Streaky Bay 2009

November 17th, Arrived at Streaky Bay and booked into the Foreshore Tourist Park, right on the water. We were so taken by the view over the water, that we decided to stay 5 nights instead of 3. After setting up we drove into Town to do the usual, Info Centre, shopping and checked out the local Pub. All good.

November 18th, We had a new experience to-day. Talking to our neighbours we found out that this Bay is full of Razorfish, and although I thought I had heard of such a fish, I didn’t really know what it was. To our surprise it is a shellfish, that grows in the sandy bottom of the Bay and is buried vertically, such that the edge of the shell is just out of the sand by 2 or 3cms. To collect them you grasp the exposed shell and rock it back & forth until you can pull it free of its roots. Opening them takes a little bit of practice and the edible piece of white meat is a small round disc much like a scallop. Val tried a cooked sample supplied by our Neighbours and loved it. So, at low tide we take off to the next sandy beach at the end of the Park, armed with bucket, knives, drinking water, insect repellent and “hope”. For our first try we didn’t do too bad, we collected 40 between us (50 is the allowable limit for 2 people), some were too small but it’s a learning curve. After shelling and cleaning them up, which took hours and a cut finger (on my knife not the shells) Val had enough to cover 1/3 of the bottom of a small takeaway container. No wonder they are expensive in the Restaurants.

November 19th, Val went to the hairdressers today for the usual spruce up, then a bit of shopping and back to the Van. We set ourselves up a little better to have our next experience at Razorfish collecting. Val made herself a waist bag out of one of our many green shopping bags, to hold the catch. I opened the shells as we went, out in the water, and Val then scooped out the inners and separated the white flesh and popped it into the green bag. The tide ran out a bit further to-night, which meant we came across large beds of razorfish, so close together that it was difficult to find a spot to put your foot down. They were much larger than the ones we picked up yesterday. It was a fun experience and meant that we had a very late dinner.

November 20th, I went to the Streaky Bay Museum which had a very exstensive Historical Display, then on to The Powerhouse which is a Restored Engines Museum. They had a collection of over 400 restored & working engines of all types and sizes, donated from the local area. The weather wasn’t good to-day, overcast, late afternoon thunderstorms around and it was very windy, so we decided to give the Razorfish collecting a miss.

November 21st, It was overcast all day, cold wind blowing and showers off and on. The extreme opposite from the heat wave conditions of last week. Packed, up in-between, showers ready to leave in the morning for Port Lincoln.