DAY 77
1st March, 2021
Coulta to Elliston.We first stopped at Lake Hamilton Eating house, which was built around 1857. It was used as a stopping place for coaches and travellers on their way to the Far West Coast until the 1880s.
We then stopped in at Talia caves along the way and that was nice but we were both over it. South Australia seemed so much harder than other states we'd been to to find a camp, and near the coast as we were, it was almost impossible. We were also both sick of the wind – it made for tense nights sleeping in the rooftop tent – and having one of those periods when travelling for a long time where you get a bit over it and each other. It was a definite low point.
We spend a good part of the day on out phones on Wikicamps looking for somewhere to stay. All the caravan parks were chockers as well so that wasn't even an option either. We camped for the night at an old rest area off the highway. It was windy and shit.
DAY 78
2nd March, 2021
We left our campsite just outside of Venus Bay and drove to Sceale Bay to have a look around. It was on the way to our main attraction for the day, the Point Labatt Sea Lion Colony! This is a permanent colony of Australian Sea Lions and is the largest in Australia. We put our zoom lenses on and watched them for ages – they were hilarious, chasing each other and annoying the ones who were trying to have a nap.
We drove from there to Streaky Bay, about 50km away to get food, fuel and booze. I also stopped in at ANZ to get some bags of change in preparation for National Parks campsites in WA which only accepted cash. We had lunch overlooking the ocean.
We were going to camp at Streaky Bay but it was just SO FULL. So we went to Ceduna instead and paid for a camp there at the caravan park for the night. Again, very few camping locations and nothing free. We both had showers at the caravan park then decided to leave – it was really sketchy during the day and we didn’t really want to find out what it was like at night. There were a lot of full time residents there and everyone was close by and way too interested in us. Instead, we camped for the night in the scrub just off the Eyre Highway and felt a lot safer.