27 Jan to 11 Feb - Mutti Visit

27 January

Ended up being a bit late in town and my mother was already waiting for us.  Took her down to the Pier for a welcome drink and ran into Bradley Flaherty(Police Super) on the way down.  Settled down with a glass of wine and Desi & Petar arrived.  Had dinner and more drinks and a very relaxing night, the Jim Beam girls turned up at some point and Petar & Colman ended up getting a beanie each as well as a photo with the Jim Beam Babes!! We also bumped into Toni & Lee from the Long Table at Tunarama. Everyone was happy & my mother had a good first evening (I have my suspicions!!)

28 January

Port Lincoln Tunarama Parade, went and met Ros and Stephan then met up with Desi & co and watched the parade.  After that we wandered around the stalls, went home and organised salads for tonight’s Goat on a spit up Winters Hill.  It was a great night, food was wonderful and we all enjoyed ourselves, my mother fitted in perfectly and we met a few more interesting people.  Everyone was there, P, D, J, Y, C, R, Alex and lots of others.  The visitors as well as Vera and Chris turned up.  Walked out to watch the fireworks and left sometime after midnight.

29 January

Did very little, needed to recover! Colman wanted to see the Tuna tossing finals, however I got the time wrong and so he missed it…it is a very sore point so I will leave it at that.  Apparently they use plastic tunas in the heats and the trials, but at the finals they use real tuna.  Never did discover what they did to the tuna after it had been tossed! Coffee once again at DG’s.

30 January

Whalers Way ($30 entry fee per car), private property at Cape Carnot, it was named by Frecyinet who was the sidekick of Baudin and discovered in 1803, Carnot was apparently one of Napoleons generals.   It has some of the oldest rocks in South Australia, two thousand four hundred and sixty million years old (give or take a 100 thousand years) and is one of the wildest coastlines about, quite a few people have lost their lives there due to freak waves, and watching it you can easily see how. There are spots where the earth/rocks cracked apart and you can stand and look down in these cracks, if you were to slide the rocks together they would actually fit! Theakstone crevasse is amazing; once you get past the howling wind and the sheer force of the ocean you could see how the two halves of the crevasse would slide together and fit perfectly.  Everything is undercut and parts are collapsing back into the sea so some of the lookouts are no longer accessible. This was also an old whaling area and there are remnants of the old whaling stations, they used to harpoon the whales (Southern Right Whales) and then drag them on shore on these naturally sloping rocks that look a bit like ramps, which made it easy (for the whalers anyway).  Years ago there were still huge cauldrons around that had been used to boil the whale blubber, but have since been souvenired.  Very gruesome but at least is was man against beast, rather than the current machinery used by the Japanese in our waters!!! (pissy – no, never – not me!!) The roads are rough but it could be done in a normal car.  Next few days were spent relaxing, checking out Port Lincoln and enjoying life.

02 February

The Koppio Smithy Museum about 40kms out of Lincoln includes a 1890 cottage as well as old cars, tractors and heavens knows what else including my favourite, the Bob Dobbins Barbed Wire collection, now that was fascinating!  So on that note, I will bore you with details about barbed wire.   There are over 800 variations of wire at the museum, but there are actually over 2000 types of barbed wire in the world (we humans are twisted!!).  The oldest wire dates from 1868 and was patented in USA, the minimum length you need to be ‘a collector’ is 45 cm and the price of the barb wire can range from 25cents to US$400.  Some of the most evil and deadly looking wire is (was) made by blind people somewhere in Africa (I forgot the name of the country in all the excitement, Colman thinks it might have been Rhodesia!)   It was actually one of the best National Trust museums that I have every visited, an opinion shared by the others.  On a more sobering note, there is also a memorial to the 2005 Black Tuesday bush fire which had burnt up to the perimeter fence of the museum and it was very lucky that it was not destroyed.  The fire burnt 145,000 hectares of land and killed 9 people, 93 homes were destroyed and about 47,000 livestock killed.   The heat of the fire must have been incredible, part of the exhibition were ‘sculptures’ including tractors with the headlamps melted into the metal, trees with metal bits fussed into them and one lump of aluminium that used to be a boat engine, you could just about make out the prop.  The fire took 17 minutes to move from Coffin Bay to North Shields, which as the crow flies would be about 40km, winds were gusting at 70kms p/h and it was about 40 degrees.  There is a hill just outside of North Shields (which we were to get to know quite well later in the piece) and apparently a police car drove up the hill to see the fire, they realised it was burning quick so they turned and drove out of there doing about 140km per hour, the heat of the fire melted the taillights of the police car.  We have heard all sorts of tales by people who were actually closely linked to the fire, one couple we met had lost their son in the fire (he was CFS).  One man had two thirds of his house burnt down with him and family trapped in the other third.  A neighbour rescued him using a digger to break down the walls.  Speaking to him was a very sobering and unsettling experience, he told me a few tales of what had happened and also the consequences in the neighbourhood after the fire.  It appears the after effects are still there and illness and suicide has increased dramatically since the fire. I think that situation would be unimaginable unless you had been in something similar.  Apparently the bushfire escape plan now is to head for the ocean and stay there until it’s all over.

