The Eyre Peninsula Part 2

March 10-14, 2012

After our first night in Coffin Bay we decided to drive further up the coast in search of fish and a new campsite.  We had heard good things about Farm Beach, so that was our first stop.  It had a campsite that didn't look great, so we decided to spend the day fishing and exploring, but return to Coffin Bay to spend a second night.

Farm Beach was absolutely beautiful; the beach went for miles and rivalled any beach in the Caribbean.  The idea was that you drive on the beach so you can launch your boat, so with our 4WD camper van we drove away from everyone else and enjoyed the peace and quiet. 

We had hoped to catch some King George whiting, so we waded out into the ocean as far as we could and started fishing from there.

Ben caught one little fish that we later used as crab bait, but unfortunately we didn't catch anything edible.  The tide started coming in very quickly, so we packed up and left the beach.

By that time we were all quite frustrated that we weren't catching anything good, so we went back to Coffin Bay where we had seen some guys catching squid off of the jetty.  In the end we were very glad we did, since we finally had some luck and caught some squid!  It was funny because some kids came over while my line was in the water and started talking to me, and consequently I was completely ignoring my line.  I let it go slack, then all of a sudden I got a massive bite and reeled in a squid!  When you catch a squid it shoots ink everywhere on its way out of the water and after you've plopped it on the dock, so you have to watch out you don't get hit. 

I threw my line back in, and again while the kids were distracting me I got another one!  Over the next 20 minutes I think I caught 4 and Jeanne caught 1, then the waters went quiet again.  Excitedly, we rushed back to our campsite to Google how to clean and cook squid.  Cleaning them was actually kind of fun once you got the hang of it.  The tentacles were so weird because they still suction themselves to your fingers even after the squid is dead.

After all of the money we spent on rods/lures we figured that each of these squid was worth about $50, but boy were they delicious!

After dinner the kangaroos came back, and Ryan got this hilarious picture of them being confused at a crossroads.

The next morning I went back to the jetty bright an early, and Ryan joined me a bit later.  We didn't catch anything, but I saw the beautiful sunrise and enjoyed watching the herons and pelicans catch fish.

We packed up our campsite yet again, and continued on up the coast with a few stops to look at cliffs and more beaches.  One of note was our stop at Sheringa Beach, which was absolutely beautiful and surrounded by sand dunes.  Unfortunately the surf was way too rough for us to attempt any fishing, so we pressed on in search of a more protected bay or jetty.

We ended up in Venus Bay, which had a nice long jetty and tons of pelicans.

Ryan was very brave doing this.  The pelicans were massive!

We spent some long hours on this jetty, including one stretch where we took shifts and stayed for 2 entire tide cycles (12 hours) because we heard that fish liked the time when the tide changed, but we had almost no luck.  Ben and Jeanne each hooked a squid, but both managed to escape.  I caught a good size trevally fish, but that was also used as crab bait in the end. 

Pretty disheartened, we drove to our last hope: Streaky Bay.

Streaky Bay was awesome!  It was a small town with a long jetty, and within the first few hours of our arrival Ben and Jeanne caught a bucket of crabs.  While they were doing all of the hard work, I met an old man who had been to Georgetown, and Ryan basked in the cushy grass next to the ocean.  All seemed right in the world again. (Unfortunately I lost all of the pictures Jeanne took, so I don't have any pictures of the delicious feast.)

Streaky Bay as the sun is setting.

The next day we took our crab nets, chairs, rods, and beer to the jetty and set up for a relaxing day of fishing.  We took shifts and also spent some time wandering around the town and taking quick swims in the ocean.  Streaky Bay is well known for a high population of great white sharks, so the only safe place to swim there is in a giant metal cage attached to the jetty.  Supposedly people have seen sharks from inside of the cage looking out, so despite the cage my swims were brief.

We ended up with a few more crabs to finish off our last day of fishing.  To our surprise, when we got back to the campsite it was "country night" and there was a concert going on right across from our site.  We had the best seats in the house to see the hilarious old man singing songs like "Blueberry Hill" and telling jokes in between songs.  At one point he had a large coughing fit, which just made it more memorable.

On our last day we had a long drive from Streaky Bay back to Port Augusta, but luckily there were a few tourist attractions along the way to stop at.  The first was Pildappa Rock.

The second stop was the "halfway across Australia" marker, and a giant galah statue!

Ryan and I spent that night in a hotel in Port Augusta because I had to fly out at 6am the next day, and Ben and Jeanne continued on to Adelaide.  Luckily our trip was over, because that night there was a massive storm that would not have been fun to sleep through in a tent.  So in the end, everything worked out perfectly!