Yes they keep coming!!  Another short clip we have made, this time of our trip to Kangaroo Island.  Scroll down further to see the write up & full story in the initial Kangaroo Island blog post.

Click the link below.  Enjoy. XO

Click the link below to have the next 56 seconds of your life taken away by some of the most adorably beautiful little creatures in existence!

See the link below for a peep at a short movie I have made of our time travelling from the Victorian border, all the way to Adelaide along the beautiful Limestone Coast.

Scroll down through past posts for the full entire picture of our travels around the country so far since departing in January 2017.

Xo

I have to start by saying that this coastline has blown us away. From Port Lincoln to the Head of The Bight, it has been an endless stream of epic cliff tops that overlook empty beaches. With a horizon of the seemingly endless Southern Ocean on one side & an infinite dry, baron landscape on the other; we have felt as though we’ve had the whole country to ourselves.

There have been no shortages of camping venues, with the majority being either in the dunes a golly rocket from the beach, or atop a cliff with panoramic views of the sea & a drop down that might give your Granny a coronary (or me when my fur baby gets too close!). Some camps have had toilets, but the majority have had diddily squat in terms of anything other than dirt & nature itself! Exactly our style. Everywhere we have stayed has been dog friendly & there has been no sign of 1080 poison on this coast – thanking the powers that be for that! Additionally, we have been loving not having to share the environment with too many other people, never feeling crowded & a lot of the time having places all to ourselves.

Coles Point provided a scenic camp on the cliffs above the beach. Along with hot, hot sand we had to high tail it down to get to the beach for a swim. The water is not warm in South Australia. I think it averages 18-21 degrees this time of year & that is the same if not a little cooler than home right now, (home being the east coast of Tasmania!). So every time we go for a dip, at least once a day, there are always the moans & groans that come with throwing ourselves into unpleasantly chilly waters. But that feeling ALWAYS goes away after you have dived under. It must be a law that you resurface after that first dive into the ocean feeling refreshed & quite simply, better. Especially when it’s cold in & warm out! If you have experienced this yourself, you know what I’m on about.

INSECTS TIP: There have been a few march flies around on this coast, some places more so than others, with the occasional sand fly & mozi thrown in the mix. And these march flies seriously have needles for stinging you with!! So don’t forget the insect repellent, especially if you are an insect magnet like me. They LOVE my flesh – anyone who tells you insects won’t go for olive skin is a LIAR. The only thing that works for me is ‘Bushman’s Insect Repellent’ (basically anything with loads of deet in it) or wearing clothes!

The tinny came off the top of Perry the Patrol a number of times along this section of coast. At Drummond Point we even got a sneaky hello from a couple of Bottlenose Dolphins playing at the bow. The Eyre Peninsula is a renowned home for the Bottlenose Dolphin. We have been graced with spotting them a fair number of times, from the tinny, the beach & also from our camp chairs just outside camp at Point Brown! Venus Bay came through with the goods, with us hooking some King Gorge Whiting in the shallow bay. Fred being the great man that he is had the fish cleaned, filleted & ready to eat for lunch within the hour! Using his simple but trusty mix of flour & oil – easy, delicious & ready to eat as soon as it leaves the pan. This fresh catch lunch was a regular favourite, whenever we caught it or whenever Fred speared it. Sustainable fishing at its finest – catching it yourself, & only bringing in what you can eat!!!

A mega highlight of this coast for me was watching & learning about the endangered Australian Sea Lion. We saw a number of colonies throughout our journey of the Eyre Peninsula. The coast of South Australia & southern Western Australia is the only place on earth these beautiful mischievous creatures live. After being nearly hunted to extinction in the 1800’s & early 1900’s they have not been able to recover. Together with their slow breeding habits, commercial fishing nets & the increasing amount of plastic in the ocean they are fighting an uphill battle. We were lucky enough to be able to swim with these guys in a shallow, sheltered bay off Port Lincoln. We went with one of the only tour companies that allow this – Calypso Star Charters. It was meant to be a swim with the Sea Lions & dive with The Great White Shark combination tour, but unfortunately there were no Great Whites around that day (cage diving with the sharks that is – we don’t have a death wish!). I was a bit reluctant to go on the tour, not wanting to burden or add to harming the animals or their natural environments. But after reading up on the company & finding out more about the research they help conduct, including Great White research & conservation, as well as the company being ‘Eco Certified’ & very educational, I was reassured. The tour guides were really knowledgeable in the field of Great Whites. It was fantastic to hear from the captain who had lived through the cruel (in my eyes) hunting era of Great Whites, to when the protection of The White Pointer was implemented in 1997 & how attitudes have changed. He was so passionate about educating people about this magnificent, highly misunderstood animal. This made it a really nice experience. Diving with the Sea Lions was incredible. They are SUCH playful creatures. Swimming up to us copying whatever we were doing. You did a summersault – they did a summersault, you waved your hand – they waved their flipper right back at you. They are so inquisitive. It was an experience we will never forget & will always cherish.

