Advertisement
Published: March 4th 2013
Edit Blog Post
We left Adelaide on Tues 26th Feb and after our brief stop at Jacobs Creek to pay homage we continued our journey to Perth.
We reached Port Augustus and found the first sign post for Perth and WA.... Perth 2000km!!
We also reached a fork in the road where the direct road to Perth went across the bush to the right or we could take the more attractive, albeit longer option which was to follow the coast around and pick up the Perth Road again in about 700km.
We still had 12 nights ahead of us and someone had told us about some really lovely, remote spots so we headed left and followed the coast to a place called the Eyre Peninsular.
This had taken us well off the well worn backpacker and campervan routes ... in fact many Aussies have never thought of visiting this beautiful area.
Most other travellers in campervans had done the sensible thing and ended their journey ay Adelaide.... very few carry on towards the deserts and outback towards Perth. They normally fly out of there!
Our first stop was a a tiny place called Cowell where the only industry is oyster farming and where
a dozen oysters cost $5.
We had already done 500km for the day and so we stopped on the sea front and set up for the night for some more free camping.... With the toilets, shower and sink next door we even had our own en-suite (ie, disabled loo!) A few locals passed to look at us but there was nothing sinister.. just simple curiosity! And certainly nothing like what had happened at Maslin Beach car park!
On Wed morning we awoke to pouring rain again and set off to Port Lincoln where we had breakfast and visited the local tourist info centre.
We decided to spend the day and night at a National Park called 'Coffin Bay' which was not too far away.
We paid the visitors fee and the overnight camping fee and drove into the most beautiful and natural area with pristine beaches and loads of wildlife. By afternoon the few other visitors had left and we had the whole headland to ourselves. The sun came out and we parked right on a lovely beach where we had dinner... (traditional British grub.... curry, rice, nan breads and a few beers and vino's!) It was totally surreal
and almost like being marooned on a desert island but in a self sufficient campervan.... Very romantic setting for a dinner on the beach! I love the sunsets and sunrises over here and we sat and watched the sunset on this most amazing beach. It was a fabulous experience and we slept right next to the beach listening to the waves and the wind.
The next day we needed to re-charge the van batteries so we continued towards Western Australia and stopped at a tiny place called Venus Bay in a powered site. The town consisted of a shop and a few houses and a caravan site that was quite full.
The place was right on the beach and was full of people into fishing. This was serious fishermans land......We were told that Venus Bay was famous for fishing and that the Whiting was a favourite. Fishermen from across Australia travelled here and that Whiting cost $50 per kilo and could be caught from the jetty next to the site.
So, I unpacked my telescopic fishing rod and my few lures and hooks... much to the amusement of the locals with their rods and kit costing
thousands.
My kit folds down to something like the size of a set of darts! They were not impressed.
Anyway, I spoke to the friendly neighbours who put me right with a few tips and even gave me some frozen squid to use as bait.
I then hit the jetty and set up next to some inquisitive locals. The squid was still frozen so I had also packed some slices of bread.... well, it had worked on the canal in Coventry when I used to go fishing as a child.
First cast and I caught the brown stripey thing in the photo, I have no idea what it was but it was the biggest fish landed that afternoon!
I was going to throw it back but the couple next door said that they wanted it for dinner that day. (I later found out that they told people that they had caught it)
I caught a few more and then came the big one... the sought after whiting. I landed it and saw the envious look on the faces of the locals who were struggling to catch anything.
So, playing to the crowd, I unhooked it, took out my camera and
took a acouple of pictures because I knew Annie wouldn't believe me.
At this point the fish had a second lease of life, it jumped out of my hand and as I went to catch it both the fish and the camera fell off the jetty and into the sea!
The locals loved it! This was better than Ramsey Street, Neighbours, Cell Block H or whatever else they watch on telly.... I was acting casual and making out that it was an old cheapie but more importantly it had a memory card in it with the pictures still on it.
I let an hour go by whilst waiting for the locals to p**s off and then went to the local shop and brought a snorkle and mask. Madam joined me and took great delight in bringing the other camera to record my attempts and telling the locals that I was going to dive for it.
So, the same crowd gathered again (obviously not a lot happens in Venus Bay) and I jumped in and eventually managed to find the camera.
Unfortunately it was no longer waterproof and it is knackered but the memory card was ok and I
have managed to download the pics from it.....
The whole site were talking about the idiot 'Pommy' and his camera falling into the sea. Later that evening, one bloke even brought me a beer over to thank me for the entertainment I had given that afternoon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.082s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0449s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb