Troubridge Island November 2010

Immediately after our holiday at Moonta Bay we met with Diana and Chris at Edith burgh for our next part.  Chris and Judy ? took us by boat to Troubridge Island which 8km off shore from Edith burgh. 

What an amazing place with over 30 species of bird life like south pacific gulls and fairy penguins breeding and surviving on the island. The University of Adelaide use the island to do research with students because its such a unique place with thousands of birds inhabiting the shoal/island.

There was a big red light house built in the 1850s and two white light house keeper cottages.  The last light house keepers left in the 1970s, so the place is starting to look a bit worn out.  Also the sand island is moving so the lighthouse is at risk of being taken by the sea.  There was a king tide which washed great waves into the cottages.  Chris who has a lease applied for funding to restore and protect the lighthouse and cottages but the government won't contribute.  There was some funding received in the 1990s with a team of people reinforcing the structures with cement and giant size sand bas. 

We stayed in the big cottage, with lots of big rooms and beds, and lovely kitchen facilities where we cooked our meals daily and talked with the Penhall family.

Every day we would go walking, canoeing, birdwatching, playing with the children, and looking for treasures like shells, glass and crockery. 

It was a lovely place and I will look forward to visiting again! 

Moonta Bay November 2010



Moonta Bay Jetty at Sunset

We had a wonderful family holiday in November.  Jamie and I with both boys stayed at the Moonta Bay Caravan Park.  Mum and Dad Saunders stayed right next door our cabin in their caravan which was great. 

It probably took a day or so to get into the swing of holidays, but then it was great.  We did the typical tourist stuff like Moonta Mines on the tourist train, Miners Cottage, and family historian. 

I met with the local family historian who gave me a lot of information about Jamie's Penhall family.  There was heaps, and she managed to solve some mysteries for me too about the Baker side of the family.

Every day I walked along the beach collecting shells and stones.  Charlie loved the stones cleaning them straight away into his little red tin lunch box. The beach was pretty and sunsets glorious. 

Mum and I enjoyed walks along the jetty admiring the fish people had or hadn't caught.  We even saw a man catch a squid and all of the ink sprayed a big black cloud into the water blow and then all over the jetty.  We steered clear! 

Every night we had a BBQ as the meat and food was cheap, so we were better off preparing our own food.  The caravan park facilities were excellent and very clean too and we could enjoy the beautiful scenery of the beach whilst bitten by a million mosquitoes. That was the only thing, a million mosquitoes. 

The kids had a swim down the beach, but ended up with sand everywhere, it was quite hard work but Dad and I took some awesome photos and had the opportunity to laugh at the boys chasing each other around the beach throwing sand at each other. 

So we had 5 lovely nights and days at Moonta Bay and really look forward to doing it again sometime.