Burners Beach

Welcome to Burners Beach, another little piece of heaven on the Yorke Peninsula. We have been snorkelling every day in the shallows – the rocky reefs are a haven for dozens of species of fish and other creatures, and we have been dining on razorfish and sea urchins to our hearts’ content. There seems to be a lot of silt in the water but if you stop and look closely you might notice that it’s actually fry (baby fish); squillions of them cloud the water and feed on the thick brown algae which grows on the rocks. Amongst the weed beds you’ll find star fish and razorfish and under rocky outcrops there is a huge abundance of sea urchins.

Yesterday I spotted my first lobster. It was a little undersized so I left it but now I am excited at the prospect of looking for more and perhaps even snagging one. There are a lot of rules about how to catch lobster, in order to protect the species, so you can;t spear one (because if it turns out to be undersized or has eggs, you cannot return it because you will have killed it) but it is difficult to simply grab one with your hands, they duck in under the rocks as soon as they see you. SA sells lobster lassoes which would have been a good option for us, but for now, I’m satisfied to try and grab one with my hands and see how I go.

The shallows are also a haven for extremely large stingrays, and we have seen 3 or 4 species of these gentle giants who are curious enough to approach us in the water, but keep their distance. Sting rays are not predatory so they present no danger to humans, but sighting one can give you a fright – they are very large, up to 2 meters across and can move very quickly given a reason.
The rocks are also covered in native oysters- these are too small to give us humans a real meal so they are generally left alone. What a shame they aren’t a little bigger – then I wouldn’t want to leave South Australia at all!

Yesterday, Saturday, a party of five men (lots of tattoos, no front teeth; personal hygiene might well have been a foreign concept)with a couple of small children came to the campground and pitched their camp right next to us, despite the ground being quite large. I thought maybe we were in for a raucous and sleepless night, but they were pretty harmless, and actually really friendly; just here to go fishing and have a few beers. I must remind myself not to be too judgmental when I’m so far from town.

Anyway, the Yorke Peninsula should not be disregarded, it’s stunning with its beaches, open countryside and quirky little towns. Do drop by if you get the chance. And the Warooka Pub is a traditional country pub with cheap beer and a cracking schnitzel, chips & salad bar counter meal on offer for dinner.

A large yellow wasp drags its feed across our campsite

Razorfish & sea urchin roe with pasta

Our best scrabble game yet, combined score of 860!

Fish fry (baby fish)

You can see the float line following Jase, one end is attached to the speargun, the other end to the catch bag and float The float (view out of the water)

Catch bag and float

Friendly Stingray

Razorfish

Sea Urchin

Our campsite