About time for an update! Happy New Year

We know, we have been incredibly slack. Nothing since we were on the road moving to WA, some three months ago. And I (ruth) don't really have any excuses not to blog as I am a woman of leisure! Brons has been working since we got here and things are going well for him, nothing too taxing but nothing really mind stimulating either. He comes home with ink from tip to toe - think he must be printing himself more than the newspapers. We are living about 10km south of Mandurah in a place called Falcon. After a few drive arounds once we got here we realised we wouldn't be living in the rolling green hills that we are accustomed to in Tassie, so compromised and are now only a 5 minute walk from the beach. Its a nice neighborhood, a little older than most here - we didn't want to live in a ticky tack box on the canal that we would only know was ours if we checked the number outside before trying the door. Everything looks the same over here! We have a veggie patch in pots (there appears to be a shortage of soil over here - sand, sand and then some more sand!) which is yielding well for tomatoes, lettuce, snow peas, herbs and hopefully some capsicums soon too.

The fishing has been a little disappointing. Only turning up a few small whiting and some chopper tailor so far. There is a beautiful big estuary only minutes away but no flat head in it??!! Not sure why, but apparently there are some closer to Perth so we will have to take a look further afield.

Other news.....we are now Uncle Brons and Aunty Ruth! Wow it's all very exciting, Erin and Lachlan welcomed little Uki to the world on the 9th December. Albeit a little early, we are very excited to have a new member to our family, probably more excited than Flossy the farm dog that is now living with Erin. His arrival has made us get even more nervous and excited about the pending arrival of our little one. Still a little way to go but we are hoping to get ourselves organised better over the next few weeks (so far we have a cot in pieces after a paint job). My dear friend Belinda has just moved back to Australia after 3 years in the UK and will be coming over to WA for a week or so to whip us into shape to get ready for parenthood and have a much needed catch up after so many years apart. Bron's mum Lyn is also coming over in a couple of weeks to spend some time with her new grandson so no doubt we will get spend some family time together too.

So all is well on the western front - not sure that it is quite the spot for us. We plan to see out 12 months here but think that once our lease is up we might need to hit the road again and find somewhere with a bit better fishing - maybe north (WA) or north east (QLD). By then we will be three and hopefully Brons will have suitably modified the troopy to carry us all safely.

We miss you all terribly and are longing for the cool breezes of home. Apparently it is 39.7 degrees in the shade on our back deck as I type. Oh wow I'm so looking forward to the next 12 weeks of pregnancy! We hope that the start of a new year brings good fortune and happiness into your lives - Happy New Year!

A picture of us doing Christmas with Erin, Lachlan, Uki and Flossy.

Way out west...

Ok a quick update first. We have sold Lulu on the gold coast, and yes she is still running - Tegan has sighted her! We flew home at the end of June and have spent the last couple of months hanging out with our families and bludging off them! Bronson has accepted a job in Mandurah WA and we are expecting a baby in March. So we come to you now from somewhere on the Nullarbor Plains. We have a new trusty steed! She doesn't have a name but The Troopy appears to work fine.

This is her all set up for the night. Yes, we're sleeping on the roof! We boarded the Spirit on Monday night, had breakfast with Bel in Melbourne on Tuesday morning and then made our way to Aunty Liz's place in Ballarat. Wednesday saw us camping at Mannum and being kept awake half the night by a group of unruly youths. Thursday night was spent just off the road side in the middle of nowhere. Much the same as tonight except we do have a rough idea where we are. Approximately 150km east of the WA border. We aim to be in Mandurah next Thursday ready for Bronson to start work at Rural Press the following Monday. After 15 months adrift it's going to be a bit of a shock to the system but it will be nice to set up home for a bit in a place we can call our own. Many new adventures await us. Not least, parenthood! There are exciting times ahead! Love to you all.

2 more sleeps...

We had our last sleep in Lulu last night. It was a little sad knowing the trip is almost at an end. We've been on the Gold Coast now for over a week splitting our time between Min's place and "The Well". Lulu is looking very bare now. We've been stripping all the goodies out of her which have now been deposited at a removalists in Brisvegas where they'll be sent back to Tas. Today we pulled the bed out of Lulu and promptly used the bed slats to whip up a cage for Min's guinea pig, Rupert. Tomorrow Lulu will be handed over to her new owner. Billy, a mate of a mate is going to use her for his mechanical business. Will be a bit sad handing over the keys but hopefully she'll be looked after. We're spending our last couple of nights with Min and Ben. On Friday we'll jump on a train to Bris and fly back to Tas. Where it's cold. Very cold. We're feeling the cold up here so who knows how we'll cope with the less than tropical temperatures of home. Not much else to report but we'll post a full wrap-up of our travels once we're back on Tasmanian soil. We've thrown in a pic of us bunking down in Lulu for the final night. We're going to miss our little house on wheels.

Love from us.

Brrrrr...

Greetings from Frigging Freezing Hervey Bay! Yep, it's cold. We're rugged up and sitting in a caravan park in Hervey bay having driven here today from Eurimbula N.P. When last we blogged, we were at Carmila where we seemed to have encountered a rodent problem. It wasn't apparent to us until we arrived at our next stop. After a night at a rest stop at Calliope, we woke to find the cork butts of our $700 fly rods had be nibbled on. This rat has expensive tastes! We hoped he had cleared off during the night but on arrival at our next stop at Eurimbula N.P we decided to take everything out of Lulu just to make sure. No rodent could be found. Acting upon an instinct, Bronson dropped the spare tyre from under Lulu and there perched upon the jumper cables with a nest of leaves was our little stowaway! The little bugger had been with us for several hundred kms over rough roads and through creek crossings and all. He wasn't at all threatened by a tyre iron waving Bronson. Instead he just ambled along the drive shaft and disappeared into the engine bay. As opposed to scampering off into the scrub from whence he came which was what I was hoping would happen. So another plan was then hatched. We whipped up a nice little cardboard box complete with his nesting material and a bit of muesli for bait, placed it in the spare tyre and waited. After a couple of nights we dropped the tyre back down and retrieved the box to find our little friend happily residing inside. We then relocated the box into the scrub and we haven't seen the little fella since! Eurimbula turned out to be one of our favourite camp sites. We spent 4 nights here and caught 30+ fish including flathead, bream, longtom, flounder, dart and what we thought were tailor but aren't. Here's a shot of our previous camp up at Smalley's Beach (Ruth was busy tying up some new flies for me to lose!):

And here is a pic of one of the sunsets that we've had to put up with at Eurimbula:

Yeah, life's pretty tough! Next up a pic of the 4WD only sign that we ignored to get there!

And finally, here is the little bugger that had a chomp on our fly rods amongst other things.

He was too cute to dispose of using brute force. Seeing as he is a native species we were happy to relocate him.

The weather has been pretty spectacular until today. It's currently about 12 degrees. God knows how we're going to cope when we come back to Tas in a few weeks. I'd love to write a bit more but my fingers are freezing so I'll leave you with the news that we're fit and well and Lulu is running along nicely. It's going to be a little sad stripping her down when we get back to the Gold Coast. Anyways peoples, be good and we'll be seeing some of you soon. Love from us. X

On the home straight!

After leaving Rene we headed south to Alva Beach, not far from Ayr. Here we stayed a night and tried our luck fishing. Brons picked up a whiting and a few herring and Ruth a small flathead. Then on to Conway where we stayed the night on top of the hill overlooking the bay. A great place to have our morning coffee. We fished the flats in the morning and Brons managed to hook up on a tailor but that was all. We bypassed Airlie Beach a nd headed for Smalleys Beach for three nights. We stayed there on our way up the coast and caught some nice flathead but this time things were a bit quieter. We only caught some small Queenfish, a bream and another tailor. Nothing much more to report except for passing the giant abbo on the way out near Mackay. We are now camped on the beach just south of Mackay at Carmilla. We fished today but only turned up another small tailor. Not a bad spot to camp, it's right on the beach and it's free but there are grey nomads everywhere! They must all be having a post school holiday and pre winter spin in their vans! It's quite amazing this place is chockers and there is only one tent amongst all the campers. Everyone is sporting new vans and a contented grin of having just spending their children's inheritances! Heading towards Anges Waters tomorrow but will break the drive with a stop for the night at Calliope. Not far to go now Lulu! Love to you all.

Hooked Up In T'Ville!

Hello from Townsville! We finally managed to get the photos off our old camera so here are a couple of underwater shots from Opal Reef off Port Douglas that we managed to snap before the camera shat itself!

Although, we were worried that we might encounter some of these guys in the water! The lycra suit is supplied to ward off stingers but they forgot to give us the knife. Luckily we didn't run into some of these nasty ones!

After all the excitement of Brons' first barramundi at Bluemetal Creek he wasn't fully satisfied so he did it all over again and managed to bag another Barra, a Mangrove Jack and a nice Flatehead as well. Ruth caught nothing! The rain was not really letting up and we got rather soggy one night walking back to camp after and evening fish, so we packed up and drove to Townsville to spend some time with Cousin Regan.

We've had a week in Townsville now and Rene has been looking after us too well and we don't want to go. It's been great catching up with Rene and little William. We have been using her place as a base to go fishing about the area. We have checked out a few places (Reid River, Majors Creek (down towards Charters Towers), Crystal Creek, Toolakea Beach, Saunders Beach, Pallarenda Beach and a couple of spots on the Ross River (Aplins Weir). All we have managed to turn up are a couple of Sooty Grunter at Reid River and a few Tarpon at Aplins Weir. Not big fellas but lots of fun on the smaller fly rods and our first Tarps for the trip.

Here's one of the little fellas.

And here is a bit of by catch!

Ouch and Bugger this one hurt. Abandoned the fishing for the day after this incident. Headed to home to see if Nurse Rene could extract the hook. It was in pretty deep and despite considerable yanking it wasn't going anywhere. Off to the Townsville hospital! Had to have a ring block put in to extract it and a tetanus shot for good measure but all is good now. Oh just in case you were wondering it's Ruth's finger.

Brons has been busy the last day or so changing the head gasket on Lulu. We decided to change it seeing we have been loosing water over the last week or so. Although we only have 1400km to go we didn't really want Lulu to die prematurely. Will be sad to leave Rene and Will. We have been totally spoilt with beautiful food and lovely hospitality. We'll probably hit the road on Saturday and head to Ayr where we hear there is some good flats fishing.

Bronson finally caught a barra!

Yep it's true! But first, where were we...? After browsing the markets at Port Douglas where we acquired some very tasty coffee choc bits, we headed not far from town and camped at a no camping site (with a few other campers) near Yule Point. The wind was atrocious so no fishing was had. The next day we packed up and headed into Cairns to re-stock the fridge and buy a new camera. From there we made for a little place called Babinda with a rest stop beside the river. The weather was pretty ordinary with plenty of rain. We managed to have a bit of a fish in the river and each caught a few small fish called Mouth Almighty. They look alot like little barra and true to their name they have one helluva mouth on them. After a pretty wet sort of an night we made our way back to Blue Metal Creek where Poppet got her barra with the aim of getting a few more. That was yesterday and after a late afternoon session we returned to camp empty handed. This morning we woke to more rain which wasn't heavy enough to dissuade us from going for a fish. Not long into the session and Bronson was on. It didn't prove to be a big fish but importantly it was a barra and that was the main thing! The rest of session didn't see us catch any more but we'll be heading back out this afternoon for another go! Will probably spend another couple of nights here before making our way to Townsville to catch up with cousin Regan for a few days. Hopefully we'll have a few more fish to report!