My mum joined us for a few days in Port Lincoln; shout out to her for taking the time to spend with us!! It’s always so nice having visitors along the way. An extra thank you for helping me stealthily organise Fred’s birthday dinner & cake! I have never sung solo, out loud to anyone in the history of the universe, & for you to have made it through my Happy Birthday ditty – well all I can say is well done, to the both of you!!

There has been a fair amount of surf along this coast, & when the wind is light or blowing off shore it gets really good. (This has been about 50% of the time). Though our biggest set back has been that a lot of these breaks are very far out from shore. Coupled with the fact there has been no one else around, & everyone we speak to about surfing always brings up the apparent increasing number of sharks – we get a little psyched out. (I should point out that during our whole time in SA we have only seen one shark, a Bronze Whaler & that was on a shark dive tour). Point Sinclair has definitely been the surfing highlight. With quite a gathering of other keen surfers camped in the dunes, it brought the ‘psych yourself out levels’ way down. Having others around to share the stoke, as well as riding some of the best waves in our lives, the thought of sharks totally disappeared. This was our last stop before crossing the Nullarbor Plain. And a lovely place to turn 26!! Thanking Fred, for nailing my favourite breakfast of banana pancakes, & excelling way beyond bush camping birthday expectations by delivering me a caramel white chocolate camp oven mud cake. And yes, it was ridiculously delicious in case you needed clarification on the matter!!!!

We are a little sad to be saying goodbye to South Australia. The past month here has been wonderful, even a bit surprising. We did not have many expectations, in that we didn’t really know what to expect. But we are leaving most certainly satisfied that we have experienced with juicy detail, a stunningly unique & beautiful part of this country.

TIP: For anyone travelling across the Nullarbor – At the quarantine border into WA, they WILL take the majority of your fresh fruit & vegetables. They took everything except our carrots & sweet potato (everything as in lettuce, spinach, ALL berries, onions, tomatoes, bananas, beans, peas, honey!). We couldn’t find an exact list on the government website, but basically they take the whole cake. The roadhouses along the way are SUPER expensive as you can imagine, so stock up on basic packaged food. And if you don’t like the idea of paying $1.70 for fuel, we’d advise filling up your sub-tank & / or as many jerry cans as you can carry at Ceduna!

Once again, thanks for reading. I hope you have enjoyed our tales so far. Now I think my hair is going to snap right off it is so salt crusted, Fred told me yesterday he worked out he had only taken 2 showers this whole past month!!!! LOL. So time to take the longest shower of our lives.

Western Australia we are coming in hot!! 😉

Some snaps below of our journey across the Eyre Peninsula. Enjoy   Xo

As all the pictures, brochures & websites will tell you; Kangaroo Island (KI) simply is a little gem.  Surrounded by beautiful beaches, breathtaking cliff tops & rock formations, not to mention the absolute abundance in Australian wild life – it really is a true blue magical destination.

Though being the third biggest island in Australia it actually isn’t that little!  We managed to clock up almost 600 k’s circumnavigating the island in only 2 ½ days! With a wealth of different roads covering KI, it made it easy for us to hop, skip & jump around to wherever we pleased.  A warning that the majority of the roads are dirt / gravel & so ensuring all belongings are secure & as dust proof as possible before you set off is a good tip.

We were a little pushed for time, as we had booked as an after thought.  This proved somewhat challenging.  Our plans were rather ambitious for the short time frame we had given ourselves.  Wanting to see the whole island, we were two big kids on a mission!  There were some beaches where we literally ran down, did a little dance & were like “right, seen that. Next one!”.  NOT ideal & not our usual style!!  If we had our time again we would spend a whole week – allowing for enough time to add in some hikes & truly experience KI.

