January 09 till Australia Day
The month that is Port Lincoln, a lovely place with very
friendly and happy people, many incapable of answering phone calls but... we’re having a great time here and here is how it
all went.
09 January
Headed off for our first four wheel drive adventure into
Lincoln National Park, decided to go to Memory Cove National for which you
require a key. We decided to also buy a
National Parks Pass ($65) which would get us into all the NP’s for the next 8
weeks. Left Lincoln and headed off to
Wanna which was a lookout with spectacular views, then decided to take one of
the 4 wheel drive tracks towards Memory Cove.
We had the map and we thought we had the whole thing sussed, a comment
in hindsight – never think, it doesn’t always work. So we drove down towards (what we thought)
was Cape Tournefort via some (what we thought!!) were pretty impressive
tracks. Colman let down the air pressure
of the tires and then climbed the first sand dune successfully, did some rock
driving parallel to brilliant views of the beaches, cliffs straight down to the
ocean. Now according to my map, we
should not have been going parallel to the beach, but hey it’s all good. Until we got the point where it was a dead
end…. Yeap, our first 4 wheel drive and we were geographically misplaced! Turned around and headed back, to get
promptly stuck on a sand hillock (the thing wasn’t even 50 centimetres high),
as we were letting down the tires and digging ourselves out I got my daily
Scoopon offer on my phone, which made me
thing that not a solitary soul knew where we were.. Sent a quick text of to Petar to ask him if
he did not hear from us tonight – send out the cavalry!! Anyway we got out, had a race with several
emu’s in the area and finally found the road down to Memory Cove. Big gate to unlock, and then headed off doing
the breakneck speed of approximately 3 km’s per hour.. yep could have walked
faster. They allow a maximum of 10
people in the cove at one point in time, and you are allowed to camp in there
although no water or facilities are available.
Made coffee, ate cake and sat on the white sand and watched the world go
by. Memory cove was named by Mathew
Flinders in 1802 in memory of 8 of his fellow sailors who were lost while
searching for fresh water in the area.
Their cutter capsized in the incredible rough seas of the east coast of
the shore and the island off the east coast were named after the 8 men who
drowned. Owen, Taylor, Grindal, Lewis,
Hopkins, Little, Smith & Curta. A
little history lesson!! Then returned
home at break neck speed picking it up to about 10kms an hour. 30km’s of dirt road later and Suzi was no
longer red but a shade of brown.
11 January
Because we had our National Parks Pass we thought we would check
out Whalers Way, a key is also required but the tourist office told us that we
could pick it up as during school holidays there was someone manning the
gate. Straight down there and stopped
next to a rather run down shed which advertised snacks, drinks and souvenirs,
now based on the look of the place I figured what we had was enough. Then the person ‘manning’ the gate appeared
and I decided that we definitely did not require anything at all, at all! I think she lives in the Deliverance caravan
park we visit with Petar on our first visit.
She advise us in no uncertain terms that we needed to pay $30 per car to
go in, that the Tourist office are causing trouble because they don’t tell
anyone this and she wasn’t happy with the whole situation. As we wanted to take my mother here when she
arrived we decided to save the money and headed off to do alternate sightseeing. We visited the Mary Ellis wreck beach, then
drove right around the outside of Lincoln NP.
This included a detour to Woodcutter beach, it was 4 wheel drive
recommended, so we thought with our vast experience we would be fine. Had we carried cream, by the end it would
have been perfectly churned butter, it took us about 1 hour to do 4 km’s. We sat and had a lovely lunch on the sheltered
beach, at this point we are professionals, and we have the kettle, the cooker,
the coffee ever-ready in the back of the car.
(as well as wine glasses and a cork screw which we have not yet had
cause to use!) Drove back and did the
trip around the park, went up as far as Donnington beach and then headed back
towards Taylor landing and out. It was
very windy on the east side of the park so those beaches were not spectacular.
The next few days were R&R, we did join Petar and
friends at The Church (Pier Hotel) for a few drinks, met Kusin John (who
invited us to his 60th), Remy & Alex two more friends of Petar
and Josel. Then went back to Josel &
Yolandas place where we ate, drank, danced, sang and generally had a great
night. Next day seedy but all good.
