The last week at Port Vincent just flew by (23/10-28/10). We spent days relaxing at the water’s edge and watching the tide come in. They have a school program that teaches the children about kayaking, sailing, windsurfing and water skiing. I took the dogs for a walk along the sand-bar at the spring low tide and watched the shells and crabs do their thing. At high tide we had rays come in right up to the stairs to the caravan park.

Sailing

Afternoon smming at Port Vincent

We spent an afternoon going to Stansbury, just down the road, to look at their very long jetty. The real point of interest however turned out to be the red sandstone cliffs close to the coast. They were full of holes that had been worn away by birds of ages past, but were now occupied by flocks of domestic pigeons that had turned feral and making their own way independent of man. Very interesting how quickly this happens! On the other hand we had a repeating ceremony play itself out where feral birds had become reliant on man. Every day the fishermen were gutting their catches at the cleaning station and feeding the pelicans that were loitering around all day long. When the pelicans opened their beaks they revealed a cavity big enough to swallow a baby, including pram. They have a little hole in their thorax through which they make a trumpeting sound; see pics.

Waiting for a meal.

Me please!

The next day our very friendly neighbour asked me to come along fishing on his boat ‘Duifken’ which is Dutch for little dove. We had a great day all around the coast catching squid, whiting and snook. The snook are around 30 to 55 cm in length, give you a good fight and taste great once you have prepared them properly. We had a great day and after a few beers later that evening. I was exhausted from all the fresh air and exercise. The cleaned fish and squid has been cryo-vacked and frozen for an evening meal of Salt & pepper squid, yum.

Duifken

We moved to the Port Vincent Foreshore Caravan park. We had heard from a number of sources about this great caravan park. It is situated right on the beach. The park has good facilities and is kept clean and neat all the time. The trip yesterday had established Port Vincent as top pick after Point Turton.  As I am writing this content I am very glad that we are here at Port Vincent. We have booked in for 6 days.

Port Vincent Bay from our Caravan

Port Vincent Marina

Port Vincent is just short of half way up Gulf St. Vincent. You can see the Adelaide Hills from here and the lights of Adelaide at night. It is around 230 km from Adelaide by road. It has a small town centre, a very modern marina and some great beaches. The caravan park is right on the beach with the ‘front row seats’ overlooking the gulf. If you are in need of a great coffee in a very friendly environment, the ‘Chill Out’ café in main street will do you just fine. They make good food as well with their bacon & egg roll serving as a good breakfast a number of times. Every day we go for a swim with the Spoodles and walk along the kilometers of beach.

Front row seats

21/10 Yesterday we decided to do a bit of a tour of the middle Yorke peninsula. We headed north from Port Vincent to Port Julia. This is a little village that has a jetty and was once used to ship grain. The main reason I even mention this place is that they have a most amazing road sign; ‘CHILDREN DON’T BOUNCE SLOW DOWN’. How weird! Did they test this?? If so how?? Did they drop a child from 6 foot and measure the bounce? Surely a ‘beware of children’ sign would have sufficed??

How did they get to know this?  Did they do some Testing?

We continued to Ardrossan that is part of the Copper mining area. Just south of the town there is a impressive  lookout place that has been established on top of a very large mining dump. The views are grand from here. Ardrossan is a nice sized town with good infrastructure, a good jetty for squidding and mining/shipping piers and infrastructure.

Ore shipping facility

Open Cast mining at Ardrossan

Ardrossan

We continued to Maitland that was the biggest centre on this trip. It is mainly agricultural. From there we went on to Port Victoria and back to Port Vincent. Port Victoria, on the west coast of the Yorke, has a great jetty and swimming beach. It looks out over the Point Pierce islands and peninsula which are Aboriginal  land. Back here at Vincent the local sailing club had a regatta going.  At the end of the day the dogs passed out, they had a huge day.

Pier at Port Victoria

Sailing Regatta at Port Vincent

The only good Spoodle is a sleeping Spoodle

Today we decided to extend our stay by another 6 days.