Monday 4th March
We spent another day at Engine Point and moved out this morning, initially heading for Port Lincoln to do a little shopping and refuel (16c a litre discount), no more of those ’til Ceduna!
It was a fairly short run from PL to Coffin Bay for a night to do the washing, fill the water tanks, use the dump point and plug into the mains for a while. The campsite at Coffin Bay was pretty full and we had to negotiate our way into a site that was not ideal. Although there was power and water it was next to the road and under some pine trees, which were the roosting place for a few sea birds (some cleaning was required in the morning!). Spot the birdie! Having said that, the facilities were very good, new and and very clean, which is the most important thing.
We decided to eat out tonight and try some of Coffin Bay’s world famous oysters. We’ve never really eaten fresh oysters, we like our seafood ‘au naturel’, and usually they’re covered in bacon or chilli or other things so that you can’t taste the oyster itself but these were really tasty as probably only fresh oysters can be. Fortunately, you can’t get fresh oysters from such pristine waters in WA so it won’t be a costly addition to our normal menu!
Coffin Bay is named after yet another of Matthew Flinders’ friends, this one surviving to become a Vice Admiral. It is an area of very sheltered bays which are ideal for water activities of all kinds.
Tuesday 5th March
Having had the oysters we moved on to our next destination Sheringa Beach another 60 or so ks up the coast, the signs tell you to get your permits at ‘the Store’ but since we prefer to see if we actually want to stay there, we decided to go and have a look before we bought our permit. It is a lovely spot and we maneuvered our way into a site. There was a pay point at the beach so we went and duly paid our fees. Pat was talking a lady later on who told her that there was no need to pay as the owner was in dispute with the local council and was refusing to collect fees!
We were told that there was a school of salmon a bit further along the beach, so we got geared up to see if we could get a couple for tea. When we got to the spot we could see them but they were just out of casting range! We hung around for a while in case the rising tide brought them further in but in vain.
Wednesday 6th March
Another day in paradise (you can just see the caravan parked in the dunes to the left), almost, 
two minor complaints, fish and flies, a dearth of the former and a particularly unsavory variety of the latter. Normally the flies aren’t too much of a problem but these were of the big ‘horse fly’ type, called March flies, I tend to let them settle on me then wack them, they are big but not very fast. Pat doesn’t like them very much at all.
I tried fishing this morning on the rising tide but didn’t even get a bite, apparently the folks down the beach had the same problem. After lunch I got in the car and drove round to the next bay.
The salmon school was still more or less in the same place, see the dark patch in the picture above, that is a significant number of salmon. There was another school a bit further along but as yesterday they were just outside casting distance – very frustrating!
So, a bit of reading and a cup of tea to while away the time until it was time for a walk before tea. There is a track out of the campsite that leads along the back of the dunes so we walked up there and then through onto beach and back to the van. The dunes are quite impressive, rising to around 150 m.
Thursday 7th March
We left Sharinga Beach this morning heading northwest up the coast, driving through a couple of coastal communities, Elliston, which didn’t have a great deal going for it, and Venus Bay, which, although a perfect spot looked tatty and uncared for. Most of the houses were holiday homes.
We had to go into Streaky Bay and out again to get to our next night stop, a place called Speed Point, another really nice spot but no fish big enough to eat! Nevertheless it was a good place to sit and contemplate the dark clouds approaching.
We did get some rain in the evening, a fairly short downpour that just about settled the dust. The next day was fine but we could see the lightening and hear the thunder away to the northeast, someone was getting some much needed rain.
Speed point is another place we have marked on our map for the next time we’re through this way.
Friday 8th March
Our intention is to stay in Streaky Bay tonight and treat ourselves to some of the seafood for which the part of South Australia is famous for and to do some washing. We made our way up to SB by a loop road which takes in some of the other camping, surfing, fishing and diving areas, namely The Granites, Smooth Pool, High Cliff, Tractor Beach etc.
When we got to Streaky Bay, the CP was packed and we wondered if we would get in, apparently March and April are the months for fishing on this coast and every man and his boat are here, it’s a wonder there are any fish left and it could become like the west coast in WA! They managed to find a space for us and we got settled, Pat went and put the washing in, I did my usual chores and after lunch we went for a walk then decided on a swim. Hardly a swim as we walked out and out and out and the water was still only just above our knees and so we wallowed like everyone else in the warm shallow water. Then we spruced ourselves up, put on clean jeans and walked to the cafe near the jetty. As usual we were significantly over-dressed.
We did, however, have a beautiful meal overlooking the bay, oysters (of course!), scallops, prawns, squid, whiting, snapper and trout, the piece de resistance being abalone, something completely new to us, which has an unbelievably subtle flavour. A rather nice semillon sauvignon blanc from the Clare Valley helped it go down, very nicely. A gentle post-prandial stroll for the kilometre back to the CP was just about right; a rather pleasant evening – especially as in this time zone it’s still light at 8.30pm.
Saturday 9th March
We wanted to get away reasonably early this morning and left about 0915 after having been roused by the car engines starting and the boat trailers banging their way through the park, true it was about 7.30 so not too bad.
We stopped off in town and managed to get a paper, also picking up yesterday’s so we had the crosswords to do. We had a look at a couple more likely camping places on the way up to Smokey Bay, another fishing frenzy spot with a huge parking area for boat trailers by the boat ramps.
