CEDUNA TO ADELAIDE VIA EYRE PENINSULA - South Australia

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CEDUNA TO ADELAIDE VIA EYRE PENINSULA



After filling up at Ceduna and establishing that many of the campsites were busy and had time before dark, we thought we would push on to SMOKEY BAY, a holiday town of around 200 souls. Arriving there just before dark, the proprietor of the sole campsite only had one noisy pitch left next to the camp kitchen, but he allowed our little tent to go into corner of the site not designated as a pitch on his site map – at the price of a powered pitch of course. Too late to move on, we accepted his “offer”. The site had a reasonably nice camp kitchen, where we cooked our meal, but soon raced to our tent to shelter from the mosquitoes which we discovered had just feasted on the both of us.



After donning suitable attire and repellent, we went for a walk around the one shop town which took 10 minutes, and then along the pier. Fishermen were there after dark, apparently with some success. Smokey Bay is an ideal holiday town if you want to fish, especially with their recently renovated pier and fish cleaning station – a typical offering for holiday resorts in this area. One sight enough to take a POME think twice before swimming in the sea, was a shark-proof swimming area attached to the pier. We also found one at the next town, Streaky Bay as well. We saw our first pelican of many, on the water. As I had no fishing kit with me and there being nothing else to do, we moved on next day to Streaky Bay.



STREAKY BAY was a nice town suitable for the holiday maker, with a bit more to see than Smokey Bay. It also had the mandatory pier for fishing, with a shark-proof swimming area attached. It was along the road to the next town that we spotted our first live kangaroo sitting in the middle of the road. Of course our camera was not ready, and it hopped off.



MURPHY’S HAYSTACKS. Natural weathered granite rock formations – worth a look as you are passing.



PORT KENNY. A fishing port that did not look like it was geared to tourism, so we quickly passed through.



VENUS BAY. My favourite place we stopped at along the peninsula. Nice views, plenty of fishing, and a nice atmosphere. A number of pelicans congregated next to the public fish cleaning bay as they were getting a free feed of fish guts from a guy cleaning his fish. He only had about 20 fish to clean, must have been a quiet day!!



We moved on down the coast to Elliston, and then across the country to the other side of the peninsula. During the first 90km of the cross peninsula drive, we met 6 cars on the way which is about one every 15km/10miles. Vey quiet.



It was our intention to camp at Whyalla, which with a population of just over 20,000 is the third biggest centre of population in South Australia, but the heavens opened – that is, burst open very wide. We decided to try and outrun the storm and move on to Port Augusta, which was a good decision as it had not rained there when we arrived.



PORT AUGUSTA. The drive to Port Augusta was very nice, with mountains in the distance for a change. The scenery was reminiscent of that in Arizona, with large plains and mountains in the background -it certainly seemed a "land of the big skies". We stayed at the campsite in Port Augusta, a BIG4 site. Definitely up market, with upmarket prices. It cost over $36 for an unpowered site, but what an excellent camp kitchen. All sites should have one - Camping and Caravan Club of Great Britain please note especially! There is a very good viewing tower in the town, worth a trip up, look for the brown camera sign.



Overall, the Eyre Peninsula is a great place to get away from it all and do some fishing, but towns are generally tiny, often just servicing the local agricultural activities, so don’t expect big town facilities.



Next day we headed off down to Adelaide, enjoying the view of the mountains along side of us, and eventually got to the St. Agnes suburb where we were to stay with our family for a couple of weeks. And then to New Zealand!

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