Tuesday 17th February 2015 – Coffin Bay to Lincoln National Park

Overcast – Mid twenties.Cleared mid morning.  

Stats:   We have travelled 23,000 kms to date in 7 months

The conditions for leaving are perfect, cool overnight, heavy dew, fresh track.  The car is booked for a service in Pt Lincoln on Friday, so we are spending two nights at Lincoln National Park, it is very handy that the park is so close to Port Lincoln as we can travel back down if we need to visit any other locations in the park we don’t have time to do while we are camped there.

Well, I don’t know, the park we drove out of this morning, wasn’t the park we tackled the other day.  What a difference – we cruised out in 37 mins to bitumen section. How coming in late on a hot day on a track that been well turned over, being too heavy and not setting our tyre pressures for those particular conditions.  Coming out today, we just drove along as we normally do – the temperature was cool, a heavy dew overnight,  the track fresh and we set our tyre pressures way way down, plus we had used all the water.  What seemed to be endless kilometres of soft sand turned out to be quite a short section – but when you are only moving a metre at a time you have a different perspective.  We certainly had a more favourable view of the park today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving Coffin Bay National Park – tomorrow morning clouds assembling.

The marker is to the entrance of Lincoln National Park, Memory Cove is located right down the very bottom of the peninsula.  It takes time to get there as the road conditions mean the speed limit is 20kph.  It is an hour from the locked gate into the camp site. 

 

A nice little New Holland Honeyeater was in this tree with a lot more all squawking and carrying on.  I think that there was something below they really didn’t like.  I took this from the car, Glen was putting more air in the camper trailer tyres and the tree was in the next property to the service station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A last look at the bay which borders the town.  It’s a bit of a panorama.  Oh, okay then, a very ordinary attempt at stitching the scene together – I was in a hurry, the day was getting on and we were still in Coffin Bay.  The same boat is in both photos.  The oyster beds are in the photo on the left.  The oysters being grown here today are nothing like the original oysters that were originally found in the bay were wiped out by poor collection methods back in the late 1890’s.

Bulk handling terminal right in the middle of Port Lincoln.  We think it might be wheat.

The town jetty and along the foreshore.

Lots of green grass, trees and shade.  They have easily accessible caravan parking, so you can just walk around the corner to the information centre. 

We went to the Information Centre and bought a Holiday Parks and Camping Pass for $72.  We booked Site 4 at Memory Cove for two nights – normally $18 a night plus $11 park entry but free with the pass.  This pass is a real bargain.  Memory Cove is classified Wilderness Area and only five camp sites are available for a maximum of 3 nights.  There is a locked gate to the entrance of the area.  They only issue 25 day passes a day to the day use area.  It is right down the very bottom of the National Park.

We received great friendly service at the information centre.  While we were in town, we confirmed our service for Friday  and booked our car in for a Front Wheel Alignment as well.  We also called into the Port Lincoln Tourist Park and booked a site for two nights to begin with. The caravan park were also very friendly and helpful.  The town is very pretty with a very green foreshore on to the town jetty.  There are a lot of older houses as you approach from the west, but there is a little section for the Tuna Millionaires.  There is also a full bronze statue of Makybe Diva who won three Melbourne Cups owned by local fisherman Tony Santic  From what I have seen, Port Lincoln is a great town.  We have found the seafood shop that sells local produce and it will be on my list to visit when we return to Port Lincoln.

Unlocking the gate to the kingdom.  They had welded the lock to the chain, so it could not be taken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we finally got down to the very bottom on Lincoln National Park, we then started heading around to Memory Cove.  This was our first view of the water, a bit of a wow moment.  The large cliffs in the background are actually on Thistle Island.

We had a little difficulty in getting into site 4 – if site 5 had not been occupied we would have had a easy time backing in, but trying to come in the opposite way involved a lot of forward and backward because we had no room.

We have set up camp, there are a lot more bees here and they have taken over my kitchen, all sucking on the dish cloth and the sponge.   I will have to wait until they go to bed to retrieve them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beach view at Memory Cove Wilderness Protection Area.   5 camp sites – 3nights maximum stay and 25 day passes a day, so it is a bit exclusive.  I don’t where else you could get this for next to nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The story of the naming of the cove.

The Investigator was anchored here 22nd February 1802 – almost 213 years ago.

Unfortunately 8 of his crew drowned when their boat must have caught in strong tidal currents and capsized.  The crew were sent a shore to look for water while Flinders navigated around the largest island to confirm that it was an island.  They found the boat but none of the crew.  All the islands around here were named by Flinders  in memory of the crew members.   

I put out some water for the Silver Eyes and got some photos.  I felt sorry for them having to try to get a drink amongst the huge swarm of bees.

The bees just keep at the same water place, very much creatures of habit even when it is empty.  Below is a close up of the wren and the silver eye.  Below is a close up of the wren and silver eye from the above photo.