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psychotrenny · 1 year ago

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I've seen some people say that one aspect of Palestinian tactics is to instill fear into the settler population to encourage them to leave. To the extent that this is true I'm not sure but it reminds me of an approach many Indigenous peoples in Australia adopted while resisting European settlement. It was quite common for indigenous warriors to avoid direct confrontation with settlers and instead attack their crops, livestock and/or buildings. Many times they would even attempt to wound rather than kill any settlers they did encounter. This was in order to drive settlers away while through fear and attrition while minimising the chances of state retribution that wholesale massacres might incur.

These attacks were usually directed against the isolated farmsteads that cropped up in areas newly opened to white settlement. The ratio of physical to psychological devastation varied between specific instances. Attacks against crops were often timed to coincide with the harvest period in order to inflict the greatest difficulties onto settlers. Crops and livestock were often also targeted as a source of food for their people, which became especially important as encroaching white settlement destroyed their hunting grounds and conflict disrupted their normal routines of food production and land management. Horses were particularly favoured targets as even the warriors who didn't know how to ride knew how important they were to the whites and so seeked to deny them as an asset. Use of fire to modify the landscape and direct the movement of animals was ubiquitous among Indigenous Australian peoples and they often skillfully used it to destroy European property or deny them movement through certain areas. Other times attacks took on a more psychological focus, harassing and humiliating settlers in their homes and communities without lethal violence. Through various systems of smoke signals, messengers and tree markings these attacks were usually well co-ordinated. Often one smaller attack would act as a diversion for the main assault; such as drawing a main body of settlers away while their houses were ransacked and burned or alternatively keeping them locked up in their houses while livestock and crops were stolen or destroyed. Trickery and subterfuge were also commonly employed, such as using "friendly" aboriginals known to the whites in order to gain entry to fortified buildings or lure groups of settlers away. Some of the more successful examples of Indigenous Australians using raiding to drive off or delay European settlement include the resistance of the Jagera people to settlement in the Darling Downs region in the 1840s, the campaigns of the Milmenura people in the Coorong district in the same decade and the conflict of the Wiradjuri people resisting settlement in Central Western NSW in the 1820s.

If you're interested in learning more about Indigenous Australian resistance to European settlement some good books and articles include: A different mode of war? by Ray Kerkhove, The Australian Frontier Wars 1788-1838 by John Connor, Six Australian Battlefields by Al Grassby and Marji Hill, The Black Resistance by Fergus Robinson and Forgotten War by Henry Reynolds. I haven't personally read a lot of these books, just heard many good things about them from sources I trust well enough so I feel comfortable giving them a recommend.

To be honest I'm not all that read up on Australian history* but I have picked up a thing or two that I figured I might as well share since it seemed relevant. Now Australian Aboriginal resistance never stopped and it is still ongoing to this day, but it currently takes very different forms to that which I had been describing; with the sheer demographic advantage of settler society, resistance tactics were forced to adapt radically. Still, reading about the current resistance in Palestine did remind me a bit of some of the tactics that were once employed here so I figured it would be worth giving an overview. Despite the many differences across time and place, different conditions and circumstances, the fundamental violence of European Capitalist Settler Colonialism remains relatively unchanged. So you'll often seen similarities between the tactics of incredibly differing peoples as they are forced to fight a similar foe. I can only hope it's a foe that won't live to see the end of this century, and it certainly seems to be on the decline, but only time can tell just how long it'll hold on for. Until then colonised peoples all around the world will have no choice but to keep fighting, just as they have from the beginning

*like as important as it is to understand your history I just don't find it all that interesting compared to other parts of my world and so just find myself distracted reading up on them instead

#stella speaks #australian history

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bergens-adventure-tours · 2 years ago

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Week 10: April 17th – 23rd, 2023 // Change of Directions

It’s crazy to think how quickly things can change in such short period of time, and how many wonderful opportunities are waiting for you when you least expect them. This week was one of embracing going with the flow, and really listening to what my heart n soul need right now. Being on my own has brought about a lot of time to sit with myself and reflect on a lot of things. One of the key things I’ve come to acknowledge is the realization that I’m heading into a period where I’m craving more community and solid connection. I realize this comes at a funny time, as I’ve just begun my solo trip, but I’ve also come to acknowledge that I had been spending so much of the previous year on my own. Don’t get me wrong – 2022 was an amazing year, filled with some of my absolute favourite memories, incredible first experiences, many lessons and brought me a lot of lifelong friends; but I never found any roots in community. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, nor do I think that was what I was needing this past year. But, as I move into this next chapter of my life, and after experiencing a handful of strong, connected communities here in Australia, it’s reminded me of some things I’ve been missing since graduating from BCIT.

