Eyre Peninsula, home of adventure and excitement
South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula has been described as the ‘Outback by the Sea’ and nowhere is this contrast more evident than along its arid west coast on the Great Australian Bight. Stretching for almost 400 kilometres from Coffin Bay to Ceduna, the Flinders Highway connects a series of small towns along a coastline of crumbling orange cliffs, golden beaches and secluded bays facing a relentless barrage of jade-blue Southern Ocean rollers. To drive its length is to experience one of the most spectacular and exciting landscapes in Australia’s driest state.
The peninsula basks in a Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and mild winters with miserly rainfall. The guidebooks tell you that autumn is a great time to travel here and we could well believe it as we departed Port Lincoln one balmy, late-March morning under a serene blue sky streaked with lofty cirrus. Crossing the southern tip of the peninsula took barely half an hour before our first stop at Coffin Bay, 47 km west of Port Lincoln. We had hoped to savour some of the famous local oysters but, amazingly, we couldn’t find a shop that sold them. Also, plans to venture into the nearby national park were thwarted by an adverse tide that strictly governs access to and around the park’s narrow promontory. Still, it was pleasant to cruise around the quiet village and sip our coffee at a grassy park beside the bay’s placid turquoise waters.