We’re beach snobs now
Whyalla to Yangi Bay (317km / 197 miles)
Greetings from Yangie Bay! This is an absolutely beautiful bay that is so enclosed you can barely tell where the mouth is. (As an aside, I just looked up Bays on Wikipedia to make sure I was using the correct terminology and I would almost say this is a cove: a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. Obviously someone who knows more than me disagrees, it’s not called Yangie Cove.)
Yangie is very close to Coffin Bay, where we’ll go next. Pat has very fond childhood memories of this area and is equal parts excited for us to see and nervous that it won’t live up to his memories. We’ve both reflected a lot on this trip about the experiences in nature we had as kids that shape our interpretation of what we’re doing now. For me, it was endless days and nights on the beach. For Pat, it was sailing trips like the one he took to Coffin Bay. It’s no wonder we’ve had so much fun on the coast!
After Whyalla, we went to Point Gibbon. This was a highlight for me. We were staying at a very rustic/off grid campground on the ocean. We spent all of our time walking along the beach or hiking around the vast sand dunes. Sand dunes are an ideal place for kids our age: they can climb, and dig, and slide, and flop. The landscape almost required creative and imaginative play. We made a bus, we conquered a mountain, we were bunnies hopping in the grass. Even though the weather was mostly cold and windy (and you will never hear me complaining about the cold on this trip!), we had a boatload of fun.
From there, we went to Tumby Bay. Tumby is a cute little town we were expecting to fall in love with, but it ended up being good- not great. The beaches were meh and the playground wasn’t shaded. On to the next!
Next we headed to Port Lincoln. We stayed here for five nights, with plans to explore the national park, do some jobs, and celebrate Inny’s birthday. It was a good place to post up. The little beach attached to the caravan park was perfect for testing out our new snorkel (so much fun! Pat is pretty uncomfortable snorkeling, he doesn’t trust that when he breathes through the tube he won’t just suck in a ton of water. I didn’t know this was a phobia one could have - I’m sure he’d say the same about me and many various harmless insects). The weather was mild, the flies were sparse, the views were good. We were outside constantly, which finally enabled Inny to learn to walk!
We chose the warmest day to go into the national park, and decided to head to Memory Cove (which, according to my Wiki research is perhaps more of a bight than a cove). Memory Cove was part of a wilderness area, and only 15 cars are allowed in per day. The drive was advertised as four wheel drive only, but wasn’t too bad. We saw many emus and some stumpy lizards on the way in.
When we arrived, we were rewarded with a picture perfect beach. The sand was white, the water was crystal clear, and the waves were gentle. A seal was just offshore hunting fish.
Unfortunately, despite the beauty, I couldn’t relax. The beach was covered in bees and there were heaps of little clear jellyfish in the water. Pat convinced me they were harmless jellyfish, so I psyched myself up to go for a swim and snorkel. Once I had my goggles on I quickly spotted a huge pink jellyfish and I lost my mojo. Colin was completely unbothered by the jellies. He spent every moment splashing in the small waves. We had to continuously remind him he can’t swim and implore him to come closer to the shore. He ended up with one jellyfish sting, but it didn’t bother him. I guess this supports Pat’s original assessment of the Jellies?
I felt lame and guilty for how uptight I was about the natural features of the beach - that I could intellectually realize that I was in paradise without getting my mind to appreciate it. But, at the end of the day, I’m from a very different part of the world. For all my childhood beach exposure, Californians have (for better or for worse - though really just for worse) conquered wildlife almost into oblivion. I’ve never been to a beach where I couldn’t just flop onto the sand, and have had very few jellyfish run-ins. (This has inspired me to do a post stack ranking all the insects/scary things we’ve encountered on this trip, but that will have to wait because this is already too long.)
On our last day in PL, we celebrated Inny’s birthday. We got her a dress (which she loves and tries to put on whenever she sees it), and some new toys (which Colin has mostly stolen). Colin had the good idea to buy balloons and party hats, so we decorate the caravan and got festive to sing happy birthday. The cake was initially rejected but after she got over her suspicion, she ate it all. Ingram is at such an impossibly cute and sweet age, I feel like I never want it to end. It’s made me very sentimental about the very short time we have before she’s a terrorist toddler. Once again I feel so so lucky to have this quality time with the kids.
Stay tuned for an insect list, and hopefully some good wildlife pictures. This campground is know for very friendly kangaroos and emus.
Setting a high bar for future birthday celebrations! Cheers to 1, Inny!
What beautiful beaches! What a lovely life. Happy birthday, Inny! It’s funny to learn about Australia from an admittedly anxious person’s perspective.