Eyre Peninsula – nature’s marine park

Get back to nature and discover South Australia’s natural marine theme park with our adventurous blogger Q.

If you are visiting or live in South Australia, there are many reasons you should consider visiting the Eyre Peninsula so when I got the opportunity to head to Port Lincoln, I made sure to line up as many of the ‘must do’ items for the area.

Flying to Port Lincoln from Adelaide takes less time than a peak hour ride home in the car from most major Australian cities. I flew with Rex Airlines and was barely able to register my hesitance of flying on ‘smaller’ planes before we were ready to descend into our destination.

Shark Diving is for the game few

Port Lincoln is dubbed the seafood capital of Australia and also boasts an excellent list of must see experiences thatare bound to shorten a few bucket lists. Here you can watch the whales, pluck oysters straight out of the ocean, frolic with sea lions, cage dive with great white sharks, swim with tuna, fish from the shore or find your way amidst 60,000 hectares of national parks.

I enjoyed comfortable accommodation at the Marina Hotel, adjacent to the marina where most of the boat tours out of Port Lincoln depart from. The kitchen at the hotel stayed open late and breakfast was available from 7am with range of pub staples and seafood options on the menu.

View of the Marina Hotel

One of the many highlights of my stay in Port Lincoln was the Seafood and Wildlife Tour which departed from Coffin Bay in the coastal waters of the Coffin Bay National Park. Our host and captain aboard the Coffin Bay Explorer, Darian Gale, has lived as far away as QLD but always returns home to Port Lincoln.

He shared his wealth of knowledge of the local area; the history of the islands in and around Coffin Bay; the oyster industry and the local wildlife in a casual and friendly manner, and was perfectly at ease captaining the boat and conversing with tour participants.

Plenty of dolphins and a sea lions came to say hello in the water, we got up close and personal with some New Zealand Fur Seals that have colonized an island in the bay and yes… we did get to sample fresh oysters from a farm. Darian has his own oyster farm so was able to provide detailed information about how farming is done, the different sizes of oysters, how they grow and how they are processed and handled prior to landing on your plate at an oyster bar.

Even if you are not an oyster aficionado, the tour has a lot to offer the nature lover, I was so excited about the dolphins, I nearly dived overboard! And trust me… no matter how good you think oysters are away from the ocean, eating them fresh from the sea is divine.

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