The Eyre Peninsula in South Australia serves up fresh ocean bounty with dazzling coastal scenery and plenty of aquatic adventures.Stretching from the tip of the Spencer Gulf to the Great Australian Bight, the Eyre Peninsula is a big place — roughly the size of Switzerland in fact — and with its 2500 kilometres of pristine coastline comes a smorgasbord of adventures, culinary and otherwise.
Just a zippy 50-minute flight from the gateway hub of Adelaide, the Eyre is easily accessible yet wonderfully uncrowded. Made up of five regions, the Lower Eyre is perhaps the ideal place to dive into your first seafood experience. To get an overview of what's in store, head to The Fresh Fish Place in Port Lincoln, an award-winning seafood centre which encompasses a fish market and café — think rock lobster, prawns, oyster, blue swimmer crab, scallops and squid. This seafood mecca is one of the recommendations on the Seafood Frontier Road Trip, a downloadable map that spans the coastline, picking out the best food spots for the ultimate seafood safari.
Another highlight is at nearby Coffin Bay, where you can spend the day learning about the harvesting of world-famous Coffin Bay oysters on an oyster farm tour. There's the option to head out on to the leases in waders or by boat to witness these succulent little beauties being produced in the remote, unspoilt waters of the bay. And, of course, slurping a few freshies while you're here is a no-brainer.
To help unleash more of the authentic flavours of the region, you could always let those in the know lead you by the tastebuds. Australian Coastal Safari's Epicurean Safari pairs the region's sea and land flavours with local wines, and offers an insight into the secrets of speciality coffee and local award-winning boutique beer.
Of course, there are plenty of other fun ocean-related things to do besides eating — if you're game. The Eyre Peninsula is one of only three places in the world where adrenaline junkies can cage dive with great white sharks. Local Port Lincoln cage diving charters give you the chance to meet these majestic beasts face-to-face, or if that's too close for you, you can still see them from the comfort of the boat.
At Baird Bay, 284 kilometres from Port Lincoln towards Streaky Bay, a more gentle marine encounter awaits; join a Baird Bay Ocean Eco Experience and get in the water with resident pods of bottlenose dolphins and inquisitive sea lions. At Whyalla, you can behold the other-worldly spectacle of Australian giant cuttlefish changing colour right before your eyes. And in the north of the Peninsula, from July through October, cruise the spectacular waters around Fowlers Bay, to witness southern right and humpback whales stop by the area, on their annual migration, to calve and nurse their young.
Another salty spectacle awaits on the western tip of the Eyre Peninsula — but this one is pink. Lake MacDonnell is an Instagrammer's dream: high in salt concentration, on a clear day the lake appears salmon pink on one side of the causeway, on the other, it's green. It's quite the sight.
Of course this only scratches the surface of attractions in the region, but if world-class fresh seafood, soul-soothing sunsets, turquoise waters, abundant wildlife and jaw-dropping natural phenomena top your list, then this part of South Australia has you covered.
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