Sunrise
We docked at Port Lincoln at 8am and the view seemed promising. I had my usual order for a balcony breakfast brought at around 10am and had a leisurely chomp with lots of tea. The Princess preferred teabag is Lipton’s, but clearly the American version as it is about as strong as a convalescent dormouse. I sneakily bought some proper teabags in Melbourne before I left and have been substituting them for the barely alive Lipton’s version. I will bring them back with me, as there are folk I know who like Weeeeeaaak tea ?
I then decided to have a wander into Port Lincoln, about which I knew nothing ! I went to my safe to remove passport and cash and was promptly locked out of the said metal box.......I am sure I put in the right number combo but who knows.......anyway a lovely housekeeping supervisor who was Chinese and about 3ft 7inches tall came and rescued me with a complicated code of numbers and letters which allowed the lock to click open and my valuables to escape. She chatted the whole time and was clearly almost submerged ( and given her height that wasn’t tricky) by all the housekeeping issues on a ship as large as the Golden ! The broken door lock on deck 7, the run down battery on another type of safe on deck 5 and the man on deck 10 who had had a small tipple and locked himself on the balcony.....one hopes he was not in a state of undress, although I bet she has seen it all many times. She smiled and waved and moved cheerily on to problem number 63 and it was as yet, only 10.45 am. Maybe 63 is an exaggeration, but she was up to her eyes in problems !
I was by then ready to disembark and see the sights. The town had kindly provided busses to take us to Main Street on the harbour front so things were looking up ! Like sheep we boarded and drove a km or so around the grain port - nothing......no WiFi. No souvenirs. No coffee. Nothing.
We got to Main Street and we cheered up a little. The town had provided volunteers sporting hats and t shirts saying ‘Explore Port Lincoln !’. I alighted from the bus and looked around eagerly hoping for something to look at. The sun was shining and it was a pleasant 70 degrees, the harbour was pretty and there was a great view of the ship, and the folk were chatty and welcoming. That was about it.
The only bit of history left !
Matthew Flinders and compass.
On crossing the road I heard singing, live singing of the ‘You clearly loved that song’ type ! ( Anyone who knows me as an adjudicator is aware that when I can’t find a positive with the singing to begin my adjudication I always use that sentence, and say it with Shakespearean emotion). It was a small group of enthusiastic ladies in green ‘Sing Australia ‘ shirts entertaining the tourists. They were very sweet and were clearly loving singing, but the rendition of The Skye Boat Song left a bit to be desired !!! This is completely unfair of me, given my job, and they were much enjoyed by the populous at large.
I looked for a coffee shop and saw the Paragon Cafe ! I ordered my flat white and proceeded to try for the usual free WiFi - nothing. The biggest nothing however was the fact that my flat white never arrived !! After sitting at a table for about 25minutes I went in and asked where it was, to be told it was ‘nearly ready’ - in fairness they looked so overwhelmed by customers I fear they were going to still be making slow flat whites at midnight, so I said I had to leave and they cheerfully gave me a refund !
I wandered a bit further, rather giving up on anything which needed any preparation, and eventually found the Matthew Flinders statue. He who mapped the whole of South Australia. I was advised that there was something of a competition for which town was going to be the capital of South Australia between Adelaide and Port Lincoln..........it seemed pretty clear which one had lost !
Lovely people.......
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