14/10/21 Hiking: Coffin Bay National Park

 

Good morning from Coffin Bay.

I can't read the weather in South Australia, with the result that rain showers catch me out with both their arrival speed and the direction from which they come.  I went for a short walk this morning and had to scuttle home quickly to get out of the rain. This was obviously a sign that I should go back to bed, so I did.

By lunchtime I had gotten out of bed and we had done all our necessary phone calls and chores and were suffering cabin fever, so we packed our rain jackets and went out to play Russian Roulette with the rain.

Back in January 2020 a bushfire ran through Coffin Park NP, and the effects are still clear to see in parts of the park.

Eventually the road led us straight to the sea.

Coffin Bay National Park covers all of the peninsula  and large parts of it are only accessible by 4wd and foot, so we were limited in where we could go, but what we saw was a great combination of stunning beaches, huge sand blows, and sheltered, shallow bays. I'll show you a bit of it;

Sand blows in Avoid Bay.  Avoid Bay is on the ocean side of the peninsula and exposed to the south-westerly wind and the Southern Ocean.

Selfies overlooking Avoid Bay.  The wind was strong and cold, but the rain showers had so far avoided us.

Only silly people walk past warning signs.  That, and people who want a closer look at the view and will still keep a considered 3m away from the edge. Which would not be either of us, of course.

Even the loo had a stunning view.

Gunyah Beach.

On the other side of the peninsula at Yangie Bay, the waters were shallower and much calmer.  This is where all the families with little children come to camp, fly kites, and paddle.

We hiked to the top of the hill to look out over Yangie Bay.  Along the way we met several kangaroos who were entirely uninterested in our passing.  It took quite an effort to get this one to look our way.

 By the time we got home the rain showers had all blown away so we set out along the Oyster trail to Old Oyster Town, which was the original site of settlement at Coffin Bay.  The bay was its usual beautiful self but the path was rocky and dull: half-way along we got tired of hiking so we gave up on Old Oyster Town and went home for a cup of tea.  At this point Roger went looking for our gingernut biscuits to have with with his cup of tea and I had to confess that I had polished off what remained of the packet this morning.  Of such things are calamities made, but Roger is formed from sterner stuff so he had ice cream instead and everyone was happy.