After disembarking the ferry we drove clockwise around the island.  There are loads of camping grounds, making it easy to just pull up along the way without driving too far off our planned route.  Lots inside the national parks, but also enough that allowed dogs so we didn’t miss out 😉

We used the freebee map they gave out from the ferry terminal as our main guide; together with wiki-camps we were set!  We have been using wiki-camps throughout the whole trip.  It is invaluable with the amount of information & details it provides. Leaving the caravan behind was great too. Sleeping under the stars in the swag instead was blisssss.  It was a lot cooler on KI than it had been on the mainland, by about 5-10 degrees.  Around 23-25 each day & really cooled off at night – so don’t forget your trackies, flanny & jacket!!

I LOVED the amount of wild life we saw while on the island.  Kangaroos, wedge tailed eagles & sea eagles seemed to permanently coat the sky, wombats, rosellas, Australian sea lions, New Zealand fur seals, peacocks… the list goes on!!  It really was a challenge for Fred to pull me away from any locations where we found kangaroos or sea lions – I have a bit of a thing for photography, & can get quite carried away.  Easily snapping 100 photos in no time.  Or maybe it wasn’t ‘no time’, as Fred would be literally pulling my arm for us to move on.  LOL #sorrynotsorry.

A highlight for both of us was visiting the Raptor Bird Rehabilitation Centre on the south side of the island.  They had a range of predator birds that had been rescued and were either in rehabilitation preparing to be released back into the wild, or who were in permanent care after being injured or abused by humans.  They had trained some of them, & they put on a really good show with the birds flying around you while the wildlife workers gave talks about the different species.  Seeing the wedge tailed & sea eagles up close really gave us an appreciation for how large, strong & beautiful they really are.  The cost of the show goes towards the rescue & rehabilitation of the birds, so we figured it was well worth it.

KI is covered in amazingly picturesque beaches.  But our personal favourite had to be Western River Cove.  It was a tiny beach, completely sheltered from the SE winds with the camp area about 100m from the beach.  Fishing off the rocks in the evening, being woken by huge grazing kangaroos in the morning & a swim in crystal clear waters really made it extra special.

We drove along most of the beaches on the Northern side of the island, (you need a 4×4 for these sections) always good for beating the crowds.  Not that there were many!! The whole time driving KI we were asking ourselves ‘where are all the people..?!’

Fred managed to squeeze a kite surf in at Bay of Shoals.  The island provides a number of good locations for kite surfing.  It is amazing to watch him, flying through the sky throwing his body in all manner of directions.  It would have been the perfect end to the trip (and was in our minds until we got off the island & back near Adelaide) – until we realized Fred left his kite board behind in the dunes!!!!  Some lucky bugga is going to have a field day.

Perhaps the most amusing thing for me about our visit to Kangaroo Island was the way in which cars were made to embark the ferry.  I have never been on a ferry that only has ONE way for the cars to enter & exit.  It is really some system they have – with the cars having to reverse onto the ferry.  All part of mixing things up & making life entertaining I guess, isn’t it!?

Once again, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the photos below.

Xo

 

It has been a while since I posted about our trip. Fred went back to work for the majority of February while I stayed in Warrnambool getting my professional beach bum on. Which was of course, lovely. He has returned to The Clam now & the road trip has continued! Here is a snap shot of the week we have had travelling along The Limestone Coast, in South Australia. Hope you enjoy the read.

 

South Australia is HOT. And sunny, & hot. We have been blessed with perfect weather so far on our journey along this coastline, allowing for us to play the tourist game very well. With daily beach swims & of course daily ice creams!

We started the journey after spending the day at Cape Bridgewater Beach (near the Victorian / South Australia border). This is a beautiful long beach with white sand and clear waters, plus some cool caves in the corner to tuck in out of the wind. A perfect place for a picnic.

South Australia has provided spectacular camping areas thus far. Throughout the week from the border to Adelaide we have spent most of our time camping in National Parks or Conservation areas (with Barney, sometimes a little sneakily). We were warned about the march-flies / sand flies / mosquitos – but somehow we have been lucky & not had much trouble with them at all. We have been lucky enough to score most of the venues completely to ourselves! Camping behind the sand dunes of large empty beaches on a number of occasions. There are HEAPS of camping grounds along the coast, which has meant we have been dodging caravan parks and crowds. A bit dirtier, but nothing a daily morning ocean swim can’t fix.