15 January
Had organised with Ike & Sandy (local 4 wheel drive
club) to head out to do the beach run from Sleaford Mere to Wanna, which is
true dune driving. 2 other couples came
along (Pam, Malcolm, Jenny & Geoff), who it turns out were friends with people
we had met in McLaren Vale and who we were due to visit in the next couple of
days – small world. Headed off towards
Mary Ellis wreck beach, where we were all introduced and all the men let down
the tires!! Off we went and it was a brilliant day, got bogged once on a beach
at the very start of the trip, but that could have been avoided but it was a
good learning curve. Apparently all
areas of the NP at one point were allowed to be driven in by 4 wheel drive, a great
place to learn. Then the local council in consultation with Parks SA, 4 wheel
drive clubs and nature organisation got together to work out a strategy for
saving the area. One person in
particular was adamant that car should now only be allowed to drive on
designated roads. The others argued that
Lincoln NP (unlike Coffin Bay) has shifting dunes, so all traces will always be wiped out
eventually and it a great place for people to learn. Anyway the first guy had the loudest voice
and eventually they listened to him and only the actually tracks were allowed
to be driven on. Going off the tracks
could cost up to $250. This guy then
applied for a special permit to allow him to take tourists on the dune tracks,
they saw through his plot, denied him the permit, but it stands, no driving off
the actual track. Nevertheless it was a
great trip and Colman did great – I’m sooo proud of him… (I will get a smack
for that but I can hear the people who know the joke have a laugh…) We went
over dunes where you could not see down the other side while sitting in the
car, and when driving down them you dangled in your seat belt and up dunes
that you went up and all you saw was
sky. It was very exciting and we will be doing it again when my mother gets
here, the term shaken but not stirred was used many times that day and I will
put videos and photos to check it out.
Mind you they really don’t do it any justice! Had lunch out there, got to know the people
and had a good day. Just as well we
hadn’t washed the car – no point at all!
16 January till 21 January
Had lunch with Jim & Gail (friends we met in McLaren
Vale who had Momo’s twin). A very
relaxing day and great company, got lots of tips and hints about our upcoming
adventures. As we left Kusin John drove
past looking very confused, turns out he lives just down the road from these
guys. The next few days, worked on Momo,
took her in for a little bit of a repair, washed her, picked up stuff my mother
had sent up from Adelaide. Ike &
Sandy called past for coffee.
21 January
Kusin Johns birthday, great night. Met lots of people we had met at Petars 60th
and many more. Great food and good
company, got a spin home with Steph & Ros
22 January
Went down to Coffin
Bay NP, there was a local craft market on which I wanted to check out. Met a woman who I will take my mother, she
was into quilting and felting and said she would be delighted to meet her, then
to find a beach, got 2 dozen oysters for $15 and came home. Jim & Gail were due to arrive at 4 for
coffee.
23 January
Swim with Tuna, set off from the Marina at 9.45 and caught
up with Tammy & Stellios from the party.
The trip was very interesting; it took all up about 3 hours. About 15 to get out to the pontoon, then we
spent about 2 hours out there and then spent the rest cruising back past the
Lincoln Foreshore with running documentary.
Some interesting points … Tuna
are known as the Ferrari of the sea, they are able to go 0 to 60 miles per hour
faster than a Ferrari, despite the fact that one is on land and one is in
water. Happy tunas are dark coloured
tunas, unhappy ones are blue tunas!! And
if they are happy they will chase each other’s tails – must be male.. They only have 2 predators in the ocean, the
killer whale and the great white and let’s not forget the humans! And apparently
the price for a tuna can go higher then mentioned above, here the princely sum
of $75,000 was mentioned. My thoughts –
Japanese have more money than sense (sorry!!).
They found the most effective way of catching them was to coral them
which is what they now do, they catch the smaller fish and fatten them up while
they stay in these pens, of which there are many around PL and Boston
Island. Boston Island incidentally is
owned by the ex lord major of PL. It
costs $10,000per day to for grain/fertilizer ships to load & unload at the
PL wharf. A ship came in from some
Middle eastern country to load up with wheat and they were not allowed until
some serious rust in the grain holds had been fixed. Locals were used to fix the rust at $25,000
per week labour in addition to the daily fee.
