Port Lincoln

On another one of my visits to Adelaide, we took advantage of the long weekend to visit 
Port Lincoln on the southern extremity of the the Eyre Peninsula, a beautiful city overlooking Boston Bay.

This harbour town, discovered by captain Matthew Flinders in 1802, was named after the town he came from, Lincoln in the UK. 

In a straight line, it is located 280km from Adelaide, but by road, you have to either drive 310km north to Port Augusta, then travel south another 340km to Port Lincoln, or travel from Adelaide to Wallaroo, also about 300km north, take the ferry to Lucky Bay across the Spencer Gulf, a trip lasting just over 2 hours, and then travel south 175km to Port Lincoln.

We took the ferry option as it would also be a time to relax instead of being behind the wheel. Book ahead as there are only 2 trips a day and the ferry can get booked out, as it only carries 80 cars or equivalent . It's quite comfortable with tables and chairs, lounge chairs where you can watch tv, a movie corner, play area for kids and a coffee shop.

                                                           Leaving Wallaroo by ferry

Enjoying the fresh air on the deck

Port Lincoln, known as the "seafood capital of Australia", is also home to Australia's largest fishing fleet.

There is a huge aquaculture industry of bluefin tuna for the Japanese market, as well as oysters, mussels, kingfish, yellowfish and lobsters.

I had tasted oysters many years ago and found them to be quite rubbery, but here I tasted Kilpatrick oysters (with bacon and tomato), and I became a fan. I also ate a lovely tuna steak, something that I had last eaten on my trip to the Azores.

Port Lincoln missed becoming the state capital of South Australia due to the lack of fresh water supply, which is now supplied via a pipeline from the Murray River.

It has a population of over 14,000 people, and has the highest number of millionaires per 

capita. Fishing pays well it seems!!

A fishing boat goes out to sea

A small crane on a boat loads frozen sardines from a truck to feed the Tuna at the aqualculture

Hundreds of fishing boats at the marina

If you are a keen fisherman this is the place for you. There are organized shark cage diving tours, swimming with Tuna tours, or high sea fishing tours.

Apart from the huge fish processing industry, and tuna farming for the Japanese market,

there are grain handling facilities all over the Eyre Peninsula (we saw loads of huge tanks 

all along the highway near all the little towns).

Grain tanks at Arno Bay

We stayed at the Marina Hotel apartments - a very nice 1 bedroomed apartment with a small lounge and kitchenette with a microwave and fridge, but no stove.

The Marina apartments where we stayed

The weather wasn't the best, with a bit of rain and some sunny moments in between, as you can see from the next two photos, taken at the Marina canals.

 Makybe Diva, the famous horse that won the Melbourne cup 3 times (2003, 2004 and 2005) and the highest money owner in Australian history (over 14 million dlrs) has a life size bronze statue on the foreshore near the jetty. His owner, who own a fishing business hails from Port Lincoln.

We drove to Coffin Bay, named after Isaac Coffin, a naval officer friends with Matthew Flinders, another fisherman's paradise, and known as the Oyster farming capital of Australia.
This small town is about 45km west of Port Lincoln, only has about 600 residents which swell to a about 2000 people during holiday season. It has a huge national park (entry fee applies), which we didn't visit for lack of time and rainy weather.

View of Coffin Bay taken from a lookout a lookout

Coffin Bay jetty and kids park

Pelicans catching rain with their open beaks 

 Back in Port Lincoln, we stopped at a supermarket to buy some fruit and I noticed this interesting building across the road - a former church turned into a shopping centre.

A church turned into a shopping centre

A memorial to Fishermen that died at sea, at the Marina

A rainbow in the dark sky, at the Marina

A red sunset with the grain facilities at Port Lincoln

On the return trip to Adelaide we again stopped at various little port towns along the way just for a quick rest, a warming up coffee or to take a beautiful photo. This next photo was taken just before arriving in Lucky Bay, a tree full of shoes! I wonder how this got started?

Shoe tree near Lucky Bay

At Lucky Bay with the ferry docking

 A wonderful short break indeed and another beautiful area of South Australia.