Australian Walkabout

Clayton Bay

I mentioned we met some lovely people while on Kangaroo Island, and we really hit it off with one couple in particular, Linda & Tim. They kindly invited us to stay with them on their property at Clayton Bay, and we took them up on their offer.

Where’s Clayton Bay? I hear you ask. It’s on the Lower Murray River, and is part of the network of waterways from Lake Alexandrina, around Hindmarsh Island and on towards the Great Australian Bight and the mouth of the mighty Murray.

While we were there, we took advantage of the waterways, and got the kayaks wet. There are so many waterways to explore here, but not enough time to do it all. We set off from Tim and Linda’s jetty, and explored their immediate area. The water was so calm at times, almost mirror like, and I spent a lot of time in and around the grassy/reedy islands.

Tim and Linda were the perfect hosts and tour guides. They showed us all around the area including Mount Barker, Goolwa and Hindmarsh Island. This really is a lovely part of Australia and we particularly liked Goolwa, it’s a pretty little town and with Victor Harbour only a short drive away there’s everything anyone could ask for.

A highlight of the area was the Barrages. These are a set of what I would have called weirs built to retain precious fresh water flowing from the Murray for drinking, irrigation, and general use; without them a large part of South Australia would very much drier than it is. They’re really interesting as they include locks so that small boats (I don’t know, but I suppose up to 30 metre or so in length) can move from the Murray to the open water. We were lucky enough to see the lock in action. One of these locks is unmanned, so boaties can operate it themselves with a hand winch.

We were also delighted to have lots of seals making the barrages home. They were lazing around everywhere and occasionally arguing lazily over the best spots to laze. How relaxed do these guys look.

Another highlight was our day out Cockling on Goolwa beach. You can only collect Cockles at certain times of the year, and we were lucky that our visit coincided with this. I think that most of the frozen Cockles you see in the SA bait shops come from Goolwa. If you haven’t done this before, and you get the opportunity…give it a go. We had a ton of fun. The idea is that you wait until the tide is on its way out then you get down to the waterline and wiggle your feet in the soft sand until you feel cockles under foot. Then you reach down and pick them up.

The images you’ll see below were at the beginning of our Cockle hunt, and it looks pretty tame. But just look at the waves behind. Once on the beach, it was easy to understand why Linda insisted that we bring a change of clothes.

As the afternoon wore on, the intrepid hunters went deeper and deeper into the cold southern waters (and the water was cold) until the sea finally had its revenge on behalf of the Cockles. One by one the hunters were dragged beneath the sea’s foamy waters. All except me and Tim. Some would say we were more skilled; others would say we were a pair of wusses and didn’t go in as deep. I’m happy with either explanation. 😊

We took less than the legal limit, even so, our share was probably well over $100 worth of Cockles. I must admit, I didn’t contribute much. In fact, I was operating a catch and release programme. (Sorry about that). It went a bit like this:

I’d do the twisty toe wiggle in the sand and find the cockles, and dive in to pick them up. Then I’d look at them and feel a surge of guilt, and…back home they’d go. Or someone, usually Linda, would call out, “I’ve found a batch.” She’d frantically gather them up, and hand them to whoever was near so she could go back in for more. If I was the recipient, I’d often and quite accidentally, ahem, lose my balance, and they’d slip from my hands. Or a wave would knock me off balance just as I was going to put them in the bucket and…I’d miss. 

Linda did catch me a few times with cockles in hand and she held out the bucket, so I had to drop them in.  I think my full contribution for the afternoon was twelve. I eased my guilt a little by feeding twelve cockles to seagulls. Six to Peg, a one-legged gul at Mozzie flat, and six to Scruff, a scrawny looking gul with a malformed tail, and bad balance, at Point Souttar. I am sure they appreciated the free lunch, and it seemed a more fitting end for the cockles.

Clayton Bay and its surrounds is a beautiful part of South Australia. We enjoyed the sightseeing, ate too much, drank waaay too much, met some of Linda & Tim’s friends and family; in short, we had a wonderful time, and they sent us on our way with a supply of home-grown goodies, and many happy memories. Thanks for the invite and we hope to see you again soon.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!

