. Then drove around the tourist drive that finished at a boat ramp of all places, a pretty green park and an overnight stay in the car park for half the cost we had paid, Ok so maybe we were not going back to the Bayview Park?

Over coffee it was review everything we had picked up from the visitor’s information place then decided we might go out to the national park… probably then move on….. But oh no, kept finding new things to look at, new lookouts, ship wreck beaches, awesome reflections in lakes and lots and lots of emu’s finally we took the drive into the National park after paying the $12.50 fee, not really expecting to be staying the night….. That was until we got to the Surfleet cove camp… lots and lots of birdlife around in the mallee scrub, including the splendid little blue…. Holland’s, Currawongs, shrikes, honeyeaters, Emus both big and small, a couple of Cape Barren Geese, some plovers that look like they were made out of leggo, and a myriad of others, including 2 pink and greys hell bent on destructing the hollow tree that they were inspecting to see if the local real estate was up to par.

So while we had lunch I think we had made the decision we would be staying here….. But first lets go for a drive to the end of the national park to the lighthouse and as the gooses do… have a gander (oh the groans can be heard from here!) We checked out other campsites on the way, a few looked good for us, but people had already snagged the best spots

The lighthouse was a little disappointing for me, modern triangular and not that photogenic… but over on an island we spotted the elusive sea lions / walrus looking things that at first we thought might be stones until one waddled down to the water. Then we bounced back a bit and checked out yet another campsite but it didn’t really stack up so we bounced back down the gravel road to the original Surfleet cove camp, which was deserted and booked into site 13.

Jos Favourite Bird Visits

I wandered down to the cove for some happy snaps and a looksee while Jo relaxed drinking in some green ginger and then along came little blue, and he was, a little different from his WA cousin, his blue is as his name suggests, splendid, but and not as covering as our “superb” fairy wren. His girls look the same flitting about in the scrub, hopping up onto Little Bus, poopng on the side mirrors (that’s good luck you know) inspecting that good looking bird in the windscreen then realising it was her own self being reflected before spotting a stray insect and bouncing away.

In the meantime the cape barren goose waddled through, making that honking noise and doing what mating geese do…. The Emus thrumming along.. The chicks following dad around and imitating what he does. I didn’t get any good pics of the birds as as soon as I got the phone out they’d bugger off, they seem to have a sixth sense of having their photo taken, so we just sat back and enjoyed, wine in hand.

So we wait here for night, a glass or two warming our bellies, listening to birdsong, before settling down for a sleep…. And hoping that being in a National Park Flynn the mouse has not tracked us down to come a visiting.

Stay Tuned