White Caps Photography

Got the last minute call that the King of the Bay was on so headed off to Elwood.  My work load is still pretty huge but couldn't resist.....The wind didn't quite pick up so it was cancelled, 20 odd guys hit the water and the wind picked up to 20knot s or so but died soon after.  Pretty good sess in the end and got some great pics.

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So, have been back for a week and just wanted to say we had an amazing time, met some great people, had some awesome adventures.  Special thanks to Hazel and Michael for helping get the camper trailor mounted, to our neighbour Rusty for helping with the trailor, Charmaine for house and dog sitting - thankyou!

If anyone wants more detailed information or are about to embark on this awesome journey, feel free to email me and will gladly provide as much info.

Big drive today, about 10 hours.  Not much to report really we are fairly reflective thinking about our trip and reminicing the highlights.

We stopped at a Salvos in Kaniva where I picked up the cutest dress which would have been ideal for the last 24 days then for lunch in Horsham at a gorgeous cafe and then just before Ballarat for an iced coffee.  Ok, so we are clearly dragging it out as much as possible, we could have kept travelling for another couple of months easily, we just loved it. 

Driving through the West Wimmera shire (kaniva, Horsham etc), which is my old stomping ground (well for the past 4 years anyway), I realise this may be the last time I will be in the area. Mum and I have property nearby which has just been sold and this is potentially the last time I will be in the area.  Dying to stop at house but it will take us 80km or so off course. 

We have driven 9000kms in the past 25 days, yup, I did the math that's an average of 360kms a day.   Can you believe the last 100 kms, (just outside Bacchus Marsh) we get a flat tyre on the trailor (more like an explosion).  We pull over, have to dig out the spare from the back of the trialor and Fred proceeds to change it as I abuse the trucks flying past us, not even slowing down which was v dangerous. 

We get home late at night and are knackered.  Overjoyed to see our puppy girl Amber (who was less than overjoyed to see us, took her a few days to get over us leaving her).  We have come down from our high, at least we have 3 days to recoup before getting back to work. 

We highly recommend this trip to anyone.  There were so many stories and pics (3000+) to share but hey I couldn't be tied to the computer, I was on holiday (albeit a working holiday).  If anyone wants more information\specifics then please don't hesitate to contact me wcphoto@hotmail.com.  We have maps, accomm and tourist brochures etc for the whole way.  Awesome, awesome experience.

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Peace and good winds!

me xx (& Fred)

We head off towards Adelaide today, our aim to get past Adelaide to make the last part of the journey tomorrow a bit easier.  It is our 2nd last day and despite all our attempts we are feeling a bit sad it is all coming to an end.  We find ourselves saying as we look out the car window "if there wern't power lines here it could be the Nullabor..."

We make it to Murray Bridge by 8pm and is the biggest town we have stayed all holiday (population 20,000), both caravan parks are full and just as we decide to keep driving we see a motel\cabin place which has a cabin free. 

The cabin is the smallest place we have stayed all holiday but is all that we need.  The wall plaque tells us the cabin was used to accommodate media or athletes for the Olympics which was interesting. 

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Up and at em this morning as we had to be at marina by 6.45m for a full day fishing charter. There were only 4 of us so it was quite a small boat.

It took about an hour or so to get to our first spot. Within 2 seconds of my line hitting the water for the first time I snagged a Leather jacket. This was quickly followed by another both were donked on the head by the ‘captain’ and thrown back in – much to my dismay and confusion. They looked a good size but apparently not good eating. I then caught a Sweep (we thought it was Sweet) which stayed on the boat. Then off to more spots to get Whiting – which were huge. The 4 of us (and the ‘captain’ Rob) were pulling in whiting after whiting, it was quite fun. They are on the bottom and we were fishing in about 40 - 75ft deep water using squid and pippies for bait. We had lunch and then got straight back to it. A couple of crabs (not good eating ones), stingrays and bull sharks later we had caught our quota of 10 per person.

