Well folks, never thought I would get there, but I'm finally up to date with the 'blogging' - I am actually writing this from Smoky Bay! Nice to not have to wrack the memory to find things to tell you.
Last time we spoke, we were leaving Fowler's Bay, Smoky Bay is just 40ks east of Ceduna where the Quarantine station for entry into SA is located. I have to say there, that trying to find out beforehand just exactly what you can and cannot bring across the border was very frustrating. In the end, I simply decided that I would presume that absolutely no fresh produce could be brought across, and in the end, I think that is probably true. The only thing I had to declare was some home grown fresh-frozen chillies - these I didn't have a problem with. Unfortunately, the caravan myths and legends committee is very lively on this subject, and I had heard stories of officials demanding that caravans be empties out, in order that they could effectively search - I had visions of us painstakingly removing everything from the van (a good days work at least) and going thru' all sorts of hoops just to get across. Needless to say, the whole exercise was painless. I had cooked all the remaining fresh stuff donated at Fowler's into a nice savoury mash (which I was able to use for days in various different ways) and the nice man on duty, did enter the van and check the fridge, but that was all. On that particular day, the Ulysses Riders had started filtering back across the border and I think the guard's attention was much more focused on what they may have in their bags, than on what we may have had in our cupboards.
As I mentioned previously, we had been glad to leave Fowler's behind us due to the heat and bugs, so it was with great anticipation we drove on to Smoky Bay. We passed thru' Ceduna on the way, but have to say that at that stage, we didn't get a very wonderful impression. Twice since then, we have returned to Ceduna for shopping and on the last occasion I convinced TBBITW to have a good look around, and it really is an interesting place. We drove out to Thevanaard, a place with great views and interesting history pertaining to shipping and salt production.
There is only one caravan park at Smoky Bay, and I will preface all that I have to say about the place by saying that it is very well run, immaculate and had excellent amenities. Having said all that however, the camp is very small and whilst we were there it was jam-packed all the time. Apparently, the norm is that from this time on (Easter) it quietens down for the cooler months. The following information, is given simply as a guide to anyone who may be thinking of staying here. We have been here for almost 4 weeks (3 weeks to long as it turns out) and so have had a good chance to draw an impression of the place. It would be fair to say that 95% of people here come with tinnies. Their sole purpose is fishing. We have, by listening to our fellow travellers, learnt a whole new vocabulary, ie., "Did you get your bag today?" (not asking if he bought his wife incidentally!) , "Did you bag out?", "Great day, got my bag!", "Didn't bag out, only shitties today" "Going out?" - this one was usually shouted from one end of the caravan park enclosure to the other at somewhere around 6.30 in the mornings, and was only drowned out by the sound of all the tinnies being hitched up to all the lovely diesel run 4wds in the park ! There was absolutely no sleeping in in this park. This was made all the more difficult for us West Aussies, as not only had we just lost 1 1/2 hours to SA time, we had lost another hour due to their daylight savings regime. Not a peaceful experience I can tell you. We have never been in a noisier park or in one where people were so 'groupy'. The noise in the park did start very early every morning as each of the occupants rose early and started shouting at everyone else in the park. As a general rule, everyone (except us) knows everyone else (as they have all been coming here for the last 100 years) and it appears that most of them are hard of hearing too!!! The camp kitchen BBQ (excellent facility) hums all day from lunch time on as all the respective groups meet there to celebrate their catch and catching up. The noise of their revelling reverberates around the small completely enclosed park like you wouldn't believe. This revelling tends to go on at night for quite a while as well, although bearing in mind all these fisher folk are up early in the mornings, not past around 9ish. We even had a Scottish piper here one night - not to say I didn't enjoy that, I have a particular love of the pipes.
Don't you just love computers - I thought I had lost the lot then!!! Doesn't take much to cause a DA does it?? TBBITW is packing up at the moment (I did mine yesterday) and as such is a bit pre-occupied - it is true what they say about men only being able to do one thing at a time isn't it girls? Doesn't take much to rattle my cage at the moment either sadly. Ah well, luckily for us, these moments are fleeting and it's usually all smiles again within 30 mins or so - in this case even less.
Anyway, back to Smoky - the other not necessarily good item of note, is that whilst we have been here, no less than 2 ambulances have had to come and take people away! I don't know if it is because some of the fisher folk over-do it or what it is, but sadly, yet another reveller was carted away to a regional hospital last evening, and then flown into Adelaide hospital. As we are not on close terms with a lot of folk here, we dont know what was amiss - can't help but be sorry for the wife tho', who has had to rush off and leave everything here. The only good news for her, was that they were here with big bunch of friends and family, so she did not have to go thru' the ordeal alone.
We have felt very much on the outer here, very unusual for us, as we generally mix with all the other caravanners very well - we have made a few friends, but not like we usually do. We put it down o the fact that most people here, have come here to meet up with friends and family and are quite closed to outsiders. We suspect there is an unspoken entry into this group too, if you don't have a tinny strapped to the topside of the car, then you don 't belong.
I will finish up this part of the entry with a couple of shots of the jetty and then come back to give you a nicer report on Smokin 'Smoky Bay.
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