More From Port Lincoln

Tuesday was Australia Day and after a relaxed morning we went into town for the festivities. There weren’t many really. No bands, just a ‘Greasy Pole’ competition where kids edge their way out on a greasy pole suspended over the water from the jetty and the one to get the furtherest wins. There was a prawn peeling competition. We felt it was a bit flat really.

We went back home and put some lamb on the Barbie and watched some young people playing cricket down by the water. That was more like it.

Wednesday we went for a drive in the Lincoln National Park. Had morning tea at Taylor’s Landing. A nice spot but nothing there but a toilet campsites and a boat ramp. If I was camping in the park I would go further on.

We went on to Surfleet Cove and Spalding Cove where you can camp at the latter. It is sealed road all the way there and had a very nice beach on Boston Bay and looked back to Port Lincoln. It would be a good spot to camp but the predominant southerly winds blow in at you there and it would not be my preferred spot. The same applies to Fisherman’s Point.

Surfleet Cove.

The pick of the places was September Beach. It is protected from the southerlies and has a beautiful beach with crystal clear water. A sting ray swam between us while we were there. The only disadvantage was that there is about 10km of gravel road, some of it a bit rough, to get there. It would be worth it though.

Port Lincoln, Eyre Peninsular

Saturday the 23^rd we arrived in Port Lincoln. We were there for the Tunarama 2016. This is the tuna festival that is held there every year. We made the booking back in early December when we knew we wanted to be on the Eyre Peninsular and worried about getting in somewhere. It turned out the timing was pretty good to be there for Tunarama. We stayed at the PL Tourist Park. We were right on the water of Boston Bay.

Firstly a couple of views of the Boston Bay foreshore at Port Lincoln.

Then the festival parade came through.

That night was fireworks from the jetty. The scene of the fireworks over the bay was aided by the many boats that had come in for the ‘blessing of the fleet’.

On Sunday we watched the Tuna Tossing World Championship on the beach. The winning toss from the men was 18m 300mm. The record toss was just over double that in 1989. He had to be an Olympic athlete to make that toss.

Following that was the boat race of the boats that were made earlier that morning of plywood and silicon, nails and staples by the sailors that were to man them.

On Monday we went on the Whalers Way drive. This is private property and is the most southern part of the Eyre Peninsular. It is $30 a vehicle if you pay at the gate and $35 if you pay at the Port Lincoln Visitors Centre. We saw some spectacular and rugged coastline.

There is a sink hole on the property that we had a look at.

One corner is Cape Wiles which is a haven for sea lions. There was plenty of them.

A couple more pics of Whalers Way.

We then left the property and went to Mikkira Station where we paid $15 to use their grounds and view all the koalas in their habitat. We had lunch and then walked around. We would have seen close to 20 koalas. Some very cute shots, the first koala holding a young one.

On the property there are also some ruins of the early homestead.

As we were walking around we started speaking to two couples. I quickly realized they were people that we had met two and a half years ago when we were on our first big trip. We had met them at Menindee Lakes in May 2013. We wound up going to the same caravan parks at the same times, all by coincidence, at Broken Hill, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs. We got on great with them and they were a lot of fun. It is almost unbelievable how we bump into them now two and a half years later at the bottom of Australia.