And this week may have brought me the opportunities and connections for exactly what I’m looking for, in ways I was not expecting.

Some of you may remember I mentioned getting new runners back in week 8 to finally get back into running again, but you’ll probably notice I have yet to mention going on a run… well guys, be proud because I finally did it! I woke up Monday morning feeling oddly energetic and with a lot of bounce in my step, and I knew, if I didn’t take advantage of this right away it was going to be a while before I got it back again… so I laced up my runners and hit the road! At this point, I don’t think I’d run in at least 4, maybe even 5 years, but it felt SO good. I came back to my camp spot at the beach and immediately jumped into the ocean to cool off.

I spent the rest of the day getting through a fair bit of driving until the last bit of energy wore off and found a nice spot next to a Salt Lake in the Coorong National Park. I took my time reading in the sun, cooking some dinner, listening to podcasts, answering messages, and working on last weeks blog.

Tuesday was a very productive and relaxing day! I decided to stay put and spend my day reading lots, finishing up last week’s blog post, some yoga, and applying to a bunch of guiding jobs in the Northern Territory.

As a little aside – the past week I’ve been looking a lot into visa work and trying to sort out what I want to do, and when I should do it. With having spent a decent amount of money in my first couple months in just getting to Australia, getting the van sorted, and honestly just on other experiences, I’ve been feeling the pressure of the bank account dwindling. Initially my game plan was to spent the next few months exploring the interior then wrapping down the west coast and finding some farm work mid-winter (July for Australia). While I could’ve probably made this work pretty easily with my current savings, the more I looked into options for my visa, the more I started to lean towards guiding jobs in the Northern Territory. After a lot more reflecting on the types of experiences I’m wanting right now, the more it was making sense to look for work during my time in the interior.

The next morning, I started with a quick back workout and went for a 4.5km run along part of the salt lake + trails. At this point, it’s been a while since I’d had a shower, so I found a sweet free one at a gas station on route towards Adelaide. I ended up staying the night in Port Elliot and spent the evening looking into more stuff for my trip through the interior, applied to more jobs, and read.

Thursday was a really fun day for me! I woke up wanting to do some touristy things, so I got myself dressed up for the first time in a while, made the last 2-hour drive to Adelaide, and wandered around the city! I checked out the Art Gallery of South Australia and the South Australian Museum; Both were really cool and free to enter for anyone. They were also right next to the Adelaide University, which is a beautiful little campus right in the heart of the city… it had me thinking about how I’ve been wanting to go back to school again, and wondering what it might be like to study here in Australia in the future…

I spent the afternoon on a little video sharing my partnership with Last Object! They’re a really cool brand creating alternatives to replace single-use products like cotton swabs, menstrual pads, face wipes, and tissues! Check out their website https://lastobject.com and use the code LastPlanet for 10% off any order.

Today was also the theatre release date of Bob Brown’s documentary ‘The Giants.’ It was such a beautiful and inspirational film covering the political and environmental history of conservation in Australia’s old growth forests, and direction it’s heading today. I unfortunately don’t think it’s available outside of Australia at the moment, but I highly recommend checking out Bob Brown’s foundation. https://bobbrown.org.au There are a lot of parallels between what is happening in Australia and Canada’s logging industry, the governments [in]actions, and the lack of conservation for these important biomes.

I also got an exciting email today to schedule an interview the next morning for a Trainee Guiding Job in Alice Springs!

Friday ultimately decided the next phase of my trip… The interview in the morning went so well that they contacted me later that same day saying they were going to skip second interviews for narrowing down candidates and offered me the job! So in 11 days I will be starting my training as a tour guide in Alice Springs! It’s going to be a pretty interesting and exciting experience in a lot of ways, and I’m really looking forward to it. I spent the whole day camped outside of a park in Adelaide, sorting out the plans for the next phase, finding a climbing group in Alice to join, answering messages, looking into living options, etc.