It took 5 weeks to complete and before they were allowed to fill up! A
nice profit…At another point about 2 years ago a grain cargo ship came to dock
and lost all power ending up crashing into pilchard boat moored against the
wharf. It had cost one of the Lucans 5
million dollars and 2 years to build this boat, and it took 15 minutes to sink
it. On the positive side, had the
container hit the wharf it would have destroyed it, or certainly caused much
damage. Another interesting thing I never
knew that as far as deep water vessels are concerned there are 2 main types, the Panamax Class, and the Cape
Class. This is to do with the amount of
ship that is under the surface (this does have a name but I can’t think of it
right now). The way this is established
is that if a ship sits too far in the water,(ah yes – the draft), it will not
be able to pass through the Panama canal and will therefore have to go around
the Cape of Africa. Colman remembered
finer details – if the draft is 15m or under it is Panamax, if the draft is
more than 15m it is Cape class. Now
there is one for the quiz night. After
we came back went down the stone jetty where Colman caught his second squid.
24 Jan & 25 Jan
Pottered about, Ros & Stephan turned up in the evening
for coffee & bubbly
26 January
Oz Day, headed down to the foreshore to meet the crew. They had a free citizen’s breakfast which we
did not participate in because we were due for lunch. It was the first time we had seen Desi in a
couple of weeks so a lot of catching up was happening After breakfast
they had the citizenship ceremony and then we wandered around the various
stalls which were very good quality stuff, unlike some of these festivals in Adelaide
where a lot of it is cheap & nasty. Colman had gone up to Winters Hill with Petar,
Josel & Remy to check out the set up for Saturday and Desi and I chatted. Desi & co then headed off to a party of
one of the couples who had been naturalised and C & I went into the Long Table
enclosure. This had cost us $70pp and we
were curious how it would all be, sounded great! As you walked in you received a glass of
Boston Bay wine (very nice), then they walked around with Sushi, as well as
Lamb roulade for nibbles. After that we
saw Tuna filleting by a true professional.
First thing the head came off then the tail. Then the tuna is divided into 4 sections,
front top, front bottom, rear top, rear bottom.
The different cuts have different qualities and are used differently by
the Japanese. We would probably just
throw any piece on the barbie but not them.
They have different names and very different price tags attached to
them. Here are the cuts (quiz night
again),
Akami – Top front – medium quality
Senaki – Top back – highest quality
Harakami – Bottom front – Extra fatty & very highly priced,
Japanese women who eat this cut apparently have a lot less wrinkles, so they
are now planning on using this in cosmetics
Haranaka – Bottom back – fatty
Another favourite of the Japanese are they eyes of the Tuna and one
seller here was asked how many tunas he had – 20,000, so they asked him for
40,000 eyes and were prepared to pay handsomely, funnily the guy refused to
gouge the eyes out of the fish prior to shipping, so the deal was off.
The lunch started after the demonstration and after much seat shuffling
we settled in with some very interesting people around us. There was wine & water on the table and a
plate with a Morton Bay Bug, Kingfish roulade, Tartar & oyster dolmades,
some seared Lamb and local olive oil, very tasty. Main was Seafood Paella, followed by a
brilliant cheese platter. I ended up
being handed a huge lump of cheese to take home with me because we couldn’t eat
it all. It was very tasty. We were a
little disappointed in the Paella, and generally portions and refills were
small and not forthcoming. But the
company was good and we had a laugh. Two
couples opposite us were about to head off to France to spend 14 days cycling
up 13 hills – 1 a day – why I don’t know but they were really looking forward
to it. The poor woman next to Colman
ended up with half a bottle of red on her white dress, not C’s fault but she
took it well. The whole thing ended
around 4pm, I spent a while watching some aboriginal dances as well the Major
of PL doing some indigenous strutting.
It was fun. After we met the crew
for drinks at the Tasman, by 6 o’clock we were ready for home, as was Desi, she
was still tired from her east coast tour of Oz.
Home, snooze, walk and watched the Athena leave the harbour and carry on
her trip from Adelaide to Perth.
27 January
Get ready for my mother. Arrives
today at 6.20.
