Overlanding South Australia | Oyster Farms, Luxury Lodge, Scenic views
last week on your 4x4 we kicked off our air Peninsula Adventure in epic style with a trek through the coffin Bay National Park taking in the incredible scenery tackling soft Sandy climbs hitting the beaches and trying out luck with the rods before the incoming tide almost cut us off this week we continue exploring the best the area has to offer with the tracks Dunes scenery history and striking accommodation of Almonta Park Lodge we grab a feed with the local legends from Trek Hardware 4x4 Port Lincoln and we lap up the beaches Cliffs and Brilliance of the infamous Whalers way all that and plenty more as your 4x4 continues with the air Peninsula Adventure home for the next two nights was the luxurious El Monte Park hidden behind dunes and just the back of coffin Bay it would make the ideal base for us to explore the area very fortunate we're staying at a very nice location and while we're in coffin Bay we're staying at Almonta Park Lodge beautiful expensive private property with a nice Homestead it was stunning you know I was expecting to be in the rooftop tent for most of the trip but to have this little treat it was so nice well this is our Monte Park Lodge the Almonte Park property is five and a half thousand acres it's nestled between the coffin Bay Sandhills National Park and the Kelly Bay Conservation Park so essentially when you come out to the lodge you have no neighbours except for Kangaroos and emus and there's loads of them the El Monte Park Lodge very impressive facility it's a beautiful Homestead overlooking you know the national park the water pretty amazing views as this place is totally decked out I bet you got the view there's a brilliant fireplace right in the middle there and that heats up Amazing Just fantastic not only the view but also the house itself or the luxury you could think of was a nice fireplace where we put some firewood on was a great evening and a great stay for the night it's quite large everyone's sleeping inside the nice fireplace and it's good for camaraderie for everyone to get together and get to know each other and the scenery from up there is just sensational it was beautiful it's a really great place when I just unwind so it's bright to just put the friends away catch up and just bait the driveway is five kilometres long so whilst you're out here you feel like you're a million miles from anywhere but you're actually only five kilometres from the beautiful coffin Bay and with that in mind we headed off into town with just one thing on our minds coffin Bay is well done out for its oysters and my visit to coffin Bay would be complete without a stop at the oyster farm and across some of the local oysters we went to Oyster HQ and that was pretty cool so we actually went out to an oyster Farm put on our gum boots overalls tied them up and then headed out into the water out to the actual Farm once we're out there we got taught how to shuck the oysters try not to stab ourselves we did have a safety glove on so we had a glove, not dominant hand and obviously the blades they hold the oyster in your hand use the blade pry it open flip it up give it a rinse and then in the mouth very very good okay you should try it I do um you're not going to get any fresher you're getting it straight out of the ocean and it's just the best um at first, it was pretty hard but you just needed to get the right angle to get the knife in and then it wasn't too bad and they tasted amazing but once we left there we headed straight back to the station and hit the tracks for the afternoon fueled up on local oysters and ready for more Adventure we returned to our Monster Park Lodge Keen to explore we aired down taking advantage of our Clear View Tire spider it offers a number of tracks and trails bordering the sand dunes plus relics of a past sand mining venture later that day we'd be setting up our Tana my X11 in the premium location to take in the sunset views and Ambience of this very special corner of Australia but for now the tracks we were calling and we were all eager to see what the rear of the property had in store for us so we headed down to a sand mine on the property and it gave us a little bit of playing space I guess not in the National Park still on the almonds Park Lodge land and actually gave me some time to practice driving in the sand something I'd never done before we really got to an area where the scent was very soft and we had to try to get the right speed to maneuver through the soft sand to not get stuck because one of the cars got stuck and luckily I managed to go through without having to be pulled out poor old newbie Jason in his 79 series got a little bit too much throttle and bogged himself so we had a little bit of fun at him or with him whatever you want to say but it was a lot of fun for the afternoon guys we can't tell you enough how important it is to get the right tire pressure when you're hitting sand straight up I went down to 18 PSI Jason here the local went down to just 25 so as soon as we've hit some soft sand he's buried himself in the good stuff so let's get him out keep the adventure running and passed found a couple of areas to play in we actually got to the edge of the sand dunes and naturally being National Park you need to stay off them but there were some nice areas around them that you could have a little play in and we had to have a turnaround and a bit of fun thank you oh it's just pretty soft in here I followed