Saturday was the epitome of “going with the flow” and I could NOT be more stoked for the plans that got presented to me! Part of the reason I’d been taking so much time to get to Adelaide the past week was largely because I was waiting for my aussie driver’s licence to arrive at Clae’s (Sam’s cousins) place for me to pick up. Coincidentally the licence arrived the night before, and today was the last day for me to pick it up from Clae (if I wanted to meet him), before he was leaving on a week-long trip with a group of friends+his family. Turns out it was a climbing trip in the Grampians they were leaving for that night, and they invited me to join them! Because I had spent the whole day prior mostly being anxious about the interview, and whether or not I was making the right decision, I had a full day of chores to work through but knew this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I went into overdrive mode and checked everything off the list from groceries, to laundry, to cleaning out fridge, to buying a new camera lens off marketplace, to going into town to pick up a few items (including my own climbing harness + helmet), to finding a free shower at the beach! It was a jam packed day with lots of running around, but I managed to time everything PERFECTLY and met up with Clae, his partner Harriet, and one of their friends to begin the 5-hour drive to the Grampians. It was a long day, as we didn’t leave until 6pm, but I couldn’t be more stoked about the week to come!!

It felt kind of funny knowing that I basically backtracked the distance I just took over a week to travel, in a single night…

But boy was it so worth it. Our first day in the Grampians was so good! We’re a group of 8, and everyone is so incredibly sweet, supportive and just immediately so welcoming. We started the day with a quick drive and 30min hike into our first sport climb location: the Ravines. It was a beautiful spot in between two cliff faces, and we had the whole place to ourselves for the majority of the time. It had been a while since I did any sport climbing, so my arms felt pretty dead pretty quickly (not helping that I started on a hard 19 lol), but it felt so good to get out with a group and watch everyone else. We went back to the camp for lunch and for Clae + Harriet to put their 1.5-year-old down for a nap, before heading out to a different spot for some evening bouldering. I had been feeling pretty low energy after that morning, but found a second wind after a quick hike and some really fun boulder projects. We had the most beautiful sunset and I got to use my new lens for the first time up at the boulders – earning me the nickname ‘JC,’ inspired by famous photographer and videographer “Jimmy Chin” (have got a long way to go before reaching his level, but a nickname I’m happily welcoming lol). Ended the week with dinner around a camp fire and some really amazing new friends. <3

This week started with me wondering how I was going to access community while on the road, and ended with me landing a job guiding in some beautiful and historically important locations, 7 new friends, and my first big climbing trip finally under my belt! Learn to say ‘yes’ more to life, and the adventures will never fail to amaze you.

Stay passionate and curious, Hunter♡

04/24/2023

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explorercaravan · 26 days ago

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cosmicanger · 2 months ago

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Yvonne Koolmatrie; Coorong Dreaming, 1995, sedge, 117.5 × 125 × 1 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, © Yvonne Koolmatrie

#art #ref

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weywardwisdom · 3 months ago

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‘Narrung? Where’s that?’

A FAIRLY EASY READ

‘What state’s that in’? Most people ask.

I stop myself from saying, ‘Neglect’.

But they’ve already gone onto ask,

‘What’s the nearest town’?

‘Meningie’, I say.

‘Medindie’? They sound puzzled. My working class accent doesn’t go with Adelaide’s finest of upper class addresses.

‘No’, I say. ‘Meningie. It’s near Narrung. And Narrung is near the Coorong’.

‘Ah! The Coorong — Storm Boy Country! I saw the movie’, they say brightly. I see Colin Thiele turn in his grave.

‘Can you picture Snoopy’? I say. ‘When he’s playing at being a flying ace — red scarf waving—chasing the Red Baron, that is. If Snoopy is Lake Alexandrina, and his waving scarf is Lake Albert, then the knot tied at Snoopy’s neck is Narrung’.

Well, it makes sense to me! It makes more sense than tourism trumpeting about Narrung being in ‘Coorong Country’. The Coorong is 25 kms away! Besides.The name ‘Coorong’ is a knockoff of the Ngarrindjeri word ‘Kurrangk’. It means at the neck (2009, Ngarrindjeri Dictionary, complied by Mary-Anne Gale with the elders, 31).

Ngarrindjeri elders told me they see a swan. Its long neck makes the long thin Kurrangk estuary, next to the dunes. Much more dignified than my cartoon dog.

