Hello everyone,
I was at Ben and Amilias for the footy on Friday  night ,

So Yesterday afternoon I took a walk with Ben down to the famous St Kilda peir for a stickybeak ,

My first impression was what a magnificent structure that it is .
I guess in recent years it was newley Constructed over whats now Chinese waters ,
And  it was made out of a mixture of materials being mostly concrete and timber planks and with stainless steel bolts ,
I imagine it would have been quite a long time in construction but definitely for the public,
worth the wait .

I believe the only part of the original peir left is one tiny bit in the water they actually left standing and at the very end of it ,
Is an old building that may have been a fire house once ,
but now its a kiosk that its a shame that just like so many shops  and  business  here here in Australia 

its now officially closed,
so at the end of the peir now is a icecream truck instead.

So as We walked the first part together i noticed that there was a another  branch to the right side built at a much lower lower level that is giong toward the yachts in the marina that was build down nearer the water hight ,
with tie off cleats at intervals to tie your visiting vessel up to ,
to come ashore.

The water is reasonably  shallow .
Like maybe up to two metres deep all over .

By observeing that part of the whalf ,
I could assume that they have such small tide variations  compared  to  my home port of
San Remo  as the whole Port Phillip bay tides are going through just one small opening  at Port Philip heads ,

So that not much will happen at St Kilda with tide height .

Then there were random fishermen and woman scattered all along the whalf trying to their luck and having from just one rod and a packet of bait to ones towing trollies full of gear like a complete tackle shop with them and even set up with tables.

The fishing 

 action was terrible and I didn’t see one fish caught by anyone not even a toadie ,
but they were all smiling just to be there and forget about their troubles for a while.

We continued on walking out towards the end of the peir and in the distance in the bay were a fair few yachts under sail,

As we walked the lead group all tacked to their port sides and  all hoisted their spinnakers,

What a magnificent site they made in the background,
And even though the prevailing winds were light, they were flying along racing each other at a rate of knots.

So we got to the end of the peir  and there was building and a high fenced off section with a massive break wall on the sea side of the fence and a sign ,
so I read it .

What I read surprised me as it was actually a nature rock reserve for Fairy Penguins,

I must be ignorant as I thought that the Fairy  Penguin’s were all at my place at Philip Island ,
but obviously there is a colony that you can visit right here in St Kilda at the whalf but the best bit about that is that unlike Philip Island ,
here , they are free to check out .

There is one strict condition that there is absolutely no flash photography allowed at all,
No torches are allowed as well unless you have a red filter lens fitted.
And infra red photography  and filming are allowed .

The best time would be on dusk to dark as thats when Fairy Penguin’s return to their nests at their rookeries .

So if you visit , dont forget  your Red lens ,
and  actually covering your torch with red celophane and  an elastic band
Is all you need .

So by now i was into working out in my mind the engineering of the structure and how it was possible to buid the whalf  in the first place .
I might have got it half right and then we then left for a coldie and some cheep oysters on the way back to the car.

Whalfs are such an important part of the Australian 

  beach  culture  ,
With the oceans calming effect there are a multitude of people  there at all times from every cultural  background all seemingly  happy going about  their business  in peace and harmony ,

Its good to see.

Cheers xxx
Curlyg