Bob's holiday off Port Lincoln

[Bob]

We took off from Adelaide, my wife Ginnie and I, pulling up for the night at a spot overlooking the top of the Spencer Gulf

We drove off next day heading down the west side of the Gulf to Port Lincoln, a spot that originally was supposed to be where the capital city of South Australia was to be built. The early settlers chose the site of Adelaide instead.

We caught up with my wife's oldest brother, Graham, and we set a course for the islands dotted around the bottom of the Spencer Gulf.

The area teems with wildlife in the sea and on the shoreline.

It didn't take too long before we could see dolphins homing in on our boat as it cruised thro the water. I'd notice them 100 yards or so intersecting our path before they finally made it to the bow (front) of the boat

Miss Titanic

We ended up sheltering the first night off one of the islands, next morning exploring the island by getting in the "rubber ducky" and going to shore.

On one island we found an old farm complete with old farm house and tractors, sheds, etc. They had been deserted for many years, but one resident was a penguin in a burrow

Later on we had a friend pull alongside

We headed for the shore of one of the islands for a good ol' fashioned barbie. It was here that Graham taught me how to cook spuds without any foil . . . . just in the fire! A shallow pit alongside the main fire, you place hot coals on the bottom, lay some ash from the edge of the fire on top, putting the spuds carefully on this, then "dust" them with more cool ash from the edge of the fire, before piling on hot coals from the middle of the fire to cook them. Basically, the spuds are lying in a layer of protective ash to stop the skins from being charcoaled. Neat!

Checking to make sure they are cooked after 45 mins in the coals, you tap them. If they sound hollow, they're done!

This just goes to prove that even an old fart like me can learn new tricks!

A hectic day in Australia worrying about what to do next!

The sunsets were fantastic

Everything was great, even the moonlight reflecting off the ocean

Next day we visited Langdon Island, home to loads of seals. Most of the them headed for the water when we came up on shore, but a couple were still in dreamland. This one woke up, took one look at me about a metre away, blinked and took off for the water at about 50 kms/hr, looking over his shoulder all the way.

I didn't realise I was so ugly!

I'm no "visvanger" despite what others say. These beautiful sea salmon just leapt on my hook . . . . all five of the them, by the time I was ended. They were great eating that evening on board

To top it off, the sunset was just great again as we looked out toward the west that evening

One day we headed onshore once more for a barbie in the bush in the late afternoon

My turn to cook the spuds this time. . . . no foil! Notice they're not burnt and the whole potato is good eating, nothing wasted.

I won't even mention the sunset that evening!

More fishing . . . this time a "snook" like a big garfish

On the last day out, we visited a monument on shore dedicated to Capt. Matthew Flinders, R.N. the explorer of this part of Australia in the early 1800s

Master and supreme Commander of my own vessel for once . . . . S.S. "Rubber Ducky"

A good climb later

We said good-bye and headed north, but camped in our roof top tent in a spot called Warren Gorge

A few school kids will tell you that this is a very rare Wallaby . . . . Yellow footed Rock Wallaby, in fact, that came to say "hello"

Next morning, we both had a good chuckle when Ginnie went back to the car for something and this crow helped himself to my breakfast . . . . Eggs on toast . . . right off my plate!

. . . . and a drive back thro the Flinders Ranges to Adelaide

Edited May 14, 2008 by Bob

[Navigator]

Very nice trip report Bob. Now I no longer want only a 4x4, I want a boat as well...

[Retha_hhr]

Thank you Bob. It is always very interesting to read about your trips.

Regards,

Retha

[sa2auz]

Bob, wow, wow, wow. That looks absolutely amazing, you must have the most amazing storys to tell. I hope you have that gorgeous photo of you and yours and the water and the moonlight framed it is stunning. You have taken the most amazing photos. I hope that I get to meet you one day.

S

[Blossom]

Fantastic Bob! Thank you so much for sharing those beautiful moments with us. My compliments to the photographer.

How I wish for a holiday like that!

