Ye Olde Yorke

We had a lovely 11 nights visiting both sides of the Yorke. The towns are old, small and quaint, and largely built with stone and full of history, and the coastline in between is untouched or grazing land dotted with derelict ruins of old farm houses.

MOONTA is a very large town that was settled around a copper mine in the 1860s, with Cornish Tin miners brought in to mine it. We stayed 2 nights on the RV oval for a donation so we could explore both the town and the old mining district

Famous for its Cornish Pasties...yummm

Old mine remains, although the church and cottages are still used

1860s

ARDROSSAN is famous for the red cliffs and blue swimmer crabs, off the jetty or rake the sand at low tide. We stayed at a bush camp which had been Parara Sheep Station

Parara Station old homestead


Down the coast to PORT VINCENT and walked to the lookout over the harbour

We had a treat of 8 fur seals basking on the rocks, and diving in for s swim

EDITHBURGH for lunch..great view


A lot of the Yorke interior is made up of salt lakes

WOOROOKA and YORKE commercial towns, good for free overnight camping

MARION BAY and nearby the remains of STENHOUSE BAY which historically mined and supplied Australia’s chalk and plaster raw materials

Remnants of the old rail track from Inneston to Stenhouse Bay jetty ( high on the cliff above the jetty)

INNESTON AND INNES NATIONAL PARK

The NP had a few lighthouses, many wrecks and some lovely scenery....Cape Spencer Lighthouse

And view from here

The Wreck “Edith”

West Cape Lighthouse..unusual shape snd made of unpainted metal

and view from here, we had lunch at the bays

Inneston was almost a ghost town, with only the Managers Homestead, the Post Office and 2 other cottages restored and used for holiday let. The walking trail through the town had signs outside the remnants of the bakery, school building site, stables, Lime and Chalk works and furnace. You could hike along the old lime trail 7km to Stenhouse Bay jetty where the chalk was exported to Melbourne

I am normally the opener of the paddock gates...this was a first and a bit tricky

Blue Lake Inneston....a salt lake


We overnighted in Marion Bay Cvn Pk for easy access to the National Park

POINT TURTON the only modern but small town on the Peninsula, we stayed in the caravan park for 3 nights near the jetty. It is very beautiful and popular, but we had the worst site, hated the noise and lack of space so left a day early.  Fishing off the jetty and rocks was overcrowded at peak tide times and a bit hit and miss, but the water was crystal clear 

Sunrise is at 7.20am, it was not hard to catch

 Nearby Flahertys Beach, the temp hit the low 30s again, great timing for a final swim before winter

We went to the much more secluded BARKERS ROCKS bush camp for peace and quiet and squid fishing, Derek caught one, whilst others caught a few, I only caught a couple of small flathead

Squidding off this reef with a float and squid jig....we only had one float

This is a squid caught on a jig

Also great for swimming and snorkelling 

We had one day of rain, but a beautiful sunset

Promise to self ..... to go back to Barkers Rocks for a couple of weeks......loved it that much