Monday 6th
After I fisished work we headed into town to do a bit of shopping and look for a couple of things that we had been wanting to get for a little while. Ross had already rang to find out about getting his car serviced and found out that it couldn't be done until after Easter - a week away! Darn it! We found a campsite that is about an hour north of where we will get the car fixed so we will head up there when we can.
By the time we did all the running around we needed to do we had run out of time and we still hadn't got to Whitworths which is in Port Adelaide, so we camped the night right on the water at Port Adelaide ready to go to Whitworth's in the morning. We were really surprised by Port Adelaide, we thought it would be a thriving area but it is dead! They are planning on tearing down a big old building right on the water and make it fancy apartments etc, so not sure if that will bring the place back to life or not.
Tuesday 7th
After work we did a bit of shopping and headed off to find a new campsite for the next week. Being Easter we need to get into somewhere soon before everyone turns up for the holidays. We found a really nice campsite called Port Parham near Dublin that is right on the beach. It is right in the middle of nowhere but we were really surprised to find how many people were camped here already.
The beach is really weird and is VERY shallow, so much so that even with the tide right in it is only half a meter deep and when the tide goes out you have to walk for about a kilometre before you hit the water - we have never seen anything like that before. Also, when the tide comes in it comes in a walking pace - weird!
We made friends pretty quickly with the neighbours and had happy hour before it got too cold to stay outside. The weather is definitely turning into winter now. It is strange, only a week ago the whether was sweltering hot and now it has turned freezing! The nights are really cold and there is a really cold wind blowing here at the moment.
A couple of German people turned up after dark in a station wagon so I went over to say hello to them as they seemed to be without much in the way of gear - they had a station wagon - that's it - no tent, no roofracks on the wagon, just a couple of chairs and a little burner to cook their food. I reckon they are pretty brave. They have been travelling around that was for several months and still have another seven months to go doing the same thing - just goes to show you that you don't need nearly as much gear as everyone reckons you do and I started to think about all the stuff I have with me that I dont really need!
Wednesday 8th
A couple of the guys were going crabbing this morning so Ross, Boris and I decided to join them to see what it was all about. They all had proper dive boot-type footwear (including Ross) but I didn't so I wore my crocs - aaggh!! I didn't realsie that it would be so muddy and I kept getting stuck in the mud and losing my shoes - it was really hard going. The ocean isn't supposed to be muddy! I think because it is so shallow the mud doesn't get washed away? Anyway, you take a metal rake and wade through the mud and slush and weeds and when you come to a bare patch of sand you rake around and if there is a crab in there it will grab onto the rake and then you put it in a bucket! It was pretty fun and we caught a few crabs (blue swimmers). Lots of them were too small and we had to put them back but the group of us ended up with 12 in total which is probably not a lot but we had fun doing it.
There were professional crab-catchers out there picking up crabs too - I don't think that I had THAT good a time that I would bother taking it up for a living but I reckon if I got my hands on a set of waders (gumboots attatched to rubber pants) I would do it again. We cooked the crabs up and I had some for dinner - YUMMY!
Thursday 9th
When we woke up this morning there was a van parked near us but we didn't know when it came in or who was in it and we didn't see any movement for most of the day. After lunch a young guy finally emerged and we started chatting to him and found out that his name is Hadleigh and he comes from England and is here for a few months travelling around by himself. He had a few problems the night before with finding the camping area he was going to originally wsa closed for renovations, problems with his GPS and finding this place, etc, etc and didn't end up getting into here until 2 am - no wonder we didn't hear him! He is a lovely guy and we got on well with him and he liked Boris which is very important!! He unfortunately didn't have a doona with him and had been pretty cold last night so he is going to go into Adelaide and get one and then possibly come back here if he can't find anywhere else to stay.
Well, it's Easter weekend and late this afternoon a bunch of people started turning up to stay here for the Easter break - we thought it was pretty busy before - we are packed in like sardines now!! What a popular little spot!!
We had a BBQ with Neil and Mary tonight which was great - they are a great couple and we get on well with them.
Hadleigh came back fairly late and had bought himself a doona and a couple of other goodies including a new little single gas burner that we had a bit of trouble getting going initially but eventually Ross got his screwdriver out and got it going!
Friday 10th
Hadleigh took off this morning, he is heading down the Great Ocean Road - I hope he has a great time and meets lots of nice people along the way.
We had an easy day and had happy hour and played cards with Neil and Mary this afternoon.
Saturday 11th
After I fisished work we headed into town to do a bit of shopping and look for a couple of things that we had been wanting to get for a little while. Ross had already rang to find out about getting his car serviced and found out that it couldn't be done until after Easter - a week away! Darn it! We found a campsite that is about an hour north of where we will get the car fixed so we will head up there when we can.
By the time we did all the running around we needed to do we had run out of time and we still hadn't got to Whitworths which is in Port Adelaide, so we camped the night right on the water at Port Adelaide ready to go to Whitworth's in the morning. We were really surprised by Port Adelaide, we thought it would be a thriving area but it is dead! They are planning on tearing down a big old building right on the water and make it fancy apartments etc, so not sure if that will bring the place back to life or not.
Tuesday 7th
After work we did a bit of shopping and headed off to find a new campsite for the next week. Being Easter we need to get into somewhere soon before everyone turns up for the holidays. We found a really nice campsite called Port Parham near Dublin that is right on the beach. It is right in the middle of nowhere but we were really surprised to find how many people were camped here already.