How happy is this guy?!

The return journey begins...

Not much to report from Cooktown. We stayed for a night at Little Annan river but could not tempt any fish from the waters. So south we went, stopping at the "Mighty" Palmer River roadhouse for a toasted sanga and a beer. We settled for the evening a half hour from Mossman in a little bird watching sanctuary by the side of the road. When we woke the next morning, the temperature was a very chilly 8 degrees. Aren't we supposed to be in the tropics? It was freezing, we're not sure how we're going to cope with southern temperatures again! From Mossman we headed into Cooyah Beach hoping to find some tarpon at the mouth of the Mossman River. We saw one or two decent fish but all we came up with were a little moses perch and a flounder! We headed back into Mossman for a couple of supplies and headed to a picnic area to do a bit of research. Here we bumped into one of the local personalities. A charming aboriginal chap who called himself "Stan the Man". Stan appeared to have reached a state of inebriation hard core alcoholics could only dream of. Most of his rambling was somewhat incoherent but through his remaining cracked and discoloured teeth we were able to decipher a few words including often repeated declarations of love for us both! Plus he thought Bronson was "queer" because he didn't have any children. We hastily bid farewell to Stan and his overpowering aroma (we agreed he may well not have heard of a little invention called "soap"), and made our way into Port Douglas. We booked a couple of nights accommodation at a backpackers resort called Dougies. Not a bad spot, alot cheaper than a caravan park and with better facilities. Yesterday we took a cruise out to the Barrier Reef and did some snorkeling. It was absolutely fantastic and we had hoped to post some beautiful photos had our water proof camera not shit itself. Apparently it isn't as waterproof as the manufacturers claim them to be. It would seem it's a common problem made worse by the fact ours is 18 months old and no longer covered by warranty. Not happy Jan. Now we have no camera. So now we're sitting out front of the bar at Dougies, about to head into town to check out the markets. then we might head down the road abit and see if we can find some more fish! Be good peoples!

Lulu's most northern point

Well it's been a while since our last blog. From Bluemetal Creek we headed further north but we stopped off for a spot of bridge fishing on the way. As we were driving past the Russell River I thought to myself that sandy bar over there looks like a good spot to have a fish, then moments later Brons hit the brakes saying "Croc!". On that nice sandy bank was our first confirmed sighting of a croc. Not a big fella but made that nice little fishing spot appear not so nice anymore. We saw heaps of fish off the bridge and the 10m drop wasn't enough to stop Brons from heading back to Lulu to collect a rod. A couple of tricky casts later and he had hooked into what we think was a jungle perch but we're not entirely sure. Then to the Boulders (it had been a couple of days without a wash) for a swim. The water was crystal clear and deceptively deep. A brisk swim across the river and back and we were all clean again! Then onto Goldsborough State Forest where we ended up staying three nights (it was a public holiday up here and nothing would be open to restock the fridge). Here we floated down the river a couple of times, again the water was clear as and we were all set for a spot of fishing until we found out how deep it was and that wading wasn't an option.

Then onto Cairns to restock and find a second hand book shop to do a spot of trading. We then headed north to Barron Gorge for a night but called into Machans Beach along the way to check it out for fishing options. Didn't fish but looked ok for flats fishing on the right tide. Barron Gorge had a cold shower and no one else there. Up early and hit the road checking out some fishing spots along the way. Yule Point didn't look as great

as the fellows on Brons' fly fishing forum had made out so we kept on going to 4 Mile Beach. Here we trudged through the mud (knee deep in spots) in bare feet to the mouth of the Mowbray. Here there was more mud, heaps of oyster covered rocks and angry crabs trying to attack. Brons landed a small GT and we found an aerobee on the beach. Off to Cooya beach to inspect the mouth of the Mosman (apparently a hot spot for tarpon). Ended up at Newell to have a look at the mouth (bit of a walk from Cooya) and ended up camping here for the night in a no camping area. That night it hit, think we had some dodgy water at Barron Gorge! A couple of emergency toilet runs and madly foraging for toilet paper in lulu and we were ok. The next morning we noticed that in the rampant foraging that we had knocked the fridge plug out and it had been off all night. Better throw out that chicken to be safe! Fished early and didn't turn anything up.

Headed to Mossman for supplies and then onto the ferry to cross the Daintree River and headed up to Cape Tribulation. We camped at Noah beach for four nights in amongst the fireflies and had some really good fishing. The best thus far. We fished the mouth of Noah Creek which was about 20 min walk from camp. Here we caught dart after dart and occasionally hooked into something a wee bit better. We managed a couple of GTs, a couple of long toms, Brons got a very nice Queen fish and Ruth lost a diamond trevalley. A great spot but a bit variable it didn't turn on quite as well the next day at the same time in the tide, the locals also told us about a 5m croc that lives just near where we were fishing! Think this area might be another hotspot for nudists, there was a lot of wang and boobie out action on the beach there! We also fished Myall Creek mouth but only managed a small cod and some baby GTs. We headed out early leaving probably our favourite place in Qld so far, to get some more supplies and head up to Cooktown.

