Coodlie Park

We are off today so the pack up routine which is quite smooth now was started.
Overnight we think someone stole Tina’s Bikini bottoms of the annex. I hope he chokes on them. The coastline and ocean is so remarkable along here and we have stopped at Sheringa Beach where it is quite large surf and cool arctic breezes. Still no big fish caught.

It is very open and large waves roll into shore non stop. We went for a bit of a 4WD on some sand dune type tracks.
We are heading off towards Streaky Bay our last costal town before we head inland. We are staying at Coodlie Park a farm style stay just before Venus Bay, Port Kenny. A cheap bush camp with flushing toilet. The kids really love the flushing toilet sites.

A quite still morning with no wind which is great. The weather is really blessing us at the moment with around 22-25° each day and not many flies at all.

We went and looked at the Tub & Talia caves which have been formed by the non stop pounding surf along the coast. The views clear blue water and cliffs and are just so beautiful. It is a shame the fish don’t appreciate them more form the shoreline. Venus Bay jetty had lot of little fish around the jetty and the tide was really sucking the water out of the large bay.

We went to Mount Camel beach to try our luck but once again it was Tommies or nothing. We are starting to get a little fish depressed again but it is hard to tell because we are not really putting the time in so it is not surprising we are not having much success.

Coffin Bay

Another beautiful morning in paradise, we went for a walk around Surfleet Cove a mix of recovering mallee type scrub after the bad fires they had just a few years back and the sand flats in shallow bays. There is a good view of the fish farms and one was being harvested while we walked. A 5km walk and back just in time for some cold beers, lunch and packing up.

We drove to Coffin Bay and drove out to the National Park and camped at Yangie bay a little bay of weedy sand flats with no fishing. We had a quite night watching Camp Rock with the kids, the night are cool but not cold and we had no native animals attack our site today.

It’s hard to describe each morning by not just saying another beautiful day but it is true. I’m sure during our travels there will come some times when we whinge everyday instead. Kind of like we do about the fishing. We headed back to Coffin Bay and checked into the caravan park. Pretty busy but it is school holidays. We checked out the local town and bought some supplies, and checked out the foreshore. The Kids had a swim and snorkel.

We drove back to the National park today. We hadn’t travelled far before encountering our first casualty, A bogged Nissan patrol and camper trailer. It was our first chance to use the winch and it worked fine. He had let down the tyres on his car but not the trailer. Once it they were let down all was fine. There were 4 cars banked up waiting.

We carried on the track which was mostly not to bad with the odd really sandy section. Then onto 7 mile beach which we drove down no worries, with massive sand dunes on the left and beautiful ocean on the right.


We headed across the other side of the park to S???? beach for a spot of fishing. Just some little tommies and mullet. We drove back to 7 mile beach and had lunch, snorkelling and some sand dune climbing.
We drove back with another winch rescue and later a jump start. All these are great when they are not your vehicle. Tina drove back and we are both now becoming more experienced and confident in ourselves and the Tojo.

Port Lincoln & Beyond

We had packed up at Arno Bay and drove down the Peninsula to Port Lincoln passing through Port Neil & Tumby Bay. We made it to Port Lincoln by lunch time and did the normal re-stocking of food, beer & Diesel. It is quite a large place and the foreshore area is beautiful. We drove out to Lincoln National park passing a not quite dead roo which had just been hit.
We are staying at Surfleet cove campsite which is right on the beach. Had a bit of a fish but no luck once again I’m no orphan. Tina is making satay meatballs for tea, and we have a good tide in the morning. We are going to stay here for a couple of days so lets hope we can catch some fish here.
After breakfast we headed of to explore the park by 4WD. The tracks here are not sandy at all but very rocky. There are some beautiful beaches here and we stopped at McIntyre Point for lunch and a spot of fishing. We headed out onto the rocks where some other people were fishing. They had caught the odd gar and Tommy. Well I know they always say that when the Dolphins are around there a no fish and a family of at least 10 arrived and swam close by. Next thing a big seal swam past us in the water not more than 2 metres away as well as a big sting ray. Anyway we didn’t give up hope and with the other people burlying up the water we were hopeful. Just some small Tommies and leather jackets to begin with, but the kind people gave us some cockles and then I landed 3 nice garfish. I also lost my rig to some big fish that I faught for a good 5 minutes until he finally managed to get me under a rock I hope it wasn’t the sting ray but if it was no wonder I couldn’t pull him in.

