Solo Coastal Wilderness Adventure __ CATCH & COOK _ Coastal Foraging.

Alright, so we've got some more tucker here. Oh, I can't get much better than this aye. It's in my camp right on the beach, just looking up from where you caught it in the day. My day is lit. Well, g'day legends and welcome back to another cracking day out here on the beautiful Australian coast. Man, get a look at it aye. What an absolute stunner. So I've come to a completely new area. This is a coastal wilderness area and I've been wanting to come here for such a long time. So it feels really good to be here. And man, the weather this weekend is absolutely turning it on for me. It is such a gorgeous day. So we're looking forward to this little trip. I'm just going to hike along the coastline for a couple of k's. We'll find a nice little place to set up camp. I've also got the hand spear and a fishing rod. So we'll hopefully jump in the water a little bit later and see if we can find ourselves something to eat for dinner. But yeah, main thing is just enjoying this beautiful coastline. So if you guys stick around for it, I think it should be a really nice one. So when we get on our way, we'll find a nice little place to set up camp. Man, it's such a cool landscape to be walking along. These big granite boulders. So cool. It's a very, very nice walk. We've got something pretty cool here. This is a goanna track. You can see its long line is its tail. It's got these little claw prints on each side. And these little scrape marks are when it's dragging its claws as it's walking. It just goes off in that direction. Pretty cool. So we've got some bush tucker here. So this ground cover behind me, this is sand fire. Now you can just eat it raw. It's quite tasty, eh? Slightly salty. I'm pretty sure you can also pickle it as well. And now this stuff down here, I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure this is sea celery. It's got these tiny white flowers, which you can use to identify the plant. But because I'm in a new area and I don't have my bush food to cook on me, I'm not going to consume any just because I'm not 100% certain. But I have a little bit of a nibble. Yeah, it definitely tastes like sea celery. So I'm pretty sure it is. But like I said, because I'm not 100% certain, I won't actually eat any. Man, this place is so picturesque. It's definitely one of the more beautiful coastal walks I've done. Just love these granite boulders, eh? It's really cool. Alright, well it's about 1 o'clock now. Not much luck with the fishing, unfortunately. Had one fish on on the first cast, but unfortunately shook himself off. Just thinking now about whether I should jump in the water, go for a quick swim around. Like I was saying, the conditions aren't ideal. There's a fair bit of swell moving around and it's a little bit windy. You can see in this current, there's heaps of current. But I figured I brought all my stuff with me, I may as well just jump in and go for a quick swim. I wouldn't venture too far out beyond the rocks. Being a novice and also being in such a remote location by yourself, you don't want to push it too hard. I definitely don't want to get in any uncomfortable situations. I think I'll play it safe and probably just hang around the rock edge and just see if I can sort of land myself a nice little abalone for dinner. If I can grab an abalone, I'll be more than stoked for that. I think I'll have a quick bite to eat and then we'll jump in the water. Well, that was a pretty tricky spearfishing just then. The visibility was absolutely terrible. I can only see about a metre in front of me at the best of times. There's a lot of sediment moving around. Made it a little bit tricky trying to target the fish. I saw a few schools of some decent sized fish, but they're always out of reach. I did come across a nice little crevice full of abalone. There was a whole bunch in there, but I only need one because I just took one. He'll sort of be a nice little appetiser before my dinner. So, I think it's about time we get the clothes back on and we'll start making our way down the beach a bit further. All right, so we've got some more bush tucker here. So, we've got some sea lettuce and some mussels. Now, with the sea lettuce, when you're picking it, you want to make sure you don't pull up the root system. So, if you hold the bottom of the plant and just pick off the top, or use a knife and slice it away. But the crucial part is to make sure you leave the root system intact. So, that way it's a sustainable resource and you can just keep on growing. But yeah, you get this nice green lettuce. Now, this is edible just raw. It just tastes like a bit of a salty lettuce, but you could obviously wash this in fresh water to get rid of that saltiness. But you could also use this to catch fish as well. So, species like luderick or black drummer, they eat this stuff. So, if you chuck this on a hook and chuck it out there, you might catch yourself a fish for dinner as well. And with the mussels, there we go. Nice big juicy mussels. So, we'll take a few of these back to camp and we'll cook them up for dinner. Yeah, and feast on some abalone and mussels for dinner. Sounds pretty nice. Well, you know what? Change of plans. So, I was originally planning on walking down this beach for another couple of kilometres. But it's about 5 o'clock. The sun's starting to get a little bit lower in the sky. But yeah, there's no real particular spot that I wanted to check out up there. So, it's simply just a point in the mountain that I'm pointing to. But I'm pretty keen to maybe go back to that little cove beach where I was fishing before. And yeah, camp out around there. Because it's a really pretty little cove. There's good spots to get the fish and I think it should be a good spot to camp as well. So, I think that's what I might do. Oh, I am sweating bullets. It is so bloody hot. That sun is an absolute scorcher. But I think I've found a campsite. So, there's