The peninsula that Narrung sits on could have been an island. There’s lots scattered near the sea mouth. Land-grabbers named them after the animals they brought here and let go — so they’d have four-legged food at hand. No thought to the harm the misplaced critters would cause. So. There’s Cow, Ewe, Goat, Rabbit and Rat Island.

The first time I set foot on the Narrung Peninsula, I was very young. My memory is as hazy as the mist that moves in from the sea. Wind is what I remember most. It was so strong I could lean into it and not fall over. And seagulls seemed to stand still in the air, just above my head. I reached up my arm and one daring bird did a touch-and-go landing on my hand. My family were standing on a road that was on concrete stilts that stopped a lot of water going out to sea.

‘Pelican Point’, my grandfather called it. ‘A gorgeous bird is the pelican’, he grinned and said, ‘It's beak can hold more than its bellican’.

Granddad would always leave out the last lines: ‘He can put in his beak Food enough for a week. But I’m d[amned] if I see how in hellecan’ (1912-13, CM Marshton’s limerick in Florida’s Tampa Morning Tribune quoted in 2020, A Gorgeous Bird).

Local land-grabbers thought of this area as the arse end of ‘one of the largest river systems in the world’. They called it ‘Tail-End Charlie’ (1986, Narrung History — a viewpoint, Graham Camac, Narrung Alpha, 25).

Local land-grabbers didn’t like the summers. The lakes would dry out into stinking mucky pools. Or stretches of dry cracked earth. The lack of fresh water was ruining their livelihoods. Something had to be done.

Fred Ayres, owner of the Narrung Station, reckoned he had the answer in 1928. He wanted barrages built. But. Fred Ayres had grand money-making plans. He’d been a gold-digger, after all. He wanted the gubment to drain Lake Albert. And then he wanted it to sell the land for farming. There would be ‘room for 800 settlers’. And. The land sales would ‘make £800,000’ — more than enough to build his barrages (Draining The Lakes).

There’s more. Fred wanted the barrages built ‘wide for motor traffic’. So the public could drive across. He had a ‘16 mile’ route planned — from ‘Tubberug’ to ‘Hindmarsh Island’ and onto Goolwa. He said the water there was ‘nowhere deeper than 2 ft' — knee high. And the route had a solid 'limestone bottom' (1928, March 3, Draining The Lakes, Observer, Adelaide, 6, Trove).

But. How did Fred Ayres know this route was safe? How did he know it avoided the quicksand, shifting silts and deep people-swallowing cracks in the mud? Fred Ayres wasn’t a surveyor. He wasn’t a geologist either. How did he know?

Thing is, ‘Tubberug’— or ‘Tulerang’—is a Ngarrindjeri place-name. We land-grabbers now call it Pelican Point (Ngarrindjeri Dictionary, 153).

So. Fred Ayres — I strongly suspect — had local knowledge — Ngarrindjeri knowledge. What was his link with the Ngarrindjeri Nation?

On the afternoon of the 11th of March, 1913, he'd been one of four local land-grabbers who'd gone to the Point McLeay Mission. Why? They wanted to give evidence to five visiting MPs. They were looking into the 'progress' of the 'Aborigines'. But. It’s likely Fred Ayres was no friend of Ngarrindjeri. The MPs reported:

‘It was admitted by most of the witnesses ... that the work at Point McLeay has not been a success’ (1913, Progress Report Of The Royal Commission On The Aborigines).

What did ‘success’ look like? Success would have been the ‘natives’ working in ‘industrial pursuits’ and being ‘useful on the land’. But. The land that went with the Mission was, they admitted, of ‘inferior character’. And. The few ‘natives’ who did work for local ‘landowners’ would go back to the Mission ‘after a few weeks’. So. They lived ‘in idleness’.

And. The YTs were not idle!

By 1940, 5 barrages with flood-gates had been built from Pelican Point to Goolwa.

Now to get to Goolwa, it’s a three hour drive around the lake. Or a twenty minute boat ride.

No one asked Ngarrindjeri folks what they wanted. The barrages made a big change to their lands and waters.

