 With our tyres deflated and crowds cheering, we charged up the sand hill with much enthusiasm. Okay, well there weren’t exactly ‘crowds cheering’, but there were at least two people (our kids) cheering us on.
It very quickly became clear that we hadn’t aired down our tyres enough because we didn’t make it to the top of the sand dune. Okay, everyone out and start digging! This became a regular event in our trip to the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.
Tourist brochures about the Eyre Peninsula tempt you to visit and get a ‘breath of fresh Eyre’, and we found plenty of that, along with a distinct smell of seafood. With hubby and kids tucked into the 80 ’Cruiser, we hitched up the camper trailer and set off to explore the area.
We had been looking for a great place to take the kids for a 4WDing family holiday, and the Eyre Peninsula really fitted the bill. Our ’Cruiser isn’t highly modified and the area offers some easy-going off-roading, which made for a relaxing holiday without the added stress of worrying about breaking something.
Roughly shaped like a triangle, with about 2000km of coastline making up two sides of the triangle, it would be easy to spend most of your time fishing, surfing, swimming with sea lions or wandering along white sandy beaches. But, we weren’t here for just that, so we pointed the ’Cruiser onto the sand to see what was on offer.
The tracks, while sandy and well corrugated, posed no great problem to our camper trailer, but we were glad it had a Tregg hitch all the same. It followed us faithfully – even all our wrong turns – but thankfully there was enough room to back out of them.
The Coffin Bay National Park was home for the first few nights, and we were mesmerised by the beautiful scenery here. There are white, sandy, deserted beaches and crystal-clear bays, and plenty of things for the kids to run around and explore while mum and dad relax.
After a few days, we set off again and covered a mix of soft sand and solid jarring rocks on the road into Black Springs. Once there, we set up camp.
The next day, we splashed around in the warm, shallow water in a bay on Seven Mile Beach. After this welcome cool-down, the kids exhausted themselves by rolling down the huge sand dunes, and then decided they would put their boogie boards to good use on them as well.
They both brought back a ton of sand that ended up throughout the camper, but they had a lot of fun in the process. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and happy to wander along the beach and collect shells and starfish.
We came across an old shipwreck and took it in turns to make up stories about pirates and crusty old fishermen. With the kids tucked into bed later that night and sleeping soundly, we sat with a glass of local wine under the annex of our bush camp and watched dolphins swim past ‘our’ beach, just a few metres away.
We spent our final day exploring the North West end of the park, and ended up on Sensation Beach for a couple of hours. Out came the rods and my son Matthew was chuffed at pulling in more fish than my husband John did! (I won’t tell you what John said about Matthew later, out of earshot.)
The roads to the Coffin Bay National Park were all blacktop, but once in the park, virtually all roads were sand. It was a good test of John’s 4WDing skills. With sharp turns, crests, beach driving and sudden soft patches, there was little time for sightseeing once we got going.
There was also a great deal of wildlife, including emus, roos and quite a number of snakes, so we took care on the roads. We didn’t want to add to the already large amount of road kill.
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