By road it is 541 kilometres from Wallaroo to Port Lincoln travelling via Port Augusta. Time wise, the trip for us would take just short of seven hours. There is an alternative that reduces the trip to a leisurely 176 kilometre drive or just two and a half hours on the road following an additional two hours to cross Spencer Gulf by ferry.
We had decided some time ago to cross by ferry primarily for the experience as the cost when towing a caravan could be considered by some as being excessive. At the time of making the decision to use the ferry, we also booked and received a sizeable discount for the car. All up, it cost us $334 for the car and the caravan.
Looking at that from an economic perspective, travel by road would have cost about half of the ferry cost for fuel and an additional night’s accommodation as the trip would have been made over two days. We cannot put a cost on the time saving.
Originally we were to travel at 12:30pm but the operator implemented their winter timetable after we made our booking and changed the departure time to 10:30am. This change was actually a God send as we were able to arrive at Port Lincoln mid-afternoon rather than the evening had we crossed at 12:30pm.
The crossing, well that is another story that hopefully you can read in Caravan and Motorhome Magazine if they accept our article. If not, we will amend the blog at a later time. Suffice to say, the trip was extremely enjoyably as we crossed on a perfect day with little swell.
We had been concerned with the need to shut down our refrigerator (running the fridge on gas whilst on the ferry is a definite no no!!) but the placement of a couple of freezer bricks ensured that the cold temperature was maintained.
During the trip we were able to speak with the Captain of the vessel and gain access to the bridge for some pictures.
After disembarking at Lucky Bay, the trip through to Port Lincoln was enjoyable and done at the speed limit.
The Port Lincoln Top Tourist Park is one of the better caravan parks we have stayed at. The park is located on the edge of Porter Bay and the sites are perfectly level concrete with services immediately adjacent to the caravan. The amenities are excellent and well maintained.
We splurged on our evening meal at a great restaurant called “Del Giorno’s” and shared a seafood platter between two. There were oysters, marinated prawns (served on top of a rice dish), King George whiting, mussels, baby octopus, calamari, chips and a Greek salad. Absolutely yummy!!
We had a quick look around town after the meal but we were all happy to return to our accommodation to sleep.