Simon around and watched him sort of sending it a little bit he had the van on the back and I thought we'll do this one so I don't do it properly so I put the foot into it and sent it all the way around didn't get bogged yeah we'll call with all plenty of fun foreign there are a number of tricks on the property and there's a local Sandman so they used to mine sand in the area and ship it out overseas there's a great piece of Australian history at the back of the property at our monitor it's the old sand mine and about 15 years ago they used to mine the sand and then they would train it into Port Lincoln and then ship it up to whyalla and it was used in the production of the iron after we finished our four-wheel driving for the last bit we went to the highest point of our three Thousand Acre property which overlooks coffin Bay and has an amazing view over the lodge and all cheap property oh well guys check out this view out here right out over the valley over the property and right across the inlet those mountains the sand dunes that's incredible scenery in this place is amazing you just can't find it anywhere else I took plenty of photos and videos beautiful view all the way over through cotton Bay you can actually look over the town and write up the whole Estuary really magnificent View and an awesome place to spend the end of the day put a couple of snaps of the cars up there and all the vehicles that are on the trip and took in the views then obviously the weather was a bit cold so we decided to head back to the lodge and stoke the fire and get that up and running for the night so unfortunately I have to cut the trip short this time just due to work commitments I have to get back to Melbourne and get back in the office but I've got David hood or better known as hoodie he's going to take the helm I actually caught up with Ryan at the airport at Port Lincoln he flew out I flew in handed over the keys and met up with the crew at Almonte Lodge really excited to be here to join your 4x4 adventure trip Ron tells me it was an awesome day so looking forward to the week ahead up early this morning to a beautiful view looking down the valley towards coffin Bay watching the weather clear scars were blue and a group of emus were making their way across in front of the lodge really picturesque scene had an appointment in Port Lincoln so I packed up thanked our hosts or a very nice stay very comfortable today we'd welcome three new people one was our guide for the next few days one was a surprise return and one was hoodie from Nava you know David great to have you along for another trip thanks Simon I'm happy to be here sad to say the wrong guy but it's great to have you along what are you expecting for the trip Ryan told me he had a great couple of days and I know there's a lot ahead of us which I'm really looking forward to our last trip that I got the Baton on war was Mount disappointment so if it's anything like that trip it'll be awesome Steve and Jason from Trek Hardware providers for breakfast they really cooked it up bacon sausages avocado tomato your name if they had it was fantastic we spent a couple of hours there talking to the guys in the team we got to know our guide for the next couple of days they are really known in the area fantastic beautiful countryside to show them I love people to know that when they're driving through the scrub every plant has a story behind it great to rock up this morning and absolutely frighten the life out of some of the people I just stuck my head out of the back of the workshop as everyone was about to get their breakfast and say guess what I'm here because the CM is always good fun on a trip certainly great to have him around for the day to be able to get that to happen last minute was just incredible we got a factory tour and we could see all the machines they used to build all the gear got laser cutting machines a lot of welding machines brake presses I got the whole gear set up there Jeff took us to the first place fishery Bay wow this looks pretty special oh it's a beautiful spot have a look at the turquoise colour in that water inviting to converting very picturesque with the cliffs around there was a lot of traffic and a lot of people so you really had to be careful and mindful of the pedestrian's kids running around not to pick up too much speed most of the local kids learn to surf down here this time of year you wouldn't be getting into the water if I would be frozen to that but they're down there with the wetsuits they got their Boards out once they graduate from the shore break then they go out to the left and right point so much bigger and Wilder sea out there very very popular area Sandy is in pretty good condition for driving Jeff but always just up here when the tide comes in as you can see there's no Wheel tracks for most of it that's how high the tide was it's very soft and can cause you to get bogged never drive over any alive vegetation because that's holding the dunes together they've got to have the lancerous they wear away too quickly Jeff sometimes it's key to have a bit of momentum when you're climbing up a little bit of a dune like this but it's best to take it nice and cautious first just use the minimum speed that you need to get out safely once you've got a bit of momentum you'll idle up there quite easily and you don't leave the rough surface for the following traffic we left fishery Bay and headed up to the Whalers way it's a private property since the 1970s it's had