Our plan today is to drive over to Coffin Bay, Boston Bay and Port lincoln. Our host is the great Tony Ford who runs Boston Bay Winery. Tony went out squiding yesterday and grabbed 7 of the tasty little devils. Cant wait to see him, catch up, try his wines and some local seafood.
A lovely little brekky wrap. Bacon, spinach, egg, mayo and a well crafted coffee. Great cafe with an indoor garden area with antique furniture at Streaky Bay.
And driving again. Once you get to Ceduna the landscape changes. Wheat and sheep become common sites.
The road to Coffin Bay hugs the coastline and occasionally touches it. Theres a real mix of scenery on display
Cummins Monument. A lobster catcher named Leo Cummins drowned here. Its a spectacular site.
We turn off the main drag and end up at Coffin Bay. My all time favourite place for oysters. A little cafe there makes great coffee and has a focus on the local seafood and an outlook over the bay itself. Brilliant!
This is Tony Ford. Tony is a bit of a legend in the wine industry for many reasons. He is also an abalone lease holder, brilliant chef, a bit of an entrepanuer and a frustrated stand up commedienne.
Tony quickly knocks up some king prawns and a thai pork salad and opens a bottle of his Riesling. Fabulous!
We go for a drive around Port Lincoln. Tuna boats are moored in town
Theres another winery in town, so we go in for a bottle of wine and a bowl of tuna marinated in soy and topped with toasted nori. Lovely!
At this point in the trip, things started to go wrong and fray at the edges. We had a room booked for tonight 3 hours down the road. Tony was referring to us as the 4 Amigos and saying emotionally we couldnt be seperated after all we’d been through (he’d met Anson and Crash 2 hours ago for the first time). Our problem was we had to have Crash in Adelaide by noon tomorrow to catch a flight to the Gold Coast, so we had to go. No problem, says Tony, opening another bottle of wine as he books a 45 min flight for Crash tomorrow morning from Port Lincoln to Adelaide. Guess we are staying!!!!
Tony took us to a really cool 2 story bar made out of shipping containers. Great cocktails and shish kebabs were just being freely distributed
At this point my phone went dead, so theres no photographic evidence of our night in Port Lincoln. It was a great night. We went from the bar (where we’d been introduced as whale hunters) to the brewery in town for a quick glass of Cage Diver Pale Ale then off to a private house for a bonfire party.
The owner of the house was a Tuna fisherman and various friends from the seafood industry had bought then cooked what they farmed or caught all while three ladies made rissotto in the kitchen. Steamed mussels in a garlic sauce. Raw tuna soaked in beetroot. Tuna with kiwi fruit and strawberry. A long table was covered in wines for all to share. I sneaked a glass of 2002 Rockford Shiraz which was delightful. It was such a lovely evening of food, wine and conversation
One of Tony’s business ideas was to offer an experience swimming with the tuna for those not brave enough to go in the shark cage. Sadly, it failed.
Tony’s tuna farm was similarly unsuccessful.
Amazingly, we did get Crash onto his 10am flight the next morning. Then started the drive north to Port Augusta then South down to Adelaide. Its about a 7 hour trip. Its quite frustrating because Adelaide isnt really that far away. The country has had wheat snd sheep since Ceduna, but now it gets a bit more intensive.
As we drive theres often water pipes on the roadside providing water to towns. The one we followed to Kalgoorlie on the first leg of the trip was about 500km long and took 5 years to build about 120 years ago. The Hunter Valley has no water supply and its a massive tourism industry. They seem to solve these problems in SA and WA.
Back on the road
We finally make Adelaide and catch up with Andrew Press. Andrew is the guy who finds piggs peake grapes in SA. We go Japanese and launch into a carafe of Sake’, blue swimmer crab and some salmon.
Then pork dumplings, kim chi dumplings and some deep fried mullet.
Then flat beans and lamb belly cooked over fire. A bottle of Riesling by KT and some Japanese whisky completed the night.
