A few hours drive from Elliston, and just 40kms short of Streaky Bay there is one of the most unusual geological formations that one would wish to see.
Murphy's Haystack's, listed as a free camp, but on private land is where we aimed to stay a night and ended up staying 4 days. Wonderful sight to see and photograph and while staying there we met so many lovely people that stopped and had a chat. Many on there way to the rally, like us.
Murphy's Hay Stacks were weathered and sculpted into their present form about 100,000 years ago. Geologists say the Hay Stacks are composed of pink granite from the Hiltaba suite of rocks whch were laid down some 1500 million years ago. Amazingly these beautiful pink granites were formed at a depth of 7 to 10 kilometres below the earth's surface. Today when we look at Murphy's Hay Stacks we see these Hiltaba granites exposed on the surface. Clearly a very great deal of erosion has occured since the granite's formation.
Local legend says that Murphy's Hay Stacks acquired its name from an Irish agricultural expert who saw this landmark in the distance whilst travelling on a coach. Apparently the learned Irish gentleman was very impressed and informed his fellow passengers that the farmer must have harrowed his land to produce such a great abundance of hay! Well, by now you must have guessed it! The original farmer of the land was a Mr. Murphy and to this day the landmark is known as Murphy's Hay Stacks.
At Murphy's Hay Stacks the traveller can see a variety of inselberg formations including boulders and pillars. Upon entering the viewing area a unique and magnificent Tafoni structure can be seen towering above the walkway. Elsewhere within the viewing area a variety of wave forms and flared rock structures can be seen. These are indicative of ancient physical and chemical weathering processes occuring when soil levels were several metres higher than now.
The day we arrived was just photographic perfect with the clouds just layering over the formations. Being there for the four days, gave me to opportunity to photograph them at different times of the day...and evening and with some great results. There is a $2 entry fee into the property, and having camped there for a few days, we could not believe the number of people who were too stingy to put some money in the box. The owners, The Cash family clean the toilets every day and provide a lovely picnic shelter for visitors, and we were too happy to put a few dollars in for each day we were there.
Lovely family, and at their invitation we got invited down to photograph the shearing which started while we were there. Their generosity, so typical of country hospitalilty. They see over 20,000 visitors go through each year.
Bairds Bay Seal Lions
At Bairds Bay, a short drive from Murphy's haystacks we took a trip out on a boat to see the dolphins and sea lions. We were lucky enought o have the boat to ourselves and enjoyed a 3 hour trip out on the crystal blue waters of Bairds Bay.
While we were waiting for the boat, we noticed a small chick on the road, and found it to be a baby lapwing. The parent birds were flying around frantically and it was then that I noticed not 1 chick, but several and managed to pick them up and get them off the road. The photo is not great, but will probably never get another chance of photographing one of these.
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| Lapwing Chick |
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| Dolphins At Play |
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| Ready For A Dip |
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| What a Terrible Job - but Someone Has To Do It! |
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| Baird Bay |
Had such a wonderful day at Baird Bay, interacting with the seal lions and dolphins, and if it had been about 10C warmer, would most certainly have been in there swimming with them, which is a added extra with the tour.
On the way out of the Bay went for a bit of a drive around and looked for the free camps that are supposed located around about. Well, let us say, they are a joke and it made us all the more appreciative of the free camp at Murphy's Haystacks.
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| Barry Trying Out One Of The Sand Dunes |
This was just to the side of one of the free camps, listed as being able to get a big rig in there???? Just $5pnpp - but for what?? Have crossed these ones off the list. Streaky Bay is the next town and there is no free camping anywhere, and it appears our days of free camping for a while are going to be limited...oh for those wonderful days we had down on the Murray River at New Residence..
From Streaky Bay we head to Ceduna, so stay tuned for our next blog.
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