Bit of a boring drive to Cooktown going the conventional vehicle way but we made it and headed out to Archer Point to camp and hopefully fish. The road was 4x4 only but Lulu managed to cross the creeks and negotiate the pot holes ok. Here we camped right on the beach in amongst the coconuts and managed a little bit of fishing before the wind started. Wow it's blowy up here. We fished a small inlet around in the next bay from where we camped. A bloke we met who has been camping there for a month or so said there had been a fair bit of croc activity there recently, and he was right! We saw some lay marks in the sand and one just over the creek from where we were fishing, but we think we scared him more than he scared us. We saw a couple of decent fish in the creek, we rec

kon they were barra but didn't catch them. Brons caught several baby Moses perch and Ruth another small cod. We took a walk up to the lighthouse on the point and just about got blown into Cooktown. Couldn't excite anything off the reef with a popper so we are now in Cooktown bloggin.

Ruth's first GT. Best for trip so far!

A nice Queenfish from Noah Beach.

Lulu fjording a stream to get to Archer Pt.

Should we really be fishing here?!

An amusing site on our way into Cape Tribulation.

Poppet got a Barra!

Well it stopped raining long enough for us to wet the lines at Bluemetal Creek in the Russell River National Park just north of Bramston Beach. Apparently there are some rather large crocs in this neck of the woods and after telling some locals that we hadn't seen any, they informed us that they would have seen us by now! But anyway with watchful eyes we have been fishing on regardless. It's a great place to camp, right on the beach and with a very pretty creek mouth only a few hundred meters away from camp. Here's Bronson trying his luck.

Day one and we only managed to catch a flat head. He was a good size but with food in the fridge he went back for someone else to eat. We did get reports of big barra being caught only the day before and the fellow that caught it was coming back again and again. 2 hours before low tide and 2 hours before high tide were the times he recommended. Day two and we tried to cover some more bases with different styles of fishing. Brons had the lures out (but we don't actually have any Barra lures) and tried his luck with some pippies on a Sabiki rig and caught a three fish. One that was unidentified and two that we think were Scats (will confirm later when we look them up). At almost pack it in and go and have a bacardi time our friend showed up again so we kept fishing for a bit. His fishing companion hooked into a barra right at the creek mouth in murky fast flowing water - who'd have thought! Bronson was fishing soft plastics at this stage and Ruth on the fly with a pink thing. Next thing Ruth hooks into something. A bit sluggish to start with but once it realised it was hooked the sage had a reasonable bend in it. A few boils, a couple of small runs and a tighten of the drag and we realised that it was a barra! Happy Ruth! He was about 40cm and maybe 5lb. Apologies for my tummy hanging out in the photo - must get around to sewing that button back on!

And just to prove that it was caught on the fly......

Handed the rod to Brons (as his was in Lulu) to see if we could make it two. But that was it. The other fellow and his friend landed three keepers (60cm) and dropped two for the session. So a couple of celebratory bacardis have been had and we are getting up early tomorrow to catch the top of the incoming tide again to see if we can do it all again. Did I mention Happy Ruth?!

An now she leaks!

And we thought the sand flies were bad when we posted you last.....the next morning at the Elliot river we were awoken by people launching their boats for the day and about a kabillion sand flies in Lulu. They were small enough to get through the mesh of the fly screens and had a wonderful morning wee on us! A very red spotted Brons got up and we took to the road, with Ruth still in bed! We headed back to a rest stop on the highway for breakfast without the sand flies! Our plan was to head to Bowling Green National Park for a spot of fishing but the access road was a little to extreme for Lulu so we camped at Alligator Creek in the NP instead. Here we had a wander about and saw some turtles and were inundated by all the Townsvillians making the most of the end of their easter break in one of the few croc free swimming holes.

We rolled into Townsville for some supplies the next morning. Was quite suprised that it was an ok town really. Not much to do there given it was still a public holiday, except for a restock and some more bacardi (the duty free just ran out). We ended up camped at Balgal Beach in a nice little spot that was free right on the beach. Sadly the inlet yielded no fish - think it had been well and truly flogged over the easter period. The weather started to cut up rough that night with horizontal rain and huge winds carrying the sand from the beach with it, our dinner was cold 30 seconds after hitting the plates from the wind. No wonder the beach there was covered in shells and coral. We did find some cowries, a turtle bone and a few nice bits of coral. Next morning we headed to Paluma NP for a walk and check out some falls, a nice walk with some pretty clever track design over the creeks and creek beds. On to Ingham and we decided to call into a tyre shop to check out a slow leak we have had since Christmas. "Sorry mate this tyre is no longer serviceable". $105 later and we replaced the tyre, as the puncture was through the side wall.....hmm.

On to Wallaman falls, the tallest single drop waterfalls in the country. 50km from Ingham and we got about 20km in and found out that the road was shut! Turn back around and head for plan B. Onto Hull Heads for a spot of inlet fishing. We did a lap around Tully on the way to take in the big golden gumboot. Then out to Hull Heads in the sheeting rain. We got there and Yasi had left her mark big time. Not many houses left down in there of at Tully heads that were livable anymore, roofs everywhere and not a window in sight. The campground at Hull Heads was shut as it has been set up as a place for the remaining locals to go and have a shower etc. Bugger, the inlet looked mighty fishable but mighty crocy too Pushed on in the rain to Mission Beach. Now this is supposed to be where Yasi hit the hardest but all looks ok on the house front, a few munted up coconuts but nothing like back down the road. It poured and poured and poured and it's going to keep raining for the next three days! We had a very sleepless and soggy night. The door seal around the boot - yep the one above our heads started to leak last night. Shiiit! We did a little giggery pokery and moved the mattress and tried to direct the flow but sleep was not really much of an option after that.

So we're wet, tired, grumpy, itchy as all hell from the sandflies and Ruth still has a cold for when we were standing in the rain in Emerald fixing Lulu. Hopefully the weather is better on the way back down so we can go back and do some of the stuff we've missed out on. Thinking of you all xxxxxxx

We're in cane country now!