Part Five – Overview

So, as of my last blog, we have been everywhere we wanted to go, seen everything we wanted to see and now have time up our sleeves to go back to the places we enjoyed most. However, I’m sure you won’t want to hear about the same things again, so I’ll take this opportunity to give our overall opinion of our visit to KI. Of course, there will be photos. 😊

Considering the island is built up to be one big conservation area, we were disappointed at the amount of roadkill. Kangaroos, wallabys, possums, birds, unidentifiable animals, even koalas. ☹ I don’t know if it’s the locals who know the roads, or if it’s the tourists who don’t know the roads, or a combination of both. And I understand that if something jumps out in front of you, sometimes you simply can’t avoid it. But there really is way too much road-kill on the island.

Unlike the mainland, there are no areas on KI where you can camp for free. Saying that, there are several Council run campgrounds on the eastern part of the island. The prices are reasonable but fixed, regardless of which campground you visit, and the amenities vary greatly.  Some have power, toilets, showers, non-potable water and bins, or a combination of these, others have…bins. As well as these you can book and stay in the National and Conservation Parks, or the caravan parks dotted around KI. For us, the Chapman River campground in the Lashmar Conservation Park was by far our favourite with Vivonne Bay being a close second.

While on the island we’ve been doing a bit of fishing, Peter in particular has really gotten a taste for it, especially beach fishing, though I’m not so sure he’s cut out for it. At least I know when to run away!

And he wonders why I never let him go anywhere by himself. 🙂

There are a few beaches that are shown on the KI map that are inaccessible as they are on private property. We found out the hard way that a “No Through Road” sign will often (after six kilometres of really bad dirt/sand/gravel/rocky road,) lead you to a “Private Property” sign. So, be aware of that. I mean it would be better for all, if the “No Through Road” sign was simply replaced with a “Private Road” sign, but hey that’s just me.

The coastal views are varied, from clean smooth beaches to rugged coastal cliffs and everything in between. Stunning is a word that we frequently used when describing the coastal views. The interior is a bit ordinary, except for the Dudley Peninsular. There you have rolling green hills, high views over the Backstairs Passage over to the mainland, but if you want to get some nice aerial shots with your drone, forget it. They are banned everywhere on KI.

There was not a huge amount of wildlife. I think the fire and drought has taken its toll, and even though things are recovering, the wildlife still needs a little more time (and a lot less roadkill). It could also be the season. We’re in the middle of autumn, so a lot of the reptiles will be slowing down, birds migrating, mammals keeping warm by the fire, you know, that sort of thing.

We had more overcast days than sunny, and the last two weeks we got a decent amount of rain. so much so that our floor mat ended up in the river. It was windy most days and cool, but not cold enough to stop us having fun on and in the water. We fished enough to realise we know nothing about fishing, but we do want to learn. We met a lot of nice people while on the island and look forward to keeping in touch with them.

Overall, we thoroughly enjoyed our time on Kangaroo Island, and would recommend it as a holiday destination. Not everyone can stay six weeks as we did but do stay as long as you can. With the ferry trip being the most expensive per kilometre in Australia and one of the most costly in the world, you’ll want to get a return on your investment. It cost us a tad under $900.00 return (but we have a big rig, fourteen metres,) for a round trip of ninety minutes. That’s $10.00 per minute.

So give yourself at least a week, this will allow you to see all the highlights, Seal Bay, Remarkable Rocks, Cape Du Couedic, Lashmar Conservation Park and flinders Chase National Park, to name but a few. But, more importantly, give yourself time to stop. Take in the salt air. De-stress, unwind and just…breathe.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!

Part Four – Stokes Bay & Chapman River

Australia’s most beautiful beach? Well, it is quite lovely, and very unique. The bay is divided by a headland; one side the beach is more rocky than it is sandy, the other is mostly soft white sand, but the only way from one side to the next is by going through the headland; pretty cool huh?

But I’m not sure about the most beautiful beach title. Still, I don’t know what the voting criteria is, so I won’t disrespect the judgment. Whether you think it’s the most beautiful beach in Australia or not, I’m sure you will agree that it is a great place to visit.

Peter took the opportunity to do a spot of kayak fishing on the bay. I sent him off with this simple request, “Bring me a good sized flathead back.”

So, Peter came home with a good catch of Wrasse, when I asked about my flathead, this is what he said.

