Elliston

Once off the ferry, we got ourselves on the Birdseye Highway … destination Elliston on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula.

We didn’t get far. A glimpse of painted silos gave us a short detour into Cowell, the town at the Lucky Bay end of the Searoad. I guess you could say that these murals were a sign of what was to come!

We used the stop to pick up some AdBlue as well … have already gone through the 10-liter drum we purchased at the start of our trip! Then a quick lunch break in a rest area.

Once we got on the highway, it was smooth sailing on a straight — with a few wiggles — road … lined with trees on both sides … and “watch out for kangaroo” signs every 12-15 miles or so. We did, in fact see a kangaroo standing by the road, but it quickly hopped off into the fields. Recorded the encounter in our brains and kept going!

No wombat sighting … though there was a road sign alerting us to their presence on a 2-km stretch of the highway.

With hardly any traffic sharing the highway, we definitely found our solitude today. Until we reached the Flinders Highway in Elliston, we probably encountered 10 vehicles … if that … most going in the opposite direction.

It was only 3:30p when we arrived in Elliston … a tiny town of some 380 souls. We pulled into the visitor center. It was closed. But the beautiful murals decorating all sides of the building made it a worthwhile stop.

Then, onward we continued north, selecting Streaky Bay as an alternative location for our overnight stop.Read more