10. Kangaroos
I love kangaroos. Any animal that propels itself by jumping alone is awesome in my books, and Port Lincoln has a lot of them.
The following day we were driving on a dirt road when I spotted another sleepy, only this one was living dangerously and catching a few rays on the middle of the road. After a brief chat with Alice we decided we had to get this little guy to safety so after reeling off a few photos we tried to coerce him away with the assistance of a stick (I played the I’m taking photos, you do it card which only worked for so long). This was largely unsuccessful and he was becoming increasingly distressed so I eventually manned up and picked him up with my bare hands Steve Irwin style, I placed him in a paddock and when we returned later that day he wasn’t squashed on the road so I’m calling it a win.
5. Fancy Digs
We stayed at Tanonga Luxury Eco Lodges and it was incredible. With only 2 lodges on the property located over a 1km apart this was the epitome of secluded luxury. Our lodge was on the top of a hill and as the sun was rising or setting the views from every room in the house were breathtaking. There’s no better way to spend an evening than spotting kangaroos with binoculars and sipping shiraz to the tune of flocks of galahs as the sun goes down.
4. Friendly Locals
Apart from being on the receiving end of 2 or 3 tailgating incidents the locals were all super friendly, from the tourist information girl to the guy at the surf shop who sold me a pair of shorts everyone we came in to contact with went out of their way to be great.
3. Bottle Shop Freebies
We popped into Lincoln Cellars to procure a bottle of local red. My cousin Scott used to live in Lincoln and recommended Boston Bay wines so that’s what we were looking for. After a bit of a chat with the guy behind the counter he led us to the Boston Bay reds and we picked up a bottle of their 2008 shiraz which was lovely. As we were paying we noticed they were having a promotion which involved free pint glasses with the purchase of Magners. I commented to Alice about how cool the glasses looked and the guy asked if we wanted some, no purchase required! We followed him out the back to grab 4 super sweet glasses and when we returned to the counter the other guy working there had sourced an ice bucket as another freebie. Before we’d finished thanking them for this one the first guy had procured us a couple of terry towelling West End hats and some classy bright red Stollie sunnies (coming soon to a photobooth near you). Where else in the world can you buy a bottle of wine and walk away with handfuls of awesome apparel? (as a footnote I’ve just had a drink from one of the glasses, I think they might be factory 2nds or something as the glass isn’t flat on the bottom and it looks like you’re going to drink shards of glass as you approach the end of the glass. Still though, they’re awesome).
2. Loosest poker machines in Australia!!
When I was a child, 16 perhaps, I went to dinner with my family at the Buckingham Arms which did an all you can eat buffet which included a ice cream machine and a donut maker. Needless to say this instantly become my favourite place to eat. Anyway, one time after dinner my parents took me into the poker lounge and as a family we put $1 into a poker machine. After a few minutes that $1 had doubled to $2 and we walked away a lazy $1 richer, my head was spinning about the possibilities of making fast cash. (I’m not sure why we played the pokies that night, maybe they’d just been introduced into pubs or something? Either way my parents were actually extremely responsible on the whole so don’t go judging them!).
Since that day 17 years ago I’ve probably played the pokies maybe half a dozen times, and certainly not in the last 5 years, but after a sumptuous seafood feast and a bottle of tasty local Riesling my girlfriend suggested we give them a whirl for a laugh. We had a lengthy discussion about our plan of attack, and exactly when we’d walk away. The plan was to spend $5 each and when that ran out we would spend no more. When it came to how much we had to win before we left the machines Alice decided that if she could turn her $5 in to $6 that would be a great result and she would walk away with her head held high and a shiny $1 coin to show for it. I like to live on the wild side so I decided $25 would be a more suitable target and that I would be prepared to gamble relentlessly until I got there (or until my initial $5 ran out – I’m not that wild).
As luck would have it I put my $5 into a machine and on the third or forth press of the button my machine started ringing and lit up, and my credits started to go north. $5, $10, $20 wow, this is great, will it ever stop? $30, $50, holy crap, it’s still going, this is great, $70, $90 onwards and upwards! Eventually it stopped at $103 and I was done. I cashed out and collected 103 shiny $1 coins from the machine before taking it to the cashier and exchanging it for a crisp $100 note and shrapnel (when you’re a high roller like me you consider dollar coins shrapnel).