“I hadn’t been out there long when I got a good strong bite. I pulled it straight in and it was a big flathead. I thought, Jo’ll love this. Feeling pretty good about my catch I killed it, gutted it, thought I’d better wash it and…well, lets just say, it was pretty keen to go home.”

The best ‘The one that got away story.’ I’ve heard for a while.

There’s another council campground here, no potable water, dump point or showers. But there were toilets and a coffee shop. There were also a lot of Kangaroos (the most we’ve seen since we arrived here) Tamar Wallaby’s (the cutest things you ever will see) and koalas. So…who needs water?

KI Kangaroos are smaller, darker in colour and with a longer coat than many of the mainland Kangaroos. We didn’t see many of them (not counting roadkill) until we reached stokes Bay.

The Tammar is one of the smallest wallaby’s and it has to be one of the cutest. With a longish grey/brown coat, big dark eyes and eyelashes to die for, these shy little critters are a pleasure to see.

We’ve seen so many Koalas while exploring South Australia, and Stokes Bay on KI was no different. We had a group of four koalas in the gum trees around our camp spot. I Never get tired of seeing these in the wild, even though some of these koalas look a bit…weird.

I was very excited to see this next bird, it’s a Hooded Plover, it’s estimated that there are only 700 to 800 of these in all of South Australia. I saw two in fact, and one juvenile. This little bird is one of Australia’s most threatened beach nesting birds. Their chicks have one of the lowest survival rates of all birds, so they are really doing it tough. I didn’t get too close to them, and they’re really fast, so the images aren’t great, but good enough. This link will tell you more if you’re interested. https://cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/landscape/docs/ny/hooded-plovers-yp-beaches.pdf

One of my favourite guls has become the Pacific gul, they’re a big bird, about three times the size of the common silver gul. We’ve seen quite a few of them, and I was lucky enough to see this one find a meal, and of course there are a few more birds to see as well.

While here, we took the opportunity to drive to King George and Snellings Beach and explore the Western River Cove area. We had a great day out, and both agreed that if we could have taken the caravan, we would have been happy to stay at Western River Cove.

From Stokes Bay, we made our way back to the Dudley Peninsula. We had a couple of nights at the Seafront caravan park in Penneshaw, where we had a great spot overlooking the ferry terminal and the Backstairs Passage (the strait between the island and the mainland). This gave us plenty to look at while we waited for the many, many loads of washing to be done. I even got to touch the full moon with my fingertip.

From there we headed to the Lashmar Conservation Park, and our campsite at Chapman River.

We absolutely loved our stay at Chapman River. The Chapman is only about 3klm in length. It starts inland, and runs out to Antechamber Bay, which is a beautiful stretch of beach. We made good use of the kayaks, did a spot of fishing, and just enjoyed the ambience.

The Chapman is a great river to explore, and when it’s calm, the reflections are amazing. Always one to really explore, Peter even managed to guide us up a storm outlet. Oh the fun. 🙂

We had five nights at Chapman River – but I think we’ll be back.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!

Part Three – Western KI

My last post was longer than normal, so to balance, this’ll be a short one. We stayed at the Western KI Caravan Park for three nights, there are kangaroos, birds, koalas, and a lovely lagoon there. Overall there was a really nice feel to the place. But, more importantly, there was potable water. So we topped up our tanks and did a heap of washing.

We spent most of our time there just enjoying the ambience, the lagoon was especially lovely.

Even though Western KI is a good kick-off point for Seal Bay, and Flinders Chase NP, we had already visited those from Vivonne Bay. However, we did do a couple of daytrips; Cape Borda and Parndana. We’d been to the latter before (to use the dump point) but this time we went to have lunch in the pub. It was Thursday, we arrived at around one thirty, but the pub was closed. Apart from the pub, a small grocers and bakery, there’s nothing at Parndana. It’s a shame really as it’s slap-dab in the middle of the island and would be an excellent base camp. But it is just…lacking – as are any photos. 🙂

Cape Borda, on the other hand, is most definitely not lacking. Tucked away in the north western corner of KI, the road there is, hmm, let’s say ‘rugged’, perhaps that’s why, apart from a few kangaroos, we had the place to ourselves, but it is well worth the bumps. We had a good look around the Lighthouse and other buildings and once again, enjoyed the beautiful coastline. This is a really well preserved heritage lighthouse, and it’s short, squat and square – different.

