We had been watching the weather conditions for the past week trying to determine the best day for a trip to Coffin Bay and the adjacent national park.
Coffin Bay is just short of 50 kilometres from Port Lincoln and we hoped to see some of the interesting coastal features of this area.
We awoke to a beautiful morning but it was a little overcast. Nevertheless it was dry and fairly calm.
With our friends and in two cars, we headed to Coffin Bay just after 9:00am. We were a little surprised when we arrived there as there was not a lot to see. We were under the impression that we could visit part of the national park without paying an entry fee but we soon found that to be incorrect when we arrived at the park entry point only to find that a fee of $10 per vehicle applied. With some reluctance we paid the fee and headed in.
Our intended destination was Avoid Bay and Yangie Bay that we were told were both accessible without 4WD. The first thing that we noticed after entering the park was sand dunes and lots of them. We were a little disappointed at first but that changed when we crossed the top of a hill and saw the Southern Ocean in the distance and well eroded hills leading down to pristine beaches.
We stopped first at Avoid Bay and descended to the beach. “He” and our friend shared the beach with hundreds of birds with not another person in sight. In fact the only evidence of humanity was the footprints they made on the beach. We were amazed to see waves coming from different directions and meeting between the beach and a small offshore island. The effect was quite unique.
Reluctantly we left this splendid place and headed to Yangie Bay where we stopped for lunch.
Unfortunately we had to leave the Coffin Bay National Park but we did stop for coffee in Coffin Bay before starting the return trip to Port Lincoln.
Shortly after leaving Coffin Bay “He” had to apply the brakes quickly when two emu decided to step into the path of the Nissan. Emu are stupid birds an even the sounding of the car horn did not increase their urgency to vacate the road. We were actually very lucky to see the birds as their colour blended very well into the surrounding countryside.
We had Chinese food for tea.