We suggested to John and Marshall our fellow fisherman to come back and use fish cleaning bench at the caravan park, which they did so bringing beer and a mate Dave. The 3 boys scaled, gutted and beheaded our catch whilst I organised wrap and ice etc for freezing our stash. With 2 days of our trip left we are bringing them home.

A couple of beers later we are re-living the day with much raucous laughter as we admit our charming and very lovely ‘captain’ was quite a grumpy Hitler at times and poor John copped most of it “get your line up, I’m not feeding Leatherjackets”, “you need to give me the leader (on fishing line) or you will be standing there all day”, “get the rod our of my face”, “mate you better move or you will crack a rib and go for a swim”, “you certainly got your line knotted up, give it here, you’ll only bugger it up more”. All very amusing but I guess you had to be there. Anyway the laughing fits were almost the best part of the day. Really great guys, we very enjoyed their company. We really do recommend the fishing charter - its ‘Kathryn M fishing charters’, Rob really was a lovely guy and got us fish as promised and made for some great stories at the end of the day.

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Fav pic of the day:

Today we didn’t do much, checked out the marina for our charter tomorrow and then just veged at ‘home’.  Tried to catch up in blog.

Cooked up the rest of the prawns and crayfish in a chilli and garlic pasta with a drizzle of truffle oil – mmmm, delicious! 

It's really quite cold at night esp with the wind.  I wonder if I will see anyone windsurfing here....

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Happy Valentines Day!!

We pack up and head in the direction of Port Lincoln, we are not sure yet where we will stay. Stuck our head in Coffin bay but decide to keep going to Port Lincoln. We drive through a v small town\roadhouse called Sharinga. Prompted by a $5 doz of oyster sign we turned around and head back. What a lovely surprise, there is an awesome beer garden which reminds us of Bali and could have quite easily sat in there all day eating oysters and drinking bottle of wine, alas we don’t have the time so we decide to get oysters and keep going. We get 2 dozen unshucked oysters and are convinced by a local to give the prawns ago, so we order a kilo of them too. We got to chatting to the couple who run the place and Fred has dally with the soccer ball with the owner. We are about to head off when we are summoned out back where he gives us a massive crayfish, our jaws drop and we can not believe the generosity. We will certainly have a lovely Valentine’s dinner. Great spot and will definitely be back on our next journey, there is a basic campsite, fishing tours and quad biking on offer.  Definately if you have the time, stop in for some great hospitality and a cool spot to have lunch.

We arrive in Port Lincoln and check in at the caravan park on the foreshore and decide to stay in a cabin. The cabin view was spectacular with uninterrupted views of the Spencer Gulf. Glad for this as there are not may trees here and it would be hot during day and its also bitterly windy and cold at night. I have to say when you drive 600 - 800 kms a day a friendly greeting at your destination makes it all worthwhile. Unfortunately I will take this opportunity to say all 4 staff we came into contact with were horrible, rude, overly efficious, dirty looks instead of smiles and very unhelpful. Rotten attitudes and we will not stay here again despite view, there is another caravan park further around the foreshore which will will check out next time. 

Had a wonderful feast of seafood for dinner, oysters natural, oysters kilpatrick, prawns with home-made thousand island dressing and we picked at the cray but too full to eat the tail.

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Fav pic of the day:

Up early for our dolphin swim. We get our wetsuits on and jump on a small boat, we go 15 mins into the bay when we spot dolphins, there is a local pod which lives here and there are also visiting dolphins. We spot 3 small separate groups and stop the boat near one group. We quickly get our snorkelling gear organised and are out the boat in a style that reminded me of a parachute drop, "go, go", one by one.

We hit the water and despite wetsuits it is freezing and we all gasp, we are sort of getting used to it and treading water, adjusting our gear and putting our heads in, the captain is yelling "get you head in the water, look around, look, look around you", so we did and weren’t disappointed. We have since had many laughs over his style, you want to see dolphins, I’ll show you dolphins, you will not be disappointed, "get your head in the water!”. Lol.

