Spear Fishing on Kangaroo Island...almost


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Published: June 19th 2006
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Scott's Cove LookoutScott's Cove LookoutScott's Cove Lookout

this is the view from Scott's Cove Lookout (duh)
Saturdays are for sleeping in. unless you live in the caravan at the edge of Bob and Lorraine's lawn. In this case, saturdays are for trying to convince your feeble brain (unsuccessfully) that you're still asleep from the time the birds scream at you at the crack of dawn to about 9am when Lorraine comes a-rapping on your door to inform you that Rachel will be picking you up in a half hour. bryan does groaning now.

All of my sleep woes and crankiness were washed away when i shuffled my way into the house to find Lorraine feverishly putting together a lunch for me and, at the same time, reminding me to bring a towel, a change of clothes, my camera, and of course, a smile. have i told you how wonderful this woman is? not to be out done (or so he thinks), Bob is off somewhere scrounging up snorkel gear, fins, and even a couple pairs of swimmers (swim suits...i should have included that in the glossary at the end of my last entry), which i did not use because i have my own. but it's the thought that counts. i am so taken care of here,
Harvey's Return Geological SiteHarvey's Return Geological SiteHarvey's Return Geological Site

i would have liked to play here a little longer...nice.
really, they do loads more than they should for me.

Bob lets me know that i'm absolutely out of my mind to be going skin diving this time of year, Lorraine grabs a backpack for all my gear, Rachel and Anthony show up, and i'm out the door. Anthony is attaching a yellow "L" to the grill of Rachel's truck to proclaim to the world that he is a "Learner" (according to Anthony it stands for "Loser") driver and i already know that this is going to be an interesting day. the 3 of us squeeze into the cab of the pickup truck and we are off to Harvey's Return, a beach on the west end of the island. soon i shall be freezing my gonads off, chasing fish around with a spring loaded spear gun. YES!!

45 minutes and a few dirt roads later we arrive at the Harvey's Return Geological Site car park (parking lot...man, there's another one). Anthony has an extra 3/4 sleeve wetsuit for me and this makes me happy because now maybe just my legs, arms, and head will freeze and fall off instead of my everything. we grab our gear, hike down the steep , 500 meter trail to the beach, i take a leak on a tree (just for you, Rose) and a beautiful cove appears in the clearing, littered with sparkling rock formations the likes of which have never been seen by yours truly. we put our gear down by a glittery rock so's we can scope things out and the sun begs us to remove our jackets...we gladly comply. a few goats scoff at gravity on the cliff face above us in order to get a taste of what i'm assuming must be the most delicious grass on the planet as it is worth the risk of plunging to your death. after looking around for "prime spear fishing waters" (whatever the heck that is) Anthony and Rachel decide we can do better somewhere else and offer to give me a quick tour of the west and south sides of the island. i said "no, actually i would hate a free tour of this scenic island guided by people who have lived here all their lives." and they didn't laugh so i said "yeah, that sounds great you guys!" and we were off.

1st stop was a lighthouse where we didn't take the tour because who wants to pay to walk around a silly lighthouse? tourists do! which i am not, but i promised seals and crazy looking rocks, etc. so we made the usual tourist stops and i took pictures, just for you! the good thing about having a couple of locals show you around is that they refuse to stop at the Flinders Chase Visitor Center to pay the entrance fees for all the parks where the touristy things are and, being the ignorant american on a budget, i don't have any objections.

next stop was Admiral's Arch, breeding grounds of the famed New Zealand fur seal colony in all its lazy, smelly glory. they were laying on the rocks, all of them, sleeping and being all together unimpressive. good for them! screw tourists! you can't really blame the seals though because you'd be pretty tuckered out too if you had been out fishing in the sea for the past 3 days. you can't get close to them like you could years ago; can't even set foot on the rocks, so all you can do is walk down the walkway, snap a few pictures, wait for them to do something interesting, give up, and leave. the walk from the top of the hill down to the rocky beach where the seals hang out is the smelliest, gut-wrenching walk i've ever endured (yes, even smellier than the streets of South Korea...barely though). it was fantastic! definitely go see the smelly seals at Admiral's Arch!

Onto Remarkable Rocks. really? seriously, that's what they're called? "Remarkable Rocks"? did someone come upon them and say "by jove, those rocks are quite remarkable." and no one thought they could do better? i vote that we change Admiral's Arch to "Smelly, Seals." it calls upon the same brilliant alliteration as "Remarkable Rocks" and, like Remarkable Rocks, makes it blatantly obvious what the tourist is about to see. Brilliant! so the rocks are crazy looking and it is a mystery as to how they found their way into a cluster on the top of a cliff by the sea. probably the same way the pyramids were built: humans went back in time and put them there using some far out technology we haven't discovered yet just to mess with us. duh. greatest practical joke ever...moving right along.

we headed to Vivonne
Anthony at Harvey's ReturnAnthony at Harvey's ReturnAnthony at Harvey's Return

scoping out "prime spear fishing waters"
Bay, voted the best beach in South Australia for reasons unknown to any of us. We were all starving so we ate lunch on the jetty (pier) and looked around at the bay wondering just what the criteria was for voting it best beach. it's much bigger than Harvey's Return, but not any more impressive. by the way, we've officially given up on spear fishing at this point because the clouds were playing "where's the sun" and so it was very chilly out. after lunch--and the last of our touristy stops--we headed to Bales Bay, a gorgeous beach on the south coast.

