How Not to Launch a Boat

There was a bit of excitement and a lot of colourful language at the boat ramp this morning when a commercial crab fisherman launched his boat. And his car. We loaned our snatch strap and another guy pulled him out-the car wouldn't start. It was amazing how much water was in that back end!!!!

A local arrived to load up a tanker with sea water and told us it's not the first time the guy has done it!! He's the only one of the fishermen I've seen who doesn't drive a 4WD-maybe it's time he bought one.



It was a bit choppy when we finally got out this morning, but it settled down and we came home with 12 good sized crabs and 6 King George whiting. Tonight I'm making Crab Enchiladas (based on a chicken enchilada recipe given to me by Todd)using the meat of the 5 smallest crabs.

We have new neighbours who I recognised from Baffle Creek Queensland a few months ago. They were relief managers at the park there when we met them and Cec was kind enough to show us how to throw our cast net.

2 Years on the Road

On Feb 20th, we celebrated the end of 2 years (and the start of our 3rd year) on the road. We still pinch ourselves and wonder how we got so lucky to be able to do this-yes, it's still fun!

Feb 22nd was the day we met 16 years ago, so cause for more celebration.

The kiosk here in the park opened a resturant on Wednesday night, so we chose to do our celebrating there, then. The owners met when he was a long haul truckie across the Nullarbor to Perth and she managing a roadhouse-the food and atmosphere of the restaurant are just like a roadhouse too! Still it was cheap (1 dozen oysters natural $12), cheerful, clean and lots of fun.

We've been managing to get out fishing and crabbing every couple of days. Last night we cooked ourselves beer battered whiting fillets (bought the chips from the kiosk) and a couple of nights ago, oven baked garlic crab legs.
We caught ourselves 10 blue swimmers, put them to sleep, pulled their main claws off and cracked them gently. I made a very garlicky butter, oil, salt and pepper mix, then brushed and poured it over them and baked them in our oven. They were amazing and I can't wait to catch some more crabs. We also keep pinching ourselves re the great food we get to eat in our travels.

The boat hasn't missed a beat since we called the mechanic-I'm really happy about that.

Success (for us at least)

We put the boat in and kept pretty much along the shore (not so far to row from there). The motor seemed fine, starting every time we wanted it too, so after catching 10 crabs pretty quickly, we headed off out a bit further. We actually went right across the bay to the spot where we'd broken down twice before.

The wind dropped, the water calmed and it got really hot, so we decided it was time for home. I felt so much better when the man fishing near us hailed us and we had to give HIM a tow back to the boat ramp.
How it Looks From the Other Angle!


It got to well over 40c under our awning yesterday so much of the day was spent inside in the cool (only 29c in the van). Around 6is we went over to Gayle and Des's van and sat there until round 9pm when it finally felt cool enough to cook and eat our steaks.

We had a nasty experience yesterday. We had a bag of fish fillets, yabby tails and peas stolen from the park dining room freezer-all labled with the date and our site no. We've often put stuff in the freezer and never had that happen before. I hope the theifs needed it more than us!

Off Fishing-if we never return

You know the mechanic in Queensland where we bought the motor is an idiot too

Bugger of a Day II

A Beautiful Day on the Bay


The boat was "fixed", the day was hot and still, so we headed out again. We had to be towed home again!!!!!

It's OK here where there are lots of boats around, but we go places where we are the only boat out, so this has to be fixed before we can go out again.

A Tow Home

A Bugger of a Day in Streaky Bay

We have been in Streaky bay since Sunday and are really enjoying it. It's a bit dry and dusty but is still one of our favourite places. The wind has been pretty fierce, but we've managed to get the boat out three times and get ourselves that feed of crabs and a couple of feeds of whiting. Getting home proved something of a chanlleng yesterday though

Actually the whole day was a bit of a challenge!!!!! Russ headed off towing the boat to do a bit of shopping and then fill the fuel tank. It's all very heavy back there once the tank is full and the winch unclipped as he went over a bump and the boat slipped off and hit the road!!!!!

We startred to go out fishing and had to come home because I had no ventolin-if I have it I don't need it but if I forget it I panic. So home to get the ventolin. Next we stopped for our bait of razor fish and Russ cut his hand very badly doing that.

On to the boat ramp, we launched the boat only to discover hitting the road had put a largish hole in the aluminium and the boat was filling with water. So on the trailer, home and fix the hole.

We finally got that fixed, had some lunch and headed out fishing, catching ourselves 6 lovely whiting. When the wind blew up and we decided it was time to go home, the boat wouldn't start. After rowing a couple of hundred yards into a strong wind, a very nice commercial crab fisherman towed us the couple of ks to shore. Russ had to go into town and get the fuel line seen to. Some days I should just stay in bed with a book.

We have really nice neighbours here and all of them are long term travellers of between 17 months and 5 years on the road. We are the only ones to still have our home which I find scary (for them). The couple opposite us are particularly nice-they sold up a small and very successful supermarket in Mt Magnet 3 years ago and have been travelling ever since. They both love fishing and like us follow the fish and the warm weather (which is lucky, it's going to be 37 today)

Crabs

Yesterday was one of those rare perfect days. The wind dropped and we were able to put the boat in on day 1 of our stay here in Streaky Bay (met one couple who've been here 10 days and had the boat in the water 4 times). Streaky Bay is beautiful on days like that when the water is so calm and clear you can see the fish and crabs on the bottom and the dolphins cruising along on the top.

