Coffin Bay

Thoughts on Location No 56

Coffin Bay, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

On the western side of the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula lies Coffin Bay, a short 49 kilometre  (30.7 miles) drive from Port Lincoln and, so far, one of the shortest distances we’ve driven from one location to the next.

Coffin Bay is South Australia’s principal oyster growing region that produces the popular Coffin Bay Oyster.  These sumptuous little seafood morsels are well known for their quality, flavour and size, and are marketed not only throughout Australia, but also overseas.

Part of the secret is that the waterways surrounding Coffin Bay are nourished with nutrient enriched water that up wells from the Southern Ocean.  Pure Coffin Bay Oysters boast on their website that: “We don’t feed the oysters at all, they filter feed naturally from the bountiful enriched ocean. Located in the remote, unspoilt and pure waters of Coffin Bay.”

Dean certainly enjoyed his lion share of them, and my lioness share too.

I enjoyed the Coffin Bay National Park.

The park has a rather diverse coastal landscape that encompasses large windswept cliffs and even larger sand dunes.  We found windy white sandy beaches and sheltered bays with gentle rolling ocean wavelets.  We witnessed (slightly) pounding surf and rugged four-wheel drive tracks, and we drove those (high-clearance) 4WD tracks in an effort to see more of the park.

Almonta Beach

Golden Island

Eastern Great Egret (White Heron) stalking food

Dad with all his babies

The only prints belong to an emu

I must admit I was very anxious about the ‘off road’ driving in the park, but my anxiety and adrenaline levels plateaued after the first hour.

We’d set our sights on a particular spot, yet after more than two hours we’d only managed to travel 28 kilometres (17.7 miles) and hadn’t even reached the half way point.  We (wisely I guess) enjoyed our lunch and turned around and headed back.  At this point Dean handed the driving over to me and my plateaued anxiety and adrenaline spiked again.

All in all though, we had a blast and it was great to see a section of the park not accessible via sealed road.

We travelled all the way to Port Lincoln and beyond to see an emu in the wild, and then lost count of the emus we saw in the Coffin Bay National Park.  They were everywhere and not only adults, but babies and juveniles galore.

. . .

We stayed at the Coffin Bay Caravan Park, and although it was nice enough (with very clean amenities), I thought it was a little over-priced.  I guess when you are the only park you can charge what ever amount you like – and they will pay it.

Footnote:  Coffin Bay is not named after morbid little boxes.  Matthew Flinders named the bay in honour of his friend Sir Isaac Coffin.