Sometime during the night somebody turned the heater on in
the van, or at least that’s what it felt like! By 8am when we peeled ourselves
off our sheets it was 36oC. However we were on a mission to catch some blue
swimmer crabs so nothing was going to stand in our way....err except for the
bloody auxillary battery in Izzy not taking charge! I really thought I had this
bugger sorted out but it had reared its ugly head again yesterday not taking
any charge. So after a bit of swearing and cursing I threw the towel in and
decided to run the generator and battery charger later in the day.
 |
| Note the crabbing 'Rake' in Sambo's hand |
We gathered together every conceivable item known to mankind
that could have at some stage been conceived to catch a crab and lugged it down
to the beach. Last night the water was about 10m from the dunes however this
morning with about 2t worth on gear it had moved out slightly and was about
100m away. Once we got there it was about another 150m before we got past ankle
deep and about another 50m before decided to put out (read ditch) my extra
heavy drop net. We had been given advice that when we ‘see a sandy patch to
rake our way through it and when you feel like you are raking broken glass flip
the rake over and lift it up and the crab will be there hanging onto the rake’
So I began raking the small sandy bits that I found between the seagrass beds.
And I raked and raked and raked. After about ½ an hour I knew something was
wrong as all the people in the free camp that had given us advice about how to
do this couldn’t have kept this up for longer than 5 minutes. Completely
daunted I gave the rake to De to have a go and took over the landing net operations.
Sambo and I headed further out, I say further out as by this
stage we were probably 350m off shore and we were only knee deep. As the water
runs off these massive tidal flats covered in sea grass they erode away valleys
down to a hard sandy base that is pristine white. These valleys create a
walking path much like rivers look like when you look out of a plane from
30,000 feet.
Finally after more than an hour we spotted our first crab. As we
chased the little bugger across the seagrass our feet sank in about 10 or 20cm
making progress a touch slower than said crab allowing him an easy escape.
However we had seen one and we were excited. All of a sudden the little buggers
were everywhere and the rake was no longer used for digging crabs but for
herding them into the extra oversized landing net we had with us! We managed to
catch about 15 crabs over the next hour, with only two of them being keepers.
With so many of them around I decided to get the Go Pro out
and do some snorkelling watching them in their natural environment. It was
awesome watching them, oblivious to my presence, walking across the white sandy
bottom up on their tippy toes. Then as soon as they saw me they would either
face me putting their claws up in defence or tuck one claw on, extend the other
out and swim, like they were about to joust
a fellow crab, as fast as they could towards the nearest sea grass or
seaweed bed. I got some great footage on the Go Pro with the only problem being
that at one stage when I pressed the off button, it didn’t turn off. So from
then on every time I pressed record I was actually pressing stop on the
completely useless footage. Lesson #7 (I think) make sure you use your Go Pro
properly!
On returning from my snorkelling Jacko, who was towing the
crate that contained our 1 ½ tons worth of gear, decided he would also have a
look. The only problem was that in doing so he tipped the create, and the
bucket holding the crabs, over...but he did manage to keep one of them! Around
this time I finally managed to figure out how to use the rake to catch crabs.
Some of the crabs when disturbed head straight for the sea grass beds and
burrow down in its soft sandy base, creating a puff of sand as they do it. You
then place the rake at the back of this puff and gently rake towards yourself.
The crab defends itself and grabs the rake, which makes a sound through the
rake like smashing glass. At this time you flip the rake over and lift it up in
one action and wallah you have a crab! I wish I had known this was the ‘sand’
they were talking about a few hours ago. I maaged to get a few small ones using
this method and we started to look at the crabs size before we tried to catch
them. Using the net was proving very efficient but they would grab the net with
their claws and then I would have to pry their claws, with my fingers, open
before measuring them. We crabbed for another hour and bought our total to 3
keepers before after 3 hours we decided to call it quits and walk the 600m or
so back to beach. I estimate we would have walked about 2 ½ to 3km during our
adventure so we were all a bit weary when we got back to camp!
 |
| View from the beach out to the water when we returned at low tide. remembering we were well and truly past where the water starts! |
What we hadn’t noticed whilst we were out crabbing was that
it was hot, bloody hot! I cooked the crabs as soon as we got back and had some
fresh crab sangas for lunch.
About 10 minutes later De and I looked at each
with that knowing glance that it is going to be a loooong day if we sit here in
this heat it was about 43oC and by 6pm it was predicted to be down to 38oC.
Using the need to charge the auxillary battery as our best excuse we jumped in
the truck and went for a long slow drive eventually ending up at the Dublin Pub
for refreshments and some pickled eggs. We met three blokes there who had been
crabbing all morning and had only got 1, yes one, which made me feel pretty
damn good!
On the way out of Parham we checked the opening times of the
social club so we left Dublin at 3:45 so we could be there for the 4pm opening
time. You have to love air conditioning!
We had retrieved the Uno cards so we
played and rank until all of the oldies from the free camp arrived and joined
us for a few frostys and fish and chips for dinner. Its was $8 for two good
pieces of fish and about $2 worth of chips as well as a chinese container of
salad. We were in the know so we only ordered two and all of the oldies donated
their chips to the boys, it was like feeding seagulls at the beach.
The boys watched the first innings of the final T20 v
England and around 8 we left the cool embrace of the club and headed back.
Thankfully the cool change had come through earlier than expected so it was
down to around 30oC so it felt great! I set up the telly outside under the
stars and watched the Aussies bring to an end what must have been one of the
most humiliating seasons for English cricket in a bloody long time.
I retired after a great day and happy that our cricket team
is back to its glory days!
No comments:
Post a Comment