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Vernon Fishing Fun

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Went out exploring today. Lots of small fish and a few “alright”ones.

Mike got a great Queenie in and two big trevelly nearly in but sharks took them. We found a stream full of life but there were sharks everywhere. Did some shore fishing too – always fun.

Got 10 coral trout on lures all quite small. Probably 30-50 bluebones all small

My best was working for 30 mins to get what we thought was a metre trevelly in… only to find a shark!

Two sad stories of the day was hooking up a decent trevelly and having the hook pull free from my new expensive lure. The other was me filliting the Queenie for dinner… dropped it in the water to give it a quick clean and the fish grippers somehow came out from its jaw! Dropped it right under so no dinner for me.

Mt Buffalo – Day 1

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We arrived at Lake Catani Thursday afternoon, later than I would have liked. I never seem to be able to get away when I want, but this poor even by our standards. Brad and the girls were already there when we arrived.

Nevertheless we set up and were pretty happy with the place. Great campground, good facilities, nice spot by the lake. We had booked 3 of the 4 camp sites in a cluster together that shared a fireplace, only 2 for tonight as Nick and Baxter was getting there the next day. So the issue was that the entire park was nearly empty (sub-alpine country in November) and yet we had someone camping right next to us. We chatted to them and it turned out it was their last night. Then some lone hiker decided to camp in the fourth one, meaning there were six camp sites occupied out of around 50, and 4 of them in a small cluster around us!

But anyway, you make the most of it, especially if it is just for one night. We went for a walk, and as it got darker we went unsuccessfully wombat spotting. There were loads of burrows and droppings but we failed to find them all trip!


Maddie and Isla were loving it.

Very sunny, but absolutely freezing!

Some of the great scenery around the lake

We got the fire ready for the night and stayed up late with the neighbours. They were all a bit odd. The middle aged daughter screamed at her Dad all night “stop snoring” which woke everyone up. The hiker refused to say anything. We also decided to skip the hot water bottles. That was really silly… it was cold that night, colder than I have slept in before. With thermals and a -5 sleeping bad I wasn’t too bad but my nose was sore because it was so cold. Claire also struggled. When Brad woke up at 6am he looked at his car thermometer and it was 1 degree. Except that is as low as his gauge would go, plus it was 6am, so not really when the low point hits. My guess is it was around -5 as that was the predicted low for the night before. We didn’t make the mistake with the hot water bottles again, but it was never as cold as that again.

 

Gorges a the MacDonnell ranges

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Two things you need to know about this trip

1) After the Alice trip I got a bit sunburnt on my neck. I decided to get a better hat, and when I realised I could match my hero Russell Coight (youtube him!) well it was an easy decision. You are unlikely to see camping trips of me on here without that glorious hat

2) Claire was supposed to book us on a tour of these ranges. She didn’t. Initially we were really dissapointed when it was booked out… but it turned out to be the best thing ever! We hired a landcruiser and had a lot more fun together than we ever would have in a group of stranges. Amazingly, the cost including everything was about $10 more… extremely good value. I recommend Hertz in Alice Springs, nice people.

I didn’t expect much of this trip. You go to Alice to see the rock, right? Wrong!


I don’t know what is better, the gorge or the hat

Simpson’s Gap was first and it was reasonable, sort of what I expected. A very striking Gap.
Standley Chasm was next, again an interesting walk, very nice and I was having fun.
Ellery Creek Big Hole was pictured. Amazing. One of the best gorges I have ever seen. The water was ice cold. But I could not believe how amazing it was.

We then drove to Redbank Gorge. It was a short distance walk across the riverbed. But so many massive rocks that it took for ages. Worth it, but we realised we wouldn’t have time for Serpentine Gorge, which was apparently very similar.


The exception to the hat rule – when my hat is being used as the stand for the self-timed camera

Then we went to Ormiston Gorge which was again beautiful. We then backtracked to Glen Helen Gorge which was accessible by the public and again just as nice as anything I’d seen.


Seriously how good is the hat?

We then moved on to the Orchre pits which was very interesting, before seeing the sunset back at Ellery Creek Big Hole, which I thought was the most exceptional.

Overall an amazing and unexpected day! Australia is beautiful.

 


Relaxing for lunch under a gumtree at Ormiston Gorge

Red Centre Trip – Day 3

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On our last day we took a long hike across King’s Canyon. It was a great walk and the canyon itself was amazing.

Us, right at the start.

Once again, I was really surprised by the amount of water that was present. Admittedly it had been raining recently, but you really got the idea that the desert wasn’t endless sand dunes, it was far more hospitable than you would think.

I am still awed about how indigenous people thrived out here though.

Claire at the main waterhole

Funnily enough, the clouds came racing at us, and we only just got back from the bus before a large deluge. From there it was 5 hours home, a pretty successful and enjoyable trip.

 


I wish I knew who this couple were, I would love to give them this photo.

Red Centre Trip – Day 2

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So we woke up super early and headed straight to Uluru. Our guide gave us the choice about either seeing Uluru at sunrise and taking a 5km around most of the base, or taking the full 8km around the base. Surprisingly we were the only people who opted for the sunrise, but how could you pass up this view?


Note Kata Tjuta to the left

The walk around Uluru was amazing. For whatever reason, I guess the timing, we basically had the walk to ourselves. Despite the photos everywhere else, tourists were everywhere. But around that walk, especially the first hour, we were all alone. It was amazing.

Amazingly, there was water all around the rock, and some great waterfalls and pools

Afterwards we headed all to the camp and King’s Canyon and we were treated for a great sunset across the ranges. Well, actually I did, Claire went to get a Diet Coke and it took a mite longer than she expected, and she managed to miss it! But it was still nice to hang out at the viewpoint. It was so nice that we came back to it hours later and saw the stars. Being so far away from natural light sources had them really come out. But I don’t know how to take good photos, so I guess they are for my memory only!

 


Sunset over King’s Canyon