8th March – Day 34
Today was another gorgeous day! Carl got himself up early as per the instructions from the locals and went to Locks Well Beach to surf fish, this is where the Australian Salmon surf fishing championships are held each year. He’d normally go by the tides, but the locals say sunrise/sunset. He had a great morning, 5 salmon, one was a ripper! He really has a story to tell about that! Apparently they went on the bite so well that he could see the school of fish swimming/swarming in the surf like a black mass. Some guy got into the water to video the school and that spooked them and they turned to get out of the channel. Carl said the water went like a washing machine, fish were jumping out of the water – mind you, the fishermen were still trying to catch fish whilst all this was happening, and then there were none!
He brought all the fish home, after he came back from filleting the big one, I got into trouble for not taking a picture of it! Go figure, I didn’t fillet it! At least the 4 little ones made his page!
We went for a drive along the coast line, magnificent! Every new turn was another breathtaking scene – we just can’t believe how beautiful the coast line is, so rugged, yet awe inspiring. At one view I spotted movement in the water, 2 seals playing in the waves and ducking and diving – gorgeous.
I had a bit of a cleaning morning, washing, sweeping, cleaning out all the dust – my hay fever was up a notch last night, first time since we’ve been away, so I felt it was time!
Just after 3 we went back down to Locks Well Beach for the evening fish. And true to Carls word, as you drove down towards the carpark, it was breathtaking! To get to the beach we had to go down 283 steps, we also had to go up 283 steps to get back!!!! Poor Carl did this 2 times today!
It was a very hot day so I tried to get some reprieve from the heat in the shade of the cliffs whilst Carl fished. I saw something in the waves, it seemed to be riding them, it was a seal! End of fishing!!!! No big salmon tonight – I’ll have to do that another day and not at this beach, I can think of a lot more beaches that have less than 283 steps to get to and from! Carl will go back tomorrow night as we are having the car at the mechanics in the morning, so he can only do the evening fish as we leave on Saturday for Venus Bay.
Carl gave most of the Salmon away, I’ll use the smoker and we’ll have what we’ve got tomorrow. He gave some to a couple of old blokes down the road, and cheekily asked if they would show him how to successfully fish for whiting off the beach. One of the old blokes said to him, ‘you know how to do a paternoster rig, you should know how to fish’ – but he came knocking on our door and said that he had bait and was going down for a fish! No whiting, their wives have told me that at least they’ll have fish to eat, thanks to Carl.
Until tomorrow! xx
Locks Well Beach
7th March – Day 33
This morning we rose to a beautiful morning! We got organised so that when we came back from the beach we were ready to move on.
Bill, one of the campers had given Carl some ‘local’ info and told him to go to a particular beach, which we had checked out the day before and Carl had confirmed with him that that was the beach to go to. Carl fished for a couple of hours whilst I appropriately read! The result was a decent sized Tommy Rough. As we were leaving the beach we noticed Bill & his partner getting out of their car at a beach further down the road – hmm, not the beach he told us to go to!!! Lol
There was an offshore wind today, and as we drove back to the van, there was a huge amount of cars at a particular beach – surf was up! We’d seen this at another beach on the Yorke Peninsula as well – car park full of work utes and their dogs, all out surfing! Later on in the day we were to see one of the utes, boards in the back still, at a work site where a new house was being built – I guess when the surfs up, the surfs up, can’t let anything get in the way of a good surf!
We headed for Elliston where we are to stay for a couple of days. Neither of us has phone access, you can only get Telstra, so we are relying on internet at the moment. The lady who owns the place has given us use of the free internet after I told her that I had no phone access – I wasn’t about to tell her that I heaps of internet time still available –gotta take a freebie when you can! Got it for the next 3 days, so that’s my only contact guys!
Carl is getting himself ready to go fishing at Locks Well beach – he has been given the low down, tides don’t make a difference, just time of day, dawn & dusk – so he’s packed and ready to go, hoping for that thumper 10lb salmon!! Me, well I’m going to make a leisurely day of it – because I can!
Until tomorrow xx
6th March – Day 32
So there we were at the $10 per night camp spot – smelly pit toilets (I could cope with that), wild bees hovering around the pit toilets (I could cope with that), limestone dust campsite (I could cope with that), we had to bring our own water (we managed that), no power (thank god for torches, gas and an early night!) the beach was magnificent! (we loved that), that bloody snake I saw as we drove along the road slithering into the bushes! (that I couldn’t cope with!) (Yes Lennon, another snake!!!!! But Nanna was very brave, she kept the windows wound up nice and tight again!)
Carl tried his hand at fishing Sheringa Beach, unfortunately the tide was against him and all that happened was that I got a tan!
We had drinks with some of the campers – Bill & Jen from Port Lincoln, unusual couple, and then there was Ted from Tassie and his partner. As the night rolled on, the amount of people turning up to camp over night was unbelievable – I think we had 8 to 9 campers overnight!
Showers, hmm, that was a new experience. I just can’t go to sleep unless I’ve showered, especially having spent an entire day on the beach! Camp shower!!!! I just didn’t get around to getting the solar shower set up in time! We had to improvise!
Until tomorrow xx
4th & 5th March – Days 30 & 31
Yesterday was a real nothing day. The weather was not too crash hot, and Carl seemed to hit the wall! He was so tired; he slept on and off all day. Later in the day he tried to make a comeback and went to the jetty to do some fishing – more king George whiting.
Today was much better – Carl as well! We got all prepared and went to the surf beach in the national park. Carl called out to me to look at the very large stingray cruising passed in the shallows – I was of course up the beach reading my book!
It was a fruitless day for fishing so we headed home – I don’t call catching mullet any great challenge! Carl fed them to the gulls! That in itself was quite a hoot! Carl threw the fish to the Pacific Gull in the direction of the water, the Gull went straight for it and sat on top of the water looking for the fish, and a huge wave dumped on it! The bird went totally under water and you could see it rumbling around in the wave – I’ve never seen a bird get dumped on before!
I did a bit of shopping, had to buy some supplies as we are staying in a free camp tomorrow, nowhere near a shop. It has drop toilets and no power or water – we’ve just realised that the tap for the caravan water unit doesn’t work! So we will have to be very ’waterwise’
I went to one of the oyster farmers to buy some this afternoon. He gave me one to taste, then gave me a local (not farmed) one to taste. Then I asked for a dozen, so he gave me 1.5doz, as they were a little bit smaller than normal - $8 – I’m in heaven!!!!
We are certainly meeting some interesting and fun people along the way. As we were walking back from putting the oyster shells in the bin, I had my arm around Carls shoulder chatting to him, the lady next door got up out of her seat and started calling out to us – hey you two, those oysters have started working already! It’s all a bit of fun and most people are up for a chat, himself included, he is ‘sir social butterfly’
Tomorrow we head to Sheringa Beach – Carl is desperate to fish this spot.
The Oyster Shucker!
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