Brolga Healing Journeys

We left Buckaringa sanctuary, with a couple of weeks to spare before our next commitment to assist as volunteers at the first wildlife survey at the Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Dakalanta sanctuary on the Eyre Peninsula.  For us, the choice was obvious; we’d head to the southern tip of the peninsula to re-visit the Lincoln National Park and a special region within it called the Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area.  We’d visited those areas early in 2008 and loved them.

From Buckaringa, we travelled through Port Augusta, down the western coast of Eyre, staying overnight at a small town called Cowell.  This proved to be a haven for anglers and retirees; actually, mostly a combination of both.  The caravan park was crowded – we got the last spot – but the oldies were very friendly.  Good on them for leading lives they love!  Being our first coastal stay in well over a year, we treated ourselves to some local oysters and prawns, washed down with a bottle of South Australian white.  ‘Twas lovely.

LINCOLN NATIONAL PARK

Continuing south, we restocked in Port Lincoln then made a bee-line across to Lincoln National Park, setting up camp at Surfleet Cove.  Much work had been done to improve the facilities since our previous stay, and the park itself was looking glorious, trees covered in new growth.  The birdlife, good last visit, was astounding this time.

The bushland was full of birds – scrubwrens, paradalotes, robins, parrots and galahs, but the ocean itself was even more alive with birds; sea-birds.  The cove was obviously teeming with small fish, because each day the gulls, terns and pelicans would fly in for a feeding frenzy.  It was a sight to behold.

And we thoroughly enjoyed our first swim in the ocean in ages.  It was a joy to experience sand and salt water again.

We fell victim at Surfleet Cove to some campsite robbers, though we have come to forgive them.  The robbers were a small family of Western Grey Kangaroos, who ventured in while we were off bush-walking and relieved us of our bunch of bananas, some $10 worth given current prices. We returned to catch the adult female roo swallowing the last banana, skin and all, with her joey looking on from her pouch.  Apart from being mildy annoyed at losing our fruit, we were a little concerned for mum roo who appeared to experience quite a stomach-ache as punishment for her actions.  Luckily, she was back to full health an hour or so later.  We are careful never to feed wildlife, because feeding wild animals can be unhealthy for them and can lead to aggressive behaviour in the animals as they approach people for food. Unfortunately, in this circumstance, we had no say in the matter as the roos opted for self service.  The bananas had been quite high up in our kitchen area, where we believed they would be safe.  Silly us!

Click on the following link to see some footage of this feeding frenzy:

httpv://www.youtube.com/user/brolgahealing#p/a/u/2/AEMvkkUUHaQ

[View with PicLens]

MEMORY COVE WILDERNESS PROTECTION AREA

Next stop, Memory Cove Wilderness area.  Visitor numbers are limited to the area to help protect it, resulting in a large area of pristine beauty.  We drove in to Memory Cove along a magnificent boulevard of melaleucas in full bloom, then along clifftops offering majestic views of the Southern Ocean, before descending to the sheltered Memory Cove and its lovely bush campground.  There are five sites only at Memory Cove, so you almost feel that the area is your private piece of wilderness.

[View with PicLens]

There was a constant stream of colourful birds around the cove, the water was cool and crystal clear, and the coastal heath-lands green and healthy.  We saw dolphins and sea-lions as we looked on from the rocky headland, and basically soaked up the atmosphere.

Three nights – the maximum time you can camp there – was nowhere near enough, but we left Memory Cove again thrilled to have stayed at such a beautiful place.  It is a place that gives us a hint of what Australia’s coastline must have been like before ‘development’ took away its innocence.

[View with PicLens]

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From there, we headed up the west coast of Eyre Peninsula to charming village of Elliston, then inland to Dakalanta Wildlife Sanctuary, the subject of the next post.

Peter
18 March 2011

Random images from Memory Cove:

[View with PicLens]