January 2018 Posts – 11 to 15

Day 11 – 24th January 2018 – Streaky Bay Boat Launch

Today we took the boat out for another fishing day.  We decided to use the shallow ramp near our caravan park and Col took my Mazda CX5 rather than his Toyota FJ Cruiser to put the boat in.  It freaked me out a bit, seeing the back of my car in the water.  On the first attempt to put it in, we realised that the trailer was sitting too high above the water to drive the boat off.  So Col decided to reverse quickly down the ramp and slam the brakes on, to try and launch the boat off the back of the trailer into the water.  My job was to hold a little rope to stop the boat floating off to sea…..  yes, I was crapping myself.  I am glad to report that this terrifying plan did work and all went smoothly.  Not sure I recommend it as a way to launch boats, but in this instance it was a nice trick and it did work.  We did manage to get GoPro footage of this launch and will put it up once edited.

At first we tried to catch some squid using Squid Jags on a hand line.  Unfortunately we didn’t have any luck, but will continue trying.  We have bought our salt and pepper coating and it is teasing us whenever we open the cupboard.  We did manage to catch another couple of good sized whiting, but once again we had the GoPro on camera rather than video (sorry Jake!).

We also caught a huge number of Trumpeters (also known as Shitties). They are called Trumpeters because they actually make a faint trumpet sound.   We hadn’t even finished casting and the rods would jerk with a fish or two before the sinker had even hit the bottom.   This would have been great if it was Whiting we were pulling up, but not so great when it was another Trumpeter.

When we returned to the park, we were asked to come to Reception as we were meant to check out today, but totally lost track of the days!  A good sign that you are in holiday mode.  Apparently they chased us out of the park this morning but we were in our own little fishing world and didn’t even notice.  Anyway, we decided to stay for another 3 nights, as we want to do the Elliston Cliff Drive, a foreshore bike ride, beach fishing, hire kayaks – hmmm I can already hear Col saying that we can’t fit it all in   Oh well, we will do some of it at least.  We have some really hot weather coming up again, over 40, so we are planning on driving in air-conditioned comfort to Ceduna on Saturday.

All in all another fun day out on the water and another beautiful Whiting meal to look forward to.

Day 12 – 25th January 2018 – Streaky Bay

Today it was 35 degrees in Streaky Bay and we wanted to do the foreshore bike ride, so we planned to do this in the morning to try and beat the heat.  Col coped with it fine, it is a 5.3km track along the foreshore but is pretty hilly, so the ride in total would have been about 13km.  The scenery was beautiful but the flies were really bad.  Luckily I had my fly net in my backpack and would suggest to anyone doing the ride to pack one.   It was ok when you had a bit of speed going, but at the top of the hills when you slowed down and was breathing a little heavier, the flies threatened to get in your mouth and ears – somewhat distressing.  Once I had the fly net on, that problem was solved.  I did manage to get a touch of heat exhaustion – nothing serious.  Col has done a lot of cycling and found it a relatively easy ride.  Take plenty of water, a fly net and maybe pick a day under 35, or go really early in the morning.  We did get some good video footage on the ride and will put that up once edited.  Col managed to spot another Stumpy on the ride, might have to change his nickname if he keeps this trend up.  The Stumpy Whisperer……..

We have bought some towels that you can wet and shake and they become instantly cold – that was awesome and helped get my body temperature back under control at the end of the ride.  We went for breakfast at Funktion Cafe in Streaky Bay after the ride but I couldn’t face food at that stage.  Col enjoyed his breakfast and coffee though.

Tomorrow off to Elliston for the Clifftop drive and some other touristy things.

Day 13 – 26th January 2018 – Elliston Clifftop Drive, Point Labatt & Murphy’s Haystacks

Today we headed off towards Elliston to do the Clifftop drive, but we stopped in at ‘Murphy’s Haystacks’ on the way there.  We had seen a video about these and thought we should stop, but was not really expecting much.  We were both really surprised, they are beautiful and we really enjoyed it.

Couldn’t resist including this one.  Col taking his photography seriously.

It has been a really strange day weather wise, it was raining and cold when we woke up and throughout the morning, you needed to wear a jacket.  Then somehow it managed to get to 42 this afternoon!

So we then headed to Point Labatt to see the Sea Lion colony and that was also very beautiful.  There were a lot of baby Sea Lions that kept us entertained.  This place is Sea Lion paradise!

