What's So Special About The The Eyre Peninsula? Part 2

Having explored the east side of the Air Peninsula in a previous video, I now continued my journey around it, traveling northwest. Along the way were immense expanses of farmland and beautiful beaches. It's a place of cozy beach towns and a city or two, a place of bluest ocean and white sandy beaches. It was now time to drive up the west side and explore it. Upon the advice of a woman walking her dog while bicycling, I was headed to the beach to find a camping area she mentioned. There might be a few potential camping areas here. This is the place and it looks pretty nice. Nice big beach down there. End of the day. Good place to park it for the evening. Good morning. It's cooler weather. It actually rained a bit last night. I parked it right here overlooking the beach. There were some other caravanners. There's still a few here. I found it interesting that none of them even looked at me, let alone acknowledge me in the way of a red hello. Even though I was walking pretty close to their caravans, going past them as I was heading down the beach. That's happened before. There's this beautiful mountain over here. I think it's called Mount Greenlee and it would be awesome to hike to the top of it. However, it is fenced off and it is probably on private property, so there won't be any tracks or trails up to the top of it. That's one of the downfalls of Australia. Even though you can see something that looks really cool, you can't get to it. You can't go there. You're fenced out and fenced off. Looks like I was on Greenlee Beach behind Greenlee Mountain. The woman last night said to find Puna and then go down on Puna. And that's what I did to find the beach. Looks like a huge salt pan out here. Yeah, it's pretty crusty looking. Heading up the road toward Mount Hope. Besides, it's going to be Elliston. North of Mount Hope, a remote cemetery not far off the highway caught my eye, so I thought I'd step in and have a look. And it turns out there's a story behind it. If you want to pause that and read it, it's about a couple of Americans that deserted a whaling ship and then they pioneered land out here. And one of them later returned to America. One of them's buried in America, while the other one I guess is buried here somewhere. Looks like this might be the guy, and he's surrounded by family members. These guys all died, looks like, in wars. This is Scheringa. Little roadhouse out here. Store in there. Where else? That vehicle has seen better days. Looks like a pretty old church there. Should we see if it's open and go in and have a quick look? Looks like it is open, so let's go in and check it out. Well, maybe not. No, I guess not. You're gonna have a look from the outside anyway. This little windy road I'm going down is Loxwell. I decided to come off the highway for just a minute. It's not too far off the highway. There's a little sign said that this has breathtaking views. Well, I think that may be an exaggeration. We'll find out. Named after a driller who sunk a well. See, it says breathtaking. Here's your view. Is it breathtaking? You make the call. It's nice. A warning sign. I'm the only one out here right now. After Loxwell, this is what the landscape looks like. Slightly undulating earth covered in scrub and grass. Private lands fenced off on both sides of the highway. As seems to be so common here. Let's have a quick look-see at Elliston. Here's your view of Elliston. You've got a nice bay here. It's kind of a mix of sand and rocky shore. And it comes all the way around here. And I'm gonna swing on over to the jetty out there. And as I pan out here, you'll start seeing all the sandy beaches that are over there. It's a nice big bay. Here's the pretty sand beach strip. And it goes quite a ways out there. This is Elliston here. Just a little town by the sea. Off to the next places. An actual hill. There's the big view you can get at the ocean now. Wharton Kenny. We are here. Wharton Kenny. Whole place beside the road. Right beside the bay. Distances are long from one town to the next. Scrub and gum trees often line the edges of big farms or the edges of the road. Coming into Streaky Bay. Let's get freaky and streaky. Okay, maybe not. I've not seen a car on the road for 10 minutes. We are coming into Streaky Bay town center. Let's see what's happening here. Guy's moving some big tank over there. Inside. Got a town beside the sea. Oh, traffic jam in Streaky Bay. Three cars in a row. Look out. Got the pub at the end there. Apparently somebody named Campbell made their landing here in 1864. Shop's over here. There's a nice long jetty here in Streaky Bay. You can walk to the end if you're feeling like it. And out there way down there is like a beach sort of out there. It is a mighty big bay. Beach people seem to have a sense of humor and I like that. Here at Perluby Beach it looks like you can camp right on the sand. They have little sight markers even. I'm here training dogs with Wayne and Karen and these are their peaches right here. And this one has been a bit of a problem. But we're going to get you all trained and good, aren't we? Yes, you're so much better already. So these dogs would have been going crazy about two hours ago, right? Yep. What were they doing? Barking, not taking any notice of us and creating a problem. Big problems? Yeah, big problems. Were they aggressive towards people? They were, yes. The fluffy one was very aggressive towards people to take any notice of us. And they're going to have a much better life. So the dog is trained and the humans are trained and everything should be good now. Another pair of dogs trained here on the beach. Wayne and Karen told me you cannot camp for free here. So I'm moving on. Got a little bush camp going on tonight between two rarely traveled bush tracks. And on each side of those are big farms. So I'm just here cooking up some dinner. Got some rice-o reese-o going on tonight. Here's the packet. It's nothing fancy, but it works. And I'm not near the highway, which is nice. The little roadside rests are always right near the highway. So you probably don't get much sleep because the truck's going by in the middle of the night or whatever. About a couple k's in from that. So it's really peaceful here. And I'm sheltered from the wind, which has been rather horrendous today at times. I'm in the bush here. Good morning. It was cool getting a dog training job last night. And I helped those little dogs. That one dog, he was pretty feisty. He's barking all the time. Just before I started training, that dog, his name was Tom, a little white little fluffy one. He actually tried to bite my foot. He grabbed onto my shoelaces. And that's when I knew there was a serious problem that this dog was actually aggressive toward people. And they saw that