Sandflies! They're worse than mosquitos! We're currently under attack from hundreds of the little blighters at riverside camp/shanty town near the mouth of the Elliot River about 45kms north of Bowen. It's getting darker now tho which seems to be when they bugger off so we should be all good very shortly. So how did we get here? Well, from Duaringa we made our way to Rockhampton and then north to Smally's Creek fro a couple of nights. Big spacious camp sites were a feature here and we quite liked the place. We got to do a bit of this:

Which landed us a few of these:

We were hoping we might come across a barra or two but they weren't to be found. And no we didn't keep any of the fish for good friday. We had lamb chops! By that stage we had moved on to a place called Platypus Bush Camp neighbouring the Finch Hatton N.P. This was also a top little spot with the best rainforest shower set up you are ever likely to come across. Wazza who runs the place is a bit of a character and can be seen much of the time wandering the camp chatting to campers, beer in one hand, joint in the other! We took some time out to wander into Finch Hatton Gorge and check out the Araluen Falls. Ruth was game enough to get into the water for a paddle but didn't last long. It was freezing! Downstream at the camp it was noticeably warmer and we both enjoyed a dip there. Meanwhile, Wazza was trying to get us to stay a bit longer and do a bit of work around the place for free lodgings. He even went as far as asking if we'd like to look after the place for a couple of weeks so he could have a break! We were a little tempted but decided against it and this morning made our way back to the coast and north to our current location. We even treated ourselves to fish and chips in Bowen for lunch and now neither of us is hungry. The critters are tho. The sandflies have abated and now the mozzies are having their turn. Think we better find some more insect repellent. Be good peoples!

On the road again... again!

Lulu rides again! But first, a quick overview of our time at Rolleston. Three nights in all were spent camped in the machinery yard owned by Greg aka Crusty our friendly tow truck driver. And why wouldn't he be friendly, he made about $1000 from RACT towing us around! He even let us off the $100 that RACT wouldn't cover. He wasn't a bad bloke and we appreciate everything he did for us. Our fellow campers were numerous and liked to take a dip in the evenings, much to our inconvenience.

Still we got along very well. Cant say much for this next fellow tho who didn't appreciate Bronson getting too close with the camera!

We took in the sites of lovely Rolleston on day 2. Took us all of 5 minutes to walk from one side to the other. And back! Unfortunately the local eatery "Corrugated Cuisine" had closed it's doors so we were unable to sample whatever road kill they may have been serving. We did manage however to trap us a few nice big red claw crayfish which we had for an entree last night. Then this morning it was time to load Lulu back onto the truck for the 140km trip to Emerald and salvation!

Yes, it was raining. We feared that the rivers may have risen enough to trap us in Rolleston but it was not to be and we finally made it to Repco in Emerald where we bid our farewells to Crusty and his rig. We picked up our new coil from Repco, bolted it in and turned the key. Nothing! Turns out the old one was fine and the problem lay somewhere else. Bugger. We were now stuck in Emerald and every mechanic was booked solid until after Easter. A final phone call and a quick explanation of the problem had a helpful mechanic telling us to replace the condenser and points. Luckily Repco had the bits in stock and after fitting them Lulu was up and running!

A very happy Bronson showing his relief in spite of being saturated. So, off to the Supermarket for supplies and then we got the fudge outta there before we could be flooded in. 170kms later and we're in a free campsite located at Duaringa about 100km west of Rockhampton. We'll make our way to the coast tomorrow and push northwards despite the threatening weather. Looks like we're in for alot more rain but we shant admit defeat just yet. Stay tuned for more soggy adventures!

Lulu Broke

No fish at Burrum Heads. Started the journey inland towards Carnarvon Gorge. Spent a night at Waruma Dam, there are big Barra stocked in this water but we didn't come across any. Then onto Moura and Dawson River to camp the night before the run into the Gorge. A nice camp spot that wasn't in our camping book but was right on the river, had toilets and showers and was free! The recent floods made a mess of the area but you couldn't tell except for the high water mark that was only two feet from the top of the toilet block. Got and earlyish start and headed to Rolleston to fuel up before heading down the Carnarvon road. All fueled up we took off, feeling pretty happy with ourselves......

The roads were long and straight, the sun was shining, we crossed a small flood weir with success, took in the remains of an american airforce plane that went down in the area in the 1940's, then came the second water crossing. On reflection I (Ruth) took the water crossing with a little too much vigor but we came out the other side and kept going fine - for about 500m. We slowed down for a macropod on the road, dropped down the gears and Lulu decided not to go anymore. We thought that maybe a bit of water got into the distributor, so we dried it out, hit it with some WD40 and spent about 3 hours trying to get her going. Not much joy. We could get her to idle sort of but she wouldn't hold. Brons put out the thumb and headed the extra 10km into the Gorge with a family to make some calls. Ruth and the children stayed with Lulu. 2 and a half hours later it was getting dark and Ruth assumed that Bronson must be walking back from the Gorge. A friendly farmer asked if Ruth was ok and said he'd drive down the road looking for Brons. Yep Brons was walking and running at times back to Lulu and the farmer picked him up. In the meanwhile the towie showed up to hook up Lulu and take us back to Rolleston.

Greg our tow truck man was happy for us to park up in his truck yard for the night so we made camp in his shed. Not Carnarvon Gorge but at least we were dry and we only had to share it with a few cane toads, mice and some green tree frogs in the toilet.

It was a sleepless night worrying about what's wrong with Lulu and the neighbour that had his tunes pumping out till sunrise. Brons got to work on Lulu first thing and had some help from one of the other fellas staying in the yard. He wasn't much help but he tried none the less. There doesn't appear to be enough spark so we reckon the coil has died (again! we replaced this before we left). Did a scrounge around all the abandoned cars of Rolleston and found a coil but it didn't fix our problems. So now we wait, we will head to Emerald on Monday morning in the tow truck again to get ourselves a new coil. We have tracked on down and hopefully that will get us going again. If not then we will be in a place that has mechanics and we can get an assessment done.