03 February

Tour through Lincoln National park followed by a picnic and a long relax at September Beach. 

04 February

Coffins Bay NP 4 wheel driving with Ike & Sandy, Geoff & Jenni plus a couple of others, drove to Point Sir Isaac via 7 Mile beach.  It was a great spin along 7 mile beach, until we reached a “road block” of about 7 4 wheel drivers, not parked in an orderly line along the beach, but next to each other across the beach. What were they thinking.. turns out one of the guys with us belonged to their club so they had a chat and we skirted around them and I kept my mouth shut about – half wits and such like.  We drove a goodly stretch down the beach and then decided to have lunch, we pulled over set ourselves up and settled down for a good old chat. Suddenly these aforementioned half wits turned up, pulled up right next to us (now don’t forget we were on 7 mile beach, not so named because it was 500 meters long), cranked up their stereo’s, pulled out the beer and a Frisbee and started having a great old time.  That the Frisbee didn’t land in my sandwich surprises me considering they might as well have been sharing their tables and glasses with us. Anyway as we started to pack up, so did they and then disappeared into the distance before we could sit in our cars.  Now if someone can explain that to me and make it sound anything other than moronic please let me know!  My mother discovered she had found a favourite bird (we think they were Sandpipers), they were cute, rushing around the incoming & outgoing waves, never getting wet but always looking busy.   After lunch we kept going around towards Point Sir Isaac which was spectacular, it was more of a rock outcrop than a beach but the rocks had been weathered so in parts they looked paper thin, and other parts the rocks had holes in them, just as beautiful as the pod of dolphins that were swimming just off shore. Reef Point Lookout was on a cliff with brilliant views and then we headed down to Sensation Beach.  Sensation Beach is called this because a Tuna boat called The Sensation was stuck here for almost 3 years back in 1969.  Apparently the skipper and crew were down having a few bevies when the boat ran aground, three of the crew were sent with the rear anchor out to sea in a small boat in an effort to plant the anchor and then pull the ship back out.  The bottom being only a couple of feet of sand and then lime stone the anchor didn’t catch but dragged so it ended up high and dry on the beach at the next tide,  nothing could be done, the ship stayed on the beach.  The owner of the boat decided to salvage it and brought in a company whose motto was “The impossible we will do in a day, Miracles take a bit longer”, they were a land based salvage company who decided to get in some heavy machinery (trucks, bulldozers etc) and tow it overland out of the park over sand dunes and such like.  The first 2 kilometres of dunes proved to be their downfall, this whole attempt proved to be the end of this salvage company, attempt 1 failure.   In 1971 the next attempt was to put it on rails and take it out to sea, this failed, the rails sank into the soft sand and (you guessed it) the king tide came in and finished that attempt, attempt 2 – failure!  The ship now lay there, steel from these two salvage attempts can still be seen today.             Finally in 1972, after all these attempts they got an ocean going tug designed for moving oil rigs up from Adelaide to pull the Sensation  off the beach, it was successful and she was refurbished and is now a fishing boat in Coffs harbour.  Apparently for another $100,000 over what it cost to try all these salvage attempts they could have bought another brand new boat.  Anyway -Ce La Vie!  On our way out it rained a little and made the road mad slippery, Ike was up ahead when a roo which had been laying across the road got up to get out of the way of the car, I reckon we were doing all of 10kmph.  Anyway this roo wasn’t too steady on his feet, he slipped most un-dignifiedly and slid underneath Ike’s car who hit the brakes.  The roo then crawled out from under the front of the car, unhurt, and hopped off looking a bit bemused.  His little group of friends were having a right old laugh I would suggest, as were we once we got over the shock of maybe having hit the little thing, well all 7 foot of it anyway… Saw quite a few other roos, turbo chicks (as emus are called around here) as well as a most gorgeous sea eagle.  Apparently he hangs out in this tree all the time and just poses for passing tourist, I don’t think he was stuffed because he did move – a little!  We then had to race back to Kirton Point  because we were due to meet Toni & Lee for dinner at Lee’s place, this had been the third attempt to organise this meal and although we were late it was all good and dinner was great.  Lee’s is a gorgeous pole home and beautifully decorated, we caught a taxi home well after midnight.

05 February

Tidy up and pack up for tomorrow, mother did heaps of sewing for us.

