Shuttling:
The day before we left on this trip Doug got up early and drove our car up to Dunns Point and cycled about 40 kilometres back to the where we were staying at the caravan park in Marion Bay, both on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.
We have a long history with bicycle shuttles. In 2007, we pioneered a ski traverse through the West Arm Provincial Park near Nelson, BC, skiing along the divide and over several peaks to reach the small community of Proctor on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake. On that trip, I cycled 40 kilometres from Proctor back to Nelson to pick up our car. Apart from being passed by several lycra clad road bikers the cycle, even after skiing all day, was not that hard, because we were pretty fit after a long winter season of industrial trail breaking in the Kootenays.
Three years later, Doug did a much more challenging bicycle shuttle when we skied a two day route over three Kokanee Range peaks. His shuttle involved riding up a steep, alternately loose, muddy, rocky logging road to 1100 metres at the peak of spring break up. Apparently, it was pretty glycolitic. At the time, I was lounging about in a patch of early spring sunshine drinking tea and reading a trashy novel. Both trips are written up on Bivouac.com, but you have to be a member to read them.
Truth is, Doug is much fitter on the mountain bike than me, so he drew the shuttle straw while I packed up our gear for a three to four day sea kayak trip around the southern and western sides of the Yorke Peninsula. Our exact route on this trip was somewhat partially determined by what sort of shuttle we could manage with the bicycle in the absence of any kind of public transit. The other determination was not wanting to paddle a lot of long beaches which can be dreary in their sameness. Marion Bay to Dunns Point would capture the most interesting section of coast at a reasonable bicycle shuttle length.
Marion Bay to Browns Beach:
Early on our departure morning we walked through the Marion Bay Caravan Park multiple times carrying our kayaks and gear from our cut-rate location (furthest away from the water and closest to the rubbish bins) to the beach. Dozens of people watched us walk by but no-one said anything or asked what we were doing. Sometimes I think the more out of the ordinary you are, the more invisible you become.
We got away from Marion Bay at around 8.30 am heading southwest and paddling past Penguin Point, Rhino Head, and Stenhouse Bay. Bizarrely, the roughest water we had on the whole trip was around Penguin Point, closely followed by Rhino Head; both prominences had good amounts of clapotis and current effects.
West of Stenhouse Bay we passed tiny Chinamans Hat Island and had good views of Althorpe and Haystack Islands which we had paddled out to on a previous trip. At Cable Hut Bay we just managed to get into the small beach over a rapidly drying reef for a short break as we knew there would be no further landing points until we got to West Cape Bay.
The next section of the trip was the most spectacular and we had been looking forward to paddling past Cape Spencer and West Cape as the entire coastline along this section is high limestone cliffs off set by the clear green water of the Southern Ocean. It was very spectacular. We found caves and grottos, big cliffs, amphitheatres of sculpted limestone, stack like islands and crashing reefs.
Passing West Cape Lighthouse, we waved at the tourists lined up near the cliff-line but apparently they could not see us either. It was only lunch time when we arrived at West Cape Bay where we had planned to camp. It was hot, however, and we had to huddle in the shade of boulders to eat lunch. Too hot to stop to camp although it looked interesting to explore the coast on foot as there was not a sliver of reasonable shade anywhere.
So, we kept paddling, past the strange flat-topped islands near Pondalowie Bay and north to Roysten Head where we turned due east. A few kilometres beyond Roysten Head we found a sheltered landing on the far end of Browns Beach and landed our kayaks. It was about 3.30 pm and really hot in the sun. We managed to rig a tarp for shade but tarps are never as good as natural shade particularly on sand as the sun still reflects under the tarp. After a while, the hill side above camp got a bit of shade and we hid up there until it was cool enough to move around, set up the tent, and take a short walk before the sun went down. I walked up onto the dunes behind camp where you can look down on several salt lakes.
Browns Beach to Gleasons Landing:
While temperatures were still comfortable in the morning we went for a walk near camp before starting the days kayaking. I walked up onto the dunes behind camp and then easily walked along short limestone bluffs towards Royston Head. It was nice to have an alternate view of what we had paddled the day before.
Leaving Browns Beach, we headed straight north into a light wind pointing the kayaks at what I thought was Point Margaret. In the zone of paddling, Point Margaret seemed to take a long time to come closer, even allowing for paddling into the wind. Doug was behind me and stayed that way all morning. I kept checking that he was still following along and, as he was always just a couple of hundred metres behind, I kept going.
After a while it seemed that we had been paddling for a really long time without reaching Point Margaret and I felt like a break. Without a watch on, I had no idea how much time had passed. Finally, we got near a headland where we could stop without being blown back by the wind. While waiting for Doug, I checked the map and realised that we had paddled right past Point Margaret and were actually at Daly Head, almost to our planned camp for the night.
We had to detour out around a breaking reef and then paddled in along the shore on the north side of Daly Head past a couple of lovely little beaches to the tiny beach sheltered by reefs on both sides where there was good camping and a big cave above the beach that offered shade for the afternoon.
It was another afternoon spent hiding from the sun under the roof of the cave until it cooled off enough to put up our tent and then I went for a long walk south towards Daly Head. I walked along rocky reefs and sandy beaches as the sky glowed first with the blush of the setting sun and then the rising moon.
Gleasons Landing to Dunn Point:
Our last day on the water and we paddled north up the coast past little beaches and rocky headlands. Lots of great places to camp along this section of coast but not much in the way of shade. At Corny Point we paddled into a sheltered bay where there is a lighthouse and had a short break before rounding the headland and heading east to a very sheltered landing in shallow water at Dunn Point.
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