Seafood Feast and Wombats, Ceduna

Well, at last the wind died down just enough in Ceduna, for us to head towards a jetty yesterday afternoon, so the boys were set... crab nets in hand and enough fish heads to feed the entire southern ocean.
They threw 4 nets off the jetty and before long we had dinner, a dozen blue manna crabs.
A visit to Baldy, one of the local fishermen and we were armed with 40 fresh oysters and 5 squid... enough to make a feast fit for a king.
So dinner was oysters kilpatrick for entree, followed by crab, followed by salt and pepper squid... everyone ate their share, although Nina almost vomited when we tried to make her eat an oyster, maybe we'll try again down the track when the trauma of last night is no longer clear in her mind.

Harry, very excited about pulling in two crabs

Harry & Jack, the proud hunter gantherers

Harry, Jack & Nina with their catch

Nina with her Daddy on the Ceduna jetty

This morning, I got up and went for a nice walk along the beach, now able to take in the view without fear of being blown to Antarctica.
The kids then had school while Richard rode into town on his pushbike to find a coffee shop to do some work. He was home before long after realising his computer hadn't been charged overnight, so a hard day at the office for him :-)

So, Richard home early, he decided to come on our little excursion to a Wombat sanctuary.
It's run out of a private home and Val, the owner, brings up and nurses back to health, injured or orphaned wombats. It was the first time any of us had every gotten so close to the creatures, although I felt I knew their temperament more than I should have -  after growing up watching Fatso on A Country Practice.
We all got to watch Val bottle feed the wombat joeys (still hairless) and then pat the bigger ones, all of the animals were treated like royalty. She also had joey kangaroos and all sorts of birds that she had nursed back to health after people had dropped them into her injured and fighting for life, she's like Ceduna's Dr Dolittle.
The kids had a ball, and so did we, and tomorrow the kids get to do a project on wombats.

Val feeing one of her tiny wombat babies

Val with a tiny wombat, about 90 days old

Valwith one of her babies

Nina & Jack with Val's joeys

This afternoon, the boys have decided the weather is finally good enough to take the tinny out.
Nina and I eagerly awaited their return, hopefully with dinner, and a phone call from Richard to say we were having King George Whiting for dinner got us excited... the boys jumped out of the car and handed us two packs of neatly filleted whiting from Baldy, the local fishmonger... oh well, Richard was half right.