It has been a month since we packed up everything and left home to live our lives on the road in our tiny caravan. Time has gone fast but we have enjoyed every moment of it, especially this last week.

At the end of our week in Port Lincoln, the weather cleared up and we could enjoy the water and sunshine. When the weather wasn’t so good we discovered the ocean pool at the foreshore so when the weather got better we went to the foreshore on our morning ride and did some laps.

Every morning we walked or rode along Parnkalla Trail (3.6km) which took you along the main port. We spent a lot of time here watching the trucks roll in with their loads of grain which they would unload, then it gets stored in the silos to be then shipped overseas.

Our time in Port Lincoln was nice and relaxing but we were ready to move on. We travelled down the Eyre peninsula to the lower peninsula, stopping in at Arno bay on our way to Cowell (thanks to my dad’s friend Eric for telling us about this spot). When we arrived in Cowell we initially booked for 2 nights, we ended up staying a week.

When we first arrived, we had a look around town and came across an antique shop. Everywhere you looked there was something interesting and it  was one of those shops that just keeps going and going. Every room, down the hall, out the back and there was still more.

While we were walking around town I noticed on the pin up board a local yoga class and next to that i noticed the “$5 for 6 hot donuts” sign out the front of the pub. So later, after eating the best hot donuts i have ever had I went along to the hour long yoga class. It was great, especially for only $5!

It was too windy the next day to go out on the boat so we drove to Lucky Bay, which was a small fishing community with shacks along the beach. (This place reminded me of Wedge Island in W.A)

Come the night it was St Patricks day and as we were coming back from our walk we noticed a large group of people at the common area in the camp ground. So later, we went and had a look at what was going on. We were soon made to feel so very welcome, everyone had plates of food to share and they insisted we stayed, so we did.

It turns out the same group of people meet every year at this same park. Some stay for weeks/months, meeting every day at 5pm for “Happy hour”.  It is such a nice friendly community here, like one big family.

The next morning, we were up early ready to go get some fish after getting some tips of where to go from our very helpful friend, Allan. We ended up getting 16 Crabs and 5 Whiting! We were absolutely stoked, being our first decent catch since being on the road.

When we got home in the afternoon we spent about 2 hours cleaning all our crabs and filleting the whiting. We were showed a new method of cooking crabs by steaming instead of boiling them in a pot of water like we usually did back home. Once all the hard work was done it was 5’oclock before we knew it and we were back at happy hour.

The next day we were back out on the water but not as successful as our first day. We only got one squid in the five hours we were out there. We got back in and I had no idea how to clean the squid. I went to see our very generous friend who showed me how to clean it and gave us 3 more squid which were already cleaned and prepared. 5 o’clock  came around and it was happy hour again but being Sunday it was a bit special. In south Australia, you get money in exchange for recycling the aluminium cans so the happy hour group collects cans that everyone puts in the bins during the week. With the money every Sunday they put on a meal, this week they put on sausages, onions, gravy and ice-cream.

Monday morning was not so bad when you don’t have to work and your day consists of fishing. We spent most of the day getting nothing, after moving to many different spots, we were just about to pack it up and then I got a bite. The whiting was on, and we bagged 10 whiting in an hour. We were happy to head back in and get cleaning (Michael cleaned the boat and I cleaned the fish). 2 hours later 10 fish were filleted and I assure you with every fish my filleting skills are improving.

Tuesday, we didn’t plan on going out but when we woke up in the morning we decided we would just go back to the spot we found yesterday and get another feed of whiting. Which that we did, I got 5 whiting and Michael got a 40cm flat head on a whiting line. We were happy with our efforts for an hour out on the water. I began scaling the whiting while watching a YouTube video on how to fillet a fat head. I filleted the whiting in half the time I did the day before and I didn’t do too bad on the flat head either.

In the afternoon, we went just out of town to Mrs Shultz farm. It was a lovely 89 year old ladie’s garden which is filled with birds, fruit trees and veges. Here she serves tea and hot scones with delicious Quandong jam. It was just like going to grandma’s house.

All good things must come to an end, as for Cowell we enjoyed this place so much. We had to leave or we would just stay here forever and wouldn’t see what the rest of Australia has to offer. Our last night we were sent off with a bang down at the local bowling club that had cheap meals, drinks and raffles.

We have met so many new people,heard many stories and we have gained a lot of knowledge about fishing from what bait to use, where to catch them, how to clean them, how to cook it and so much more.

Thank you to all the happy hour group for making us feel so welcome in Cowell, especially Denise and Alan we will miss you.

	WEEK 4	TOTAL
Kilometres	307km	4328km
Sunrises watched	3	7
Sunsets watched	1	9
Beaches visited	6	34
Fish caught	21	22
Snakes sighted	1	3