Thing is, 16 miles — roughly 26 kms — was a short walk for Ngarrindjeri people in those days. And. Before the barrages were built, Ngarrindjeri would walk to Kumarangk. It’s an important cultural centre. How do I know? Aunty Grace Sumner told me so. Her father had worked as a shepherd there. Driving to Kumarangk in the late1990s, she always like to go the long way via Clayton Bay. So. She could look across the water and see the old stone shearing shed. It stood above the old Hindmarsh Island ferry.

Besides. Ngarrindjeri elder, Dr Doreen Kartinyeri, often thought about her younger days too — before land-grabbers built the barrages. She wrote:

‘My mind went back to my childhood when we spent holidays at Kumarangk. We used to walk across to the island from Mark’s Point’ (2008, My Ngarrindjeri Calling, 114).

Walk to Kumarangk? From Mark's Point? You’d drown doing that today!

Where’s Mark’s Point? It’s a few kms along from Pelican Point.

Ok, land-grabbers call it ‘Mark Point’— as if it marks something. To elder Aunty Maggie Jacobs, it marked the place where a big Rigney mob would stay during the hottest months of the year. How do I know? She told me so! One day, she asked me to take her to Camp Coorong. On the way she gave me a lesson in culture. She named each Ngarrindjeri family who own each point, all along the Coorong. These points are not Crown Land or National Park, she insisted. They are owned by Ngarrindjeri. Like the Sumner family at Dupang — Long Point.

All the points are summer places for Ngarrindjeri people, as far as Aunty Maggie was concerned. So. I’m not surprised when Ngarrindjeri elders talk about Mark's Point as if it’s named after someone called Mark.

In 1998, Mark Point and Pelican Point were among many places visited by a big Ngarrindjeri mob again. The Stolen Generations had missed out on a lot of culture. And so. The Ngarrindjeri Heritage Committee at Camp Coorong wanted to make up for all that hurt and pain. And. Just like the other aunties had done — Aunty Veronica Brodie talked about walking across to the island too.

Ngarrindjeri cultural routes have a long, long history.

#history #travel #photography

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myhanssolo · 6 months ago

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Why Australia is the beach capital of the WORLD

Twenty-one photographs that show why Australia is the beach capital of the WORLD, from Perth to Sydney via Tasmania 1.THE COORONG, SOUTH AUSTRALIA: The Coorong, south of Adelaide, lays claim to being Australia’s longest continuous beach. This epic strip of sand stretches for 194km (121 miles) from Cape Jaffa to the Murray Mouth (above) 2.MEMORY COVE, EYRE PENINSULA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA: Memory Cove…

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#Australia #Beach #travel #traveler

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gaetaniu · 7 months ago

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Fossile di cranio ben conservato di un uccello gigante estinto trovato in Australia

L’illustrazione raffigura un Genyornis newtoni a pelo d’acqua in una zona umida o in una palude. La scena è stata ispirata da luoghi che esistono oggi nel sud dell’Australia, come la zona di Ngarrindjeri nei pressi del Coorong e del basso fiume Murray. Tuttavia, quando Genyornis newtoni era in circolazione, questo tipo di ambiente era più diffuso in tutto il Paese. Molti fossili di Genyornis sono…

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lindsaystravelblogs4 · 10 months ago

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Kingston SE

Day 13 26 February

We drove south to Bordertown and on to Naracoorte today. We pulled into a roadside stop along the way to eat our lunch and in no time, two guys with trucks and earthmoving equipment turned up to work on improving the surface of the parking area – it certainly needed it! They said it would very soon become very noisy and dusty and they needed to work in the area where we were parked so we moved a hundred metres further on to another patch of shade and gobbled our lunch down just as they were starting to work.

We thought we might have stayed in Naracoorte but decided to go a bit further to Kingston (SE) on the coast. We set up in the foreshore caravan park there and relaxed with a couple of cold ones before dinner.

The Cape Jaffa Lighthouse overlooking our caravan park. It was repositioned here when the Light was decommisioned at Cape Jaffa.

The caravan park was just across a lawn area and a couple of dunes to the beach so we walked down to the beach to join the small throng congregating there to photograph the sunset.

Sunset from the beach.

