Cape Bauer Loop & Whistling Rocks

The loop

The Cape Bauer Loop is Streaky Bay's other great drive — a 38 km circuit starting just north of town that swaps the sheltered bay for the full violence of the open coast. The mostly unsealed road rolls through dune country to a series of cliff-top vantage points along the Great Australian Bight, with the headland of Cape Bauer as its centrepiece and views across to Olive Island offshore.

Whistling Rocks

The essential stop is the Whistling Rocks and Blowholes. A 360-metre boardwalk descends through the dunes to viewing platforms hung on the cliff edge, where swell driven into the rock shelf below forces air and spray up through vents in the limestone — producing an eerie, breathy whistle between the percussion of the waves. The show is best at high tide with a decent swell running, when the whole shelf hisses and thumps like something alive.

Round it out

Hallys Beach, a broad surf-fishing beach with a lookout and boardwalk stairs, makes a good leg-stretch on the loop's northern side. Done at an amble with photo stops, the circuit takes a couple of hours — and pairs perfectly with the Westall Way Loop south of town for a full day of west coast cliffs, or a recovery swim back at the Streaky Bay foreshore.