 

Dog Owners: SA has introduced us to 1080 poison. A deadly poison that can be in the form of spray, pellets or meat baiting. It is supposed to be for killing off foxes, though from what I have read it does a pretty good job at killing anything that eats it. And it will kill your dog. On a few occasions we have had to keep Barney very close by our camp, on a rope that doesn’t allow him to venture into the shrubbery or bush, and even sometimes restricting him from the sand dunes! The locations where the poison has been laid are signed, and state “no dogs” – but some of these places are too good to miss so with taking precautions (leaving Barney in the car / having him on a short leash away from bush / grass) he has been fine.

 

We camped our first night at Eight Mile Creek – a stones throw from the beach and close by to some spring fed fresh water ponds. Diving in Ewen Ponds blew us away. From the surface the ponds looked kind of ok, like an ordinary pond. It wasn’t great weather that day & we were scrunching our noses thinking should we, shouldn’t we..? In the end we thought bugger it we are here & should jump in. After walking our dive kit through the head high grass to the ponds edge, we jumped in & discovered a deep, crystal clear fresh water oasis. The waters were clearer than anything we had seen before!! Cold, but amazing, filled with fish, small caves, rocks & green as green grasses. I have to add here that Barney was of course with us, running around on the pontoon sniffing & watching us intently as dogs do. We were putting our gear on getting ready to jump in, when Barney just leaps in, through the moss on the surface & sinks! Yes sinks. He has NEVER jumped in the water like that before, only ever walks in & never goes in deeper than his knees. I freaked out! But also had one of the biggest laughing fits of my life (once he popped back up!). He finally re-surfaced, and boy was the look on his face priceless. “Mummy save meeeeee !!”. Of course Fred was in there straight away helping him back up onto the pontoon. We figure he must of thought the thick moss was grass. LOL.

The next night we camped at Cape Banks – a beautiful location within the National Park, underneath the Lighthouse & again only a stones throw from the beach. No one else in sight. This area around Tantanoola also gave up the goods providing some nice little fresh water cave dives as well as a tour though ‘The Tantanoola Cave’, staring at thousand-year-old stalactites.

Our next stop was Southend, my personal favourite. This place has nice spacious grassy campsites below a big sandy dune & another long flat beautiful beach. Again no one else was sharing it with us, & dogs were permitted plus no poison so Barney had a ball running around freely. The sunsets have been amazing to watch over the ocean, especially on clear nights which it has been more often than not. A Surprising novelty for a couple that have always lived on the east coast.

I received my first kiting lesson at Beach Port.  I’m not sure what to say about it really. It was exciting, but this emotion quickly changed to the realisation of how strong the winds can be once they catch in the kite. And how much more difficult it was to control than I was anticipating. The first time I took hold of the kite without Fred’s guidance I was blown in the air along the beach until the kite came crashing down in the dunes. I literally thought I was going to die!! Perhaps a little melodramatic, but it was scary!! A few more lessons on land before converting to the ocean for me it is!!!

28 Mile Crossing within Coorong Conservation Area was another breathtaking site. Camping on the dirt with high rolling dunes on one side until reaching an empty beach, & an endless horizon of flat shrubby desert on the other. The sunsets & sunrises at this location was mind-boggling. Some great 4X4 driving in the dunes here too, Fred was in his element!

Nearly every beach along this coast has been empty & they all have been nothing short of beautiful. In land there have been salt flats to explore, trying to make out all the different animal foot prints in the clay – emus, kangaroos, wombats, pigs!  Four wheel  driving through the dunes is always fun & there have been bulk locations which have made this possible. We didn’t score much swell along the majority of this coast, not until reaching Coorong & closer to Adelaide at Middleton & around Victor Harbour where we snagged a couple of nice surfs. Fred has been able to throw a line in off the rocks & beach in most locations, keeping the fisherman at heart content.  There have been small coastal towns along the way, so if isolation isn’t your thing there has always been a rusty old community to stop in – perfect for providing our most important daily dosage of ice cream!!

And so I think it is safe to say we have had an absolutely fantastic first week here in South Australia. A bit more our style with less people & more great open spaces.

Thanks for reading. Some photos below.

Until next time

Xo

 

 

 

A not so little clip we have made from our journey through Victoria during January.  Though it is quite amateur, we hope you enjoy. Xo

Click on the link below to view the movie.