An easy day today, rose late and decided to do a short days riding. I had an interesting chat to the young publican where I was staying at Elliston. Apparently there are plans for one of the largest wind farms in Australia for the region. He is hopeful as this will bring people and money to the town.
Elliston is a small fishing/holiday village a little far from the main population base in Adelaide. Lovely beaches and bay, and allegedly abundant fish.
On leaving Elliston I took an easy ride S. I crawled my way, well that is what it felt like doing 80kph in a 110 zone. I simply didn’t feel in any hurry today. The country side was beautiful sheep grazing landscape. A lovely ride in the countryside as they say.
I called in to Coffin Bay, another fishing village but this time the centre for oysters in this part of the world. On leaving I headed for my final destination for the day at Port Lincoln, at the S tip of the Eyre Peninsula. I was here a little after lunch, had a look around and switched off for the day.
Port Lincoln is the tuna fishing capital of Australia, made a little famous by Dean Lukin who came from here winning the Gold medal in the heavy weight lifting class at the LA Olympics, in 1984 I think. Anyway this has one of the largest commercial fishing fleets in Oz, and the marina sure shows signs of this fact.
As I said a lazy day today, and worthwhile after the hectic ride across the Nullarbor – boy, is that part really finished already?
Really on the home stretch now!!! can't believe its almost over for you. Can't wait to see you.
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Spot on John.
ReplyDeleteDean Lukin Weightlifting
1960 -
Dinko “Dean” Lukin, a tuna fisherman from Port Lincoln, South Australia, became the only weightlifting gold medallist in Australian Olympic history when he won the super-heavyweight division at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He also won gold medals at the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and Edinburgh respectively. Following his victory in Los Angeles, he carried the Australian flag at the closing ceremony.
Lukin’s father, also Dinko, was one of many political refugees from Yugoslavia who settled in Australia during the Olympic year of 1956. He cut cane in Queensland, worked on a Sydney-based fishing trawler, then moved to Port Lincoln and established a fishing fleet which exploited the lucrative Japanese appetite for blue-fin tuna. Lukin was always a large youngster, known in the Port Lincoln under-14 football team as “Dino the Dinosaur”. He caught his first tune at the age of nine, and began lifting weights around the time he reached his teens. For a long time he regarded weightlifting as a pleasant diversion from his true calling, tuna fishing, and refused to engage in full-time training.
Fortunately for Lukin’s prospects in Los Angeles, the Iron Curtain boycott of the 1984 Games removed some top Russian, Bulgarian and East German contenders from the field. After the first round at the Games, Lukin trailed the American Mario Martinez. Finally, though, he won the gold with a lift of 240 kilograms. Next day he was asked if he would compete in the Australia Games the following January. “You’re joking,” he said. “That’s slam-bang in the middle of the tuna season.”