Looking Back - Hillocks Drive Oct 2006

I'm gonna try and get all the old trip reports up here so we can look back on them in the future. I'll start with ones that already have some stuff written down about so its easier :) This one is from down at what I like to call the spiritual home of The Gashes - where The Gashes were born. Quite a few people came along on this trip, but the Ranger took home the prize in style. Here's what I wrote back at the time...

So, we finally managed to convince Pete to come along on one of our super famous fishing trips. The destination was the old favourite - Hillocks Drive at the southern end of the Yorke Peninsula. About a 3 hour drive from Adelaide. Its not that the fishing is really any good there often, but it does make a top spot to setup a shaded camp site and drink the weekend away.

After setting up, having some lunch, and cracking a few beers, we decided it was time to hit the rocks (how true this would be for Pete, later) for some fishing. We all piled into and onto the 4wd's and heading off.


The destination was the rocks at the far end of this beach. Is that a wave crashing over them? Can't tell from here.. surely its safe.



Here's BigPete himself showing off a bit of rock hopping prowess.



After about 45 minutes a big wave come rushing in. Harry yelled "RUNNN" but apparantly Pete didnt hear. Next thing I know there is chaos and I turn around to see Pete getting swept around in the waves. We laugh about it now, but it was pretty damn scary to see at the time. After Pete was rescued it was decided by all that perhaps we'd leave the rocks alone for a bit, we all packed up and headed back down the beach.

We stopped at a spot where there is a reefy section just out from the beach. It sometimes has some good fishing. Paused to photo pete's wounds too:



30 minutes later and Ranger Will's rod bends over like mad and he runs over and strikes the fish. It was clearly something huge, but I don't think anyone expected him to pull in this:



A very nice 5kg snapper landed off the beach, not something you expect to happen very often. So Will pretty much claimed another Gashes win on the first day of the trip. And nothing else worth mentioning was caught anyways.


Back to camp that night and old snapper found himself on the fire :D



That just the first day, but thats where all the action was. It was really too rough and windy to fish, with seaweed being a major problem off the beach, and the rocks obviously unsafe. So much of the time was spent sitting around camp where we had good shelter from the winds via some massive sand dunes and well placed trees.