The next day we made our way back up the eastern side of the Yorke Peninsula. Here there was a road that hugged the coast fairly closely, passing through a few small towns on the way. Some, such as Wool Bay and Pine Point, were so small that you were through them before you noticed.

The first fair size town was Stansbury. This had the prerequisite long jetty but not much of a beach. There were cliffs near the water which looked quite dramatic, and some houses which must have great views, but not much else.

The next town along was called Port Vincent, and this was one of those really nice proper beach towns. It had a lovely white sandy beach, full of people, a nice esplanade with a café right on the water, and several other nice cafés on the main street. Had to check one out. Very impressed.

After this we passed further north, right along the coast. The area was mainly wheat farms and many of them continued right up to the water. Very pretty.

The largest town in this area is Ardrossan, and before you reach the town you notice the huge wheat silos, and the gigantic industrial size jetty attached to them. This is where all the wheat from the area gets shipped out.

The town itself is quite small and very hilly. There is a long shallow tidal beach and another normal sized jetty for the fishing and the crabbing that is very popular here. As well as crabbing off the jetty with baskets, you can rake for crabs in the shallows as the tide is going out. We were keen to do some crabbing to take some along for Stephanie.

We were told the best time was as the tide was coming in, so we started about five thirty but were getting very few. Then they said, "Oh no, the best time is when the tide changes - about eight o'clock." So we stayed and waited until then. But things were still quiet and we were getting hungry. So we left the nets in and went back, cooked and ate dinner, then came back out. Still nothing.

Now we were told they are active after dark. So we waited - went back to the van, watched TV for a couple of hours, and checked the nets again. Still nothing. The next advice we got was the best time was late January to early February. Sorry, but we are not waiting that long.

GeorgeY's Bit

As for the last few stops, catching blue swimmer crabs ended up by giving the few we caught away to fellow fishermen/fisherwomen/fisherpersons/fishernonbinary/LGBTxyz for two reasons. One - did not catch enough to justify the cooking effort. Two - the fridge in the camper struggled to keep its cool with the sudden load of crabs. Next time more extensive use of camp kitchen will be vital.

Fishing people on the jetties are happy to share experience and give advice, but what we needed to succeed is time. As the trip is about to end, this seems to be a good time to stop fishing and start unstinking the motorhome's fridge.