a locked gate on it the people who own the Land There make a small income from people paying to enter there's a phone number at the gate or you can pick up a key in Port Lincoln let yourself in if you can't just score full there you meet the local guides as you enter the property there are a lot of warning signs up the tracks and how dangerous it is and interjoin risk so we're expecting the worst but fortunately, the track's in very good condition but it looked like I've been recently graded so it was a nice smooth track but just the views up off the top but we're breathtaking you just have this magnificent drive along the coastal Cliffs just absolutely incredible a rugged very nice drive overlooking the ocean Ben day is there and there are lots of places to save finally, we got to a lookout or the view was just outstanding absolutely amazing amazing to see and the scenery down the coastline from there was magnificent the big Cliffs and the waves crashing the island offshore you just can't describe it you really cannot looking out into the Southern Ocean you look down you can see all the baby seal pups bathing on the rocks we saw about 50 First seals on the two little Islands right below us so you're looking down from 100 meters above them and yeah amazing place there foreign S I like about it is how rustic it was there was a rusty old fence up there to protect you from falling off to Cliff I don't give you much protection just a warning before you walk near it not to go any further I just can't imagine the early explorers coming out here and they're 100 foot long Wooden Boats Matthew Flinders circumnavigating the country mapping the Southern frontier it's beautiful to look at it's just mindlessly crazy thinking of people exploring it and really Matthew Flinders he was searching for water his crew were on rations I think it was two cups of water a day so by the time they got here they actually found their first lot of water it was a big relief for them they hadn't found fresh water since probably around Perth so it's a long way to come in a 100-foot boat Running Out of Water pretty desperate times pretty brave guys maybe a little bit crazy as well but that's what it takes to open up New Frontiers and discover these beautiful regions we have been to many spots in Australia but that has beaten lots of them foreign ER in South Australia shooting episodes of your 4x4 now it's a bit of a hike for us Victorians to get all the way from Melbourne to Port Lincoln there's a shortcut that even I didn't know about and our journey starts right here with the Spencer golf sea Road Ferry the very saves you just over four hours of driving and you get two and a half hours of rest and relaxation enjoying the beautiful scenery nice and relaxing you're on holiday enjoy my name's Kane Kemp I'm the captain of the Aurora five I work for Spencer golf sea Road ferries and we run a service from Wallaroo to Lucky Bay there's a 300-odd kilometer drive from Wallaroo to get to Lucky Bay so we pull that down into a nice two-hour Crossing across the gulf we can fit up to 89 90 cars on board it's no driving you can relax we've got a cafe on board you get across refreshed and basically open up to the rest of the state without having that dry and we run seven days a week so we have plenty of opportunity to bring anyone over at any time is a great place to base yourself and we're fortunate enough to stay at the Port Lincoln tourist Park great location it's good to see the park very full we're very fortunate to stay they've got some very nice cabins beautiful overlooking Port Lincoln Bay here at the Port Lincoln tourist Park we've got 41 cabins so there's a variety of cabins for every budget there's 120 sites as well and loads of unpowered sites so we're quite a large Park and we do have boat ramp we've got our own Jetty and good camp kitchen here as well and they want to hear there's so much to see on the air Peninsula we've got beautiful national parks there's a lot of Tours to do we're a day trip away to coffin Bay which is the best oysters in the world that's only a half an hour drive away as well it's a good base to see everything 15 minutes away there's a great four-wheel drive track the wanna sand dunes so that's very popular a little bit scary for for me but I'm sure there's plenty of enthusiasts out there that would take it on well now that the wardens are open and we're all able to move around travel around see each other we'd love to welcome you back here Port Lincoln tourist Park so a great place for a base but you've got this as a view when you're camping million dollar views unfortunately didn't have time to put a lure in the water maybe next time next week we check out the microwave station koala sanctuary we venture into Port Lincoln National Park where the fish aren't biting but the Dolphins are surfing and with nothing reeled in we returned to town to finally Feast on locally caught Seafood a tour of the fresh fish place gives us an insight into where our meals came from and sets the scene for a very different off-road Adventure we returned to the ocean in search of some not so friendly sea creatures all that and plenty more next week on your 4x4 ready to go vo1 and with nothing caught we take a tour of the Fresh Fish Place Fresh Fish Place the fresh fish the fresh the fresh fish plate and we take a tour of the Fresh Fish Place fish we take a tour of the fresh fish holy freaking fishy we take a tour of the fresh fish place oh freaking hell
2022-10-11 08:22
