The southern portion of the Eyre Peninsula is home to two amazing national parks – the Coffin Bay NP and the Lincoln NP. Two new places to explore but two very different ways to do so!

First stop – Coffin Bay. Only a short drive (less than 1 hour) south of Point Drummond and we checked into the Coffin Bay caravan park. Settled on the outskirts of the National park, Coffin Bay township is a cute little town with a caravan park, post office, supermarket, coffee shop and of course a super swanky oyster bar! Originally an area known for wheat farming, it turns out that Coffin Bay is now very popular oyster harvesting spot! With a population of around 600 people, it’s not the smallest place we have stayed so far. Looking at the new development planned on the edge of the town, I suspect that population number will easily double in the not too distant future.

For ease of travel (+ schooling!), we decided to park ourselves at the caravan park for a few days and do some day trips to check out the national park. Once again, we find ourselves in awe of the variety of the SA coastline. Sandy beaches, massive sand dunes, rocky coastline and even baby emus… just amazing!

After some exploring of the National park, and a rare treat of a nice meal out, time to head on to Port Lincoln and NP number 2…

Port Lincoln is only another short drive from Coffin Bay – under an hour and an easy cruise. We have found a great little camp at ‘John the caravan repair man’s place’ up the top of the hill and about five minutes from town. For the grand price of $5 per night, we have a great place to park our van and explore the area. Port Lincoln is another little gem in the SA coastline. A nice town and living up to its name as the seafood capital of SA.

Time for a little adventure and we parked the vans at Johns place and hit the road with the swags to explore the Port Lincoln National Park with our friends. We booked camping at memory bay which Google maps reliably told us is only 40km from our camp at Port Lincoln. Around 2 hours later we arrived at memory bay! Let’s just say it is NOT a road for a 2WD!

Memory Cove is our first adventure of camping with swags. I am sure I should have requested sunny weather for this first swag outing but I guess that wouldn’t have been as much fun!

The weather wasn’t amazing but the place didn’t disappoint (plus who doesn’t like making mud pies in the sand?!)

With only 6 designated camp spots (and key needed to get through the gate + super bumpy road) we pretty much felt like we had the place to ourselves. Fishing/ shell collecting and looking out for the resident sea lion was pretty much the order of the days.

Thankfully the sun finally came out and we got to experience the beautiful turquoise water of memory cove.

For our drive back to Port Lincoln, we decided to take the ‘scenic’ drive back over the sand dunes. Hmmmm…

I guess there is a good job we bought so much recovery gear with us (+ friends!). Some digging and use of our 4WD sand tracks and we got the car out of the sand! Time to try some kite flying for the kids then back to the safety of our van (and a decent bed) in Port Lincoln!

I feel like i keep saying this,  but SA just keeps on giving! The mat week in the national parks has been so much fun… onwards now towards Elliston and then Streaky Bay…