We needed to go into Ceduna, for a few things but since it was Adelaide Cup (horse racing) Day and consequently a long weekend, the butcher had already finished trading and we could only get some bacon, which was good really because we can’t get good bacon in WA, so we bought three packs. We also needed some fruit and veg but were limited to what we could buy because we knew that tomorrow we would not be allowed to take any of it into WA. There is a quarantine post at the border where they search your vehicles for any fresh stuff. We also needed to refuel the cellar and the diesel tank and whilst we were here we decided to go to the truck wash bay and hose some of the dirt off the vehicles.
Having achieved our objectives, apart from the butcher’s pork chops and sausages, we hit the road and set out across the Nullabor again. The journey was uneventful until late afternoon when a truck called us up to say that another road train had shed it’s load about 40ks to the west, this was roughly in the area where we had planned to stop for the night. We soon realised that eastbound traffic was still getting through so felt confident that it would be OK, in any event there are no possible diversions!
A few ks further on another truckie told us that one lane was open and that the police were on the scene, the only place they could have come from was the aboriginal community at Yalata, any others would have been in excess of 200ks away in either direction. We couldn’t stop and have a look but it appears that the second trailer unit had lost some tyres and had gone up the bank, tipped and thrown a couple of brand new tractors across the road on their roofs!
It was another few ks to our night stop and we thought we had got far enough of the road but it was still quite noisy. We were just settling in when a young French couple in a mini van rocked up and asked if it was OK to camp there, we said ‘pas de problem’, thinking they meant in the general area but they just backed up and parked 15m away, they had the choice of 2 or 3 hectares! Anyway, no skin off our nose until Pat says “I think they’re going to light a fire”!!! I had to go and explain to them that lighting fires at this time of year would ensure their introduction to Mde Guillotine but we did offer them the use of our gas bbq which they refused and a few minutes later they disappeared, not sure where to, probably to find someone who didn’t care about bush fires!
Sunday 10th March
Last night was quite chilly, evidenced by a very heavy dew and a misty sunrise.
The first part of today’s run is quite interesting, if only for the fact that Nullabor Plain itself stretches only from 35ks east of the Nullabor Roadhouse to the Roadhouse itself. From the Nullabor Roadhouse through to the border the highway has several tracks off to the south down to the coast and some pretty spectacular scenery…….
and big skies…………..
If the Nullabor has a ‘worst bit’, it’s probably the stretch from the Border and Eucla through to the Madura Pass, there is really nowhere to go from the road, nevertheless it is a good stretch of road and today, with the wind on our port quarter and the sun out, a pleasant drive.
We also gain some time as we’re going from South Australian time into Central time, so when we stop at about 1630 we’ve been travelling for about 8 hours and have covered nearly 500 ks at a leasurely 80kph and has put us within easy reach of the Eyre Bird Observatory, which is out target for tomorrow.
Again we pull quite a long way off the road but it is still quite noisy.
Monday 11th March
The morning dawns bright and fair compared with yesterday but there are still darkish clouds to west and south of us which might come our way.
It is only a short drive to the turn off for the observatory, 20 ks of good dirt to get to a repeater tower, then the road got a bit rougher, stonier and narrower. We had read that we could leave the caravan at the carpark – could this have been back at the repeater tower, we saw no signs?
Another 6ks brought us to the car park, here we had to unhitch the caravan as the track ahead is soft sand and narrow, note the telegraph posts. 
We called the observatory on the radio to make sure it was OK to go down the track and got the go ahead. We let some air out of the tyres and set off. The sand track is about thirteen ks and was good fun, winding and undulating, it certainly keeps you busy at the wheel.
The observatory is actually the old Eyre Telegraph station, you may remember we mentioned one at Fowler’s Bay on our outbound leg. These telegraph stations were built 1877 and 1897, between Adelaide to Perth. The telegraph followed the coastline, which facilitated supply during construction and re-supply of the stations when in operation, although there are stories of bad weather preventing the three-monthly supply ship from off-loading, meaning that the station crews and their families might have to wait another three months! The construction of the telegraph was a remarkable feat, the posts having to be ‘planted’ approximately every 100yds (depending on the terrain), which you can see from some of the photos below.
The old station consisted of two houses, one for the station master and one for the lineman, both of whom usually had their families with them, only the chimney breasts remain. Bear in mind that these stations about 100 miles apart in totally isolated locations, with no road accessas there were no roads across the Nullabor. In fact, the Eyre station was named after the explorer who made the first crossing from Adelaide to Perth around 1870 and who found a good water supply here.
A new station built at the turn of the century was left to nature and vandals in 1927 when the Overland Telegraph line was superceded by the new system that ran beside the new interstate railway line 200 ks to the north. This building has been restored and is now used by the Bird Observatory personnel who are volunteers doing a 3 month stint out here. Their primary task is counting birds but they also keep the museum up to scratch and talk to visitors like us. As well as having day visitors, you can stay there for $90 a night (full board). This week there were 7 volunteers staying here (one from Mandurah!). They work in the morning revegetating the dunes, then have the rest of the day to themselves. We were invited to join them for lunch, they were very jolly group.
Lots of stuff has washed up on the beach over the years, hence the collection of whale vertebrae, loggerhead turtles, ropes, bouys and much more.
The beach was clean and big, you can drive round to Twilight Bay but we were looking at the weather again and decided against it.
Eyre is also an official meteorological weather station reporting three times a day to the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology)
Alloveroz 