So we had a bit of a traumatic experience at this point.  It was very beautiful and Col decided that he wanted to get some drone footage, only there was very strong winds blowing at the time.  Col felt he could fly it over the cliff where it would be a bit protected and then get some closer footage of the Sea Lions.  Great in theory…. not so great in practice.  The drone took off ok but things very quickly got out of hand and the drone was taken out over the sea.  It wasn’t strong enough to fly back to land against the winds blowing it off shore.  The battery only lasts 10 minutes too, so Col was aware of the very short time frame he had to get it back.  He battled the wind for about 4 minutes before he successfully flew it back to the car park.  We were both very stressed out!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last stop of the day was the Elliston Clifftop Drive and it was spectacular.  There are various sculptures along the drive to stop and look at as well as breathtaking views below.

Today was also a big wildlife day.  We saw 8 Stumpy’s, 2 that Col stopped and relocated, 6 we managed to drive carefully around and 2 that had met an unfortunate fate with a car tyre (not ours).  I think Col’s nickname might have to change to the Stumpy Whisperer, but will see if this trend continues.  We also saw our first live snake, a black snake at Elliston Clifftop Drive.  We were in the car at the time and it was crossing the road.  Not sure exactly what it was but it was a reasonable length, about a metre long.  And there were plenty of Kangaroos on the road too – we think they were coming onto the road to drink the water after the rain this morning.  So we were driving with caution on the dirt roads, that is for sure.

Back home for a cool off in the pool and the Whiting that we caught for dinner.  A great day indeed.  Off to Ceduna tomorrow – can’t believe it will be 2 weeks on the road tomorrow.

Day 14 – 27th January 2018 – Streaky Bay to Ceduna

The pack up went really well in Streaky Bay, we are becoming professionals at it now.  The drive also went really smoothly and we arrived at the Ceduna Foreshore Caravan Park by 12pm.  The issue with this (the camping crew will understand and appreciate this dilemma), there is a rule that you can’t set up camp without a bevvy in your hand, but we never arrive anywhere early so it was a dry set up at Ceduna.  Just didn’t feel right.

The Caravan Park is really nice, great facilities and walking distance to the main street, pub and foreshore.  The camp kitchen even has a pizza oven (nowhere as nice as yours though Nige!).  Might be pizza on the menu while we are here I think.

It was a stinker of a day – was meant to be 43 degrees but at one stage it hit 48!  It was 42.5 in the shade under the annex.  Unfortunately there is no air-conditioned recreation room here as there was in Streaky.  So we set up the fan outside and had spray bottles of water and cold towels to try to get through the day.  We went for a bit of a drive around to suss out the area too.  It is another beautiful spot.  Unfortunately the weather is not very conducive to fishing which is disappointing as we had a hot tip to go for squid at Shelley Beach, apparently it is also good for Blue Swimmer crabs and Whiting too.  You can also get Blue Swimmer crabs and squid from the jetty on the foreshore, but I don’t think we will get to while we are here due to the weather.

We had planned to eat dinner at the van but the weather won out and we went to the air-conditioned pub instead.  It is right next door to the caravan park which is handy and the food was great.

We then crossed the road to the jetty after dinner and the view was so beautiful.  Got to love a stormy sky and a sunset!

Day 15 – 28th January 2018 – Ceduna

Just a chill out laundry day today. We were expecting another scorcher but it didn’t get there, thankfully. We have been enjoying the cool breeze. It has been really windy but we haven’t minded one bit. 

Col wanted some time to work on the videos that I keep referring to in the blog. So we had a tech day and hung out at the van. This was our office… 

Video footage has now been sent to the wonderful Jake Cunningham to apply his magical media skills and we should have the Memory Cove video to upload very soon. 

I studied Hash Tags today, the Do’s and the Dont’s, and I am proud to say that I posted my very first Hash Tags today! An important milestone. It’s good to be learning even at my old age.  Hash Tags have always slightly irritated me #thisisalongpointlesssentencewithoutspaces and I have resisted using them for this reason. But I did learn today their use and point. Searching. And they are awesome! So now I will be applying irritating hash tags to our pictures so you can easily search for them. In the search field on Facebook or Instagram type #mudflapsandskidmark or #krisandcol and you will find our posts. I know my kids will likely be laughing at this post, but I am sure their are other old fogies out there like us that might learn something too. 

For anyone wanting to learn more, this was the website and I did find it interesting. 

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-hashtags/amp/

Also, we are pleased to say that the Farm Beach video has now hit 1,200 views in 3 days. Crazy! (Might have been Col watching the video over and over, I will keep a close eye on our mobile data!). 

I also want to say thanks to Michael Abraham who I worked with at Telstra, who mentioned that he and his wife make their own muesli and yoghurt. I have been making my own muesli and loving it but had a failed attempt at the yogurt – didn’t thicken up at all. Don’t think I maintained it at 40 degrees for long enough and was really runny. Will try again as the idea is awesome when you are not able to get to the shops easily!