Southern Ocean coast at Fishery Bay, Eyre Peninsula
Today, January 26, is Australia Day and a holiday. It is the anniversary of the first landing of British convicts in Australia. For us it was a day to explore the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula as we left Lincoln National Park and drove to the area known as Fishery Bay. This is a rugged coastline much more exposed to the Southern Ocean than we were in the park, and there are high cliffs dropping off shear to the ocean below. It was a whaling station for a short period of time from 1837 to 1841. It is now a spot used by some surfers. There is a large beach to the north end of the bay.
Shingleback Lizard
Leaving there we drove to Mikkira Station where we intended to camp. It is supposed to have a number of wild koalas, and be a nice campsite. However here was no one there when we arrived, and we decided not to pay and stay since we weren’t sure what we would find. We did see a large Shingleback Lizard as we were about to leave.
We ate lunch by a monument to Matthew Flinders near a site where he dug a well to get water in Port Lincoln. Then we stopped in the town to get groceries and fuel, and continued on to Coffin Bay National Park where we are now camped in Yangie Bay campsite. It is not nearly as nice a campsite as we were in for the last three days, it’s quite windy, but it will do.