SA coast xmas/new year

Hi Tommo, We live here in SA and we never ever travel during school holidays, we see the same things but without the crowds and traffic on the roads. As for your timing ,Dec and January are getting very hot ,even down the south east at Keith have had 45C this month ,and over the West Coast this last few weeks Pt Lincoln have had 43C ,and further west Ceduna quite often is hotter @ 46C than the interior and Ceduna is on the Coast.
Now I do not wish to put you off ,but either in October/Sept or March/April would be the best time and I am sure you will enjoy the coast at its best .

Coming from Vic, you can drive most of the beaches / dunes / small back tracks from Pt Macdonnell to the Murray Mouth, apart atm from the very last bit near the mouth due to current dredging.
We only drove a little blacktop from Beachport to Southend, and from memory a tiny bit through some of the towns off beaches along the way.
We had 17 vehicles start that full trip back in July 2012, mid Winter certainly was interesting.
Certainly shoulder and Summer are best times, but it can be hot as mentioned (this area is generally so much cooler on the coast though), and Xmas / New Year especially it can be busy, mostly around Beachport - Robe.

The area through from Cape Northumberland to Beachport has some surprised in terrain and access to little used dune tracks in places.
Google maps sat view is a big help in planning.

Canunda and Beachport - Robe are favourites, many beaches are easy driving, some can be quite soft and cause issues unless you are used to this type of beach driving.
Typre pressures and some maxtrax / treds are so important and useful.

Plenty of trip reports over on 4x4 Earth forum.

Sorry, I don't know the west coast as well, but around Yorkes has some nice spots, west coast of that peninsula. That will be busy though being so close to Adelaide.

That would take you a leisurely 2 or 3 weeks anyway, not sure you'd have time to do the proper west coast past Pt Augusta . . . I'd say you could sppend another couple of weeks doing that through to Ceduna if you camped a few nights at one spot here and there.

Enjoy the trip.

Hi Tommo

Yes there are some truely magic places to visit around the coastline of our great State. There is over 3800 kilometres of coastline in South Australia, so to take it in, you would want to have a reasonable amount of time up your sleeve.

To me, there are some very special locations, and I personally love the Yorke and Eyre Peninsula's. Yes the Coorong and the South East coastline is different, and attracts lots of people during those peak times.

Robe is one such spot and come the 26th of December, the normally sleepy town turns into a tourist Mecca and if you have not pre booked any accomodation, you will have a very slim chance of finding anywhere to stay. The very same is also said for towns in the Copper Coast around Moonta Bay and Port Hughes, and further to the southeast of Moonta and across the other side of the bleep ula like Port Vincent and Stansbury. Even one great little town on the far west coast, Fowlers Bay is busy during the Christmas School holidays.

If you can travel outside of these peak times, you will have a far greater chances of being the only person on the beach, but having said that, what we call peak times here in South Australia is nothing to the peak times like in Queensland, New South Wales or Victoria.

Either way, enjoy our great coastline.


Cheers



Stephen

I just spent the last week of December driving around Murray Mouth, the Coorong and Robe. Compared to NSW I wouldn't call it that busy especially if you are camping away from the towns. The caravan parks in the main towns were chockers but the NP sites, free camps and beaches were ok. It's a nice part of the world.