Regards,

[Bob]

These piccies just show you all that you don't have to go too far in Australia to have a great holiday, no matter where you happen to be living.

You just have to know where to go and have some good company to make a good holiday that you'll remember for a while.

Remember to take those happy pills along. There's nothing worse than being stuck with someone who hasn't taken their "happy" pills for the day!

Australia's blessed with a great climate and all the good things like beaut sunsets that go with it all, so don't go thinking that you're missing out for the rest of your lives by making Australia your new home.

[penny]

Hi Bob

I really do enjoy reading all your posts and will show my husband. We have always camped for our holidays and spend a lot of time in the Transkei and Mozambique. We are hopefully coming across in August/Sept to Melbourne. We have a rubber duck here which unfortunately will have to stay behind but one of the first things we will buy will be a boat. What are the regulations regarding going out to sea. Is there a minimum size boat and motor required.

Regards

Penny

[Leigh MC]

Hey Bob

Thanks for a great post - and beautiful pics! Looking at some of these pics, I feel almost nostalgic, as the landscape is so similar to SA landscape - and I haven't even left the country yet! Good to know we'll be able to see and enjoy such a beautiful place.

I can't wait to get there... All in good time though.

Leigh

[4mcnuts]

Hi Bob. Thanks for sharing your latest trip with us! As always very interesting reading and great photo's. Can't wait to get to Aus and explore the beautiful country! Regards mcnut3

[Bob]

Hi Bob

I really do enjoy reading all your posts and will show my husband. We have always camped for our holidays and spend a lot of time in the Transkei and Mozambique. We are hopefully coming across in August/Sept to Melbourne. We have a rubber duck here which unfortunately will have to stay behind but one of the first things we will buy will be a boat. What are the regulations regarding going out to sea. Is there a minimum size boat and motor required.

Regards

Penny

Pen!

First thing is to get yourselves a "boat licence" for the Australian state you choose to dwell in.

Some States in Australia require you to pass a small test on boating law and regulations regarding the speeds and side you give way to.

In my home State of South Australia, we've needed a boating licence to operate anything bigger than a 5HP motor boat since 1974. Cost is abour $60 and the licence is for the rest of your life.

Other States may not require you to have a boat licence, depending on where you choose to live.

Boats are personal things. You get pretty much what you pay for, but don't need to spend too much, or sell one of your kids into slavery, to pay for a boat that will get you underway and enjoying life on the sea.

There's a magazine out each month containing all sorts of boats for sale throughout Australia, rather like a car mag that's very similar.

I'm no sailor and get sea-sick really fast. It was only because the sea was like glass for the 5 days I spent on my brother-in-law's boat that I didn't feel the worse for wear all the time. I'm the joke of my wife's family in that respect!

I only went on this holiday cos' my wife kept on at me all the time for days on end!

It turned out alright in the end, as the piccies tell.

Needless to say, I own a 14' sailing boat that I don't know how to sail at the moment. I paid $400 for it.

I'll have to learn.

[Bob]

Hey Bob

Thanks for a great post - and beautiful pics! Looking at some of these pics, I feel almost nostalgic, as the landscape is so similar to SA landscape - and I haven't even left the country yet! Good to know we'll be able to see and enjoy such a beautiful place.

I can't wait to get there... All in good time though.

Leigh

Yeah, Leigh!

I post up piccies of my little adventures around Australia from time to time so that you guys can get an idea of the sort of place Australia is and what we get up to in our spare time for holidays, etc.

Hopefully, it'll whet your appetite for a nice safe holiday with the family in mind.

As you can see, being retired, and living off a fixed income stream means I have to live within my means and not spend my money like it's going out of style.

Australia, with its great climate, gives you so much more flexibility to enjoy a good holiday by caravanning, camping or buying a camper-trailer that allows you to just hitch up and head for the beach or the bush for next to nothing.

You just don't need a 5 star hotel to stay in when you can look up at the stars at night and feel lin a 5 000 000 star hotel under God's sky! . . . . . all for free.