Day 14 27 February

We did a load of washing in the park laundry and hung it out to dry – and it was dry within about an hour. We worked on our PCs and made some phone calls (we are trying to find a better place to store our van when we get home) and had a delicious lunch. We eat very well (VERY well!) in the caravan! And then we went for a drive around town and the nearby area. I found quite a few birds near the mouth of the Main Drain and when we drove down some of the other tracks off the main north-south road, we discovered that driving on the beach is a very common thing here. One of the drives was fourteen kilometres each way but we just did a short one – about five clicks each way. At one point along the beach, we encountered a flock of some twenty-odd Red-capped Plovers who were surprisingly unfazed by us. They happily sat ten or fifteen metres away and let us watch and photograph them with no sign of fear. It was a lovely little encounter and we returned to the van soon after. We had been trying to get rid of some recycling that we had accumulated but couldn’t see any yellow-topped bins, so I called in at the Information Centre to see if they did recycling here. They do but it is all very strange with green-topped bins being the only disposal avenue - and only for private premises. We eventually found some in the caravan park but none on the street – at least we managed to ‘put it in a bin’ and our conscience is now clear. (More than a week later, we have found no other way to dispose of our later cache of recycling.)

Day 15 28 February

It rained for about ten or fifteen minutes overnight, contrary to the forecast of zero percent of zero millimetres of precipitation – but at least everything seemed just a little cooler and fresher when we got up.

We had a long drive today but one of the best days of the trip so far. We headed out to the main highway and pointed the car north – and eventually reached Meningie at the top of the Coorong after travelling the full length and then some – well over 300 kilometres for the day.

The road is mainly on the inside of a long range of dunes, the crest of which ripples along unevenly. It was notable that all the high spots on the dunes had a sparce covering of some sort of grass or shrubbery on it: clear evidence that even very small shrubs can withstand the winds better than the adjacent areas that are much more heavily eroded and metres lower than the peaks.

We called in at a number of places as we headed north. The first was at Chinamen’s Wells – something of a tribute to the thousands of Chinese adventurers who arrived along the coast here and walked (or died along the way) to the gold mining enticements around Ballarat and Bendigo. Brave souls, but they left a legacy, and we did an interesting couple of kilometres fairly gentle walk recording some of their travails, looking at plants and birds and reading the signage as we went along.

A well dug and used by thousands of Chinese (and others) walking to Ballarat, Bendigo and other gold-mining adventures. The 1100 kilogram lid for the well was cut from the rock a kilometre away and carried to the well - the second such lid cut after the first one cracked in two.

We had another longish walk to a Pelican Lookout a good deal further north. It was a bit disappointing with the pelicans way too far away to see them, but with some spectacular views overhead as they glided in to their roosting islands from miles away. (See my earlier post showing some of the hundreds of pelicans that flew over us like a squadron of huge bombers gliding in on the updrafts to land on their breeding islands a couple of kilometres away.) They are magnificent birds, just riding the air currents and they really do remind me of WWII bombers sailing over us – massive and truly fabulous. We were surrounded by dozens of Singing and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, flitting from bush to bush, singing incessantly, but almost impossible to photograph. I have identified more than eighty species of bird so far this trip, but there are MANY small birds that simply hide and I have been unable to see them well enough to identify them. I saw a very shiny dark snake crossing the path six or seven metres ahead of me but really too far away to identify it. It was a metre-and-a-half long, but I had no wish to encounter it close up.

We drove all the way to Meningie where we had stayed for a week or so (and loved it) several years ago. Unfortunately, it was getting late and we had about 150 kilometres to drive back so we didn’t stay long – and like every other place along the coast, it has changed a lot and didn’t seem to have the appeal of our previous visits.

We called in at a place where a couple of farmers cut a channel to drain a swamp on their properties 70-odd years ago. We had seen it before, but the signage has been upgraded since then and we got a better understanding of what a mammoth job it was for two guys with some pretty basic mechanical assistance. They completed it in less than three years - and ran their farms at the same time.

The sign and a photo of the kilometre long and 34-metre deep channel they cut to make their land more productive.

We also called in at Tilley’s Swamp on the way back. I had seen a few swamps marked on the map, but all were a fair way from the highway. Tilley’s was right on the road according to the map but it was at least ten clicks in. I was about to turn back when we crested a hill and there it was on both sides of the road and with plenty of birds to be seen. We spent half an hour looking and then went on to where a number of other lakes were shown on the map – but all too far away and inaccessible from the road. At least Tilley’s was interesting for me, with at least ten or twelve species on it.