too. They knew that. So anyway, I'm glad we got those dogs trained and everything is good. And today I'm going to try this one of these Morton Bay figs that I got off that tree in Port Lincoln. I'll just see what that tastes like. Kind of a lot of seeds in it. Tastes like a fig, but a lot of seeds. This is the teeny weeny village of Haslam. Let's have a quick look. Haslam was a rustic little town with an old school that was in use from 1924 to 1983. Northwest of Haslam is Smoky Bay. Pretty water out there. Peaceful in the morning. Oyster farming, Smoky Bay. Oyster farms and tourism seem to be the main industries here in Smoky Bay. I've got an issue with the wheel alignment, apparently, because if you look here, this is all worn bald on the inside and it's the same on both tires. So I've got to head into Seduna or someplace and see if we can get a wheel alignment and maybe rotate the tires. I'm heading to Seduna and that will be the last town on the Air Peninsula for me. But if you're coming from the west, it will be the first town on the peninsula. And it will be my last supply post before I head west into the remote and desolate Nullabor Plain. When I reach Seduna, I've got to find a tire shop or a mechanic who can do a wheel alignment due to the uneven wear that's taking place on the front tires. Free hot showers in Seduna behind the petrol station. Gas up, get some snacks, have a shower. It's hot. Nice hot shower. This is Seduna and this will be the last town on the Air Peninsula. Deadly spiders, snakes, and now this. Oh my gosh. All right, we're ready. I stopped into a tire shop, but they were unable to do the alignment because they couldn't get the specs for it, which forced me to go to the Toyota dealer in town. I would have to come back the next day, so it was off to Denial Bay. In 1802, explorer Matthew Flinders named the inlet Denial Bay because he had hoped to find a way far inland through it, but he couldn't. It was a denial of his hope. There I found some friendly Aboriginal people to talk to who were crabbing. These are blue crabs that they caught right off the jetty here, and they look pretty good, right? More crabs fresh out of the sea. This one back here is kind of feisty. That's a pretty good size crab right there. So those are blue swimmer crabs. Then it was off to find a place to park for the night. I finally found a place that's really remote. Nobody else was here right by the water. Nadia Landing. There is a fence up there, but it's not all fenced, and you can drive around and wander a little bit. So I finally found a place where I felt like I could actually breathe and move around a bit. Had to go halfway across Australia to find it, though. I looked outside in the morning and saw swallows flying around my car. I have swallows cleaning off my car and flying around it and getting insects. So I hope they're getting the mosquitoes, because I got bit a few times this morning. The vehicle was now a buffet of dead insects, and they gladly plucked them off. It was a delightful surprise to see so many of them perched on the van. They're probably going to town out there. Go get those insects. Gotta go back into Sedona because they've got to get the specs to do the wheel alignment from Mitsubishi, and until they get the specs, they can't do it. So wheel alignment and tire rotation is becoming a two-day event. I've got to go back tomorrow morning. Just happened on a place just outside of Sedona, and it says camping's allowed. Small cooking fire only, and that's okay. It'll work. I'm glad there's a free camping area here. It's too bad there's so much rubbish strewn around this entire region here. There's just a lot of junk out here. They did rotate the tires today, and that's all they did, so I shouldn't probably be driving on those tires too much. I mean, it's not going to hurt a little bit, but I don't want the same sort of wear to occur on the tires that are now on the front. I'm camped in something I'm going to call the pit tonight, and it helps get me out of the wind anyway, being down in here. At least down in here, I'm a bit sheltered. The wind and the flies will drive you a bit crazy if you let them, and there's both here. Made a little fire, which you can do here, and cooked up some fresh carrots, fresh onions, pasta, and cheese. That might be the longest road train I've seen yet. I'm pretty sure it is. That's a long one. We're back! Time to get the wheel alignment taken care of after getting the rotation yesterday. As I was sitting inside the Toyota dealership, waiting for the wheel alignment to be completed, I found it kind of interesting and odd that the woman at the front counter just decided to spray fly spray, and while I was just sitting in there, didn't ask me if I'd be okay with it, and I smelled something funny, and the back of my throat was getting raw, so eventually I asked her, you spray something? And she said, oh yeah, there was a fly buzzing around, and so I, you know, sprayed fly spray. I said, do you realize that's toxic poison, right? And she just kind of looked at me and kind of half nodded, and you know, she said she was sorry. I said, you really shouldn't be breathing that stuff in. I was quite surprised that they did that during working hours while, you know, I was there. Here at Toyota of Sedona, They completed the wheel alignment, and I was able to leave Sedona and continue on my journey. I had contacted the vehicle's owner, Scott, and he instructed me to rotate the worn front tires to the back, and he took care of the payment, but there were going to be more problems with the 23-year-old van, and there would come a time when the vehicle's owner wasn't going to be so helpful. So what makes the Air Peninsula so special? Well, it could be different things to different people. Was it worth driving all the way to see the Air Peninsula? Well, that really depends on what you're looking for. Are you seeking lonely roads that thread through wide expanses of farmland? Do you like pastoral scenes? Do you like looking at sheep or cattle? Do you enjoy seeing old windmills spinning in the breeze? Are you looking for white strands of beaches beside small coastal towns? In some regards, it's not that special. Everything is relative. To be honest, there are lengthy stretches that might seem unremarkable. After all, there are many portions of flatness and boring. But it does have those special spots, and I did find several of them. For me, it would have to be the beaches and ocean shoreline. For those looking for a less traveled region and a relaxed vibe, the Air Peninsula might just be for you. If you've been there, what makes it special to you? I hope you enjoyed exploring the Air Peninsula with me. Don't forget to give me a like in the video, share, and subscribe. Until next time, this is The Rockhopper. I'll see ya.