Before we left Hogshead Bend we decided that the van was very dirty and it would be a good idea to give it a wash.  The river Murray is not the cleanest of rivers but after we had done it, Phil was wetter than if she had been in swimming , the van did look a whole lot better.  Not everyone would have agreed but at least it was slightly cleaner now.

We wanted to see at least one Lock on the Murray before we left it so called into see Lock 1.  It was a huge weir and a slightly smaller lock.  The amazing thing about the weir was the pelicans and cormorants waiting by the weir ready for the fish to come through.  There must have been 50 pelicans and 100’s of cormorants – quite a sight.  The lock itself was not that amazing just like a big lock really!!

Between every one of the buoys was one or two cormorants!

 

We headed towards Adelaide but needed to stay overnight some where.  We had heard that Walkers Flat was nice so we tried in there first.  We didn’t like it at all, it was just a car park for the boat ramps and as it was Friday night we didn’t feel it was the best place to be.  We carried on down and went back to the site in Purnong.  This time we weren’t the only ones there.  There must have been at least 6 others in the site.  That wasn’t a problem as we tucked ourselves into one end.  We watched a group of kids out on the water on Friday evening having a whale of a time and then on Saturday morning they were on the river by 7am – still having a great time – loudly!!!!

We headed for Adelaide and decided to stay at Mount Barker in a caravan park.  Mount Barker is 30 mins outside the city so made sense to stay there.  We met up with Franz and Robby and their two children for a nice meal on the Saturday night.  We had met them on our travels and they invited us to visit.  After dinner we went back to their house for a nightcap and talked late into the night .

Sunday we took a trip to Hahndorf the German town.  What a disappointment – to us it look like any other town in Australia.  Slightly more ornate but nothing special – we were very let down.  The best thing about the town was the strawberry farm where they make jams and relishes.  We called in there and tried some samples and came out with a bag of different jars!!!  Later that day we headed into Adelaide itself.  It was very hot again and temperature reached 40c outside the car.  We did a car tour round Adelaide seeing the famous buildings.  We headed down to the Port to see if we could see the famous Port Dolphins.  After a short visit to the information centre we headed to the port – where we immediately saw four dolphins swimming round the harbour.  We were very pleased with ourselves as it had taken less than a minute for them to appear almost as if they had been waiting for us to arrive.

We visited the camping and caravanning show while we were in Adelaide.  We needed some things for the van for our trip through the middle of Oz so this was the best place to go and get them.  We had a great day out looking at all the new vans and tents and putting a wish list together for our next trip!!!!  Another visit that evening from Franz for some technical advice about the van – which was great.

Tuesday morning we headed off we were off to the Yorke Peninsula.  Our first stop was in Price on the east coast, but there wasn’t much there so carried on to Androssan. Via the strangely named “Tiddy Widdy Beach”

 

We stopped by the jetty and saw many people catching Blue swimmer crabs off the jetty.  We had bought a crab net already so we were keen to have a go.  We went and got settled in our caravan park in Pint Point.  We had a great welcome from our neighbours Malcolm and Pat who immediately invited us to ‘Happy Hour’ and a bbq of offal etc.  It was a really kind gesture and we met the other resident of the park at the same time, and the food was great.  The owners Gavin and Yvette could not be more helpful.  Gavin found us some bait for the crabbing and Yvette offered to take us crab raking the following day.

 

We got up early on Wednesday  (6am) to catch the high tide .  We first went to Pine Point jetty which didn’t seem to successful, we saw the sunrise but decided to go to Androssan jetty to try our luck.  We arrived there and there was already lots of people on the jetty.   It is about 500m long so we thought we would try half way up.  We had two nets (another resident at the caravan park David lent us another on) and with the bait that Gavin had given us we had a go.  You can only keep the crabs if the carapace is more than 11cm.  After 5 mins we had our first crab, however when measuring it the measuring tool went with the wind!!! and the crab was too small so had to throw back.

We did well and managed to catch 8 good sized ones.  Bob was injured doing this as the crabs have very sharp pincers and they are not happy about getting caught and bit Bob on the finger so he bled all over the jetty.  At lunchtime we headed back to the caravan park.  Yvette showed us how to clean the crabs and how to cook them, and how to get all the meat out of them.  We were very pleased with ourselves.  The meat is delicious, very light and very sweet, yum.