Just checking out some of the photos I've posted up over the past year or so will convince you of that. . . . . all done on a budget.

[Nilo]

Oh Bob that looks amazing!! Please can we come with next time?

Our daughter and her hubby have been sailing for the past 5 years. They will be coming to Aus first week of June to settle at Airleybeach where she'll be studying so that they can get their PR visa. They chose the Whitsundays for it's sailing so that her hubby can be close to the sea. Hopefully he'll find employment as a Yacht Captain there, so that they can have the best of both worlds. A house on land with her having a land job and him doing day or short sailing trips to keep him happy.

Can't wait to explore Aus by sea!!! Doing it by land allready. Might even be buying a farm near Bonshaw in the near future!! 1000 acres, no house but fantastic Aussie bush with lots a huge Roo's and a stream or 2. You can then come visit us!!

[candivw]

It all looks so great!!! And i am so happy to see that you get crocs ( the shoes ) in oz!! I absolutely love mine to death!!

[penny]

Hi Bob

Thanks for the reply. Edwin already has his skippers from here but he will probably have to re-do it. We look forward to exploring. Just hope to earn enough to do it all. We also don't spend what we don't have!!!

Penny

[candivw]

Nilo, if you get that farm i think i will come be a squatter, it has been my lifes dream to own a farm!!

Oh Bob that looks amazing!! Please can we come with next time?

Our daughter and her hubby have been sailing for the past 5 years. They will be coming to Aus first week of June to settle at Airleybeach where she'll be studying so that they can get their PR visa. They chose the Whitsundays for it's sailing so that her hubby can be close to the sea. Hopefully he'll find employment as a Yacht Captain there, so that they can have the best of both worlds. A house on land with her having a land job and him doing day or short sailing trips to keep him happy.

Can't wait to explore Aus by sea!!! Doing it by land allready. Might even be buying a farm near Bonshaw in the near future!! 1000 acres, no house but fantastic Aussie bush with lots a huge Roo's and a stream or 2. You can then come visit us!!

[Bob]

Oh Bob that looks amazing!! Please can we come with next time?

Our daughter and her hubby have been sailing for the past 5 years. They will be coming to Aus first week of June to settle at Airleybeach where she'll be studying so that they can get their PR visa. They chose the Whitsundays for it's sailing so that her hubby can be close to the sea. Hopefully he'll find employment as a Yacht Captain there, so that they can have the best of both worlds. A house on land with her having a land job and him doing day or short sailing trips to keep him happy.

Can't wait to explore Aus by sea!!! Doing it by land allready. Might even be buying a farm near Bonshaw in the near future!! 1000 acres, no house but fantastic Aussie bush with lots a huge Roo's and a stream or 2. You can then come visit us!!

Nilo!

Been wondering about this block of land that you're talking of buying.

I reckon Ginnie & I might have to check it out in about a month's time by staying there for a couple of days with my sister-in-law and her hubby and my brother-in-law (with the boat) and his wife.

Are you interested in showing us all this block of land?

We are on our way thro Texas which is on the other side of the river in Queensland and Bonshaw is on the New South side of the river.

Let me know what you reckon.

[Nilo]

Bob,

Des say's no worries, we can for sure arrange a trip. We're wanting to go there any how for a weekend's camping. You'r used to bringing your own water and loo etc etc arent' you?

We'll go bush a bit, what do you say?

Will PM you my mobile nr.

[Swerwer]

Very beautiful photos Bob.

I have heard that the movie Gallipoli was filmed at Port Lincoln. (The movie based on the Aussie invasion of Turkey during the First World war in which Mel Gibson featured)

[Bob]

I don't know if you remember a film called "Jaws".

It was filmed at Port Lincoln back in 1976, since the waters off the coastline have the greatest number of Great White sharks in the world.

I remember seeing the film in Adelaide with a girlfriend when it first came out, and later that week went spearfishing off the coast of Adelaide with a mate.

Needless to say, I was rotating my head 360 degrees, just about, for the hour or two I was in the water.

