Nathan Davies: These days you’ll be battling to even find a clifftop parking space between the Kombis, caravans and campers

The rise of the travelling influencer has been one of the stranger modern phenomena in a strange age. And it’s wrecking SA’s best holiday spots, writes Nathan Davies.

My brother calls them Lin-fluencers due to their penchant for dressing in linen and other neutral-coloured natural fibres.

They love old Kombis, ignoring the fact that old Kombis are often pretty terrible vehicles, and bohemian rugs. But most of all they love Instagram. It’s all for the ‘Gram, baby! Show me the rock pools!

The rise of the travelling influencer has been one of the stranger modern phenomena in a modern age full of strange phenomena. From Byron Bay (the lin-fluencer’s spiritual home) to Broome you’ll find these roaming bands – usually a handsome couple with cute toddlers called Forest and Rain, all wearing matching floppy felt hats – tootling around the coastal backroads of our nation and somehow funding it all through Instagram posts and partnerships.

And look, more power to them. It sure beats spending your days in a job you don’t like hoping to scratch together enough cash for a deposit on an overpriced home.

But as the east and west coasts of our wonderful continent become more crowded the influencers have pointed their vans south and discovered our very own Eyre Peninsula, and more specifically its western side.

An influx of campers at Greenly Beach near Port Lincoln. Picture: Murray Kelsh

Greenly Beach, Rockpools. Picture: File

And they’ve brought others with them. The off-roaders with their 4WDs that cost more than the average apartment, resplendent with their orange Maxtracks strapped to the roof next to the jerry cans and swags. The grey nomads with their footy oval-sized solar panels.

Who can blame them? It is God’s country after all. Golden beaches, turquoise water, perfect sunsets over sea.

Growing up there in the eighties and nineties was, in hindsight, a true blessing. Visitors were something of a rarity, and if there were a few people surfing one beach we’d just drive to the next one.

How things have changed. These days you’ll be battling to even find a clifftop parking space between the Kombis, caravans and campers.

I remember a friend warning me years ago that the Instagramers were going to blow the joint up and I scoffed. There’s no way, it’s too far, too remote. I was wrong.

It really hit home a couple of weeks ago driving to … well that famous surf break that can’t be named. You know the one.

READ MORE: The SA beaches we’re loving to death

As we drove down the road that splits the salt lake and creates an unusual phenomenon of one side being pink and the other side green, there they were, the influencers, trying to get that coveted drone shot of the “watermelon lake”. Most don’t even travel the last few kilometres to the beach. They’ve got the shot for The Gram, time to move on.

And before I start to sound like some kind of backwoods protectionist, I’m more than happy to share. Everyone’s happy to share. Well nearly everyone.

But the travellers have to realise that they’re in a remote place that probably doesn’t have the all of the facilities they’re used to.

When you fill that bin up with rubbish from your van there’s a fair chance it won’t be emptied that day. Or even that week. Bring it in? You have to bring it out.

That firewood you just cut? That’s not actually a dead tree, it’s an extremely slow-growing coastal shrub that will take decades to regenerate.

Up to 100 caravans and campervans on Perlubie Beach, near Streaky Bay. Picture: Eyes on Eyre

But the biggest problem is … well … poo. It seems like very few travellers are carrying chemical loos and you know what they say – no loos = lots of poos.

Streaky Bay Council is currently looking at how to deal with the rising popularity of Perlubie Beach. According to the council there can be up to 100 vans camped on the beach during the busy season. If there are just two people per van going to the toilet once a day, that’s 1400 poos a week that need to be dealt with. Sorry for saying poo so much, I’ll move on in a minute.

Poo needs to be like litter – you bring it in, you pack it out. There are plenty of options available at your local outdoor shop.

Good work is being done. Local councils are trying hard to both educate travellers and provide both more facilities and more structure. Revegetation and rehabilitation projects such as those being run by the little legends at Lake Wangary Primary are making a difference.

But in the meantime it’s up to those enjoying our wonderful coast to tread lightly and do the right thing. Let’s not wreck what we came to enjoy.

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