Beach camping right off the grid

My wife Wendy and I would be no good at ocean cruising. The thought of being stuck at sea with a few thousand strangers and seeing many of them at dinner every night is more like a prison to us than a holiday.

No one else for hundreds of kilometres is more our thing and our spirits soar higher at the sight of a long, red ribbon of road disappearing into ‘nothingness’, than a picture postcard view of the Swiss Alps.

OK, we’re a bit weird, but others are too, which is why we find camping at remote Memory Cove at the tip of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula so appealing.

For a start, there are only five marked-out and numbered camping spots – one of them only suitable for a carry-in tent – all of which need to be pre-booked and are only accessible after you unlock a padlocked gate, 19km away and travel an hour via a very rough, stony track.

You collect the key after leaving a $50 deposit from the Visitor Information Centre in Port Lincoln.

Generators and pets are prohibited and there's no mobile service unless you hike through coastal bushland out to the headland on the right hand side of the beach, where if you’re lucky you might get 'one bar' service.

It’s not meant to be easy, but you can stay at various organised sites in the Lincoln National Park to the north of the Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area, less than an hour south of the Australian Bluefin Tuna fishing capital, if you prefer.

Being principally a camping area, caravans are discouraged on access grounds. However, the rough, rutted and sometimes narrow track into the cove was no trouble for our 15ft 6in x 7ft Trakmaster off-road van (we had previously taken a 14ft 6in Jayco Expanda Outback there), but it was right on the size limit when it came to maneuvering into a site and only two of the five staked-out areas were really accessible.

Any larger and we would rightly have been regarded as unwelcome pests. Articulation and narrow access are the enemies here and if you attempt to take a longer or wider off-road caravan in, it will probably end badly.

We talked to the local Department of Environment and Natural Resources ranger who we met on the way out and the issue that concerns them was camper trailers or caravans breaking down and requiring recovery.

He also asked whether we had height clearance problems. That was our only concern with taking our 1950mm high full-height Trakmaster in, but we had no issues, either on the track or in the camping area.

Had there been, we were quite prepared to turn around and stay in the Lincoln National Park instead. As it turned out, we were the only Memory Cove ‘residents’ for the first two of the three nights we spent there. The maximum allowable consecutive stay is five nights.

However, this is really tent, box or camper trailer territory and if you are in one of these, travel slowly and ensure you have good ground clearance for the rutted track in. If so, you should have no problems.

If you have a large caravan, or any reservations about negotiating the track, you can simply go to Memory Cove as one of the 15 visitors allowed each day. Many with large vans stay in the Lincoln National Park and do the day trip, but to get the most out of the day, you should get an early start and avoid returning on the track after dark. And be prepared to encounter numerous emus on the way.

Once you’re there, you’ll understand what all the fuss is about. From its pristine, crescent-shaped white sand beach, with selective shade from the afternoon heat and sparkling protected waters, to its fascinating history, it’s not surprising that regulars try to keep it off the tourist radar.

The tracks into the campsites can be dusty, but once everyone is in for the night and the day-trippers have gone, it’s serene and idyllic.

The sites sit behind a low dune and are surrounded by shady trees that also temper evening breezes. Strong easterly winds are rare and a dune-top dinner overlooking the beach is one of Australia’s great ‘sundowner’ experiences.

The beach itself is beautiful. Gently sloping, free of rocks and nicely graduated, it’s a perfect cove for children. Not bad for adults, either!

Catch up with your reading or your tan, take advantage of the shade as the sun swings behind the sheltering trees, or dip into the sparkling waters from time to time to maintain a perfect temperature. But if you’re looking for something more active, take a little time to explore the area’s rich cultural and pioneering history.

Prior to European settlement, two groups of Aboriginal people, the Barngarla and the Nauo groups, occupied the area. Then, in 1802, Matthew Flinders sailed the coast in the Investigator.

During this expedition seven of his crew and the ship’s master, John Thistle, drowned when their cutter capsised during a search for fresh water. The nearby islands were named after the eight lost men, and Memory Cove was named to commemorate the tragedy, with a large bronze plaque placed near the main beach access track.

A one-kilometre walking trail begins at the right-hand end of the beach that leads to the ocean coastline where white-bellied sea eagles, Australian sea lions, dolphins and whales can often be seen.

Yet paradise is remarkably close to civilisation. Memory Cove is just 50km from Port Lincoln, where you can stock up very well for your stay.

The bitumen runs out about 6km after you enter the Lincoln National Park, but the hard-formed road that leads down to the Wanna access gate is a smooth and easily navigated all-weather road. That can’t be said for the much rougher and slow track that takes you along the Peninsula’s southern coastline before angling across to the cove, but the time taken is well spent.

As you drive this final section, numbered posts adjacent to the track correspond to information in the free brochure you are given at the Port Lincoln Visitor Information Centre and guide you to scenic outlooks and items of historical and natural interest along the way.

Not far from the gate you get your first dramatic view of the rugged southern coast, as a track leads you to a clifftop overlooking Curta Rocks and Cape Tournefort, beyond which whales can often be seen during the winter months.

Closer to Memory Cove itself, the rocky track crosses an open plain where grazing and cropping was carried out from the 1840s until 1957 as part of the original West Point Lease.

Allow around three hours from Port Lincoln, including sightseeing, to reach Memory Cove, as you’ll be lucky to cover the final 19km from the Wanna gate in an hour if you are towing.

More information: parks.sa.gov.au

Also read: Spotlight: Streaky Bay, SA