The hunt for seafood. Posted March 3, 2024
This blog will begin at Cactus Beach, SA. We’d often heard Cleon & Ben rave about their stay there when they circumnavigated Australia years ago. Cactus is just south of Penong, the windmill town. There’s a pink lake – Lake Macdonnell – along the way to Cactus, that did have a pink hue, unlike some others we’ve been to recently. Cactus was discovered in the 60’s by surfers, and offers three great breaks. Our Ballina family were chuffed when we let them know we’d made it there.
We motored along to Ceduna, a town best known for a fuel and supplies stop once you’ve crossed either way over the Nullarbor. The unfortunate presence of desperate people wandering the main street didn’t enhance Ceduna for us. Loaded up with our supplies, we headed off to Streaky Bay, about an hour south down the west coast of the Eyre, for 3 nights. There was very little to see along the Flinders Hwy except extremely dry paddocks, sheep huddled together for shade in a treeless landscape and lots of caravaners heading west.
Streaky Bay
Lovely town. But we are finding that arriving on Saturday afternoon, most places are closed, and on Sunday also. We had decided to be pescatarians for the entire Eyre Peninsula, seeing as it has a reputation as a seafood haven. I wanted to shop from seafood co-ops for fresh locally caught fish, but it was closed until Monday. Even the supermarket only had the usual packets of seafood from who-knows-where! So we went to the pub for nice local whiting fish and chips. Next night, I resorted to a tin of salmon with pasta – very nice but not local. On Monday, we bought local whiting from the co-op, was a bit underwhelming, missing out on the freshness I expected, probably frozen for too long.
There was a good bike track from our caravan park around the bay to the boat launching ramp, which we did each morning. We saw a cheeky sea lion poke his head up near the ramp. The bird life along the shore line was ever present and the squeaky pink and greys boisterously squawked in the caravan park. It was very hot here in Streaky, but the bay in front of our van was so shallow for so far out that swimming was not an option.
There are 2 driving loops around the ocean cliffs from Streaky Bay, the Westall Loop and the Cape Bauer Loop. The first stop on the Westall loop, Smooth pools, had beautiful lichen covered rocks and deep pools with all sorts of sea life.
The views from the cliff tops of the loop, with the pounding waves and turquoise sea were spectacular. Matthew Flinders first sighted these cliffs in 1802 from HMS Investigator. He named Point Westall after the landscape painter on board his ship.
The Cape Bauer loop further emphasised how dramatic the coastline is here on Eyre Peninsula.
We packed up and headed south along the west coast, stopping at a wonderful natural feature called Murphy’s Haystacks. From a distance it looked like a henge common to the UK, but in fact they are Inselbergs, 15 million years old at least. They are formed by the uneven weathering of the crystalline rock, called pink Hilbata Granite, which forms pillar or boulder shapes. It felt like Picnic at Hanging Rock walking through the narrow entrance to who knew where? Such a worthwhile stop.
We chose to spend a night at Elliston next, a very small coastal village with a pleasant caravan park tucked behind the dunes. Here, there was another loop drive around the coast, but this one featured art installations. Quirky describes some of them, not very good describes others. One was particularly good, mainly due to it’s placement and it’s simplicity. Can you guess our favourite?
We scanned the Elliston supermarket fridges for fresh seafood, but alas nothing was to be found. We settled for smoked salmon and cream cheese in some very fresh bread rolls, bought from a roadside bakery that randomly popped up on our journey. A man and his wife bake in a wood fired oven and have a small stall with loaves and rolls hot from the oven available for passers-by. What a treat.
From Elliston, Coffin Bay further south was the next destination. Oyster HQ, guaranteed fresh oysters, at least. But again, no seafood outlet except for oysters. We talked to the manager of IGA about our sea food search and she just shrugged her shoulders as if saying, here you have a boat and catch your own, we don’t cater to non-fishermen.
One afternoon, we took a lovely boat tour with Experience Coffin Bay oyster tours, fabulous commentary, local wines and gins could be purchased to accompany our 6 freshly shucked oysters. Heavenly.
Coffin Bay National Park sits off the western tip of the Peninsula (see the map), so we decided to do a day trip there. Packed our lunch, got a SA park pass and set off. Almonta beach had a sealed road to the great carpark where we had morning tea and saw the amazing waves going in 2 directions.