a relatively flat area just below this big sand dune here. That should be able to set up the tent. And yeah, it's high enough that the high tide mark won't get me. Which is pretty important. And it's got a pretty nice outlook as well. So, I think this will do me. So, it's about time I get a pack off. Get some water into me. And we'll get the tent set up. Here's a warm one. Alright, so I just decided to move the tent to just down there. Because once I had it set up here, it's kind of a little bit sloped. And I'd probably just spend the whole night just sliding off on that. So, I think that down there is probably a bit of a better option. It's still above the high tide mark. The high tide mark is down there. Plus, it's pretty small seas today. So, I think that should be sweet. Well, forget about getting lobster for dinner. Because you've got one burnt lobster right here. I am burnt to a crisp. These are the first sunny days we've had in bloody ages. Yesterday I went to the beach and didn't put enough sunscreen on. And got pretty bloody burnt. And then, yeah. Starting off today on a bad foot. I've just been walking in the sun all day. I've been trying to keep up on the top of the sunscreen. But, I'm already burnt. So, yeah. It's definitely not doing me any good. So, remember kids. Slip, slop, slap. Alright, so. I've got the good old pig face here. But, unfortunately, it's not in the fruit. But, because I'm burnt to a crisp. I remember reading that these leaves are kind of like aloe vera. And they're meant to be pretty good for burns. So, look. Anything is better than nothing at the moment. So, I'm just going to squeeze out some of this juice. And just rub it all over me. It's so juicy. Wearing the pack today was an absolute punish. Because I got burnt on my shoulders yesterday. It's just been agony all day. Alright, well. Hopefully this helps a little bit. Already feels nice and soothing. Just a little bit of freshness on that burnt skin. Alright, well. Time to cook up the abalone. Now, I've never actually prepared abalone myself. I've eaten it a couple of times before. But, I've always had someone else sort of hand it to me. So, this is a first. I'm just going to try and figure out how to get it out of its shell. There we go. Alright, now I'm guessing this is the gut sack. I think that's the head. So, I'll try and cut that out. Now, I'm meant to trim off this sort of frilly edge. I feel like when my mate cooked it up for me last time. I think he trimmed it off. So, I might just do the same. I'm going to slice this up. It's quite tough. So, I've got to tenderize it. So, I'll just slice it into little strips. And then I'll try and tenderize it. Alright, well. That's all tenderized now. So, let's go get the fire going. Too bloody good. Now, this is living Barry. The only thing that can make this better will be a nice cold gin and tonic. Can't complain with this. Just got some garlic here. Just a good dollop of butter. Dig this up. Alright, so I've just got the abalone set aside now. Just while it cools down quickly. And I've just got the mussels here. So, I'll probably just chuck them in the pan. I'll try and cook them up this way. Alright, let's see how this abalone goes. Cooked to perfection. Man, that is so good. Yum, yum, yum. Does not get much better than this though. Just sit by a campfire on a beach. Just cook them up. Before you call it for the day. Now, that is living. Alright, so. Just for the main course. It's got a pretty quick and simple taco. It's just got some halloumi, sweet potato, coleslaw mix. And then like a herby yogurt dressing. Well, good morning guys. It's a pretty great and gloomy morning. I was considering hanging around for another day. But, to be honest. If the weather stays like this. It's not really a whole lot of point. So, I think. Yeah, now that I've had a break here. I might start packing camp down. Then we'll start making our way out of here. Now, I'm not 100% certain. But, I feel like this mound behind me. Is an aboriginal midden. Now, for those who don't know. A midden is basically an aboriginal rubbish tip. So, back in the day. Once the aboriginal people collected all their seafood. All their mussels. Their pipis. Their abalone. They'll then sit up on nice little vantage points. On top of sort of headlands and on beaches. And they'll eat their food. And they'll discard the shells into a pile. And then over the course of hundreds. And if not thousands of years. These piles turn into massive mounds. Now, when the early settlers first came to Australia. These aboriginal middens were a prized commodity. Because, as we started to build our cities. We needed to create mortar. To sort of bind all the rocks and all the bricks together. For the new buildings. So, you'd have ships would go up and down the coast. Looking for these aboriginal middens. And when they found one. They would basically take all the shells. Back to places like Sydney. Where they would then process it down. To make lime. To then create mortar. So, I'm pretty sure there's even a few buildings. Still left in Sydney. Like the governor's house. I'm pretty sure. Where you can actually see bits of shell. Inside the mortar. Around the bricks. Yeah, they're a pretty cool thing. And you always tend to find them on these. Really scenic lookouts and stuff. Like on top of headlands. And things like that. Places where you think it would have been a great spot. For indigenous folks to sit and enjoy a nice meal. And then you always generally find a midden close by. Like I said. Not 100% certain. But I feel like that's probably what it is. Alright guys. Well, I think it's about time we wrap this trip up. It was a really fun little coastal adventure. Such a beautiful place to come and explore. Yeah, I had a lot of fun. So, hopefully you guys enjoyed this video as well. As always. I want to say a big thanks to all you guys watching. Hope you guys enjoyed it. And I'll see you guys on the next one. Later.