Port Lincoln

 Historic ship at Whyalla

After we said good bye to Julia and David we decided that we were tired of sitting around Port Augusta with no real answers of when we would get our car back, we packed up and decided to head down the Eyre Peninsula.  Firstly we stopped at Whyalla which is just 70 kms from Port Augusta.  Whyalla is the home of a large One Steel mining company and is also a well known ship building area.  The original ship built in the area, named the Whyalla, was purchased by the local council and placed on show rather than go to the scrap yards.  We didn’t get the opportunity to go on a tour of the ship but I am sure it would have been interesting.

 Info re ship building at Whyalla

One Steel at Whyalla

  Hilton Motel at Port Lincoln

We continued down the Peninsula stopping at Port Neil and Arno Bay arriving at Port Lincoln mid afternoon.  We booked into the Hilton Motel – not part of the Hilton group but luxury for us after four months in the caravan.  The motel is on the foreshore and we enjoyed walking along the beach.  The weather was nice and warm and groups of children were in the shallow waters.  There is a long jetty and as Port Lincoln is well known for fishing there were quite a few people trying their luck.

Front of Hilton Motel at Port Lincoln

On Monday we visited the Information Centre and made a booking for a tuna tour on Tuesday morning.  We then headed to Coffin Bay – this area is well known for oyster farming and fishing in general.  Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived so we didn’t wander too far but enjoyed watching an abalone boat being retrieved at the boat ramp.  After lunch we headed to Coffin Bay National Park.  Unfortunately for us we could enter the park as there is an entrance fee and although we had cash on us we didn’t have $7 in change.  There is no ability to pay on line for a day pass and credit cards are not accepted.  We decided that we would have to give the area a miss as the majority of the park is 4wd only and as we had the rental car we couldn’t go on those tracks anyway.  We were disappointed though as the sand driving looked really interesting.

We drove around the bay and stopped off at an Oyster farm.  The area was really interesting and the village reminded us of Akaroa in New Zealand’s South Island.

Bad luck is still with us.  We took the car when we went out for dinner and as Peter pulled out of the car park he caught a gutter and down went the tyre.  He wasn’t too impressed to have to change the tyre as it was extremely humid.  As guessed the tyre had to be replaced – our gift to Budget!

Tuesday morning we went to the Marina to join the tuna trip.  The three hour boat trip took us out to a pontoon in Boston Bay where we were able to feed the tuna by hand, for those who wanted too there was swimming with the tuna, and feeding and underwater viewing of numerous fish.  It was a great trip.  On the way back into town we passed the tuna farm nets which are being prepared for the new season which commences on the 1^st December and also mussel farming.  We passed close into the foreshore and beside two large grain ships that had arrived in port.  We left and returned to

After a quick lunch we commenced the return trip to Port Augusta, a trip of 370 kms. We still did not have a decision on when the Patrol would be ready for us to return to Melbourne, but we did know that the insurance company had accepted the claim and repairs would be undertaken.

 Grain wharf at Port Lincoln

Port Lincoln township

 Port Lincoln wharf from lookout

Coffin Bay story

Abalone boat at Coffin Bay

 Abalone boat

 Coffin Bay

Coffin Bay Oyster Farm

 Oyster farm at Coffin Bay

Makybe Diva statute at Port Lincoln

Makybe Diva story

Marina at Port Lincoln

 Swim with the tuna boat

 Tuna trip pontoon

Arriving at the pontoon

Ready to hand feed the tuna

Hand feeding tuna

Swimming with the tuna

Small holding tank

Viewing through undersea window

 A very large salmon

They were very large

 Yellow tail tuna

Close up of tuna

 On the pontoon

Boat tied up at the pontoon

Tuna nets being prepared for season

Boat working on the tuna nets

The wake as we left the pontoon

Pete busy at his usual occupation!

Tuna farm nets

 Mussel farming

 Grain ship being loaded

Port Lincoln foreshore

 Port Lincoln jetty

 swimming area within shark netting

Hilton Motel from the boat

Viterra grain storage

  Tuna boat

 Grain boat

 The famous Makybe tuna boat

 We thought this would be an okay holiday home!

The front left has a gym and indoor swimming pool

Marina at Port Lincoln

Back to Port Augusta

Stansbury Beach

After a very enjoyable few days at Stansbury we made our way back up the Yorke Peninsula heading towards Port Augusta.  We stopped off at various towns including Kadina, Port Pirie and Port Germaine.  At Port Germaine we went to see Australia’s longest wooden jetty but it was extremely windy so chose not to walk out on it.

