Pipi loving

Another thing to scratch out of my to-do list - collecting pipis.

In case you are wondering what a pipi is, it is a saltwater clam which can be collected along selected beaches. It is smaller than sa-pak (loose translation alert: "sand white") in Sabah, but tastes equally good when stir fried with ginger and spring onion (I tried it!).

Mel was telling us about collecting pipis the other week and before we knew it, we saw an invitation in our Facebook account! So Venus Bay we went.

Venus Bay, located another good 30 minutes away from Philip Island, you can guess how excited we were!

The weather forecast said 30C with a chance of LATE SHOWERS.

The beach was just gorgeous on such a sunny day.

But oops, we went to the wrong beach. Beach No 1 was not for pipis catching. Obviously, you can't catch pipis while others are surfing or the Chanel sunnies totting grandma is looking at you silly.

I took this amazing picture of Ray popping a chip into his mouth where the chip left his hands but had not reached his mouth! Mid-air. Get it?

How to stay sunsafe in Australia: Lesson #1

WEAR SUNGLASSES. See illustration.

Pipis catching is supposed to be at Beach No 4. So off we went.

Not before some picture time!

Mel, the avid food blogger! Guess where our next conquest is! Guess guess guess!

Beach No 4 is a lot more secluded. Definitely pipi-habitat material.

The sand was hot!

And the rest is. . . . undocumented!

To start off: Everyone just dipped their feet into the shoreline and dug around a bit.

Warm up: Most of our shorts were wet and some obsessive ones had their T-shirts wet as well. Everyone was facing down and hands were all busy. Daniel and Jess started sunbathing.

Hot: Ray and Vincent went shirtless. John dug holes of almost half a meter. Pipis were filling the bucket. No one's T-shirt was not wet.

High: Vincent and some others were swimming. ChunLiang got bitten by a crab (or so he claimed). John dug a hole to China. I was eating Oreo.

End note: Windy. Late showers coming. Wenji, Oli and I were hiding behind the car. Resting while the others climbed up slowly from the beach.

Our haul?

You have to buy a fishing license to catch pipis. Each license allows you to collect up to 2 kgs of pipis. With there being 15 of us, we decided to buy 8 licenses (1 for each 2 people). And we ended up with less than 4 kgs after more than 3 hours of scavenging. So, lesson learnt. Don't be tooooooo ambitious.