Port Lincoln Part 2

I spent the day exploring Port Lincoln and the surrounding area. It was just a magic day and the last that autumn had to offer was unbelievably fine. 

Above is the view from my apartment. I could struggle out of bed to that every morning, you wouldn't even have to ask nicely. After a leisurely breakfast I headed for the foreshore grabbed a coffee and soaked up the rays. The foreshore had marble plinths along the way commemorating things such as Matthew Flinders finding the place, the first fishing trawler, the last cargo sailing ship; that sort of thing. Right in the middle of the park however, almost at the waters edge, is a statue of Makybe Diva. I mean Matthew Flinders found the place but the horse got the statue. It makes you proud to be an Aussie.

The statue cost $180,000.00 and is a life size replica. Her owner  (Tony Santic) comes from the town so there is a legitimate connection. Plus its not everyday you win the Melbourne Cup and to do it three times is pretty special. It made for an interesting diversion. 

I headed to the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum where they had an excellent display of the all the commercial fishing activities that goes on around the town. There are cray fisherman, prawn fisherman, tuna fisherman, abalone divers and oyster farmers. Aquaculture is big business in Port Lincoln. The museum's name sake was a local Finnish boat builder who lived here for over 50 years. There are many examples of his handiwork on display.

The town also offers a range of aquatic activities that a visitor can partake in. You can go diving with sharks (yeah right), you can swim with the tuna (sorry but they won't swim too well when they are served medium rare with a white wine sauce) or you can swim with the sea lions (nobody seemed to notice it was a day before Winter) along with a host of other things. I passed on all of these and went in search of food.

I headed out to Coffin Bay home to what are considered to be the world's best oysters. What a sad story that place is. It got its name for being the place where an almost entire ship load of passengers were buried. They were coming to Australia to settle in the only state that didn't have convicts and that was their fate. Struck down by yellow fever and never setting foot in their new homeland. Nuh, its all lies it was actually named by Matthew Flinders after one of his admiralty buddies Isaac Coffin. I liked my story better however.

Lunch: Ignore the Water and Admire the View

As you can see lunch was pretty good, I followed up the oysters with a tuna steak salad, truly awesome. 

From there I needed to walk of my over indulgence and headed to the Coffin Bay National Park. I paid my entry fee and took in some of the views.

I communed with nature and actually got my feet wet walking along this beach.

I finished my afternoon with an hours walk up to a lookout where nature came to me. The bird life was abundant, I was greeted by kangaroos and the emus that had earlier tried to impale themselves on my car still were pretty friendly (don't be surprised if I come home with an emu hood ornament, they are seriously suicidal). I headed back to town to catch up with a friend of a friends. There must be something about the Bryant name, everyone with that surname seems to be going out of their way to be nice to me.

Jim Bryant is a spritely 82 year old and former chairman of the local radio station along with a myriad of other business interests. He kindly took time out of his incredibly active life to give me a few tips about the journey ahead, share some gossip about out old mate Daryl Durrant and just generally chew the fat. 

I retired for the evening, grabbed a whisky, took in the awesome view and did some preparation for the Nullarbor. I'm not sure what the phone/internet is like so I may be off the radar for a few days. Anyway the plan is to spend the day exploring Streaky Bay then bedding down in Ceduna for the evening. After that its 1,200 kilometres of I know not what. I'll catch everybody on the flip side.