Port Macdonnell

Hip Hip Horary.  We are in South Australia.  Blue sky arrived (thank you God) and Ben is excited – it’s the rock lobster capital of Australia… WOOHOO!  And what a friendly place it is.  A visit to the dive shop to begin with, and we booked into the caravan park for 4 nights to see in the better weather this week.  Beach Mission arrived today – which means a wonderful 2 hours of kid entertainment each morning this week.  Things are surely looking up and up.   - So Ben here to let you know how good the diving and fishing is here at Port Mac (as known by the locals) The Caravan park is right on the beach and a short drive into town you pass the boat ramp and breakwater. Moving around the coast you come to a headland with several bays either side, great diving country. The dive shop had told me of a little spot where a ledge drops over into a meter of water or so Wednesday morning first thing on the low tide I hit the water looking for that elusive Southern Rock Lobster. They did not end up being that elusive, first limestone ledge I looked under in about a meter of water there were 3 just sitting there looking at the New South Welshmen in the funny rubber suit. After a bit of flapping about I had 2 in the bag and was on my way home to “show off”. That afternoon we went into Mount Gambia and after some shopping we went up to the Lookout to survey the Blue Lake. How amazing was the Blue Lake sooo Blue… We decided to do a tour (my idea…) with a very interesting tour guide who was well scripted in all the ‘interesting’ stats relating to the lake.  We thought the kids might not take a liking to the lecture but to their credit behaved wonderfully, including rescuing a stray Cicada. We did miss out on seeing the water canon being shot out across the lake due to some OH&S policy much to the disgust of our guide. Thursday dived again and managed to get one nice cray as the water was a bit murky. The afternoon was great also as we had a dive at Ewan Ponds (Piccaninnie Ponds a permit was required and the camping area was closed) Three crystal clear lakes, this was my first dive with Nicholas and Larina who had a blast. Sam had a great dive and was spotting the fresh water crayfish diving down for a look before I had seen a thing. Mandy enjoyed a warm swim (thanks to a good wetsuit) as the water temp was a cool 15deg. Back at camp a bloke turned up in a caravan next to us when I was hanging out the dive gear and we struck up a conversation he was a local and we hit if off due to the love of catching crayfish. He invited me the next morning to help him pull his 4 cray pots an offer too great to refuse. After getting up at 6:30 and waiting till 8am to go we headed out first pot none…. I hoped I did not bring bad luck… second pot 4 beauty’s – third none, last pot felt really heavy and wouldn’t you know it was chock a block full of crays, we had another 4 keepers after throwing the little ones back.  Craig gave me two nice ones to have for dinner!! We had crays on the BBQ with Garlic Butter, Red Thai Curry and a Laksa. We were leaving the next day and was keen for one more dive, however Craig had mention that his son in law was a pro fisherman and was going out the next morning to pull 80 pots, after meeting the boat owner Carol it was all set up 3am at the boat ramp meat Luke and Skipper Cameron, It will go down as one of the best experiences I have ever had…We booked one more night accommodation.. I could do this for a living… I’m saving up for the 2 or 3 Million needed for a licence. Lots of people drive right past Port Mac but thanks to a small tip from the Dive Shop at Portland – Don’t drive past, Stop in and stay for a week. Everyone was so friendly and a great spot to explore.