We soon headed out towards the National Park, at the entrance we paid our $10 vehicle access & started into the park. The first piece is bitumen all the way into Yangie Bay. There is a camping area here on both sides of the road, but the one at Little Yangie on the right is much nicer. It has toilets & a rainwater tank. It is nice to see SA parks actually put rainwater tanks on all of their toilets blocks, WA parks could learn a bit from them. Yangie Bay camping areas are ok for an overnighter or may be 2 days but not somewhere we would stay for longer than that, unless you were using it as a base to explore the rest of the park.
Yangie Bay
Once your at Yangie the track then turns to proper 4WD track. We reduced our tyre pressures & headed towards Black Springs. This 14km stretch took us an hour. It had soft sand, salt lakes, lots of rocky hills & jump ups & rough tracks. None of its was particularly hard but very slow.
With a trailer we reckon it would take about 1.5 hours to Black Springs. It's not the sort of place that you should tow a trailer if you don't have any experience towing a trailer in sand, especially if you are by yourself. After much fun bouncing around we drove into the campground to check it out. Wow, the photos won't do it justice as it was a cloudy day again, but it was beautiful. Up on one end the campsites were cut into the bush on a hill overlooking the water & on the other end it had less trees & was more open & closer to the water. Nearly every site was full so it is obviously popular & was mostly filled with camper trailers. If you are willing to take the time to tow your trailer in, it looks like a great spot to spend a few days.
Black Springs, imagine this on a sunny day!
Next up we headed further north & this meant tackling the Seven Mile Beach stretch. This is where you have to drive on the beach as there is no inland track & you need to be mindful of the tide. The entry & exits were soft sand, but the beach itself was pretty firm except for a few patches. There were also large areas of seaweed on the beach that needed to be negotiated but there was a pretty firm track above it, but of course this would change with conditions & tides. Once off the beach you head inland for a couple of kms & then you get to a crossroads with tracks to all of the other destinations.
Seven Mile Beach above & below
We decided to check out Morgan's Landing another camping area. Again a lovely spot, but this one was set back from the beach with only about 3 campsites. It had a toilets & rain water tank as well. The beach was lovely & a great spot to launch a boat. It took us another hour to reach Morgan's Landing from Black Springs. So at least a 2-3 hour drive with a trailer from the park entrance. Not for the faint hearted. There were 2 camps set up in here on our visit. I expect outside of school holidays though you would probably get it all to yourselves.
Beach at Morgans Landing
Camping area at Morgan's Landing
Next up we decided to head out to Sensation Beach. We could of also went to Sir Isaac Point, but as we had left our run late in the day, we decided we should probably leave it till next time, as we still had to drive all the way back & being conscious of the incoming tide on the Seven Mile Beach stretch. So we headed out to Sensation beach & sensational it was. This has to be one of the remotest & most beautiful beaches we have seen anywhere is Australia. We both commented that it felt like this might be the last time we felt that we were actually somewhere really remote for the rest of the trip. We had the beach to ourselves & we had to drag ourselves away. You can camp here behind the huge sand dune at the beach but it wasn't a very good camping spot, although the beach itself was amazing. The 4WD track from the crossroads to Sensation Beach was the easiest track we did all day, not super fast but much less rough.
Sensation Beach above & below
By this stage it was after 2pm & we had to do the long trip back out, so we decided we had better leave. The sun had come out at this stage & dried out the sand tracks so it was much softer going home. We tackled Seven Mile Beach again & came across a pretty amazing sight. A emu father was wandering up the beach with his 11 half grown chicks, we slowed right down & came up really close to them before they darted of the track. One of the coolest wildlife sightings we have had on our trip.
We made it back to Yangie & re inflated our tyres. On the way out we followed the bitumen road to the southern side of Coffin Bay NP to Point Avoid & once again found one of the best ocean outlooks we have seen anywhere is Australia. Even if you don't have a 4WD you can get to this point & we would definitely recommend it. We weren't sure we were ever going to see those amazing blue & green water colours that we were spoilt with in WA, but this one might even beat some of those in WA.
The only thing that made it better was heading a little further up the road to Golden Island lookout, which was even better. You had a beautiful island on one side & the magnificent sand dunes on the other, we had never seen sand dunes like these. When you look on google earth you can see the scale of how big they are. This topped off any amazing day.
Golden Island
Gunyah Beach near Golden Island & Dunes below
Coffin Bay is definitely worth a visit, whether it is a day trip or to camp. Getting to the campgrounds is an adventure in itself & you feel like you get swept away by the pristine environment & the feeling like you are the only ones there. This was one of the best day trips of our holiday. We can't wait to go back & camp & explore further up the peninsula towards Sir Isaac Point. If you decided to camp make sure you are fully prepared & self sufficient, it's a long way back out to get supplies or in an emergency. Lots of drinking water, food & a first aid kit are a must. Phone reception was very patchy & mostly non existent in most places we travelled on the day. Make sure you take enough beer as well, it's a long way to the bottle-o!!!
Map courtesy of HEMA
Image courtesy of Google Earth
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