We crab a bit differently to most people who go out, drop their pots (4 per person I think) then run up and down and around the pots pulling them in and checking for crabs. We anchor, drop out one pot each and check it every 5 minutes or so-yesterday we caught ourselves 14 big blue swimmers doing that. I find it much easier and much more relaxing because when it's done the other way, I'm the one hauling in all the pots. It amazes me to think we couldn't even get a feed when we were here last time, but yesterday we stopped at 14 as we can't be bothered picking more than that. Last night Russ made his best ever Thai crab cakes for dinner, then we put three packs of picked meat in the freezer. Yum!

After we finished crabbing, we caught 7 tommy ruff which we brought home and smoked ready for turning into dip today.

Our neighbours are nice-Bill and Jean were from Dandenong but sold up and have been travelling 17 months, John and Vi (formerly of Albany) have done the same and have been travelling 5 years. They reckon they haven't seen anything yet.

Streaky Bay Again

Sunset over Cowell


Yesterday we left Cowell around 10am and arrived here around 2.30pm. We've been put up the other end of the park to last time, but the sites are much more spacious, the roads are sealed, the toilets are new and the starlings are down the other end!

It's almost two years since we were here last-not much has changed. The housing estate near the park has one more home and the park rates have gone up from $113 pw to $140 pw (we now know this dearer price is still cheap!)

Point Gibbon


We had a lovely 5 days at Cowell. It's a pretty little place if you like fishing and not much else. We stayed in the park out of town so we could drive to the boat ramp without lights and number plate attached (such a pain to take on and off). The wind was pretty ferocious but on the two days we could get out, we managed to get ourselves a couple of good feeds of crabs and 3 paks for the freezer for later on. The only fish we caught were suitable for the crab pots only. We took a nice drive out of town to Port and Point Gibbon and managed to bury ourselves in the sand along one of the tracks-not a problem once we let a heap of air out of the tyres and put it into 4WD.
Port Gibbon


The sites at Cowell were huge-I reckon we could have built a townhouse on the one they gave us. We were surrounded by 3 groups of 3,3 and 2 couples travelling together and they weren't overly friendly but they were OK. One of them was travelling in a big bus, towing a big boat with a small 4WD that stowed away IN the back of the bus. It was a very impressive set up, but how much fuel would they use for all three?

Right now we are waiting for some more water to come in and hoping the wind stays away so we can go fishing.

Coconut Chilli Crab at Cowell

On the Road Again

Amanda and Me

We left Port Fairy on Friday the 1st of Feb, spent the night in Keith SA and are spending two nights in the Adelaide Hills with my Recipezaar friend Amanda and husband Will. Tomorrow we'll make our way to Streaky Bay arriving on Feb 10th. We are going to stay at Port Germain, then Cowell on the way and do a bit of fishing.! Today was spent taking a drive through the hills to Maggie Beer's farm for lunch and tonight we are off to a local Indian restaurant.

Hanging Rock Winery

Our 6 weeks in Vic was really busy-we managed to get to Traralgon, Geelong, Ballarat, Portland and Woodend to visit a lot of friends and family but found we ran out of time to see everyone we wanted to.

Oil Rig in the Portland Harbour


Russ caught some sort of virus which laid him low (more like absolutely flat-out) for 2 1/2 weeks. He was as sick as I've ever seen him-unable to do anything for most of the time. I also enjoyed doing quite a few breakfasts at the Merrijig with Kirstyn (to let Ryan sleep in) and we seemed to have endless running around to do with the boat, van and ute to get them all really to travel again.

Last Wednesday, we took the van in to have the awning replaced and a routine service done. It ended up being a huge service with lots needing done to brakes and wheel bearings! Russ forgot to release the hand brake leaving Maryborough and it stayed on until Noosa and was apparently burned out. I have to say it feels nice now though to know it's all done. For some reason our bearings were odd too and needed replacing. The guy who did the service pumped our tyres up "to where they should be" and when I started driving this morning, I felt like I was towing a bouncing ball behind me. We stopped and let them down the where we think they "should be"! Russ hadn't told me what the mechanic had done,l but I could feel it straight away.

The new awning and roller are pretty neat! The van looks really clean and tidy again. We also had the boat motor serviced and that should be a bit easier to start which will be good as Russ's right arm is still causing him a bit of bother-I suspect it'll never be the same again.

We had a huge clean out of the van and took a lot of stuff to the tip, op shop and put stuff back under the house. The house and stuff under it look OK, but lucky we'd be warned by the tennants that the back garden was a bit of a jungle ;-) It wouldn't take too long to rip into gear though and I'm not going to worry myself about it while we travel.

We've eaten out more in the last 6 weeks than we've eaten out in our lives, but last Thursday night Kirstyn and her mum Jill, Russ and I went to the Merrijig for a very special dinner. Ryan does two degustation menus and let us pick the dishes we wanted to eat from both to make the best meal I have ever eaten in a restaurant. We started with chilled white gazpacho then had a soft shelled crab with crab taboulleh, braised pork with crayfish and jammon, duck breast and duck pie on fig puree, lamb cooked two ways with whipped Persian fetta, fennel puree and spinach, a cheese platter and belgian chocolate pudding. It was unbelievably good. The Age were in the restaurant a couple of weeks ago to do a review. The photographer will be there Sunday, so check out Epicure for the results in the next week or so.

I cried leaving Port Fairy on Friday morning, but I'm looking forward to Mick being home in WA next week, our new baby in April, and seeing Dan and Verity, Todd, Leah and Blair.