Port Lincoln and Lincoln National Park

As we said in a previous post, we changed plans for staying at Coffin Bay NP and ended up driving across the 40 Km at the bottom of the Eyre peninsula, to Port Lincoln. As we approached Port Lincoln from the west the first thing that struck us was the size of the place. Since leaving Ceduna we had not been to a large town for weeks. Port Lincoln has a population of 15,000 people. It nestles on the side of a massive bay that provides safe anchorage for large ships as well as a significant fishing fleet, tuna farms and oyster farms. Predictably, the fishing industry is a major employer in the town as well as being a centre for agricultural production.

Port Lincoln Beach Freshly Graded for the "Tunarama" Festival

The Grain Loading Wharf Dominates the Foreshore Vista

Looking out from the foreshore at Port Lincoln you cannot actually see where the entrance to the bay is as it is quite distant and obscured by islands. The town centre has a myriad of shops and business premises as well as a pretty foreshore and beach. The grain loading wharf dominates the waterfront but not in an ugly way as has happened with, say, the Port of Geraldton in WA.  The town is relatively hilly and many suburbs have commanding views over the bay.

Directly south of Port Lincoln is the Lincoln National park. Our aim was to spend a night at Port Lincoln and then find a spot at the NP and spend five or six days there. The only caravan park in town (there was another some distance up the east coast at North Shields) was perched on the side of a hill and many of the van sites had been carefully carved out of the hill to maximise the views. We were allocated a site in a drive-thru area of the park where all of the bays were staggered so that each site had unobstructed views of the bay. The sites were perfectly level and had concrete slabs for the van and annex to sit on. The "garden" was a few shrubs planted in the midst of a layer of crushed brick material. It was the most expensive park that we have stayed at so far, at $33.00 per night. Once we had set up the van we went for a quick sight-seeing trip and took a few photos.

Next morning we drove the twenty kilometres to the Lincoln NP. This NP has many different camping grounds to choose from, each offering something a little bit different from the others. Those who like a surfing beach should camp at September Beach. The camping area has had a lot of work done to ensure that visitors have nice level sites, long drop dunnies, walkways and bush walks. Those who are after sheltered sites can choose from Surfleet Cove, Horse Rock, Fisherman's Point, and Richardson's Hut sites. Surfleet Cove is bitumen all the way but the others mentioned are gravel roads access. All of these are accessible with a caravan in tow but those pulling non-offroad vans need to lift the right foot and go slow over the few sections of corrugations. The remaining campgrounds are more suited to people camping in tents or pulling off-road camper trailers. These include Taylor's Landing and Memory Cove campsites, with the latter accessible only with a key obtainable from the Port Lincoln Visitor Centre. Only 50 people are allowed at Memory Cove on any given day.

The Van, Tucked Away in the Scrub at Fisherman's Point

Just One of the Many Boats that Passed Each Day

The View Straight Out in Front of the Van. Port Lincoln in the Distance.

We chose to stay at Fisherman's Point, at a site looking across the bay to Port Lincoln. We had excellent views of the sea and the passing boats as well as being surrounded but natural bush (and the birds that come with the trees and shrubs.) The only drawback (as we found later) was that the entire campsite was prone to dust when the wind blew up. Not helping this were the peanuts who insist driving around the campsites for a sticky beak without realising how much dust they were raising at the speed they were driving. After setting up camp we sat back and did what we have become pretty good at doing....relaxing. In fact we relaxed for three days before actually exploring the rest of the National Park.

The fishing at the National Park was pretty ordinary. I got a feed (several times) by going down to rocks directly below our campsite and fishing for Luderick. I haven't caught Luderick before and had to ask another visitor if he knew what they were (after having already throwing many back). These fish are usually weed eaters but I was catching them on small pieces of cockle. Unfortunately for them they are very good on the tooth. I had no luck with the Whiting or Herring. Our "neighbour" has been to the same place for twelve of the past fourteen years and was telling me that the place is usually teeming with Whiting but this year he has only caught five (in about three weeks.) He went on to say that "Last year we filled a fifty litre freezer with fillets and the year before we filled that freezer and the freezer in the caravan as well." And he wonders why there aren't any fish!

The beach next to the Point was shallow, calm and pristine white sand that went out about 30 metres to the weed line. It was sheltered from the prevailing winds every day that we were there but I didn't take the kayak out because access to the water was difficult, to say the least. I had the first proper swim of our trip at this beach (I was too busy dodging sharks at Ningaloo to really enjoy a swim.)

The Beach, 30 Seconds Walk From our Camp

We took a full day to explore the other places at the NP, including a walk up Stamford Hill to the memorial to Mathew Flinders. This walk included a nine hundred metre climb up the hill, a walk that wasn't too steep but did have a slippery gravel surface that meant that you needed to keep your wits about you. Our friend Tanya would probably jog up the bloody thing, but we settled for a walk. If you take the trouble to get there, the views from the top were worth the effort. From this vantage point one could see the entirety of the bay that is Port Lincoln, as well as the town of Port Lincoln itself. In the other direction you could see over to the rugged southern side of the park where the Southern Ocean crashes against the cliffs. One of the other places that will stick in our memory was the lookout at Wanna, also on the southern side of the NP. I'll let the photos do the explaining.....

Wanna

Wanna

Wanna

There is a cottage at Donnington Point that can be hired by the public. It is a restored cottage from the earliest days of white settlement and is perched high up on a hill with truly excellent views over the sheltered side of the National Park's beaches. As Sue said, "It would be great to hire this cottage in Winter, light a big fire, sit in front of it and read books."

As good as the NP is, the continual swirling dust was starting to wear us down and after six days we moved on. This time we were starting the eastern half of the Peninsula, marking the halfway point of our exploration.