I know Nick loves 4WD and putting the Landy through its paces, but on this day he certainly tested my tolerance limit as a passenger. Coffin Bay National Park and some of it’s bays like Golden Islands, are stunning and amazing. But at Nick’s insistence, we were to drive along the Peninsula towards Point Sir Isaac, reported to be a 6 hour round trip. The warning bells should have sounded in my head by now! So off we set, tyres deflated with rescue gear on board. For an hour and a half, I endured a head crunching, neck jerking, spine crushing ride over a rocky, potholed, sometimes slippery sandy road. I have travelled lots of 4WD tracks with Nick. I’d compare this to a combination of Moreton Island inland track with its corrugation jumps in the sand, Mt Elizabeth Station boulders/rocks, and Cape Francois Peron for its deep sand. We met a couple of blokes in cars coming back from the coast, one said it was certainly worth the effort to go on to Seven Mile beach to the whale skull and beyond. So we pressed on and on and on. Eventually we reached the beach and found the whale skull, which was impressive. I had a killer headache, until we stopped driving. The beach was pristine and water fairly warm, but I wasn’t in the mood for a swim. After lunch we headed back to camp, another hour and a half on the dreadful track. When we got to the bitumen I realised I’d been gritting my teeth hard, they were aching. Probably unconsciously I was trying to avoid sending my teeth through my tongue. Back at camp I needed to re-align my vertebrae and crunch my neck bones back into place. A massage of the muscles in my neck and back and a welcome hot shower and g&t were wonderful. I’m a little bit over this type of adventure.
I also think it wasn’t fair on the car – remains to be seen if the donut cracks the shits again. Next time a trip like this looms, I’ll carefully weigh up the pluses before I join the driver!
On our last afternoon at Coffin Bay, I saw Nick under the car, a position he loves. The part at the side has travelled from Lennox.
Nick: “I found a very small coolant leak from the small hose that you see lying on the ground coming off the big bit on the left. A locating bracket had chafed a very small hole in the pipe in Eucla but it was impossible to buy green coolant there so we pushed on with a small piece of raw rubber held on with two cable ties which actually stopped the leak, to my surprise, all the way to Coffin Bay where I spotted some coolant in the servo and decided to change the old hose out. So it was worth bringing the big cardboard box with all the rubber spares after all.”
From Coffin Bay it was a very short hop to Port Lincoln, the fishing capital of the Southern Hemisphere so they say. We loved this town. Arrived on Saturday afternoon for 2 nights, bad planning once again! Chose to eat out at a fancy delightful Italian restaurant for prawns and mussels, overlooking the lovely bay on the Saturday night. The fresh seafood outlets again were all closed on the weekend.
We visited a unique little museum, Axel Stenross Maritime Museum, on Port Lincoln’s foreshore. It was originally the boat building shed and residence of 2 Finnish immigrants named Axel and Frank. Over 40 years they built wooden boats, as per the list above. After they died, the Port Lincoln Council and townsfolk raised the capital to purchase the site for posterity, and volunteers now run the museum. Great history, so much old stuff, it was a bit like a seafarers version of Margaret Ollie’s house. It looked like the men just up and died and nothing has changed. The museum had a great collection of maritime memorabilia, including outboard motors, which I remembered from fishing with my dad on Port Phillip Bay.
Our campsite at Port Lincoln was probably one of the best we’ve had on the trip so far. We were perched on the grassy hill overlooking Boston Bay, about a 180 degree view of water. Yachts with colourful spinnakers raced in our view, fishing trawlers motored past, small boats too, it was like Nick’s boating heaven. He sat for hours, thoroughly contented in a camp chair with the binoculars, giving a running commentary, until the boats all went in for the night.
Next day we bicycled to the boat harbour and that was another huge treat. Very large fishing fleet moored in the canals, people with boats of all sorts rigging their sails, a dragon boat with pink clad ladies. Many old houses have sea views, are built in pale sandstone and reflect a long history of a profitable township. There is a lot of wealth around the harbour, big houses, big boats, but no seafood outlets open on the weekend.
Final destination on the Eyre Peninsula was Cowell, another small town with a fishing (mostly oysters) industry. We wedged into a very ordinary campsite, surrounded by campers with boats, mainly tinnies. We discovered a local place to buy oysters direct from the fishermen – at $10 per dozen, caught that morning, what a joy. Sitting quietly with a beer at our campsite, the neighbour gave us a bag of crabs he’d just steamed. Dinner well and truely sorted on the last day of being pescatarians.
The next morning we caught the ferry across to the Yorke Peninsula to see what adventures awaited us there.
We are moving along now and are heading along the south coast of SA. So I had better write up the Yorke Peninsula, Clare and Adelaide for the next blog.
Love to all
Jen & Nick xxx
COME AWAY WITH ME 