Fowlers Bay SA & Great Australian Bight

I have spent 2 nights at Fowlers Bays. It's 140km west of Ceduna and is on the coast. The aim was to have a day here, fish off the jetty, beach and relax. However, Fowlers Bay has lived up to it's name. The foul weather is windy and the clouds look like they are about to burst at any moment. At least it is around 20 degrees C. Fowlers has a very long jetty that is basically used to pick up tourists duiring whale season (May to Oct) and fishing charters. It's in good nick and I suspect without the jetty, there would be no Fowlers Bay. The fishing here is awesome with king george whiting, squid, leather jackets and Aus salmon being taken from the jetty in the past 2 days. However these are die hard fisherman/ladies. In fact, more ladies than blokes and great to see they are so passionate.

One lady stated, hey - it's slack tied and we will not catch anything for a few hours, but I rather be here than back at the camp ground reading a book. I so agree!!! and ventured back to my camp site, got my fishing gear out, created a paternoster rig, rescued my last beer in the esky and am enjoying it way too much :) If the wind dies down a little, I might give it  go later this arvo / evening. However it's been so long, that I had to refer to my knot tying book to refresh my memory about how to tie 4 different knots.

This place reminds me of a poor version of Eden, NSW. Like Eden, Fowlers Bay has an historical past in the whaling industry with whaling stations and whale bones to be seen, but only if you have a 4wd. My sporty Golf GTD coped well on the 11km dirt road into town, but I don't want to make a habbit of driving it over such rough corrugations.

The caravan park is pretty basic. At 5pm, management lites a small fire and everyone drops into the camp kitchen area and I had a good yarn with some of the old folk.

Fowlers Bay is effectively surrounded by sand dunes which are open to 4wd's. I walked up one of the tracks and took these photo's of the town.  Pete - 660 motorbikes - we could have had a ball!!!! Very soft sand and most 4wd's were dropping tyre pressures to about 15 psi but once you got up, a firm crust made it soo much easier.

Made a friend. "Buster" as I called him, joined me for my morning walk. Reminded me of the film - Red.

For electricity power, the town uses solar, wind turbines and gensets. The caravan has a huge Genset (diesel generator) and for some reason only operates at night. It's housed in a shiping container that is about 10 mtrs from my camp site. When it started, boy did it piss off the grass campers. For $25 a night (unpowered), it's pretty poor.

This is the second time in a month I have traversed the Nullabour. However the difference this time, is I'm taking my time. The scenery does change, but it can be a little on the boring side, especially in a car. The road effectively goes over / down sand dunes or put another way, is a continuos undulating landscape. To remove some of the boredom, I have been guessing the elevation of the forth coming hill. My GPS displays the elevation changes and I have become pretty good :). Take my word for it.

Stumpy lizards and snakes on the road today. You can see them moving in the distance and if safe, move over lanes or take them in the middle to let them live. Thankfully, the snake slid off the road to the left, which left me plenty of room in the right lane. I HATE snakes!!

Today was predominantly a transport section and taking photo at the various Great Australia Bite photo points. Can you spot the whales in these photos?