06 February

Port Lincoln to Coffin Bay via Haigh (Hyde) road where we meet  Paul, Des and Craig under rather questionable circumstances.  We had picked up the trailer from the airport and decided to take a short cut and avoid going through Lincoln, I was the scout and found us a nice little dirt road that would do the trick, not to corrugated, not to windy, no overhanging trees, I did fail to notice the incline.  I puddled off in Suzie to check the rest of the road when  I got a call from Colman (with my mother on board), they had stalled half way up this rather steep hill I had missed and then the trailer had kind of jack knifed when the bus rolled back!  Oh Dear!  When I arrive with the car, it did look a little unsettling and bloody hell that hill was steep and the road surface was fine gravel, no grip.  We rang the RAA to see if we could get a tow, God bless the little man when he arrived in his Toyota Troopie, one look said it all!  One of the local farmers then arrived, Paul who was very helpful and pragmatic, nothing was damaged, no one was hurt – it’s all good lets sort it out.  Another farmer from up the road, Des, had a doctor’s appointment but he quickly brought down his pneumatic backhoe to see if it would work, it was not suitable for towing so he with many apologies he  had to leave us to get to this appointment he had waited 4 months for.  His wife came down to see how we were doing, Pauls wife came around to, in the meantime Des had called another farmer to see if he could help. Lots of people  had been watching us from North Shields caravan park, cause this stretch of road could be seen from everywhere!!  Finally Craig rocked up with the biggest tractor I have ever seen, 8 tyres that stood taller than me and I could just about see him sitting up there in his little cab!  On the first attempt the tow rope broke which luckily enough caused no damage although it scared the bejesus out of us, after doubling the rope and on the second attempt he managed to tow all 19 tonne of us straight up the hill.  Many interesting conversation were held on the side of that hill and the mentality of the farming community shone through, they are truly an amazing bunch.  We asked what we owed and were told ‘this is how we do it here, mates stick together”. Hmm, how much we could learn!  Sounds a bit like the Sensation rescue but with a better ending!  Anyhow, after all that off we toddled to Coffin Bay which was actually named after a buddy of Matthew Flinders, Isaac Coffin who assisted Matthew in his preparations for his voyage to Australia.  I’m getting very suspicious of old Matthews preferences at this point, I have yet to come across anything he named after a female……It was discovered in 1802 and been involved in the fish industry ever since, it is now known as fisherman’s paradise and the perfect place for breeding oyster due to the perfect water conditions.

07 February

Drove back into Coffin Bay NP to go for a long walk along Almonto Beach and then up to Point Avoid. Another fascinating place, the land and  water came together at a right angle one lot of waves came straight in from the horizon and the other waves came along the bay at a right angle to the first lot. Spent ages watching the water come in, when the tide turned it was surprising how quickly rocks went under water, you can really see how quickly you get stuck down here if you didn’t know the tides and weren’t careful.  Went to Pure Oysters for our hit of oysters and my mother tried her first real & fresh oyster, it took a while to get it down her throat but I think in the end she did like it, but wouldn’t necessarily try it again (!!).  We bought a couple of dozen and headed home for yet another feast.   Colman went for a midnight walk with his camera, it was a full moon and a lovely night and he took some great photos.

08 February

Up to Elliston and did the Tourist drive with all the Cliff Top Sculptures, then to Streaky Bay where we did the Cape Bauer Loop and then the Westall Way loop.  Again just amazing and rugged scenery, one spot called the Whistling Rocks the ocean had undercut the rocks and there were holes in the rocks.  When a wave came in under the rocks it would push the air out through the holes and it made a sound like heavy breathing or a deep sigh.  Apparently it used to sound like a woman crying in distress but some clever people decided to put pipes down the holes to make the noise louder but just succeeded in making it sound duller but nevertheless very impressive and somewhat eerie, would hate to spend a night there with all that racket!!  We then headed off to  Murphy Haystacks which are located on private property but are in geographical terms called Insleberg (see you do learn) and they are solid blobs of pink granite created about 1500 million years ago and are made up of either boulders or pillars. They were made about 7 to 10 kilometres below the earth surface but now due to erosion parts of them have become exposed.  That is the end of the geography lesson cause it doesn’t say any more on the information board! They are called Murphy’s because it was an Irish agricultural expert who was very impressed with how well the owner must have harrowed his land to get such huge abundance of hay!! Always the Irish, plus that the guy that owns the land is called Murphy helps the matter somewhat!!  Dinner at the yacht club, very cosy atmosphere, get your own meals, stack your own plates and on top of it all..Colman missed out on rhubarb crumble! All three of us went to check out the full moon and take our own moon shadow photos of Coffin Bay.  Home for port to recover!

