Day 45 - 21/1/14 –Kingston SE -> 42 Mile Crossing, Coorong National Park SA

It is amazing how little you can accomplish when you are on an extended holiday, and today was one of those days! We didn’t leave Kingston until about 11 but all we managed to accomplish was having breakfast, packing up the van, De cooked a slice, I filled the gas bottle and bought some beer & wine, De had a shower at the truckstop & bought bread and we got a photo with Larry the Lobster. Did I mention that we were out of bed by 7:30 this morning, 3 ½ hours x 4 people?

We drove the 42 miles to the 42 mile crossing camping ground (original hey) in the Coorong National Park. It is a huge national park that runs from Goolwa in the north about 100kms to Kingston SE in the south. Most people are familiar with The Coorong as it was where the movie Storm Boy was filmed. It is full of these massive salt lakes that seem to be a feature of this part of the world. Not far north of here is the Tea Tree Crossing that takes you from the highway to the beach. I was happy to hear was only 2ft deep so we could cross it and the boys were excited as they want to try out the snorkel on the truck, until Matt at Swampys in Kingston advised against it if I wanted to keep my vehicle for longer than a couple of years. The water is very saline and is almost impossible to get out of all of the nooks and crannies on your truck making it a certainty to rust!

So once we arrived we set up, had lunch and another rest/read session that lasted through to about 3:30! I packed the truck ready to head over to the beach. The plan was to have a BBQ dinner over there and then I would drop everybody back at camp and head back over for a night of chasing Jew fish (Mulloway) and Gummy Sharks, have a sleep in the back of the truck and then have another fish in the morning. All was ready to go but we had to leave De behind to do some work. We agreed to come back and pick her up later.

We had heard that the current in the waves in this part of the world was pretty vicious, to the point where I was told not to go in beyond my knees as it will literally sweep you of your feet. So we kitted ourselves out with these crazy looking sinkers that have wires at the bottom of so you can bend them and turn them into anchors. After Izzy struggled up the first sand hill I finally relented and let my tires down a bit and we made it onto the beach. This place is famous for cockles (aka Pipis) but this was crazy. The beach wasn’t really sand it was just Pipi shells, for as far as the eye could see, north and south!

It only took me about half an hour to rig up two rods as the wind was now blowing back at around 50km/hr. The thought did cross my mind once or twice, what the hell am I doing here fishing, as I untangled the lines for the 15^th time in 5 minutes.

Well the sinkers work an absolute treat and Sambo might be an inside favourite for a long jump gold medal at 2028 Olympics was my lessons for the afternoon. In this part of the world fishing involves you casting your line out, inserting your rod in a holder and then doing other things to keep you entertained and the sinkers sure do keep it in one place, to the point where I thought my line was going to break when I was trying to reel it in! The entertainment featured a handicap sprint race that was followed by a long jump competition, Jacko was nowhere near Sam and I really struggled to get close, only managing to beat him in one of six rounds (and I was really trying in the end!)

 I didn’t hold much hope for this fishing expedition and my hopes were justified and we headed back around 6:30 with my plans for a sleepover well and truly blown away!

Now for a short note on what I believe to be Lesson #5 for the trip. When you park your truck on a beach, behind a sand dune on a really really windy day make sure you wind up the windows. Sambo had left his open and we returned to find an even coating of fine sand all through the cab, front and back. Now if you are imagining a fine layer, like dust on a TV set then think again. I was considering googling the local sand miner and offering my services as a dump truck. Alas it is all still there and we will have to figure out how to get it out tomorrow!

We had a quick dinner and retreated inside as the wind had turned things very cold! Brrrrrr....I am sure it was 40 something degrees here only a couple of days ago!!