We cruised on down the Flinders Highway for around 30k's and called in at Locks Well which is a well known Salmon fishing area for the keen angler. Locks Well has a windy steep road going down to the main car park, i missed seeing a sign that said No Caravans Beyond this point and continued down realising too late we hoped there would be room to turn around at the bottom, luckily there was and i u turned and faced the rig the correct way to enable a safe exit without getting blocked in.
There are 283 steps going down to the beach and is heart attack material for those not quite fit, Vickie stayed up top as her ankles & Achilles tendons are not the best for multiple steps. Locks Well consistently produces large salmon and certainly looked very fishy even though we struck it at low tide. I chatted with a group of a Sth Aussie's on the beach as i was throwing lures and having no luck, they were using pilchards as bait and having better luck so they kindly gave me a few pilchards to use, that is when i caught my Salmon, it wasn't a monster but at least it was a salmon. The guys told me another place worth trying was Sheringa Beach which also allowed camping so we headed off there.
We called into the Sheringa store and bought our permit, $5 per car and $2 per person along with a bag of salted pilchards. The drive in is a well graded dirt road for around 7k's and ends at a junction with camping and enviro toilets at a spacious camp area fronting the main beach, further up the road takes you to the salmon beach and surf beaches. I unhooked & set up the van, grabbed my beach rod and gear and drove on to the salmon beach, i was told at the shop to go over a small dune and try my luck at the next bay which i did. Immediately i started getting bites and it didn't take long before i had 3 nice fat salmon in my bucket, i let one smaller one go and then the bites stopped, so much for being Mr nice guy, i reckon the little fella told his mates!
The tide was ripping in and some big waves started pounding the rocks where i was, i stepped backwards and stumbled and to stop myself falling down completely i put my hand down on the sharp rocks and gashed my palm, nothing deep but it convinced me to call it quits for the day.
Just as well because the wind picked up and down came the rain, back at camp i chatted with Mark Jardine the owner of the Sheringa store and 'man in charge' of the camp area, an interesting guy with some great stories. For tea we decided to bake the salmon in the Weber Q so i seasoned them with an assortment of bush spices and lemon pepper and wrapped them in alfoil and cooked them slowly whilst Vickie made some home baked chips in the van oven. It was lovely but i still prefer my fish filleted and no bones, with the Flys starting to carry us away we spent the rest of the evening in the cosy van watching and listening to a John Farnham DVD concert whilst we played SKIPBO [our latest card game]
With rain still sprinkling down in the morning we hooked up and headed further South driving through steady rain and howling wind, at least the area needs the rainfall we thought. A coffee break at Dutton Bay and then into Port Lincoln where are camped at the only Van park in town. Peter the park manager saw us coming in and came over and suggested a better site than what was allocated to us, he even took me for a drive in his Ute to check out a couple of options, great service we thought. Later a drive into town so Vickie could donate more money to Woolworth's in return for a miserly amount of goods, dinner of Chile Con-Carn'e which was very flavoursome and filled the tummy's.
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