Sam is determined not to have his hair cut for the 7 months
we are away however his fringe was below his eyebrows and in my book that means
it needed a trim. De got the scissors out and we turned him from looking like a
modern day idol into one that I thought was pretty cool in the 70’s.
While we were keen to enjoy the facilities provided by our camp,
2 bins, we decided that we should move on early to make room for others to have
the benefit of it. Cowell, while not as famous for oyster as its cousin down
the peninsula Coffin Bay, is home to LOTS of oyster farms.
Keen to try and find some good (read cheap) oysters we
headed for the sheds on the outskirts of town. The shop that usually sells them
was closed so we had a look around and found a boat that was doing something to
do with oysters. A lovely lady greeted us and gave us the complete to tour of
the land part of the oyster farm. They were emptying the oysters out of the
tubes, dividing them up and then putting them back in other tubes so that they
have room to grow.
They get them in from Tassie or N NSW when they are a couple
of mm in size and then sell them when they are about 6 months old, mostly to
farmers in Coffin Bay where they are put out for ‘fattening’. The bay is ideal
for growing oysters, much like some cattle farms grow young cattle and then
sell them off as yearlings to a feedlot or similar for fattening. However at
the moment the oysters in Cowell are much better than the ones from Coffin Bay
as they are ‘Triploid Oysters’ that don’t spawn and as a result don’t lose
condition and are nice and juicy! We then looked at all of the sorting and
grading machines and eventually went back into the office where we got a
shucking lesson and all got to taste a freshly shucked one, except De who
doesn’t like them. They were bloody delicious although I think Jacko’s was
trying to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere for a while there! At $9/dozen for
the best oysters in Australia I was stoked and wanted 24 but they only had 16
fresh ones so we got them (and the 3 tasters) for $10!!!! That’s 50c each!!
They get them in from Tassie or N NSW when they are a couple
of mm in size and then sell them when they are about 6 months old, mostly to
farmers in Coffin Bay where they are put out for ‘fattening’. The bay is ideal
for growing oysters, much like some cattle farms grow young cattle and then
sell them off as yearlings to a feedlot or similar for fattening. However at
the moment the oysters in Cowell are much better than the ones from Coffin Bay
as they are ‘Triploid Oysters’ that don’t spawn and as a result don’t lose
condition and are nice and juicy! We then looked at all of the sorting and
grading machines and eventually went back into the office where we got a
shucking lesson and all got to taste a freshly shucked one, except De who
doesn’t like them. They were bloody delicious although I think Jacko’s was
trying to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere for a while there! At $9/dozen for
the best oysters in Australia I was stoked and wanted 24 but they only had 16
fresh ones so we got them (and the 3 tasters) for $10!!!! That’s 50c each!!
We picked up some bait and headed along the road to our next
destination Lipson Cove. In terms of sheer beauty and isolation this one has to
be up there with one of the best we have been to yet. You go about 10kms on a
dirt road between wheat fields and round a corner to find a pristine white
sandy beach nestled between two rocky headlands. The site only costs $10/ night
and with only 8 sites we asked ourselves if we needed to go any further!
After setting up De and the boys hit the beach while I
cleaned yesterdays 5 crabs and we had incredibly sweet crab sandwiches, oysters
and wine for lunch overlooking the beach! It was pretty bloody good.
I would have loved to put Rufus in but was reminded by Jacko
that we didn’t have any fuel...bugger! Instead the boys and I then swam over
the small island just off the beach where hundreds of Cormorants (I think
that’s what they were) were nesting. We creped around being sure not to disturb
them and got to see the fuzzy head of some of the babies poking out of the
nests. We swam back and I noticed a few whiting about so De and I threw the
line in and managed to get a couple in while the boys caught a couple of bait
fish in their nets. Before we knew it we had to go back to camp, have dinner
and get the boys to bed.
As the sun set we were chatting with our neighbours who had
actually managed to land some squid in Port Neil when over the field came a
massive flock of starlings weaving and swerving like a fluid mass, it was
pretty cool and topped of another awesome day Doin the Block!
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