09 February

We had booked into the Triple Bay Charter aquaculture and sightseeing cruise on recommendation from the tourist office so we were ready bright and early at the marina for a day of sightseeing and tasting sashimi.  We met Peter who would be the captain, tour guide, cook and general entertainer, which he definitely was.  The first thing we discovered was the reason for the name, there are 3 bays in Port Lincoln -  Boston Bay, Proper Bay and Porter Bay, Peter also  explained all the different types of boats, individuals who owned them as well as other very interesting idiosyncrasies of the locals. We then went for a cruise out to the seal colony and apart from seals we saw sea lions and dolphins.  Followed by a trip to the back of Boston Island (as mentioned earlier owned by an ex-mayor) and that is where we got to taste the Sashimi.  Unfortunately the company who usually provides him the Sashimi had sold out of the stuff so had to supply him with an alternative.  This was in our favour, we got to taste the Japanese export grade Otoro cut, and this sells in Oz (if you can get it cause it usually goes to Japan) for $600 per kilo!! It was divine and the best I have tasted, not that I would spend $60 on the couple of slices we each had!  Peter was funny, he gave us a plastic plate and made us stick a little shot glass to it with double sided tape, and we were told once he had put Soya into the glass, not to put the plate down under any circumstances.  Reason that on an earlier trip a very posh elderly lady with beautifully coiffed purple hair had gotten on his trip, someone had put the plate down, a gust of wind and she wore the lot.  That wasn’t the end; Peter tried to help, grabbed a towel and to wipe the Soya off her face, also removing about an inch of foundation and both her eyebrows!!  I don’t think she gave the trip a very high rating. After lunch we took a trip around the Kingfish pens which are kept in one area at the back of Boston Island because the water there is calmer and more suited to these fish (apparently tuna prefer it rougher(!!??!!) and were told the tale of the ‘outhouse’.  Staff need to come out to the kingfish pens regularly to check on the fish as well as the condition of the pens, they come out on fully equipped boats (ie toilet, kitchen and smoking area) however our beloved government and the associated OH&S rules decided they needed to intervene.  They made these people who own the pens organise and build a floating ‘Smoko’ room, so the idea is that the staff get off their boat, do their job, when they want ‘smoko’ they don’t return to their boat but head on over to the ‘floating smoko’.  It cost heaps (I did forget) and guess what, it is never used! Gotta love it!  Another interesting story and the last I will bore you with on this day.  How does one catch the perfect selected  tuna for the Japanese I hear you ask? Here goes: diver gets into water and lets the tuna swim past, tunas can only see forward so they sneak up behind and grab the tuna by the tail and give them a hoik backwards.  This disorientates the tuna and causes a rush of water into their gills and they puff out their gills to get rid of excess water, while the gills are open the diver sticks his hand into the gills and grabs a hold of the heart of the tuna and gives it a bit of a squeeze.  This causes the tuna to freeze and not fight, nor get a fright because he has no idea what is going on cause he still can’t see the diver.  The diver then let’s go a little of the heart and guides the tuna forwards to the platform where his mate (divers not tunas) is waiting for him.  The ‘sushi’ makers now have a maximum of 4 minutes to get the tuna out of the water, killed, de-brained (!!), insert a metal wire down spin to kill nervous system and stop fish from stressing and stop the meat from being contaminated  and onto ice, the best time so far has apparently been 41 seconds.  If it takes longer then the specified time, the tuna is rejected and cannot be sold to the Japanese, the japs actually stand there and watch and time the undertaking!  They haul the fish out and kill it with a spike to the head (apparently there is a dot on the poor tuna which indicates the point where the brain sits).  Although I am not a killer and prefer my food to have no relation to all those living creatures around me, I did find this fascinating.  In fact the whole trip was brilliant, should any of you ever get to do it – it’s a must do!  Don’t take kids – they will be bored!

10 February

Sleaford to Wanna beach run with the 4WD crowd, didn’t get stuck this time but it was fun.  Coffee and lunch in town, Mutti did a bit of shopping and then we headed back to organise for tomorrow.

11 February

Lunch at Del Giorno’s and we finally tried the Kinkawooka mussels, as much as I don’t really like mussels, these were divine, right I’m a mussel snob – its Kinkawooka or its nothing!  This was followed by a trip to Delacoleen winery, the guy could just about look up from the newspaper to say hello and we did inconvenience him greatly by asking for a taste and the wine was crap, oh well - , most unexciting and don’t book me in for Sunday breakfast!  Mutti left at 6pm and it was sad to see her go, we had a great time and she has now found her number 1 son in law!!  We headed off back to Coffins.  Next few days were spent organising and pottering around.  Still tidying up bins and are sending some stuff back to Adelaide as we have decided we don’t need it.

That’s all so for now – Love from MoMo&Co