Adelaide Central Markets

The two chocolate fountains pictured above were almost irresistible to MB & MDR. The perfect combination - melted Belgian chocolate and fresh strawberries. MB & MDR reluctantly settled for a photo rather than the calories....

Coffin Bay National Park

Approx. 30k from Port Lincoln is the Coffin Bay National Park, well worth a visit to see the rugged coastline and amazing sand dunes. MB & MDR lucked out with the weather with a warm northerly wind so nearly t-shirt weather. Pictured above is Almonta Beach, just near Point Avoid. More pics on Flickr.

Port Lincoln

View of Port Lincoln from our B&B, The Yardarm, which turned out to be a wonderful spot to stay. Our hosts, Judy & Ken have thought of everything ensuring a stay in the fully self-contained studio is incredibly comfortable. Plenty of hot water too, unlike MB & MDR's city digs, Walter St Mews! Port Lincoln is a small and very prosperous city centered in what appears to be a thriving wheat growing area, judging by the massive silo & grain handling complex which dominates the waterfront. Of course Port Lincoln is famous for white pointer sharks, tuna and seafood and has many wealthy fisherman, including Tony Santic the owner of Makybe Diva. This famous racehorse has been immortalised on the Port Lincoln foreshore reserve in the form of a bronze statue.

Adelaide to Port Lincoln

The duo made a short side trip to Port Lincoln which was a three stage journey:
Adelaide to Wallaroo, Yorke Peninsula - approx. 1hr 45mins
Ferry across the Spencer Gulf from Wallaroo to Lucky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula - approx 2hrs
Lucky Bay to Port Lincoln - just over 2 hours by car.
The ferry shaves about 2 hours off the car trip which would necessitate driving north to Port Augusta which is at the top of the Spencer Gulf and then south down to Port Lincoln.
The ferry was excellent, very comfortable with a snack bar, drinks and even wireless internet. MDR spotted an historical SA Ketches doco on one of the big plasma screens dotted around the cabin so sat down to watch it and was snoozing away in no time.
As the weather was pretty good, MB went up to the top deck to get some photos and had a chat to some of SA's finest from Moonta (near Wallaroo) on their annual pilgrimage, sans wives, to their shack at Lucky Bay. These chaps very kindly invited MB & MDR to their cabin number 16 for drinks, directions from one of the guys were "you'll be able to find the cabin easily, just look for the spew!" Due to time constraints the pair had to decline.
Stop Press from SeaSA website: All ferry services have been temporarily suspended until October 2009. Sea SA apologises to customers for this unavoidable disruption.

Oysters

One dozen fresh Spencer Gulf oysters - picked 'em up at the Caltex Servo in Cowell, on the Eyre Peninsula. MDR remembered to pack his oyster shucker this trip.
MB was intrigued to learn that Cowell is also home to a Jade deposit, so she bought herself a jade pendant at the Jade Motel.
From SMH 08 Feb 2004 - Cowell Jade Factory
"The history of jade in the Cowell area is a recent development. In 1965, Harry Schiller, a local farmer first discovered significant deposits of nephrite jade near Cowell. The next decade saw little real development and it wasn't until 1974, when the South Australian government became involved, that the potential of the area was realised. A geological assessment found a total of 91 separate jade outcrops (this has subsequently been increased to 115) in a small 10 sq km area which is now known as the Cowell Jade Province. The deposit is recognised as containing about 80 000 tonnes which means that it represents about 90 per cent of the world's known jade reserves (this excludes China for which figures are not available). In the decade to 1987 over 1500 tonnes of jade had been extracted of which 40 per cent was either dark green or black. Cowell jade is now exported to countries as diverse as India, West Germany, USA, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy and New Zealand."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/South-Australia/Cowell/2005/02/17/1108500204228.html

Walter St Mews

Our accommodation in North Adelaide, has it all - location, location, location.