The West Coast but not as we know it

 

Sunday 14 August 2022 – The West Coast but not as we know it

We find it amusing that everywhere along this part of the coast including when they are  giving the weather forecasts they talk about the West Coast meaning this side of the Eyre Peninsula. The Streaky Bay football team is even called the West Coast Hawks which somehow just seems a little wrong!

Larry drove today and we headed south along the west coast to Point Labatt conservation park as this is Australia’s largest mainland population of Australian sea lions.  The car park and viewing platform are on top of an extremely exposed headland and you look down into a very sheltered bay with rocks and beach covered with seals and seal lions.  There were lots of mums with pups as well as quite a few adolescents and therefore it was quite entertaining all the kids mucking around and fighting each other and hiding from mum and basically running up and down the beach whilst the adults all blobbed about and occasionally rolled around on the sand to scratch an itch.  We could have stayed for ages watching them but the wind on the headland was bitingly cold and we had to keep wiping our eyes and noses as both kept running.

Back in the warm car and we drove inland past an old hamlet of Calca where there was a little church and community hall and an old house “New owner Jesus” graffitid on it as it had pretty much been given up for dead.

Onwards to Murphys Haystacks which is a collection of inselbergs on a hillside on a farming property.  Apparently  when the coach and horses used to pass by the coachmen would point them out to travellers as haystacks to promote new farming methods and they were on Mr Murphy’s property – hence the name.  As they are on a hillside they do have a bit of Stonehenge vibe to them but you can walk right around and between them and touch them and, if you are Jenny, squeeze between them in the hope that Jamie Fraser might be on the other side.  It didn’t work for me at the cairns in Scotland and it didn’t work for me here either but the next best thing on the other side was Larry so all good.  J

We got our $2 admission worth by using the toilets and the picnic bench for a cuppa and early lunch and then hopped back in the car after hosing Miranda down  (who had managed to transfer all the mud from the running board of the Cruiser on to the back of her jeans!)

As we were now back on the bitumen we hurtled down Flinders Highway and pulled into the sleepy little village of Venus Bay.  This part of the west coast is full of peninsulas and inlets and bays so that the east side of the Venus Bay townsite faces the protected bay while the west side faces huge crumbly cliffs with a raging sea below.   We drove to the lookout to try and see the Eye of the Needle which is a hole in the cliff side but couldn’t see it and figured it must have recently eroded away and tumbled into the ocean.    We popped into the general store to check it out and whilst there a couple of locals who were having a coffee on the verandah (and were not playing in the local golf tournament) told us we had actually been standing ABOVE the eye and actually had to walk 100m or so along a now closed off road (apparently it had got too dangerous to allow cars on anymore being so close to the cliff edge) and view the eye from there.  Easy when you know how and we soon found the scenery and took photos – a sign or two wouldn’t have hurt we thought!

We decided there was still enough time in the day to go as far as Elliston so we continued further south with one quick stop at Colton bakery which is basically just a farmhouse where they have a scotch wood fired oven where they bake bread and sticky fruit buns and then put them in a little shed out the front where you can pull over and put your money in the honour system box and take a loaf or some buns out of the little display case.  The sticky buns were delicious and we all ate one there and then  and still have one each left for later. J

As we headed further south to Elliston we could see a big storm front sweeping from west to east and we brushed the edge of it as we arrived in town.   We therefore stayed in the car and drove up on to the cliffs to enjoy the Anxious bay cliff top loop which has a line of sculptures dotted along the scenic cliff tops.  Depending on whether it was raining or how much we wanted a photo from a certain angle we either got out of the car or just took photos from within.

As the weather was clearing again we drove into town and checked out the jetty which locals had lobbied to have built as prior to its construction they used to have to wade out into Anxious bay to load and offload supplies off schooners.  Elliston was so remote that everything came in and out by ship and quite often when the weather was really bad the locals saw their longed for supplies turn up offshore only to disappear again when the ships couldn’t come in to dock.   The jetty is heriage listed because of its steel pylons screwed directly into the sea floor using a horse drawn winch.  These pylons have now seriously corroded and we wonder if this jetty will still be standing for much longer!

We had another quick stop at the Elliston community hall mural which covers all sides of the hall and depicts the life of Elliston taking in both the maritime and agricultural heritage of the  locality.  Great fun was had posing with the various characters on the wall and there was even a wombat in one small corner of the wall.  We have yet to see a real one so maybe that will have to do.

We had one final stop on the way home to the Talia Caves.  The Woolshed cave is at the bottom of 80 steps and is at the end of a channel of water rushing in from the surf.  We immediately walked up to it and went inside a short way.  It wasn’t til we walked back out and further out onto the flat rocks for an overall view that we thought that going in had probably been a bad idea as the roof looked very thin and crumbly.  Indeed, the next ‘cave’ we went to called The Tub is actually called that because the roof of the cave has collapsed in and created a big round hole that looks like a bathtub.  Lesson learned – in this part of the world do not go in or under any crumbly cliffs or caves!

Back in the car and we released the ponies and zoomed back to Streaky Bay.  We dropped H&M off at the CP and headed  off to the Streaky car wash where we got the worst of the dust and mud off the car and left it a little bit streaky as it will just get a bit dirty again anyway over the last few days of the holiday.  Another stop at the fuel station to top up and buy a few final pink gin cans at the conveniently adjacent bottle shop and then back to the CP.

The weather was calm and clear enough for H&M to cook up yummy marinated steaks for dinner and we ate them on the beach next to another roaring fire in our portable firepit.  We ended the evening in side splitting laughter as we watched our tried and trusty smoke magnet (Hendrik) attract the line of smoke wherever he sat yet again. 

Just as we were thinking about heading for bed the rain started spitting again so it was decided for us and a quick pack up was done to put everything away before washing up, a bit of blogging etc and bed.