 

 

After lunch Yvette took us down to the beach to do raking for crabs.  You go into the shallows and look for the grey patches where the crabs may be hiding, use your rake to see and if there is a crab there, they will let you know by grabbing hold of the rake with their pincers.  You have to watch out for for the ones who get away or are too small that they don’t come after you. Once you have the crab on the rake you can measure it and then you put it in your bucket.  It is very therapeutic and great fun to do.  After about an hour we had collected 42 between the three of us.  You can only collect 20 each or if you are out in a boat the max is 60 per boat.  To kill the crab you put it upside down and it dies.  When we got back we cooked up the crabs, they have a crab pot here and Yvette lent us a box to put them all in the fridge.  The crabs are blue but when they cook they go pink.

On Thursday Bob got up early again to go out with David and Malcolm crabbing again, but this time on David’s boat.  It didn’t take them long to get the boats quota of sixty crabs.  We didn’t have any of these crabs as we had more than plenty from our haul yesterday.  When Bob got back we spent the rest of the day shelling the crabs, it is quite fiddly and the crabs have big spiky bits a bit like thorns on them which got both of us.  We bagged the crab up and Yvette brought her Cryovac machine up and she helped us seal the crab into small packages so it would fit in our freezer.  Yvette has been a real star on our visit to Pine Point.  We had another nice evening with the people from the park having drinks and chatting over cheese and biscuits.

 

 

On Friday it was time to pack up and leave again, this time to the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula to Pondalowie Bay which is in the Innes National Park.  We had to book our campsite and entry ticket to the park online and once we had done that we were off.  It didn’t take us that long to get down there about 1 1/2 hours in total.  The park itself is a bit bleak and you can see there hasn’t been much rain at all. 

 

We found our site and set up then headed off to the beach.  We unloaded the kayak and headed out onto the sea.

 

It was a sheltered bay but even with that the wind was blowing.  We thought for the first time we would try to do a bit of fishing while kayaking.  Things were ok as we found a floating bait store and held onto to that as the wind was blowing us all around.  This was fine as Phil was holding onto it, until she thought she had a bite and let go.  We very quickly drifted off our site and she felt it would be better for her to look around rather than both of us trying to fish.  Wasn’t a great experiment and not sure we will do it again in the sea unless the sea is completely flat!!!  Needless to say we didn’t catch anything!!! The weather had changed a bit today and it was overcast and getting colder.

 

Saturday dawned and it was very overcast.  We explored the National Park more, first we went to Pondalowie surf beach where we were treated to the sight of a pad of dolphins swimming along.  That was really great, unfortunately they were just a little too far our to get any good pictures.

 

We then went along the coast to Dolphin bay where we didn’t see anything at all.  Finally we headed for Browns Beach.  We had just got down to the beach – quite a steep trek down and the heavens opened.  The rain lasted about 30 mins and it was a good fitness test for both of us sprinting up the hill towards the car as the rain was quite heavy.  We found out we are both very unfit!!!!

 

When the rain had stopped lots of Kangaroos came out to the road to drink from the puddles as the soil is very sandy and does not hold water….

 

After the rain stopped we got the fishing gear out again and went down to the beach.  Bob spent a few hours trying to catch something and Phil read her book.  We do seem to do a lot of fishing but as we are near the sea that is what you do!!!

 

Sunday we headed out of the park up the other side of the Peninsula.  We were hoping to get to a church, but we missed the first town, Phil was checking her emails and Bob didn’t take any notice of the signs.  The second and third towns we had missed the times on both.  Better luck next week!!!  We headed for Barker Rocks where we were planning to stay the night.  The site was a free site, very nice but very windy.  On the beach we met some local fishermen who recommended Port Rickaby Caravan Park as somewhere to go and we followed their advice.  The site is lovely and sheltered and right by the jetty – for more fishing!!!! No luck with the fish but we have caught five squid.  The owner Richard Bosher  showed us how to clean and get the squid ready for cooking.  People are so helpful and friendly here in Australia and we are overwhelmed by their kindness.

 

 

Calamari ready for cooking…. yum yum!