After our long road trip down towards Adelaide in December 2024 we explored the Eyre Peninsula before heading into town for Christmas.
We came in from Port Augusta side and drove down to Whyalla, where we visited the Hummock Hill Lookout from where you can see the square Whyalla Jetty and overlook the top end of the Spencer Gulf. There are info boards about the heavy anti-aircraft detachment that was posted on this hill in WW2 and ruins of the iron smelters.
You can drive up to the hill. We parked at the jetty as we had the van in tow and scrambled up along the fence to the top. Well worth a look if you pass through Whyalla.
We went for a walk along the beach after setting up at Mills Steps Campground. There are plenty of campgrounds along this stretch of the coast from Port Gibbon to Mills Beach. The beach walk was beautiful, but the highlight was finding lots of Port Jackson Shark egg shells. We also found some miniature boulders. They usually are created by sediment sticking to something in the middle. We cracked a few open, hoping to find a fossil but the findings were not as exciting as we wished.
Beachwalk along the cliffs at Mills Beach 
An anemone 
You can see the imprints of the fossilized roots of past plants 
Fossils in the rocks, bird nest in a cavity 
The jetty at Port Gibbon 
Port Jackson Shark Egg 
Miniature boulders 
and how they look inside 
Hard to see on photo, but there is a cockatoo couple inspecting holes for a nest 
up top that cliff is our camp 
View from camp 
Swallows on the handrail
Further down the coast we stopped in Arno Bay for the Mangrove Boardwalk and in Port Neill we did a coastal walk which is also a golf course.
Our next stop was Lincoln National Park – a stunning area with a lot of camps, cliff formations, etc.
At the entrance it tells you that reception in the park is no good and you need to book your campsite from there. In hindsight – I had better reception at camp than I did at the entrance, but this probably depends on how far away you camp. Anyway, I booked a camp – Horse Rock – not knowing how it will look like.
Sure enough, that was the trickiest camp site we ever had to try parking our van – on a cliff with lots of holes and on a slope. I was seriously scared the van would roll off over the cliff as soon as it’s unhooked from the Ute. It took up most of the afternoon making it work.
After this mission we jumped in the car and drove to Wanna Lookout. From there we walked along the cliff top to Curta Rocks. The view was incredible and the track very interesting with some fossilised roots.
Back at camp we went for a walk along the coast and found a beach out of the wind for a swim. We came past some camp sites that were level and quite manageable. Seems only sites 1-4 are a mission except for roof top tents.
After our swim we got our spotting scope out and discovered a rock out in the water that looked very much like a sea lion relaxing on a rock.
Coffin Bay is famous for its Oysters. We did a day trip from Lincoln National Park and wished we had more time as we came past so many 4WD tracks and another National Park – the Coffin Bay National Park. We made the most of our day and explored the stunning coastline, spotted Emus and treated ourselves to an Oyster tasting.
Umm, sorry, no photo of the delicious Oysters – they were gone before we even thought of taking a picture.
After the mission of hooking up the van from its rather precarious spot we took off up the west coast of the peninsula with a detour to climb the 485m granite outcrop Carappee Hill inland. We spotted goats on our walk, which was rather unexpected.
The afternoon we spent exploring a rather abandoned looking hut nearby. The hole area looked like it used to be very well frequented but now its all overgrown apart from the carpark for the walk.
Then it was already time to head to Adelaide to be in time for family Christmas.
While in Adelaide we visited the Chihuly exhibition in the Botanical Gardens. The artist made plant inspired glass sculptures which were placed all around the gardens.