We headed back to camp and had our fish for entrée, while we were at the beach the local kangaroo who had eaten our burly the night before was in a pot of water we had left there right next to the open van door and he was not going to move no mater how much we tried. Obviously being a little cautious not to upset him to much.
Each night Jason, Kirsten and Tina have been reading us a short story which has been great. The bumpy tracks did a great load of washing for us on the roof rack.

Pt Douglas - Pt Gibbon & Arno Bay

A beautiful morning greeted us and we spend the day walking along the edge of the army explosive range and along the beach. We had another fish and the kids tried out there snorkels. The bait fish attacked me during my attempt to fish but no fish here. We played some soccer & Football.

We packed up and drove the short drive the Port Gibbon. There is a donation camping site there with toilets and water as well as a short walk to the beach. Once again just Shitties and small tommies and a couple of under size whiting. It has been quite windy and hard to fish. All the 12volt gear is working great and we fixed the fridge as it was not lighting on gas properly.
Off early again and off to Arno Bay today. Not a big drive mostly on Bitumen.
We are staying at the caravan park for a couple of days and the showers are a welcome site for all. We are off fishing again just after the locals told us there we no fish here at the moment, it is still windy. We went for a walk on the mangrove, tidal creek boardwalk.
Had a fish using worms that Jason found on the beach his input to our fishing. It was great and Arno Bay has great facilities for visitors. Kirsten caught a mullet and I got a whiting but not much on and small fish again. We spent new Years at the van drinking singing and dancing it was a good night but a couple to many beers.

Well I’m not sure I’m in any condition to write this today. They have new years day events every year here and the kids got to do egg & spoon, vortex throwing, sand castles comps and other great stuff. Everything was free and food and drinks were cheap.
This is a nice place and really into improving their facilities. We had a great day weather is nice but still windy. Tina entered the Stein holding competition but didn’t win the forst price your weight in Beer.

Eyre Peninsula

We were up early and on the road just after 8.00am. This is our first trip with the caravan and it towed really well. We made it to Port Augusta by 1.00pm and were able to sit between 90-100km. Lucky there were no hills to slow us down to much. Roads weren’t too bad with only a few idiots trying daring overtaking moves. The recent rains have certainly greened up the landscape a little.
We did some shopping and headed to the caravan park. A nice place next to the gulf with views of the Flinders from our spot. A dip in the pool with the kids was great and a good relief from the hot sun.



A beautiful sunny morning greeted us and after some bacon and eggs we headed of to town for a walk around looking at the old buildings and wharf. Lots of fish swimming around the old bridge.

We drove towards Whyalla and turned off to the camp site at Point Douglas. We found a nice place right at the end of the road where the Army reserve is. We have it all to ourselves at this stage. We found another place earlier that even had flushing toilets and some questionable reading material in them, well at least for under 18’s. No fishing there so we had to move on

Back on the Road Caravan in Tow.

Sorry it's been quite so long between updates but we have had several birthdays and other family commitments during december and have not travelled much. We are on the road now and apart from a little period around Australia day we will be on the road from now on so there will be plenty of stories.

Deep Creek

It seems I'm even slacker than first thought, spend enough time hanging around my brother and that can happen. It seems I forgot to post the Deep Creek Story.

We drove down to Deep Creek NP with the kids and had a bit of a look around. Unfortunately some of the tracks are closed because of the rain. We did find one nice little track to 4WD on. We decided to stay at Cobblers Hill camp ground because it is close to Blow Hole beach. We are all tenting it this trip.
Once we got set up we headed down to the beach for a fish. A blowy day and another dodge tide. It seems like this is the only time we fish. Tina caught a nice size mullet and that was all we picked up. Back at camp and some nice satays for tea.
Late that night some drunken “P” platers rocked up made some noise for a while and then crashed out.

Bacon & Egg breakfast and then off to the Deep Creek waterfall walk. A nice 2 hour round trip walk although I think we are getting a soft because we didn’t seem to power walk it to well.
After lunch the kids and I headed back to the beach in search of more fish.

Not long after we arrived we were on to some mullets with a nice 30cm one pulled to shore. The berley was working well and Kirsten and I were both getting bites. We only ended up with 3 to keep with some smaller ones sent back to the ocean. If the tide was coming in we would off been able to catch more but they followed the berley out. As we found out as a boat came into the bay and caught 10 in a couple of minutes fishing our disappearing berley slick.
A beautiful Roast on the Cobb for tea and a couple of spots of rain have started while I sit down to write this.

Up early and packed up to head back home a stop at Second Valley. Just the one squid not longer after we arrived the wind blew up.
A couple of nights at Mels and the completion of Christmas shopping completed. We headed back to Willunga for the weekend to finish off all the work on the van and car.