Jade Craven

Sea Cucumbers Galore At Eastern Beach

June 12, 2021 by Jade Craven

Recently, mum and I went to Eastern Beach. We’d experienced some stormy weather and were keen to see if anything interested had washed up along the beach. We met just as the tide was reaching its lowest point for the day.

It was a great beachcombing session. We explored a lot of the beach. Mum wasn’t wearing waterproof shoes or gumboots so we had to stick to the seaweed areas. This limited us a bit. One thing I didn’t expect though was the sheer amount of sea cucumbers!

Seth and I had found many here in the past, including one that had eviscerated. I haven’t tried to identify any as a certain unnamed parent is keeping me pretty busy researching all the sea squirts (or, as she calls them, Squirtles) that we’ve been finding. It is so awesome to be able to get in the outdoors again and not get sick 🙂

Other Marine Life

Jimmi Buscombe Wombat (And Emu) Artwork In Warrnambool

April 24, 2021 by Jade Craven

In 2018, artist Jimmi Buscombe went viral on YouTube. He had created a chalk artwork on a tunnel near his house – only to find that it had been made permanent the next day! It became one of the key things I wanted to visit when we went to Warrnambool.

I’d fallen in love with the Christmas artwork he did in Geelong and was so keen to see the wombat. It has become a legend! I was surprised to see an additional mural on a nearby wall. It was titled Dad Emu and you can read more about it at Jimmi’s website.

Exploring The Yambuk Estuary

April 23, 2021 by Jade Craven

If you walk 600 metres along the Yambuk beach, you will come to the estuary. This is the end of the Lake Yambuk; a wetland system fed by the Shaw and Eumeralla Rivers.

The area was very scenic. It is an area that warrants a much longer visit. I didn’t spend too long here, as I’d already spent too long walking along the beach.

Wandering Along Yambuk Beach

April 23, 2021 by Jade Craven

After Port Fairy, we arrived in Yambuk. We had one mission: find the giant slide. It ended up being a huge hit with Seth.

I saw a sign nearby saying that it was around 600 metres to the river mouth. I figured that I would be able to do a quick walk along the beach while Seth was on the slide and then return along the river.

I was mistaken.

Walking along this section of the beach was more difficult then I thought. The tide was rising, so I had to walk through the area of soft sand. There were times where I tried to walk in the hard sand along the tide line but had a couple of near misses with the waves.

My very unfit self struggled during the beach walk. I was very much aware of the time so didn’t do any beachcoming.

Despite my struggles, the walk was very beautiful. It is a place I’d love to return to and explore properly.

Visiting South Beach Along Belfast Coastal Reserve

April 22, 2021 by Jade Craven

We were that impressed with Killarney Beach that we decided to check out other nearby beaches. The next one we visited was South Beach.

Seth fell in love with this beach and for good reason. We didn’t have much luck with rockpooling; we got there two hours after low tide and rock hopping was quite tricky. I was careful and still fell over twice.

It was still a beautiful location. It was great for photography. It didn’t have as much washed up seaweed as other areas.

Alas, we didn’t get to explore any other beaches along this stretch of coast. We wanted to get to Port Fairy around lunch time. I made a mental note to explore this stretch properly on my next visit.