Advertisement
Monday to Wednesday
After an overnight stop at Cowell, we headed south down the Eyre Peninsular towards Port Lincoln and chose to camp at a low cost beachside camp at Louth Bay.
Fellow travellers had told us that 'There is nothing but catching fish' at Louth Bay. Again, we disagree, but we had better cover the journey south first.
Cowell is a well established older settlement with some beautiful old buildings. This was a three pub main street, two still active, the third converted to a set of home units.
Not far south of Cowell, we saw the salt bush and scrub tea tree that had dominated the vista from Whyalla to Cowell replaced by rolling grain pastures, flocks of sheep and alpaca. Farmers after a little rain were getting the soil ready for the next crop. Tractors with huge ploughs, others with fluorescent yellow spray clearing weeds before planting. These are no toy sized machines. Bad luck for us, we couldn't stop for photos due to traffic and safety reasons.
There are a number of small beach side towns down the coast. Arno Bay was the first we stopped at. These small towns in the
early days contributed to the opening up of the region as small ships took out grain and wool, and delivered supplies. This history is reflected in many murals in all these towns, and are an important part of understanding the nature of the town. Many have a main street with the jetty at the end of the street.
We moved on from Arno to Port Neill and then Tumby Bay which is a much more substantial town with a broad beach front development. Here the local artists have reflected on the maritime history and particularly the marine life of the Gulf on a series of free standing murals. We parked on the waterfront for lunch enjoying the scenery.
It was a relatively short drive from there down to Louth Bay. No murals, no shops, but a good jetty. One traveller said that anyone can catch a fish at Louth Bay. That seemed to be true, particularly if you like squid. They are on the run as they say. We saw some landed, and as Marg said, one sneezed. Actually, it blasted out its ink. The fisherman just dodged a blast!
David had his line out for an
hour or so and caught 1 crab, 1 red something, and an elephant fish.
Now, that fish is quite rare, particularly here. They are normally found in water 200 meters deep, not in 3 meters off a jetty. I must read a little more about these. They I believe are officially a shark, but have some anomalies which is why they are called elephant fish. Good eating as far as we can tell, but David chose to release the fish after photos were taken.
Marg and I went walk about on Wednesday morning and found that there are interesting little beaches around the bay and its headland. This gives a choice to dodge the wind as it switches from northerly to southerly.
Tuesday I was talking to a local who sells smoked local salmon which we procured, and as he was short of folk who wanted to chat, he showed us his shell hobby - an accumulation of many years collecting. Of particular interest are his sailing ships. Now the size and design are dictated by the sails. That seems wrong, but the sails are made of abalone shell finely polished, or in one case New Zealand
Paua shell. Once the sales are made, laid out, he scales the masts and hull to suit.
He showed us some large deep sea crabs, about 300mm across the shell or more. Did you know that these crabs are largely right handed? He has a left handed one as well, and that is very rare.
Don't tell me there is nothing in Louth Bay - you just have to look and talk.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0482s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mum & Dad
non-member comment
Another good blog
Some great photos Rob and comments where is your fish? It's a game of waiting and hoping