West Side of the Eyre Peninsula 8-20 March 2015

Moving on from Port Lincoln I (Jolmer) am very keen to go to Coffin Bay and try to catch more scallops. It is the long weekend and Coffin Bay is packed. Dumping our black water is about all we can do before moving on. Elliston Caravan Park has a powered site for us and we desperately need to hook up to shore power. The water tank is very low and all would appreciate a shower.  Elliston is not much of a town nor is the natural bay. I am suffering from post Port Lincoln blues which does not help!

On we go towards Venus Bay. All the caravan parks along the West Coast are fully booked. They are absolutely packed with grey nomads who are making the most of the calmer autumn weather before heading north.  There is a bush camp with no power, no water, no normal showers and 1 single toilet just before Venus Bay.

Coodlie Park turns out to be heaven for us. For $10 per night rather then the usual $75 we have a large area of bush land where the kids can run around, a camp kitchen where they can do school work and a fire pit where we can make campfires for the first time this year.  Coodlie Park does have bucket showers. An ingenious system where you can fill a bucket with hot water, pull it up above your head and then let it run out slowly through a shower nozzle. Nice, for once.

Most of the coastline here is being assaulted by an almost constant flow of waves from the Southern Ocean. The lower layers of rock are very hard but the higher layers are softer and easily worn away which has lead to caves and sinkholes all along the coast. We visited the Thalia Caves and the Tub (a hole in the ground with a narrow tunnel leading to the battering waves of the ocean). I try to catch some fish at Venus bay but the wind makes it hard. Laura drags in the only worthy catch, a nice squid and we have another playful encounter with a pod of dolphins.

These same dolphins give us a great show the next day when we watch them from the cliff top while they play in the breaking surf waves. They ride the wave and then jump out the back meters high into the air.

For many years I have a dream to swim with dolphins. At Baird Bay this dream becomes reality. Baird Bay eco tours do a 2 in one tour: swim with sea lions and with dolphins. All the kids get suited up and we go on a 3 hour tour, first to the sea lions and then the dolphins. These sea lions are very used to visitors, it is part of their daily routine. Our boys don’t last very long in the cold water, but Laura plays with the sea lions for hours. Then it is off to find the dolphins. They are not in a very playful mood today but I do get a very good look at them once as they cruise past. At last, a dream come true...

At Surf beach we have a surf lesion from Emma, a local instructor. All the kids manage to stand up on the boards that we bought for them in Port Lincoln. They are hooked. Talking about a dream coming true: I hoped to get the kids surfing this year and it is not hard to get them keen.

The Eyre is coming to an end. Soon we will get to the Great Australian Bight. One of the last towns before the Bight and the Nullarbor is Ceduna. Here we meet up with Joll who flies in from Adelaide and together we go fishing with Ray, who is a retired local police officer and very, very keen fisherman. We spend 2 days on the water, learning a number of new tricks and bagging out on whiting the first day. We also catch more blue swimmer crabs and squid. 

As this is the last town before the big drive we stock up on food and fuel. I give some extra care to Jack who has been an amazing bus for us so far. The weather forecast is great. Tail wind for the long drive! I am happy we did not listen to our well travelled friends in Barham who all said we are driving the wrong way around! West Australia here we come!