And that’s it. Told you it’d be short. From here we’re heading south to Stokes Bay, which has been voted Australia’s most beautiful beach. I’ll let you know.

Actually, before I go, people have been asking about the fires that raged through the island in the back end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, and what impact they’ve had. I took this information from the tourkangarooisland.com.au website, I hope it answers some of your questions.

“During a scorching summer unusual for the regular Kangaroo Island weather pattern, lightning strikes ignited fires first on the north and north-eastern coasts of the island on 20 December 2019, then in Flinders Chase National Park ten days later.

Over several weeks, the Kangaroo Island fires burned 211,474 hectares of land, almost half of the island. It is unknown how many of the island’s wild animals perished, along with the estimated 32,000 head of stock and domestic animals that died. The widespread fires also damaged or destroyed homes, businesses—including some tourism venues—grazing land, forests, crops, machinery, and infrastructure, and two people tragically lost their lives.”

tourkangarooisland.com.au

But the island is recovering well. New growth can be seen everywhere you look; on trees, shrubs, and grasses and the wildlife is slowly starting to recover.

Ok, so this post wasn’t as short as it could have been, but I’m done now, next stop Australia’s most beautiful beach.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!

Part One – Getting There

Even though there are multiple runs through the day, spaces are surprisingly limited on the ferry. We booked three weeks in advance, but there was only one slot available on the date we wanted to travel, (March 10) and that was at 0600. For those of you who don’t speak 24hour clock…that’s bloody early!

We travelled to Cape Jervis the day before and camped there, near the lighthouse, which was just a short drive to the ferry terminal.

After an early night we were woken by our alarm at 0430. I’d like to say we got up bright and early, but that would be a lie. We had to be at the terminal by 0515 but we still made time to have our coffee, and to make our “coffee to go”.  After stowing a few things away on the van, we found ourselves in the queue with time to spare. Needless to say, we were both excited about the crossing.

Once there, the crew were super-efficient in getting us all on the ferry. Small vehicles drove straight in on the lefthand side, around the back of the parking area, then up the righthand side until full, while the larger rigs, like us, had to reverse down the middle two lanes. Peter did an excellent job, and within minutes of the last vehicle being loaded, we were on our way.

Once on board we bought a couple of cheese and ham toasties, drank our “coffee to go” and settled down for the ride. Although it wasn’t rough, we could feel the gentle swell under our feet and had to steady ourselves when standing.  As we neared the island, the sun began to rise, and we got our first glimpse of KI and Penneshaw on the Dudley Peninsula. The crew were even more efficient in getting us off the ferry and inside of ten minutes, the ferry was empty and taking on new passengers.

Our first camp spot was Browns Beach. This is a council run camp area with a Pay Station, much like those used in the city to pay for parking. Basic facilities, toilet, and camp kitchen, and only a minutes’ stroll to the beach. The left of the beach was a mixture of rock and sand, the right was an unusual volcanic rock formation. We stayed there for a couple of nights and took the time to do a bit of exploring, checking out Baudin Beach, Pennington Bay, American Beach, and Lashmar Conservation Park.

We also enjoyed a lovely sunset on the beach with our favourite red and a cheese platter

On the North side of the Dudley Peninsula, American Beach was a lovely long stretch of beach. While walking we noted some strange lines in the sand. It took us a while to figure out what they were, and Hugo did a bit of shell shopping. On the other hand, Pennington Bay, on the south side, was far more rugged and great to explore on a blustery day.

We also did a trip out to Cape Willoughby, and apart from the fact that I lost my only spare camera battery there, this is my favourite spot to date. On the drive out there we had our first wildlife encounter, something I would never have guessed…Wild Turkeys.

Our next stop was American River, another council camp area, right on the riverbank. Our neighbours, twenty metres away were a permanent colony of swans – literally hundreds of them, but don’t worry – Peter told me I could only post five swan photos. (But you know I never do as I’m told).😊

While at American River we visited Kingscote, the main town on the island, but we forgot it was Saturday and everything was closed when we got there. So we headed on to the Bay of shoals and had a lovely picnic by the water.

Rather than continuing along the north of the island, we decided to go Southwest and work around clockwise; our next stop, Vivonne Bay.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!