Windy

Coffin Bay oysters are apparently considered among the best in the world, Certainly the dozen we had last night were clearly the best we had eaten. The dinner, all local seafood, was great and the oysters the highlight. We should have had a dozen each. A Japanese family dining next to us asked about freshness and was told that they only harvested what they thought they would use each day from their own oyster bed. There is a tour here where you choose your oyster flavouring from a menu and then put on some waders and go and have them whilst standing at a pontoon/oyster bar. We probably will not do it as we both prefer our oysters cooked.

So enough about food.....we will have more later......

It was a windy morning, but we headed out for the Port Lincoln National Park. It is essentially on the eastern side of the peninsula and Coffin Bay on the western. The differences though were remarkable. The park was a thick forest of mallee gums, melaleuca in flower, and acacia. It looked quite impenetrable in parts. The start of the park looked a little odd as the road had a power line down one side and a pipeline, presumably water, down the other.

At any rate, after a couple of stops to check out the sights we headed off on our first walk up a hill with a monument to Matthew Flinders. He apparently climbed it in a desperate search for water, reasoning that the large trees on it indicated a good underground water source. He did not dig deep enough apparently, and his expedition was only saved because a day later they found sound water on the other side of the bay. Quite ironic as you will see later.


The view from the top was magnificent looking north........
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.........and looking west was Port Lincoln.........and in a national park, we had perfect phone reception.....they even had signs on roads when you were leaving phone reception behind.......only on the other side of the park

It was blowing a gale on the top and even sheltering on the lee side of the monument we were being buffeted. We had noticed some wildflowers on the way up, and we continued spotting them on the ways down. It was hard to photograph them, because even in sheltered corners they tended to be waving wildly in the wind.

We continued all the way to the end of the peninsula at Point Donnington where there is a lovely cottage that can be hired, near a lighthouse and a very choppy coast. We were watching the tankers skirting around towards the shelter of port and the seabirds either rocketing past with the wind or struggling against it, when we spotted some more dolphins......... the wind was making no difference to their frolics..........

 We kept wandering about and on the eastern coast we found a spot that was a little more sheltered, though we still did not get too close o the edge as wind gusts tended to rock us about........

..........then we found a very sheltered spot by a little forest of melaleucas where we could have some lunch. What horror! When we unpacked our lunch we had let our cracked pepper pate back in the fridge. The avocado, cherry tomatoes, King Island brie and hard boiled eggs with fresh bread just felt inadequate without the pate. But we are hardy and soldiered through it.

Our after lunch stroll, brought us another unwelcome surprise. I almost trod on a black snake sunning itself, out of the wind. We had spotted a few at Coffin Bay but this one was close. I was too busy getting out of its way to get a decent photo. We did also spot a number of other wildflowers and a very prone eucalypt that was in flower.

Onwards to the western side of the park....... wew were again running next to the powerline and pipe and discovered why. Halfway on the dirt road to Wanna was a couple of pumping stations. Apparently this area has an aquifer which together with the aquifer that sits under the Uley basin and the southern tip of the Eyre peninsula provides much of the water for Port Lincoln and Coffin Bay. Poor Flinders, dying of thirst among so much water......

They really should bottle/package his water and send it to Melbourne. We could give it to the CFA to put out fires and save that lovely dam water for a more useful purpose. Seriously the water is foul. So much so that we bought water at dinner last night at $11 a bottle.

The road to Wanna was a challenge as it had some serious pot holes......A Fiat 500 could drop into one and never be found again. The was also the normal amount of road reptile hazards....I have not menioned befor that in the Eyre you seem to need to dodge a sleepy lizard.....aka blue toungue, aka road gherkin.......every few kilometres. When it is not a lazy lizard it is a painted dragon, and here when it is not either of those it is a black snake.......I shot this from the safety of my vehicle, with my feet up on the dash.....just in case....

We managed to get though all the hazards and spotted the warning signs.....road ends 500 metres.....road ends 50 metres......road has ended.......two rows of bumpers.....the most recent being quite serious looking bollards concreted into the ground. We wondered how many locals had flown off the cliff face at this spot to justify all of the warnings.

That is as close as I dared get to the edge. The wind was buffeting me about so much that it was causing me to stumble about a bit.

 On the way back we checked into the giant sand dunes...........who would have thought that sand dunes are not a great environment in windy weather........I am still tasting it at breakfast the day after....

We decided to head back into Port Lincoln and have a bit of a look there. The town was dead.......then we heard the roar of people.......turns out it was their local grand final.......we checked out visitor information, had a coffee on the foreshore and tried to walk out on the jetty/swimming enclosure. A gust almost tipped Marjan into Boston Bay, at which point we conceded the outdoor to the wind.

The drive back to Coffin Bay was marked by horizontal rain. Given that it was sunny at the same time we were wondering where the rain had actually begun falling. We were glad to be indoors when the thunder and serious wind gusts really got going. I switched on the footy to find Richmond almost through.

It is windy again this morning and the rain has started as I type. We are planning to stay local....we wanted to enjoy the Coffin Bay Day on the Bay festival of food and music......I hope it clears for them.......