I didn't catch anything either, being constantly looking out for a dark shadow to come towards me all of a sudden.

[Conrad]

Hi Bob

Thank`s for great pic`s.Someone else said WOW WOW WOW.I must agree with them.We live in a beautiful place and forget that there are other places with as much beauty such as South Africa.With a surname of (Riley) those potatoes looked really good.Thanks once again and look forward to seeing you in September.

Regards Conrad

[Bob]

OK, mate.

I'm off this weekend for a few weeks . . . seven in all . . . just trekking thro Outback New South Wales and into southern Queensland.

We'll follow the Darling River up into Queensland and just camp each night in the bush.

My sister-in-law knows a couple of people on the way, in stations, that we'll be staying at too for the trip.

We should be back by September. . . . mid July, actually.

[de Jager familie]

Nice pictures Bob. Good to see you've got a decent 4x4. Did you do a LPG conversion on that. If so what is the consumption and power like.

[Bob]

No mate.

My Nissan Patrol has a 4.2 litre diesel engine.

Fitting L.P.G. to that isn't the same as fitting an L.P.G. system to a petrol motor.

I spoke to a mate on the Victorian High Country trip I did back last month, and he said that his 4.2 Nissan diesel engine only saved him about $4 a tank full of fuel after fitting an L.P.G. system to run in conjunction with the diesel fuel.

Fitting L.P.Gas to a petrol engine allows you to use it INSTEAD of petrol, so you only pay 70c a litre for your fuel rather than $1.50 a litre . . . . . a big saving.

L.P.G. systems fitted to diesel engines are complimentary to the diesel. You still use diesel fuel all the time, but instead of air mixing with the diesel fuel for combushion, the L.P.G. is used instead allowing for more combustion and greater efficiency out of each drop of diesel. Instead of only 75% combustion rate, you get around 90% using L.P.G.

However, saying all that, at the moment a barrel of oil is around U.S. $130 a barrel, making the pump price around $1.80 a litre.

Diesel should be a fair bit cheaper than petrol, since it's less refined and cheaper to produce, but the multi-national oil companies are screwing Australians all the way to their hip pockets. . . . . . another reason to run a petrol car on L.P.G. which is produced right here in Australia, by an Australian company, employing Australians, keeping the money you pay for it in Australia.

As it stands, I'm allowing around $2 000 (R15 000) for this little trip (5 000 kms) for seven weeks in fuel costs alone!

I must say I really like my Nissan Patrol engine. It is built for hard work, such as pulling a 2 tonne caravan, all day, every day, month after month, year after year.

The torque curve goes up to 1 500 r.p.m. then is flat all the way to 3 500 r.p.m.

This allows me just put my foot down at around 65 km / hr and just overtake anything up to 130 km / hr, even pulling a couple of tons. . . . . not too many engines allow you to do that!

My whole "rig" (car + caravan) probably weighs around 4.5 / 5 tonnes fully laden.

I have the grunt under the bonnet to do that and I know I don't need to drop a cog to achieve more torque from my motor.

Unfortunately, for the real 4WD enthusiasts, they don't sell new Patrols or Land Cruisers any longer with these 4.2 six cylinder engines. They don't meet Australia's new emission standards and were phased out last year. I got mine when I came back from England in August '06. Only 3 litre diesel Patrols are for sale, brand new, in Australia nowadays.

Fuel consumption is around 5.4 kms (19.5l / 100 kms) a litre pulling my caravan.

The Patrol on its own will get up to 10 kms / litre (10l / 100 kms)

I don't give myself a time limit on my travels.

When the sun starts to go down, I look around for a nice spot to pull up in the bush and park for the night.

This lets me have the opportunity to smell the roses on my trips.

I potter along on my travels at around 85 / 90 km / hr . . . . . . a nice safe, relaxing speed that gives me good fuel economy. I've noticed the "sweet spot" for my engine is at that speed. It ticks over all day at 1 900 r.p.m. Any faster and my fuel costs rise vertically.

Edited May 28, 2008 by Bob