Coffee... At The Greedy Goat

I decided I needed coffee... It's a bit of a daily 'fix'.
So if I wanted coffee it was a walk to find it.
I had a destination in mind... So off I went.


Walking anywhere in Palm Beach or Whale Beach
is good exercise... It's up hill and...

Down dale and round the bends...
Till I get to the main road.

Then, as there are no footpaths... It's along the road
keeping inside the white line as there is quite a lot of traffic.

In places there is a track...

Other places not...


 
Past the amazing houses...

 
The glimpses of the sea never far away...

 
The bus stop...

 
More tracks around the bend... And...

 
Here is the Greedy Goat... I can smell the coffee!


It's actually quite a cool day but I sat outside on the deck...
I was quite hot from walking...
But the heater was hastily turned on in case I was cold.





Here is the 'Goat'...


And here is my coffee... This was the first cup!
After all I had walked a long way to get it...
Served with a lime and coconut friand... Delicious.

Fishing Anyone?

I wanted to go to a fishing shop while I was in Australia
but I couldn't find one anywhere.
So I 'Googled' and found this one...
Not too far from where I was staying.

We pulled up outside in the car...
It looked promising...
And in I went.

 
Well... I hadn't seen anything quite like this before.
It was a tiny shop and absolutely packed floor to ceiling...

 
With everything imaginable for fishing.

All over the walls...

 
And then there was the bait... All fresh...
Underneath the glass counter top.


Squid...


Prawns...


Whitebait...


Sardines or Herrings or...


And I don't know what this is.
I did ask but can't remember.
People buy their fresh bait and off to the beach
which is just over the road or round the next bend...
In Australia a license is required to fish in the sea if
you are between the ages of 18 and 65.
It seemed a bit ludicrous as the sea is such a vast space
but the money is used to build reefs and similar to protect the
coast and beaches.




There were numerous fishing rods...


And reels and line... Everywhere.


This is what I had come for...
Floats and glow sticks.


And all because I had found this one on the beach
and was curious to know what it was and what
it's used for.
I did untangle it and found the line going through the float
with two hooks and the sinker on the bottom.
The glow sticks fit in the top.
They are used at night for surf casting.
A glow stick is also put on the tip of the rod.
It was fascinating to watch... The tip of the rod
flick through the air and the float on the water.
Of course... It goes without saying...
I bought some to take back to New Zealand.
I can't wait to try them out... I'm told the fish are attracted to the glow!

More Oysters... Barges and Mud!

The oysters farmers' day is very much governed
by the daily tides...
It's morning and the tide is  coming in...
At Lemon Tree Passage.

It creeps in quietly and covers up all the mud...


The barges can be pulled in close
and loaded or unloaded.
Clive has already been out very early and picked up crates
of oysters for cleaning and sorting and grading and counting...
Into baskets with different size holes for different size oysters.
 
The crates continually grow barnacles.
These are chipped and banged off to keep
them clean and to allow the water to freely flow
to the oysters inside.

It's quite a job as you can see by these crates.
I learned that the barnacles grow when the crates are
in shallower water.


A clean basket... There are twenty
smallish oysters in here
ready to put back in the sea to grow bigger.
These Pacific oysters take
6-18 months to grow from hatchery
size to grunde which is more than 120ml.
Rock oysters take 3 years to achieve the same growth.


A bird's eye view!
When the oysters are big enough and before they are sold,
the over catch is cleaned off, they are counted into nets or baskets
and put on an 'Open Harvest Lease' for three weeks
to clean them up.
They look rough ugly and dirty but after three
weeks in rough seas they come in spotless
and don't need any cleaning or washing and meet
the fisheries harvest criteria.


It's high tide... the barge is in and Raewyn
is starting to load the baskets ready to take
back out to the lease.

I'm going for a ride... to have a look.
Clive is at the helm... giving the motor a bit of a tweek...


And off we go... It's not a dry ride!


This is a 'Restricted Harvesting Oyster Lease'
There are metal 'ropes' hung from posts dug into the sea bed.
The baskets have clips on them...
Designed by Clive who markets them...
They clip easily on and off the ropes.
There is the usual sea 'pollution' here...
So oysters from this lease that are ready for the market
need to be 'depurised' which is three weeks
in open rough seas or go through a
depurising tank with ultra violet light.


Here it's easy to see the baskets hanging on the ropes.
These oysters are in the last stages of fattening.
They are hung so that they are out of the water at low tide.
This gets the oysters used to being out of the water
and ready for the market where they last up to five days
out of water and stay alive and fresh.


A Pelican keeps watch...
Any to eat?


This is their neighbour Peter...
He is lifting crates, loading them on his barge...


And taking them back to his shed.
They are ready for market and will be sold to the local
fisheries or privately sourced markets.
There is a huge demand for oysters in Australia
so there is a ready market for all shapes and sizes.


When we get back the tide has gone out again...
So it's a wade through the mud to get to shore.


It's thick and squelchy


But no other way...

Thank goodness for big gumboots.

 
And it's back to more oysters
which Raewyn is an expert at opening...

And a pot full for dinner.