They quickly lost interest so we got back on the boat for the 2nd drop, we are so excited you don’t think about anything else in the water and its shallow enough to just see the bottom, thankfully the guides are wearing shark repellent anklets, which when turned on (only when shark is spotted) they repel for 3 meters, Fred was sticking to them like glue.

They are so mystical to watch and the sun rays gave the whole scene a mystical touch.  I have always wanted to do this and I am not disspointed so far. 

Back on the boat to a little island colony of sea lions not far away. There is a little lagoon area sheltered by reef that we swim in. The guide jumped in and swam over to them to announce our arrival and he was soon followed back by a handful of sea lions. They are really inquisitive, and are rolling around and coming up close enticing us to play.

Apparently you have to watch them as if you interact and play too much they might play bite you, we keep a respectful distance but have no choice when they come up face to face with you. Soo cute. The mums come and check us out and then head back to sun themselves leaving the young ones to play. We have heaps of interaction with them and the guide dives in and plays with them with a pebble. We follow suit, they are the puppy dogs of the sea and apparently I felt this as my video recording has me saying “what a clever boy, who’s a clever puppy?” lol.

We kept swimming and playing in the water until there were only 4 of us left, and then it was just us 2. It was getting cold and we reluctantly got back on the boat and had a much needed hot chocolate. Everyone is smiling, what an experience.  Loving the underwater camera, not inly do we have memories but some photos too

Back to the dolphins and we jump in again, this time Fred and I are there first out and a dolphin brushed passed me as I hit the water, pretty close and scared the hell out of me. We stay in there until they are bored of us (despite or perhaps because of, my attempts to make dolphin noises under water - I sounded more like Dory from Nemo speaking whale "Heeelooooo mistar doolphin."

Well satisfied with the experience the journey home was silent as we all reflected on the day. Met a lovely couple on 7 month holiday, Brian and Gwen who we bump into a couple of times later in day and end up having some great chats with.

Back to Streaky Bay for lunch at the pub where our infectious enthusiasm convinced a stack of locals and visitors alike to go do this. Highly recommend it - for more information go to www.bairdbay.com.

We head to the jetty for some fishing, the only luck we had was 4 yellowfin whiting which were too small too keep so Fred cooked up a mean curry. He has now become the official camp cook as I try to catch up on blog.

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Fav pic of the day:  Too many to pick from but love this, v close.

Went exploring today, drove around the coastline to Baird Bay and booked into dolphin swim tomorrow, really looking forward to it.  Then tried our hand at fishing at Speed point (delicious looking bay that was just beckoning you in) and  Scaele Bay.  It is an amazing and rugged coastline with no one around.  No luck on the fishing front.

Had a fantastic lunch at local restaurant\cafe Mocean which was a seafood antipasto plate with mussells, prawns, abalone, seaweed salad, in-house smoked local oysters.  Yummy!

Went off for another fish at Hally's beach, no luck again.

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Fav pic of the day: scrummy lunch

Went through Quaratine and surrendered what fruit and veg we had (not as much as going the other way, was such a waste of money) and went on to cross the Nullabor plain itself today.  Fairly uneventful drive just soaked it all up.  Stopped to check out some rocks, Afghan rocks?  Cant remember that is probably because they wern't very memorable.  

Had another stop to put in the other 20litre fuel we were carrying and is sliped and we lost 1/2 litre on Fred's feet.  Decided that we would have to have 1 round of golf on the world's longest golf course (Ceduna - Norseman?) so we stopped at Nundroo which is nearing the end of our day and play the Wombat Hole, par 5.  Fred managed 9 or 10 and I just waited till we got closer to the green.  It was too easy to lose a ball out there and they charge you for the loss.  Although I have to say the Scottish girl working in the roadhouse was really lovely and didn't charge us the $100 deposit required to play (game is $5).  Pretty funny experience despite battling flies.

Arrived lovely Baird Bay to most amazing sunset.  Also the notice board when we checked in had "Shark in bay" written on it which excited Fred to no end.  Caravan park is right on a very tiday foreshore. 

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Fav pic of the day: