Wednesday morning we were up early as the three boys were going out fishing with Paul. We headed out 27Km in the Timor Sea to have a crack at deep sea fishing. The water got rougher as we got further out. We caught one Spanish Mackerel. It was a smallish one (10KG?) but still gave a fair bit of fight when I was pulling it in. The trip back in was slow and rough as we were going against the tide and waves. Had a good time and hope to give it another crack before we leave.
Shaz took the girls on a whirlwind tour of Dundee Beach. They first went to the cemetery which is a huge field of magnetic termite mounds. Sandra says they were far better than the ones at Litchfield which are much more well known. They also went out to the Finniss River and Finniss Station. They also went to Boat Creek where they collected sea shells.
Paul filleted the fish for Terry to cook up for evening tea. We had a late tea as Paul took John and Stephen out on a tidal creek to set crab pots. This was an amazing experience as we basically put the boat off the trailer in a mud puddle and waited for the tide to come in. We then slowly made our way down a very narrow channel covered by Mangrove trees. Eventually we hit a bigger channel and a bigger channel. Eventually we ended up in a huge body of water which they call Bynoe Harbour. Huge!
We set our 10 crab pots and returned to the camp. You have to time the tide right or you end up stuck in mud flats for 6+ hours until the next high tide. We really enjoyed the Spanish Mackerel and the one fish fed the eight of us with several helpings each. Yum! Oh and another fantastic Sunset by the way.
Thursday morning we were up early again to go collect our crab pots. A beautiful sunrise as we made our way down the mirror like waters of the creek. We had a good haul as we collected 7 good size mud crabs. We let a few smaller ones go and re baited all the pots for the next day.
We returned to Paul and Sharon's place where we started a roaring fire to cook the crabs on. It was quite a process to get them all cooked but we all had a great feed of mud crab! Oh how tough our lives have become! Paul got a surprise invitation for a 4 day fishing trip down the coast and packed and left quickly.
Stephen and I took Carol and Sandra into Darwin later in the afternoon. We enjoyed the Mindil Beach Markets before delivering the girls to the airport. Carol and Sandra are taking a short trip home to Newcastle and Woy Woy to visit their children for a week. Stephen and I returned to Dundee Beach arriving home around 11pm.
Friday morning Sharon took the boys out to collect the crab pots. A bit of a challenge as they were well hidden and Paul wasn't there to guide us. Sharon did a great job and we found them all eventually. Not as good as the day before but we still had 4 new crabs to go with a couple left over from the day before. We spotted a small saltwater crocodile about 10 feet from one of our crab pots. I retrieved that one with extra care.
We returned to the campground to spend the rest of the morning. We then repeated the fire and crab cooking at Sharon's place. She then took us down the beach in her 4WD where we enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch on a tidal creek draining into the ocean. Outstanding!
We returned to camp in time for happy hour/sunset. Another beautiful sunset! We finished off with a BBQ steak dinner. We were all stuffed and vowed to cutback tomorrow on our food intake. No doubt we won't succeed but we better give it a try or we won't be able to move without assistance soon.
Saturday morning saw Stephen, John, and Terry borrow a small tinny from Paul/Shaz and try our hands at fishing in the tidal creek. Took us a while to get everything working and organized but we enjoyed a couple of hours fishing and luckily found our way back to the boat ramp well before the tide had receded. Terry caught a nice 6KG Golden Trevally. It gave him a hell of a fight as we were only using light fishing gear. Terry only had 6lb line but successfully battled him into the boat. It was a toss up for a few minutes who would tire first, Terry or the fish. Terry finally got him near the boat after about 15 minutes and I was able to successfully get a gaff hook into him. First time lucky as I had never used one before. Had a few other decent bites and Stephen landed a stick and a 6 inch Cod but nothing else to keep. We decided we will upgrade our fishing equipment for a bit heavier class of fish before trying again tomorrow. Terry has loads of different equipment to suit all types of conditions.
We enjoyed a quiet afternoon around the campsite working on photos, Blogs, etc. We had the Trevally for tea before going over to the Lodge Pub to watch the weekly Saturday night entertainment, Fat Thommo. Well what an evening; the guy was hilarious and we all had a great time. There was a lot of non voluntary audience participation in his performances. I won't give all the details but someone you know ended up with no shirt on and performing as the Sailor out of the Village People, singing YMCA and disco dancing through the crowd. There was also a very uncoordinated group version of the Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show. The plan was to deny everything but it turns out Rans has video. No pictures for the Blog as it is best left to the imagination! OK, just one.
Monday Paul and Shaz picked us up for a trip out to the Finniss River for some Barra fishing and Crocodile spotting. What a great day! We had a bit of trouble getting there as the tide was high and we couldn't use the beach access. The alternate route had a wet boggy hole that of course Paul tried to go through with the boat behind. We got our selves well and truly bogged. Eventually we were able to push the Landcruiser through. We then pulled the boat and trailer through with a rope. Needless to say none of us were quite as clean after this episode.
We loaded back in the car and travelled the rest of the way without incident. We put the boat in at the mouth of the Finniss River and the four boys went our for some Barra fishing. Rans caught a 65cm Barra fairly quickly. Unfortunately this was the extent of our success for the day. We had a good time trying and spotted a number of Saltwater Crocs along the way. Would not want to go swimming in this river as it is full of big Crocs. We also saw a dolphin chasing a Barra and a number of Sea Eagles.
We returned to the shore and the two girls took the boat for a cruise down the river to spot Crocodiles and bird life. They spotted 12 in just over an hour and some were huge. The boys had lunch and entertained themselves on the beach until they returned.
Tuesday we had a relatively quiet day around the camp doing some paperwork, computer work, cleaning etc. Rans and John returned Paul's boat in the afternoon and we had Paul and Shaz over for a baked dinner to thank them for all their hospitality. We enjoyed a lovely baked dinner, lots of drinks, and loads of laughs. We viewed all the incriminating videos from Saturday night again and Shaz went through my 2000+ adventure photos. She is a real trooper as she went through them all and even seemed like she was enjoying them. We said our goodbyes as they are going into Darwin on Wednesday and we won't see them before we leave on Thursday morning. By the way it was another great sunset!
Wednesday was another quiet day as we prepared to leave Dundee Beach Thursday morning. Lots of cleaning and getting rid of leftovers in our fridges. Looking forward to our next stop in Darwin and picking up Sandra and Carol from airport on Friday. We have really enjoyed our week at Dundee Beach and may come out for another day when the girls are back with us. The only downside was that there was no place to have a swim to cool off. The ocean is beautiful but off limits due to sharks and crocodiles. The caravan park is installing a pool today so will be able to cool down in that for future stays. Talk to you all soon.
Hello Sailor,
ReplyDeleteGuess what? We made the Territory Regional Weekly newspaper! Will be in contact to get address to send copies. You, Rans, Di, myself and Lorrainne feature. "YMCA . . . . . "