The beach is really weird and is VERY shallow, so much so that even with the tide right in it is only half a meter deep and when the tide goes out you have to walk for about a kilometre before you hit the water - we have never seen anything like that before. Also, when the tide comes in it comes in a walking pace - weird!
We made friends pretty quickly with the neighbours and had happy hour before it got too cold to stay outside. The weather is definitely turning into winter now. It is strange, only a week ago the whether was sweltering hot and now it has turned freezing! The nights are really cold and there is a really cold wind blowing here at the moment.
A couple of German people turned up after dark in a station wagon so I went over to say hello to them as they seemed to be without much in the way of gear - they had a station wagon - that's it - no tent, no roofracks on the wagon, just a couple of chairs and a little burner to cook their food. I reckon they are pretty brave. They have been travelling around that was for several months and still have another seven months to go doing the same thing - just goes to show you that you don't need nearly as much gear as everyone reckons you do and I started to think about all the stuff I have with me that I dont really need!
Wednesday 8th
A couple of the guys were going crabbing this morning so Ross, Boris and I decided to join them to see what it was all about. They all had proper dive boot-type footwear (including Ross) but I didn't so I wore my crocs - aaggh!! I didn't realsie that it would be so muddy and I kept getting stuck in the mud and losing my shoes - it was really hard going. The ocean isn't supposed to be muddy! I think because it is so shallow the mud doesn't get washed away? Anyway, you take a metal rake and wade through the mud and slush and weeds and when you come to a bare patch of sand you rake around and if there is a crab in there it will grab onto the rake and then you put it in a bucket! It was pretty fun and we caught a few crabs (blue swimmers). Lots of them were too small and we had to put them back but the group of us ended up with 12 in total which is probably not a lot but we had fun doing it.
There were professional crab-catchers out there picking up crabs too - I don't think that I had THAT good a time that I would bother taking it up for a living but I reckon if I got my hands on a set of waders (gumboots attatched to rubber pants) I would do it again. We cooked the crabs up and I had some for dinner - YUMMY!
Thursday 9th
When we woke up this morning there was a van parked near us but we didn't know when it came in or who was in it and we didn't see any movement for most of the day. After lunch a young guy finally emerged and we started chatting to him and found out that his name is Hadleigh and he comes from England and is here for a few months travelling around by himself. He had a few problems the night before with finding the camping area he was going to originally wsa closed for renovations, problems with his GPS and finding this place, etc, etc and didn't end up getting into here until 2 am - no wonder we didn't hear him! He is a lovely guy and we got on well with him and he liked Boris which is very important!! He unfortunately didn't have a doona with him and had been pretty cold last night so he is going to go into Adelaide and get one and then possibly come back here if he can't find anywhere else to stay.
Well, it's Easter weekend and late this afternoon a bunch of people started turning up to stay here for the Easter break - we thought it was pretty busy before - we are packed in like sardines now!! What a popular little spot!!
We had a BBQ with Neil and Mary tonight which was great - they are a great couple and we get on well with them.
Hadleigh came back fairly late and had bought himself a doona and a couple of other goodies including a new little single gas burner that we had a bit of trouble getting going initially but eventually Ross got his screwdriver out and got it going!
Friday 10th
Hadleigh took off this morning, he is heading down the Great Ocean Road - I hope he has a great time and meets lots of nice people along the way.
We had an easy day and had happy hour and played cards with Neil and Mary this afternoon.
Saturday 11th
I decided that it was the thing to do to go fishing for whiting as it seems that's what everyone else comes here for. Apparently the best "free" bait is worms which you dig up from the beach. I reckon that looks like too much hard work so I tried plastics. Guess what? They don't work! I waded out with the rest of the boys and Boris came too but he proved not to be at all helpful when he chased the line every time I cast it out and when he couldn't catch the bait he resorted to trying to chew on the line!! I ended up sending him back - wonder why??!! Anyway, I didn't even get a nibble so it looks like I am going to have to do it the hard way tomorrow - darn it all!
Sunday 12th
Neil, Ross and I (accompanied by Boris) went looking for worms this morning. It actually wasn't nearly as hard work as it looked and was quite fun, especially when Boris decided he was going to help and started digging as well! There were also a couple of kids who were there helping us as well.
When we went over to the BBQ's for lunch there was a guy there who had just brought back a bunch of "Razor Fish" which aren't fish at all, they are more like giant mussels or something and the bits he was throwing away we decided to keep and try to see whether they would catch whiting as well.
About mid-afternoon Neil and I hit the water to go fishing. Because the water isn't very deep you just wade out as far as you like and throw your line in - there are always heaps of people out there doing it and they all have their special gear like waders and floating buckets - looks pretty funny actually! Neil and I had a secret plan that we reckon was going to catch us a million whiting. The guy who gave us the Razor Fish guts also lent us his floating bucket too as well as all the scraps of the Razor Fish. We took all the scraps out and dumped them near where we wanted to go fishing and then moved away and cast our lines towards where we dumped the Razor Fish. Well, as soon as the line hit the water the fish were jumping on our lines!! It was awesome! I had two hooks on the line and I pulled in two fish at a time!...... That lasted about 5 minutes and then we worked out that we had made a bit of a blunder because the tide was still on it's way in and we started getting a little more wet than we planned - darn it!! We had to move closer in to shore and we lost our secret advantage. We didn't catch any more fish after that but we were getting plenty of bites and had a great afternoon.
Once the mighty hunters returned from their fishing trip we had showers and headed down to the local club/pub for $5. 00 fish and chips. They were quite nice fish and chips and the meal was so big I couldn't eat all mine - not bad - a pretty good day all round I reckon!!
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