All we've got to say is thank fudge we got the ultimate road side package with RACT! Everyone has been really helpful (except for all the cars that passed Brons walking and didn't pull up and offer him a ride), Greg is letting us stay at his yard till Monday. The RACT would cover accommodation but we're not really keen on leaving Lulu with all our gear in a truckies yard unsupervised.

So we're a bit bummed out but we'll survive. It's our two year anniversary today - not quite the way we planned on spending it but oh well it's all part of our adventure and lets face it it was going to happen sooner or later! Take care and we'll keep you posted once we get to Emerald.

Someone should blow mosquitoes up!

From Tegan and Ben's we headed past Brisbane and on to Rainbow Beach. We stopped and admired the pristine coast line, then we saw the endless stream of 4x4s that were cruising up and down the beach. We drove up to Inskip point to camp. Great spot with heaps of camping options. Just heaps of people - everywhere! The 2 barges to Fraser island were running non stop all day, so there must have been heaps of people over there too. We managed to find a patch hidden in the she oaks without too many close neighbors. We spent a couple of nights here fishing the beach on the Fraser Island side and managed to catch 12 dart on yellow crazy charlie flies. We attracted a bit of attention throwing a fly around on the beach but no one else was catching anything! It was a great beach with dolphins swimming only 20m from shore. We tried to fish the flats on the Tin Can bay side of the point but we didn't catch anything. We are regretting not converting Lulu into a four wheel drive now! Would have been fun driving on the beach and heading over to Fraser for a look. Every fishing guide we check out or local we talk to suggests going to Fraser - Grr!

From Inskip we headed to Kauri Creek for a look but we found out once we got there that a boat was a necessity so we thought we would knock a few k's on the head and went to Wongi state forest (on the way to Hervey Bay). Not much to report there. We put a yabbie trap in and caught some huge water bugs that ended up eating all of our bait, we had a cold shower and was eaten alive by mozzies. Did I mention being eaten alive my mozzies??! It must be a recurring theme cause that is what is happening to us now as we type this blog. We're at Burrum Heads just north of Hervey Bay. We called into Hervey Bay this morning but the only options for fishing was on the pier with half of the residents of the area. Not much for fly fishing so we headed up here to check out the flats. The tides were a bit wrong by the time we got here so we are staying the night so we can fish the falling tide tomorrow morning. Think we'll start heading inland towards Canarvon Gorge over the next couple of days but we just checked the school holidays and they start at the end of the week so it could be a bit crowded everywhere until after easter. Hopefully it's quieter in there than on the coast!

We're both well, struggling to readjust to life in Lulu after being in NZ with a bigger van with a kitchen and the luxury of being able to sit up inside without being attacked by critters! Been talking about the future more than ever and even started to ponder what sort of jobs and where we might like to end up. Hopefully we will have an epiphany soon or maybe Lulu will magically turn into a 4x4 with a boat! Love to you all from us xxx

Bugger, we're back!

You've gotta love a country where the national fencing championship involves the actual building of fences! We had a ball in NZ even though the weather was more often than not less than hospitable. That's right, it was cold and most of the time the wind made things difficult. Needless to say it played havoc with the fishing but we'd do it all over again and will even consider moving there for a year or two. We saw some pretty amazing scenery but didn't get to see any real live kiwis. We were too busy looking for fish like these:

This was our first fish for the trip which got us pretty excited. Unfortunately we didn't catch too many more like this for a couple of weeks. Eventually we did find a couple more tho like this one:

And not to be outdone, Ruth provided fish of the trip, a 7lb beauty from Lake Marymere.

Other high-lights included a jet boat ride at Queenstown and some of the magic views that stretched on for miles as we made our way around the south island in our campervan that we named Nora. She was a little bigger and faster than Lulu and we were able to stay out of the weather as she had a built in kitchen. The bed however was terrible and we needed to buy some extra foam and blankets to make sleeping a little easier. And then there were the sand flies. And boy did they love me! Ruth copped a few bites also but there was something about me that really got them buzzing!

We spent so much of our time cruising around inland that it wasn't until the second last day when we got our first glimpse of the coast. Had it not been for the foul weather killing off a last chance at catching a few more fish we might not have seen it at all. On our last day as we tried to find the airport, we ended up driving through Christchurch. It's not until you're at street level that you really begin to appreciate the destruction caused by the recent quakes. It really was devastating.

Eventually we found ourselves back at the campervan depot where we handed back the keys to Nora with no real dramas. We didn't tell them that we managed to break a headlight and then fix it ourselves. It was probably much cheaper than letting the company fix it. A complimentary shuttle bus dropped us off at the airport and after a couple of hours we flew out of Christchurch watching the snow covered mountains fade into the distance. We've been back a couple of nights now. Spent two nights with Pedro @ "The Well" and now we're at Tegan's place waiting for everyone to finish work for the day. Not sure where to next but we'll let you know when we get there! Be good peoples!

Trout PB for Bronson!

Hey all, just a quick post to let everyone know we got into NZ safely and didn't even feel the latest quake. Weather a bit average but had a nice couple of days up Hanmer Springs way. Caught only the one fish but he was around the 5lb mark so very pleased all the same. Biggest trout for Bronson to date! Anyways, we're about to get back on the road and push on towards the bottom of the island. Take care peoples!

