SA 2025, 8-11 Jan

Wednesday 8-Jan

On our way to Elliston we stopped at the Leo Cummings monument lookout. Leo Cummings (pioneering family of Sheringa district) drowned when the crayfish boat ‘Wangaree’ was wrecked on the rocks at the base of the cliffs near Kiana in 1959 and the monument was erected in his honour.

This site boasts uninterrupted views to Point Drummond in the south and to the rugged cliffs of Sheringa in the north and is home to a family of osprey that nest on a craggy pinnacle adjacent the lookout. They were there but very hard to see.

We setup camp in Elliston, set between rolling hills and some of the most spectacular and dramatic coastline on the Eyre Peninsula, the town is a centre for a cereal-growing, mixed-farming and fishing community. We took the car on the Anxious bay clifftop drive with stunning views and sculptures dotted along the coastline.

Thursday 9-Jan

We took the bikes out today as we wanted to see more of this spectacular and dramatic coastline. Well we both agreed it is beautiful, we had luck (again) with the weather, yes a bit windy but a nice 23 degrees and perfect for a few kilometres on the bikes. We spent a while on the beach before heading back to the caravan. Dinner today was King George whiting freshly caught today and prepared perfectly by a guy on the caravan park.

Arno went out after sun set to shoot the Elliston pier at night:

Friday 10-Jan

We had an easy start of the day and once packed up stopped at the Needle Eye lookout at Venus Bay to enjoy the spectacular view. It is hard to show in the images or explain in words how beautiful this coast line is, but we will keep on trying our best.

Arno even was able to take the drone in the air and shoot some videos and images from high above.

We stopped to see the Murphy’s Haystacks, these are inselberg rock formations (large, isolated rock formation that rises from a flat plain) located at Mortana, between Streaky Bay and Port Kenny. They are of a ‘tumulus’ form of weathered granite outcrop and made of a pink, massive, coarsely equi-granular rock consisting mostly of quartz and orthoclase.

Next stop: Streaky Bay, we will be there for 4 night to explore the area. More rugged coasts and a few 4×4 tracks we want to do with the car. The ladies at the info centre recommended a restaurant that someone else had also recommended to us before. So we booked for a nice seafood dinner. The food was lovey and a great view of the coast.

Saturday 11-Jan

We took the car to see (and listen) to the Whistling Rock, however, you need a high tide and a strong wind. The tide was coming in but there was no wind so no whistling and very small plumes from the many blowholes around this part of the coast line.

Travel update

Time for an update on where we are and how much we travelled to date: As mentioned above we are now in Streaky Bay South Australia and have covered just over 4200 Km so far. The map below shows a rough path what we travelled. Remember we often leave the caravan behind to do road trips that can easily rack up a couple of hundred kilometres a day. The distances are huge in Australia! Going forward we will follow the coast, cross the Nullarbor (that alone is a 1200 KM drive) follow the coast again all the way to Perth where we will turn inland to Coolgardie and back to the Nullarbor. So we have a few more KM’s to go. The car and caravan have been doing well, so far (and fingers crossed) no issues at all. The car can be very thirsty when we encounter strong headwinds but that is a fact of caravanning we can live with. We also feel that big family oriented caravan parks are not our thing, we like the “behind the pub” spots, council parks and free camping better but something we have no choice like here in Streaky Bay.