Anthony led us across the soft sand of Bales Bay beach to a cave on the other side of the first point. he had found it years ago on a family outing. it's not very large, but it is filled with thousands of shells. we sifted through them to find our favorites as the sun began to set. this is about the time when my camera batteries died and, in classic bryan style, i managed to bring dead replacement batteries. so, sadly, you don't get any pictures of the sunset walk back across Bales Bay...no pictures of
Harvey's GeologyHarvey's GeologyHarvey's Geology

very cool rocks...a bit large to take home with me though so...don't expect any.
my impressive display of squid netting in Tim's (Rachel's dad) metal dingy in about 2 feet of water, in the dark...not a single photo of us riding around in the middle of the night in the back of Tim's pickup picking off wallabies in a field with .22 rifles. ..oh you are in a sad, sad state. i pity you.
now, while i may be surprisingly good at netting squid, i am not so good at all at shooting wallabies, despite my military training. don't any of you get all up in arms about the wallaby extermination. we weren't doing it for the thrill (although Anthony surely enjoyed himself and was as excited as a puppy with 3 tails when he heard we were going to go shooting). the wallabies were destroying a woman's newly planted trees and there are so many of them (the wallabies, not the trees) that they are seen as an overpopulated, destructive rodent, not as a cute, little hippity hopping fluffy thing. and anyway, as the saying goes, when in Rome...shoot wallabies. or something like that.

so i didn't get to go spear fishing, but that's quite alright because Rachel's twin sister is coming to visit this weekend and we are planning on going camping and Anthony assures me that nothing will deter us from spear fishing this time. I'm excited. also, Teresa, an american girl, is suppose to arrive on thursday. she'll be doing the same thing i am..helping out on the farm and the like. Bob and Lorraine are great, but it will definitely be nice to have another young person around during the week. unless she totally hates me or smells really bad like a seal.

Sunday i did laundry.

that's all!




Additional photos below
Photos: 29, Displayed: 27


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It's a LighthouseIt's a Lighthouse
It's a Lighthouse

you can't tell in the picture, but i'm pretty sure there's a light in that thar pointy house yonder
Admiral's Arch SurfAdmiral's Arch Surf
Admiral's Arch Surf

i thought this was more interesting than the smelly seals...because it is.
Fur SealFur Seal
Fur Seal

uhm...the sign says "breeding" so...find a dancing partner and do the tango already! you smell bad!
Admirals ArchAdmirals Arch
Admirals Arch

OHHHH...ARCH...i get it now. there's seals down there somewhere, i promise.
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

let the remarking commence!
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

these rocks are also remarkable
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

oh and this one too...very remarkable
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

same rock, different angle, still remarkable.
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

these acutally aren't that remarkable, but i didn't want them to feel left out.
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

Rachel, definitely about to remark about this rock.
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

wow check out these! i could remark about them ALL day!
Remarkable RocksRemarkable Rocks
Remarkable Rocks

last one, so think of a really good remark.
EchidnaEchidna
Echidna

don't yell at me if i spelled it wrong. i thought i'd give you a break from scenic photos so...here's a spiny backside. enjoy!


19th June 2006

Italian ham & made-up words
Your colorful descriptions and animated verbiture make me smile Bryan. Miss you kid.... we could have been great together! I would have brought home the bacon each day to you (well, it would have been prosciutto, not bacon). Meanwhile, you would do the dishes, make my dinner, and walk Mazzy and Diesle. Keep the pics coming! And no, verbiture is NOT a word.
20th June 2006

rock always wins
Bryan, those rocks look amazing. Is that a dead seal? You wouldn't actually.. take a photo of that, would you? I can actually see you talking about the Remarkable Rocks and how I will miss all these moments because you're 2000 light years away. <3 Leeching vicariously off your adventures, xx melissa.
23rd June 2006

Karma-it'll kick your ass
You should be nice to the seals. I wouldn't piss em off if I were you, they may shove your camper over. Maybe you smell like an American to them, but you don't hear them complaining. Karma, that's all I'm saying.
24th June 2006

wow bryan, stop proving to everyone that it was my camera that takes good pictures, not me. Some of those pics are awesome! Can you put video on here too? You should take some video, I gave you the gig memory didn't I? Luv you miss you, keep em comin!
11th July 2006

Remarkable Remark on the Remarkable Rocks
The last Remarkable Rock Pic looks remarkably like a little gnome house with a mushroom carved in front and the little steps lead right up to the little front door in the middle...awww... so remarkably cute.

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