Port Lincoln SA, Coffin Bay SA, Axel Stenross Maritime Museum

Sluggish old start this morning, but still with the clocks set back and all it was still an earlyish start. Early enough to have bacon and eggs for breakfast and some eggs that a passing Easter Bunny had left in the pantry two weeks ago.

Happy Easter all!

Fiddled about doing crosswords and reading for a bit as it was raining on and off. Gads, I even went and had a shower and put on some clean duds. Sometime before lunch we drove back into Port Lincoln, 'Linc' as they call it, and went straight to a nice looking cafe for lunch and a large coffee.

After lunch we went to visit the Axel Stenross maritime museum, which was quite nice and again like the tram museum in Bendigo, apparently quite active in their restoration and preservation of all things related to old boats. Axel Stenross and his mate Frank jumped ship in 1927 and stayed on to become the boat builders of the district. The museum is in their old workshops, home and slipways. Lots of old boats, some fully restored, others waiting in line. The oddest one was a marine-jet powered steel boat brought to Linc as a rescue boat by the SA Government and left to rot in the mangroves for 40 years after it was superseded. The swamps got turned into a marina and someone had to do something with the rusty hulk. The museum took it and started to save it but big brother said no, it was theirs and heritage listed and you'll just have to leave it alone and watch it disintegrate. Oh well, here are some snaps for the fun of it:

Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. Port Lincoln SA

Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. Port Lincoln SA

Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. Port Lincoln SA

Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. Port Lincoln SA

Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. Port Lincoln SA

Axel Stenross Maritime Museum. Port Lincoln SA

Coffin Bay SA, Port Lincoln SA, Lunar eclipse

Bit of a dreary looking day, so we drove back into Port Lincoln to have a look about, starting with the Mount Winter Lookout, which is really a bit of a bump just behind town, and as it was hazy / overcast  the snaps are not much. Mind you, its a pretty bleak looking outlook especially to the west, behind the town. The sand-hills you can see in the distance is near Coffin Bay

Port Lincoln from Mount Winter lookout

West from Mount Winter lookout, Port Lincoln SA

Pacific Gull, Port Lincoln SA

Me reading all about Flinders at this really odd little  alley that doesn't go anywhere. Port Lincoln SA

From there we went back down to the nice green strip between the row of shops and the bay and found a nice place for coffee and hot x buns. Then we went around to the i place and asked about this little marina cruise we heard about. Turned out to be leaving in 15 minutes so we hot-footed it over there. Its a little 10 seat electric boat thing piloted by Captain Fred - yes, his real name.

Turns out that Fred spend his life working in the fishing industry all around Australia and especially here in Port Lincoln. The little cruise was just around the fishing fleet, but the story was all about how they fish for all the different types: Tuna, prawns, abalone, mussels, kingfish, he knew it all and whose boat was whose and all their history. Fascinating. Spoilt only slightly by the two 1/4 wits that came along. I'll tell you, even the Japanese tourists knew the man was an idiot, especially when he was absolutely dumbfounded to find out that they make boats out of aluminium!

Fishing fleet. Port Lincoln SA

Fishing fleet. Port Lincoln SA

Captain Fred at the helm of Tesla. Port Lincoln SA

Tacoma, first custom built fishing boat c 1952. Port Lincoln SA

Fishing fleet. Port Lincoln SA

After the fisho stories, we had a quick look at the millionaires row, sadly, all the big boats had gone out but we spotted this bright red sports car, next to the house that belongs to some fellow who has mad his zillions designing and printing labels for wine bottles!

Ferrari F458 something like a lazy half mills' worth. Port Lincoln SA

As the cruise finished at the Marina Hotel and as it was 3pm, we though eating lunch on the balcony right on the water might be nice

Marina. Port Lincoln SA

We came back late in the arvo, I went for a walk along the bay shore, Judy had a rest. After dinner we set up for the big lunar eclipse show. A better day.

Lunar eclipse. Mar 4 2015, 1026pm

Coffin Bay, Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Makybe Diva

Coffin Bay SA April 3, 2015

Pulling out of the van park in Port Augusta and heading west, you immediately come to the big intersection where you have to choose: north or west, Darwin or Perth.

Where to? Port Augusta SA

Having done the Darwin option in both directions we opted for the West. Actually and of course, we was always going west, so it was onto the Eyre highway, another new road and unexplored territory to us. While we are going to go all the way to the west, we are taking the scenic route down the Eyre Peninsula, past Whyalla, Cowell, Tumby Bay, Port Lincoln and on to Coffin Bay

The road is busy as you would expect, it being Easter and all. The road is also quite hilly in a lot of places, undulating actually and comes with double white lines for long stretches at a time. We drove through Whyalla, which looks like a big industrial estate making great big things out of steel, which they also make from the raw products.

Somewhere south of Whyalla we had ‘an incident’. We were approaching the crest of one of the hills when my rearview mirror was filled with a large 4x4 towing a boat intent on overtaking us despite the double lines and having no forward vision past the crest. My immediate reaction was to check the road ahead which I could now see as I topped the crest and there, appearing out of the hidden gully between the crests was a car coming right at us. I pulled over as far as I could and kept the pace on in case the idiot being me wanted to go on with it, but luckily for all parties, they pulled back just in time. Not only was he unable to pass us but his day was properly ruined when the car coming the other way lit up its red and blue lights, turned around and chased him down. Too bad, one less idiot on the road.

We went into Cowell for a break and found the locals doing Devonshire Tea for $5 a head. How could one say no? Judy and I exchanged a knowing look when she ordered two servings and was asked by the nice girl,  ‘would you like scones with that?’

We were actually at Franklin Harbour, but its really part of Cowell. Only thing of interest was the pub and some gumtree flowers

Gumtree. Franklin Harbour SA

Pub. Franklin Harbour SA

Refreshed, we hit the road again and eventually made it into Port Lincoln, home of the most millionaires in Australia per capita, Dean Lucan the tuna fishing Olympic weightlifter and of course a nag called Makybe Diva

Port Lincoln SA

Port Lincoln SA

Makybe Diva. Port Lincoln SA

We sat and ate our sardine sandwiches and drank our diet coke overlooking the bay, which is quite beautiful except for the all dominating silos and conveyor belts.

Despite the GPS getting into a muddle we made it to Coffin Bay and took up our spot, the only one left in the park. Its fairly close living and of course the place is crawling with fishos and kids and dogs, all of whom obviously know each other, and probably come here every year. I wonder who didn't come this year and left our spot empty?

Anyhow, doesn't matter. had a poke around the tiny town, took some snaps of an emu or two and some other little yellow things, and ate an ice-cream while overlooking the town jetty and the local fishing boats before going back to our van for the day.

Bird. Coffin Bay SA

Emu. Coffin Bay SA

Boats at Town Wharf. Coffin Bay SA

 Coffin Bay SA