We decided to stay in Kingston for another couple of days so tried to book in, only to find the office closed – so we had to wait until tomorrow to book and pay. We have a mammoth Fifth Wheeler parked next to us in the park. (And I saw a similar one in the RV Park on the other side of town.) It takes up two caravan parking sites and I reckon it is more than two-thirds the size of our entire apartment. It has two levels (giving it more floorspace than our whole apartment) and two extendable areas on each side of the vehicle – four in total. They have small Mazda parked in front of it (that they left running with the lights on for about three hours yesterday) but that would get crushed by the ball-weight if they ever tried to hook it up – quite impossible of course because it requires a B-Double type of hitch. The smallest vehicle that could tow it is something like a Ford 400 or similar. I have seen an older guy there a couple of times, but he would need a wife and a family of ten to fill all the space inside. (A couple of days later, there was a woman with a couple of young kids there – along with a silver Mercedes – but still nothing like the vehicle that would be needed to tow it.)

Day 16 29 February

It seems like years since we had an exceptional day like today – exactly four years in fact, but at least it is the end of summer. We didn’t do a lot today. We did a small load of washing in the laundry (we usually do it in our plunger washing bucket) and hung everything on the line – and it was all dry within an hour or so – it was warm and sunny but also very windy. Heather had a script to fill so we found a pharmacy and drove around the local area a bit more. We went out to the mouth of the creek looking at more birds but there was less variety to see than when we were there a couple of days ago.

Day 17 1 March

Autumn today with fabulous weather to match. It was a nice day for a drive so we set off to follow the coastal road to Cape Jaffa (not a lot to see, but easy to get lost in all the new development) and then on to Robe. We have visited Robe a couple of times before and not liked it with their wall-to-wall tourists. It is now several times bigger than it was on our last visit with roughly ten thousand caravans crowding the van parks, lining the streets, blocking intersections and generally outnumbering the locals twenty to one (maybe fifty - just a guess!). We drove around and took in some of the sights before sitting beside a pretty ordinary lake to eat our sangers. The town has obviously developed a lot since we were last there but it still has very little to recommend it to anyone who has any interest in anything except sitting on the beach or going fishing. It was certainly a great place from which to drive away. The one good thing we did while there was to find a fish wholesaler and we stocked up on a variety of seafood. We also visited the supermarket for a couple of items and replenished our stock of booze. The one thing we have tried to get at numerous places along the Limestone Coast – that is famous for its cockles – is coochies as they call them here. Nobody stocks them and their best advice is to try at Goolwa more than two hundred kilometres away. They sell bags of cockles/coochies for bait ($15 for a 250 gram bag) but they say they are not good to eat.

We went on to Beachport – more of the same, but maybe not quite as nice. I think I am over places with nothing to offer other than their crowded beaches. I live in hope that I will see an unusual seabird or wader when I visit the beach, but such delights are very rare.

Milicent and Penola came next with a bit more historical context, with old stone buildings and some nice parks, but it was getting late so we didn’t spend a lot of time at either and headed back to Kingston. We needed fuel and our 265 litres cost us a tad over $537 – at least we travelled over a thousand clicks for our money – at almost 52 cents a kilometre.

We decided on fish and chips for dinner so went to the main fish-jetty shop that advertises that it closes at 7.30pm. Alas, it closed before we arrived at 5.30. We found another place and ordered our meal there along with about five other groups. They must stockpile the orders and then cook them all together. We all had to wait ages – certainly at least 45 minutes – and then all the orders came together and because some of the orders were very similar, it took a couple of minutes to figure out who owned which order. But the fish was excellent and the chips were crisp and tasty, just how we like them.

Day 17 2 March

We spent the day around the van today. We walked down to the beach after breakfast and spent a bit over half an hour shuffling around in the sand at the water’s edge hoping to catch a meal of cockles for ourselves. There were heaps of shells around, but no cockles so I think the locals must have fished them out. They are obviously around along other beaches, certainly north from here, but not where we were – or was that just my fishing prowess being exhibited again?

We did some washing and around lunchtime, the wind came up and it was no violent that we had to roll the awning in. It has been pretty wild and noisy all afternoon but it has also been quite cool so we can’t complain. I wrote a bit more and caught up with a few deferred tasks before showers late in the afternoon and then yet another delicious dinner.

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