Cape Conran – Day One

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I haven’t found work yet in Victoria, and my Dad is retired. So when he suggested we spend the long weekend fishing in Anzac Day, I jumped at the chance, though I did wonder what long weekends really meant. Nevertheless, while my wife was working 13 hour night shifts, I decided to head off down the Cape Conran.

Saturday the wind was blowing at 20 knots, so we couldn’t get onto the ocean. The forecast was great for the next two days though, so we sorted the boat out, and decided to go for an estuary fish for bream*.

So we motor along to ‘get some bait’ when we pull up at a shallow part of the river. The skipper puts on his waders and jumps in. Dad explains to me how pumping for worms work. ‘I understand’ I say. ‘Great, because there is a second pump.’ No second set of waders though. So I had to strip down to my boxer shorts and jump in*.


The water was pretty cold, but as long as the sun was out it wasn’t too bad

After we gathered the worms, clickers and pippies, we went off fishing for some bream. It was pretty quiet.

Caught:

Skipper: One Trevelly
Dad: One Bream
Me: One toadfish

When we got back we checked out the wind forecast. Sunday was 5-10 and Monday was 0-5.

So although a pretty quiet day I was optimistic for tomorrow. I had been promised to bag out on flathead and catch a few gummies, but hey, I have head it all before. Time would tell!

 

(* = How different is Victoria to Darwin?)

Grampians Adventures

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Claire had booked us some cheap last minute accommodation at Hall’s Gap which is right near a section of the Grampians. Although I was disappointing not to be able to camp, I was keen to be able to discover this part of Victoria. Although I lived in Victoria for about 25 years, I didn’t think I had been. If I had, I couldn’t remember it.

Anyway we arrived on Tuesday afternoon and had a look at a few of the nearby lookouts. They were pretty good and it made me really keen for the next day where we would do a 4 hour bushwalk, plus stop by a waterfall and another lookout.

The next day we got up and went to the waterfall. It was nice. It was a little disappointing that swimming was not allowed, but I respected the rules, unlike a lot of hikers.

After that we stopped by a few lookouts before heading towards the main hike. Claire snapped this photo of me checking out the scenery in what I thought was the best lookout that we went to.

The walk took us to “the pinnacle” which was a much higher lookout. It was a lovely short bushwalk, and (unlike most paths in the NT) very well signposted. The view was nice, although probably comparable to the other lookouts that are driveable. I would only recommend the bushwalk if you really like them, which I do.

Not Claire, though 🙂

Paradise Valley 2016

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Every Easter a group of us head down to Paradise Valley for a camping trip. It is so refined now that we take a kitchen sink. It really does make the dishes easier to do. Anyway this trip has been going on before I was born, I really look forward to it each year.

This might be the last year, though we have been saying that for a while. The people who own it are getting older and having trouble putting it on. And so it goes.

Got down there Thursday a bit later than we planned. Claire and I put there tent up and we were right on the river.

Friday & Saturday were gloriously sunny days, we made the most of it. I went for a swim each day except Thursday, which is really rare. Although when we were kids we used to swim for hours at a time, never getting colder.

Very happy after the Kangaroos had a win!

Otherwise it is a lot of food, beers and laughs. “What is like a sheep but black and white” Claire asked in a game of articulate. The answer is cow of course. These are always the longest and most fun trips, but the hardest to write about. The weather really made this trip, it was the first since I moved back to Melbourne. Definitely a lot of fun. Hope we get to do it again.

Phillip Island – Day Trip

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This Autumn heatwave has been really nice, especially coming down from the tropics. We came up with the idea of heading down to Phillip Island for a random day. It is around 2 hours 20 minutes one way, which makes it as close as Litchfield is to Darwin. Definitely worth a swim in the ocean!

I am really loving being able to get back in the surf again. I have really missed the waves, and the freedom not to worry about crocodiles.

We went down there and headed to the forest caves, Claire and Trish had a look while I had a swim. We then went onto the nobbies, before having a picnic and checking out the penguin parade on the way home.

Claire loves the penguin parade more than anything. I have now seen it 3 times in the past 3 years.

And I’m sure, we will be there again in 2016… happy wife, happy life

Starting to trust the car again after all the trouble we have had… photo taken after Claire had decided to drive home 🙂

Long Weekend in Lake Tyres

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So I have officially moved to Victoria. We had a few days off so we asked my parents what their plans were. They were camping at Lake Tyres for several nights, so we decided to head down. I even managed to get my sister and her partner down as well, it was sort of an impromptu family camping trip.

We got down there Saturday and set up. Quite an amusing moment when we realised that we had never set up the outer on our tent before! You don’t really need it when camping in the dry season of Kakadu. Summer in Victoria is a bit different, you never know when it might rain. I have to say the tent looked rather new.

Had some fun on the beach the first day. It has been a long time since I have swum in the surf, something I really love. It was great to be among the waves again.

The next day Dad and I decided to do some land based fishing in the hopes of getting a flathead or two. He used bait, I tried my smaller soft plastics. He got a few bites, but we didn’t get anything. It was a shame we didn’t have more time, as we mostly spent it driving around and finding a few really cool locations.