Port Lincoln 2009

November 22nd, Travelled to Port Lincoln, passing through a lot of showery rain, and stopped at “Murphys Haystacks” for some photos. They are huge Rock formations which in the early days were mistaken for Haystacks by passers by. We drove into Elliston for a coffee break at the Little Bay Café, then had a quick look around Town and found that there were great views over the water. At Port Lincoln we booked into Port Lincoln Tourist Park, for 7 nights, located on a hill overlooking Boston Bay. What a wonderful sight, very easy on the eyes.




November 23rd, Quiet day today, lots of reading, did a little shopping and simply enjoyed our surroundings. We drove out to Lincoln Cove Marina and found a great Opal Shop that makes all its products on the premises and sells direct to the Public. We were impressed and could see some possible presents on his shelves.






November 24th, Another quiet day and we were sitting admiring our view and decided we could take more of this place, so have decided to stay here for another week, we will leave here on Tuesday 8th December

November 25th, Went to the Information Centre and booked the “Fish Factory Tour” for Friday. Dropped Val off in Town to wander around the shops while I went to visit the Railway Museum, housed in the original Railway Station building. They have an extensive range of memorabilia and original documents, very interesting. I picked Val up and we went to check out the local seafood suppliers and found some great bargains. Looks like it will be a seafood Christmas lunch this year & sausages for me.

November 27th, We did the Fish Factory Tour this morning and came away so much wiser. It was very informative and gave us an insight to the Fishing Industry and were shown, first hand, the processing of the fish before it is sold to the Restaurants, exporters or the public. The Tour ended up with tastings in their shop, which Val enjoyed immensely. It was a wet day, showers and strong winds while on the news we see that Sydney is having a heat wave. It was a great day to do a Factory Tour and finish with a bit of Retail Therapy for Val.

November 28th, Wet, windy, sunny, then wet, windy, sunny again. That’s to-days weather in a nutshell, all day. Just when I had set up a fishing rod to try my luck off the rocks but I’ll get over it, as we still have plenty of time left here in Port Lincoln. We took out a temporary membership at the Library so we are doing plenty of reading.

November 30th, The rain eased off to-day but the wind was still blowing strong, so went to try the fishing off the rocks at Snapper Point. Its name giving me some hope of catching a fish, did get a few bites but lost 2 lots of rig on snags, then decided to give it away.

December 1st, Went to the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum and found it very interesting and informative. Axel was a Fin who was working on one of the Ships carrying bagged grain out of Port Lincoln, and with a “sailmaking” mate signed off, then started a ship building business, in that era it was all wooden boats. The Museum is built around his original Boat Shed and has been extended to house a great display of Maritime History. On the way back through Town I went to photograph the bronze stature of the famous racehorse “Makybe Diva” in the waterfront Park.

December 2nd, Went into the Optometrists for my eye test, had to get new glasses as I broke the bridge piece on my old ones. Unfortunately they don’t expect I’ll have them before we leave here next Tuesday but they will post them on. It’s the only way I was able to get new glasses before Christmas.

December 4th, Still no luck with the fishing, so decided to buy a squid jig and try my luck at squidding. Everybody is catching them off the Jetty at the Caravan Park. Drove up to the Winter Hill Lookout and was amazed at the beautiful 360 deg. panoramic views. After dinner I rugged up, to ward off the cold wind, and joined the group on the jetty to try to catch my first squid. As you can imagine everyone was catching squid, including the kids, except me. Nearly all the squidders had gone when finally I landed a squid and dropped it into my bucket. 5 minutes later I had the Jetty to myself so excitedly kept trying to get another. At 9.30pm, feeling the chill of the night I decided that the squid had left with the last of my fellow squidders and headed home, satisfied that I had at least caught one.

December 5th, Quiet day until 6pm, went to the Jetty to continue my squidding and caught 2 more before 8pm Dinner Time. Unfortunately the wind blew my bucket off the jetty, thankfully empty, and it sank to the bottom. All attempts to snag it were fruitless.

December 6th, Bought a new bucket to-day and tied a short rope to the handle. You know what they say, “once bitten twice shy”, so my new bucket will be tied to the jetty. I was the only squidder to catch any to-night and only one, so my total is 4.

December 7th, This is our last day, so we stocked up the freezer with local seafood for our Christmas Lunch, had a nice dinner at the Grand Tasman Hotel Bistro and Val pulled $150 out of their Poker Machines for an outlay of $50. We defrosted our 4 squid and had our 1st experience at cleaning them. It got a bit messy at times but we gained more confidence as we went and they are now packed in the freezer as well. To-morrow we will at least move on to Port Augusta, on our way home.