PS. Our phone doesn't work properly over here. We can receive calls and texts but we cannot send any so don't stress if you don't hear from us!

xxxxxxx

God defend New Zealand

That's right. We're off! Actually by this time tomorrow we'll be there. 19 days of campervanning around the south island chasing monster trout. Ruth is currently tying up some more flies for the trip. We think we have most of it organised but no doubt we'll discover we've missed something once we get there. Not too much has happened since our last blog. We've mostly been staying with friends and family killing a bit of time. Of course there was Erin and Lachlan's wedding last week which went off without a hitch. Nothing over the top, just a small bunch of family and friends, a simple ceremony and lunch at the Bavarian Beer House where they served us beers we couldn't jump over! It was a great day and we're pretty happy to welcome Lachlan into the family. Other than that things have been pretty quiet. We're staying with Pedro for another night and hopefully someone will be able to run us to the train station in the morning to catch the 5am train to the airport. We bought ourselves a few NZ dollars today, not that they're worth much! Not sure if we'll get to post any blogs whilst we're across the Tasman as we're not taking the laptop but if find the occasional internet cafe we may be able to let you all know how we're going. We will have our phone tho if anyone needs to get hold of us. And that's about all really. Be good peoples!

We all know frogs go la di da di da

Well the Atkinson dam was nothing to write home about. Pretty boring and none of the amenities at the camp site were available. The next day we pushed on towards Lake Boondooma. We stopped overnight at Benarkin at a nice little camp site which we had all to ourselves. Damage from the recent floods was quite evident as were the cane toads. Must be time to purchase a golf club! Onwards the following day and we stopped for a cuppa at Nanango. Whilst we were pulled over we fired up the laptop and booked ourselves a 19 day campervanning trip around the south island of NZ. That's right, we're going trout fishing! All this is due to commence on the 18th of this month. As we were enjoying our cuppa, Rob and June Hooker passed us on their way to the lake. Small world eh? We eventually arrived at Lake Boondooma despite some terrible directions from our navman (Bronson wanted to throw it out the window!) with Rob and June hot on our tails. They had also brought another couple, John and Judy from Maclean with them. We stayed here for 3 nights catching red claw crayfish and swimming in the lake (along with lots of turtles). Had a great time in spite of the poor weather. Once again the cane toads were out in force but so too were the big green tree frogs in the amenities block. We counted nearly 30 hanging around the showers! We parted company with our fellow campers on Sunday and started heading back towards Brisvegas. We planned on setting up camp at Amamoor only to be told the camp site was closed due to the road being severely damaged by floods. We already knew this as we had ignored several road closed signs to get there. In places 3/4 of the road had collapsed but we still managed to get through. We decided not to risk staying the night in case road works prevented us from getting back out (and getting in trouble!) and made our way to Charlie Moreton camp just outside of Kenilworth. We fell asleep to the chorus of a large contingent of Great Banded Frogs loudly calling throughout the night. That was last night and today we find ourselves in the Beerburrum State Forest. We plan to stay a night or two and check out the Glasshouse Mountains area tomorrow. We considered going to Australia Zoo but $60 a ticket is a little steep in our opinion. By wednesday we should be back in Bris ready for Erin's wedding and preparing ourselves for New Zealand. We need to get some more flies tied and a few more mud crabs from Jacobs Well would go down pretty well too. Tonight though we'll be feasting on Red Claws! Ciao peoples!

Freeloadin'

Well it has been a week of civilisation for us! We spent the night in Byron Bay parked on Marie's front lawn, where Lulu sustained buffeting winds that shook us so hard we woke up. We had a lovely night catching up and listening to the rain and a relaxing morning on the deck having the most scrumptious breakie with Cocoa the rainbow lorrie. From Byron we headed up the coast the scenic way to spend the night with Maree at Burliegh. Another great night and probably the last time I'll get to see my Mummy in a while - she has headed off to Boston now for a conference then back to Tassie. Off to "The Well" to spend some time with Brons' Pa. We had a few good nights knocking back a couple of cans and catching up. We even managed to bag a couple of mud crabs that were very tasty indeed. A morning fishing the falling tide on the flats was unsuccessful but I think Pete enjoyed the opportunity to have a flick with a fly rod. We are at Tegan and Benny's place now and about to hit the road. It's been great to catch up with our sisters, Erin came down on Saturday night with Tegan after work so we could have some time together. A few swims at the pool and beach and a few beers and bacardis later, the weekend flew by and everyone is now back at work. We are heading out now going towards Kingaroy for some impoundment fishing at Boondooma Dam and Atkinson Dam north west of Brissy, hopefully we can catch some red claw.

Big thankyous all round to those that have been putting us up and putting up with us over the last week or so.

Everybody Must Get Stoned

Springbrook NP in the rain and the raincoat performed admirably! We wandered around a circuit track at Purlingbrook falls were we walked behind the falls and got even soggier than we already were! The next day we continued down to Twin falls for anther wander in the rainforest where we saw twin falls and blackfellows falls and discovered some very pretty crayfish burrowing in the debris - they were blue and white and were not easily wrangled. From here we were bulk excited to go the "The Best of All Lookouts", the walk was nice taking in some very old antarctic beech trees, knarled and twisted with time and then onto the lookout. It was foggy again so needless to say we saw a magnificent view of nothing!

From Springbrook we travelled the narrow and winding road up to O'Rielley's plateau where we walked along the suspended tree top walk and even climbed up a couple of ladders to perch ourselves ontop of an emerging tree from the rainforest. We camped at Green Mountain camp ground where we found a rice bubble loving rosella who was taking them out of our hands. We intended to feed the king parrots and rosellas at the bird feeding exhibit but a bus load of Japanese tourists rocked up and we decided to leave them to it. We took a walk out to Python rock to take in the views but once again we were greeted with a view of mist and fog.

On to Canungra and a night by the river at Sharp Park where we shared our camp spot with three tawny frog mouths and watched thousands of bats migrating to the hills for an evening feed. Here we also saw some pale headed rosellas winging their way through the park.