Cleaning time at Port Augusta

On the way into town we stopped off and gave the caravan a good clean as we will leave the caravan in storage in Port Augusta.  We checked again into Port Augusta Motorpark.  Monday while the car was in at the Nissan dealership for it’s 40,000 km check we spent the day packing up the caravan deciding what we need to take back to Melbourne then New Zealand with us, and what would be left in the caravan.  We could think of no reason why we wouldn’t be heading out of Port Augusta the next morning.

However our plans were soon to change – a phone call to Nissan advised us that there was a problem with the fuel injectors.  We had mentioned when we took the car in that we were concerned about the amount of fuel the car was using.  We were soon told that the cost was $12-$15,000 and that we would need to make an insurance claim as the problem was caused by faulty diesel as we had water in the tank.  We were obviously not heading out of town the next morning!  The car wasn’t going anywhere.  Fortunately for us we have RACV ultra care and between them, our car insurers AAMI and the Nissan team at Augusta Automall we have been very well looked after.

With a rental car and the caravan at Shoreline Caravan Park we commenced our unplanned extended stay in Port Augusta.  We were pleased to have a visit from Julia and David as they passed through Port Augusta heading to the Flinders Ranges for a few days and then they returned and stayed overnight giving us more time to catch up on the last few weeks.  We had a special task to complete – David had put the first sticker on our car when he along with Peter and some friends had travelled to the outback in April.  I was not impressed so it was now time for pay back.  David and Julia had broken down on their way to Central Australia a few weeks ago and had to be towed from Kulgera Pub.  As we passed through Kulgera a few weeks ago we purchased a sticker from the pub there as a reminder of Julia and David’s stay.  At the end of our evening when Julia and Dave had headed to their caravan for bed Peter placed the sticker on their back window – shame it isn’t straight!

Julia and Dave headed off towards Broken Hill and we settled back to our wait for a repaired vehicle!

Mt Remarkable National Park

Self registration at Mt Remarkable National Park

 Our rental car at Mt Remarkable National Park

 Walking time again!

At least they warned us!

 Mt Remarkable National Park

Alligator Gorge at Mt Remarkable

Choices

With David and Julia at Port Augusta

David and Julia are mobile again

 Julia

Our rental car

 A sticker for David's car

Not straight but still a reminder for David and Julia of Kulgera

 Dave and Julia

 Saying farewell to David and Julia

 At Port Augusta

A Little help from our friends

Today we moved from the Port Augusta Motor Park as this park is mainly for short term stays.  This had only one challenge and that was that the rental car didn't have a tow bar - option 1 was to tie the caravan to the bumper, however we didn't think that the local constabulary would approve of this so thought that we should not really do this.  So we went with option 2 - that was where Nissan in Port Augusta had offered us the use of the workshop ute to move the van so we used that.

BTW should you ever need help from a garage in Port Augusta see the people at Augusta Automall -  they are fantastic.

We still are none the wiser as to what they are going to do with our car.  Hopefully we will know more tomorrow.

STOP PRESS - Mmm aint life funny - STOP PRESS OR IS IT DELAYED!!

We arrived back in Port Augusta again on Saturday night with the intention of being here until Tuesday when the caravan was to go into storage and we were going to head out of town with the tent on the last part of stage two.

Well as you know plans sometimes change – we had the Nissan booked in on Monday for its 40k check.  We had noticed that it was not running right on the last part of the journey into town so pointed that out to Nissan when we dropped the car off.  Long story short I rang Nissan mid afternoon to see how the service was going and when it would be ready to pick up.  That’s when they dropped the bombshell - we had apparently picked up a bad batch of fuel somewhere that was contaminated with water.  In the olden days that would have been a so what, drain the water out refill it and off you go.  Well believe it or not, that’s not what happens with Hi-Tech motors.  What happens is the engine management system somehow allows the motor to destroy itself!!  And yep you guessed it, that’s about what it has done.

So now, as this is considered an accident, it is covered by insurance.  That’s the good news as the quote to repair it is probably in line with refloating the Rena – for those of you that don’t know about the Rena just Google it.  The insurance at this stage are still deciding if they will repair it or write it off we don’t have any feelings either way but assume that they will more than likely repair it – we should know this in the next couple of days.  So assuming that they will repair it we will be in Port Augusta for at least the next 10 days before travelling direct to Melbourne.  Not the end of the world just a pain in the @#@$%$.

The second round of good news if you have the RACV total Care it rocks.  Their care and service is just unbelievable.  We have been provided with a rental car at no cost and the cost of our accommodation and any other incidental costs are covered until “this incident” is completed up to $2,400.  So once we have the insurance company decision i.e. whether they will proceed to repair the Nissan (that as we understand it, will be better than new with its bright shiny new motor) or a new car we will then update.  In the meantime we will be hanging around Port Augusta!