Port Germein

When we left Streaky Bay we headed to Kimba. On the way to Kimba we stopped for morning tea at a place called Minnipa, a wheat town and also the home of Australia's Concrete Crapper. Now I don't know if the concrete crapper was invented there or what, but it was worth a photo.

We spent the night at Kimba and the less said about that the better. Australia has got a fixation about big concrete symbols. The Big Prawn, The Big Banana, The Big Cow, The Big Sheep. Well Kimba has one of these landmarks also, a Big Galah. I didn't take a photo as it was very faded and a bit sad looking but that is probably the best thing to see in Kimba.
We then headed through Port Augusta and into Port Germein.
You are probably wondering where in the hell is Port Germein. It is about 60km south of Port Augusta, on the Spencer Gulf in South Australia. If you look on a map it is nearly opposite Whyalla. It is a small fishing village, with the longest wooden jetty in Australia. The jetty is over a mile long. In town there are only about 150 people, one general store and a pub. It is a lovely little place, very quiet. The weather is sunny but a bit windy as we are right on the water. I had read about Port Germein in a magazine and while we were in Streaky Bay we were told the crabs were running so we came.
Well today is the 4th day that Ray has been out crabbing. On the other 3 days he brought back 12 each time. He could have got more, but after the first day we realised that was enough for the two of us. So Ray cooked and we ate the first 12. Ray cooked and de fleshed the second 12 and froze them. Ray cooked and defleshed yesterdays catch and we made crab cakes out of them. They are lovely and sweet.

The jetty is so long that you can hire little wheeled carts to carry your fishing gear out to the end of the jetty. So Ray has one of those. Actually everyone has a little trolley of some sort. I saw a local yesterday and he had a motorised scooter with a shopping trolley attached to the back. Some people even take 2 huge eskies, one for the beer and one for the crabs I suppose.
We haven't really done much else. We drove into Port Pirie, which is only about 27km south. That is where Woolies is to do your main shopping.
While Ray has been crabbing (I did go the first day but got pretty burnt) I have been making Xmas cards so I will be able to send them out soon.
We have ended up staying here for a little longer as the crabbing was so good. Ray has caught 75 crabs altogether. It is a big job though, 3 hours out on the jetty, then you have to come back and cook the catch and then it takes 2 hours to get the meat out of 20 crabs. So it is an all day job. But we now have plenty of frozen crab meat in the freezer.
We have met some people from Adelaide, Peter and Rose and Ray goes out crabbing with them and we have happy hour, but they are not Terry and Sue.
There is an unusual way of getting boats into the water here at Port Germein. There is a 1200metre difference between high and low tide, so the boat owners use a contraption called a jinker to put their boats in the water. It is designed to tow a boat trailer and has a motor attached to a platform 2 metres above the ground so the boat can be driven into the water and unloaded. The jinker and trailer is left in the water until the boat returns. They then load the boat back onto the trailer and come back in. This is the link to the webpage to read about the jinkers.
http://www.seamedia.com.au/pdf/previews/RFBDIY59_prev.pdf

Here is a photo which Ray took from the jetty of one of the jinkers waiting for the boat to come back.

You can just see the outline of the trailer under the water.

This is the Port Germein Jetty
Well that is all of the blogging from South Australia. we are heading to Mildura on Sunday so will blog from there.