We crossed the border again to NSW via Murwillumbah for supplies before heading to Mebbin NP for a night. We took a walk down to a creek where we saw the biggest strangler figs we have encountered thus far - they were enormous (will post some pics soon), we saw a rather angry looking unidentified snake on our walk which thankfully Bronson didn't try to wrangle. There was a small echidna at camp which we did manage to pick up, not too spiny and rather friendly. An early night was had due to an early rise to climb Mt Warning the next day.

Alarm went off at 5am and we stumbled out of the van to prepare for our walk up the mountain. It was raining but we drove down to the start of the walk regardless. As we sat weighing up our options the rain and fog increased making the decision to slug out 10kms for nil return of views quite easy. We pulled the pin and drove up to Border Ranges NP - Mt Warning would have to wait till a clearer day. With crappy weather the views were again fog filled but we camped at Sheepstation for the night in the hope that tomorrow would be clearer. We heard the most bizarre noise from camp that night - kind of a chook crossed with a pigeon trill. Bronson investigated and managed to locate a red-eyed tree frog. Apparently these frogs don't sound like a chook/pigeon but maybe he was trying to mix it up a bit! We also found an endangered Fleay's Barred Frog hopping along the road which was a good find indeed as they are very rare and have a very small distribution. The next morning was clear so we could take in the lookouts we missed the previous day, spectacular views of Mt Warning and the Tweed Valley (almost don't need to climb the mountain now!) and a few noisey finches alerted Bronson to the presence of a carpet snake settling in the branches of a tree. We started a walk through the rainforest but lost the track so ended up turning back before we got lost.

On to Nimbin to hang out with a few stoners. We were suprised that after spending a good half hour in the village that we were only offered to purchase drugs once! A couple of locals were overheard discussing the scarcity of magic mushies due to the flood and some rather wobbly, hairy looking hippies topped off the experience. We got the fudge out of there and headed for the hills again to Nightcap NP in the Whian Whian Conservation Area. We partook in a much needed wash and a few bacardis to cleanse ourselves of the Nimbin experience, whilst watching lightening from afar - didn't get the storm though.

We are now in Byron Bay about to consider a swim but it looks to be clouding up and the possibility of rain looks pretty high. Will head back towards Mt Warning for another try but think we had better check the weather first this time! Other than that we are both well, not sick of each other yet, Lulu is as happy as she could be given the number of hills she has been climbing lately and the children are asleep on the bed as normal.

Summer Rain

Isn't it supposed to be warm in Qld? We find ourselves sitting at a picnic area in the Springwood National Park about 30 mins drive from the Gold Coast. Whilst happy to be away from the city limits it would be nicer if the sun was out. At least Ruth will be able to use her new rain coat we bought the other day. After setting out from Netty's place last Thursday we crossed the border into Qld where we stayed at a rather well kept little camping spot although we weren't exactly sure where we were. A couple of efforts with the rods in Running Creek yielded no results even tho we spotted plenty of big catfish. From there we pushed onto Burliegh Heads to stay with Maree for a few days in the apartment she is staying in. We explored Tallebudgera Creek with the fly rods where Ruth picked up a couple of nice little flathead. Bronson caught bugger all! The stay with Maree enabled us to get some serious washing done and a few repairs for the children. Namely Frogga who now has 2 sparkly new eyes with which he seems most pleased! After 3 nights in Burliegh we headed into Ashmore to stay with a couple of friends Jon and Raewyn for a night (and a few ales!) and now find ourselves sitting here in the rain. Probably something we'll have to get used to. I don't think there will be fishing on the cards here but if the weather eases there are some nice walks and waterfalls to check out. Future plans are to head back into northern NSW for a week or two to see a bit more of the coast and check out a few rivers before pushing north once again. Anyways, there appears to be a break in the weather so we're off exploring. Take care peoples!

Addicted to Bass!

Hello from Netty's kitchen table!

From Station Creek we headed north up the coast to Wooli (pronounced Woolai not Wooly!). What a great little town, we could see ourselves retiring there one day. We fished the creek with poor results on the first day and camped just out of town at Digger's Camp. That evening just as we were about to give up on the surf fishing Ruth's rod hit the sand and started to take line. A sting ray was landed after much huffing and puffing. We fished Wooli again the next day where we were given a bum steer from a local and ended up in a dud fishing spot so he could steal our spot! Ruth managed to land a couple of flathead on the fly caught in the flats on the outgoing tide at Wooli. Another night back at Digger's Camp, a close encounter with an emu, an experience with a carpet snake wrangling Spaniard and then headed up to Lawrence to spend a couple of nights with June and Rob Hooker. We had a lovely time with the Hooker's, although it was very hot in Lawrence town. A couple of day trips to Yamba and Iluka for some swims were wonderful heat busting adventures. It was amazing to see how quickly the area had recovered from significant floods only three weeks earlier. We left Lawrence with our fridge stocked with home grown vegies from Rob's garden and a container of goodies baked by June. Thank you to you both for having us and your wonderful company. We then headed to one of the Hooker's local fishing holes on the Mann River at Cangai (about an hour west of Grafton). No joy on the fishing front but we managed a heap of swims to cool down (although the water was only marginally cooler at 31 degrees). From Cangai to Kyogle for a cupper with Netty, then out to the bass fishing dam of Toonumber. We had a couple of nights here in the rain but at least it was cooler. Bronson absolutely smashed the bass in the overflow from the dam catching 11 bass in two sessions on soft plastics. Ruth managed 2 on the fly after giving up trying to figure out how to fish a plastic. The fish were hard fighting and a couple were around the 40cm mark, which is apparently pretty bloody good for bass. We also saw the usual assortment of goannas roaming around, the ugliest and biggest cricket we've ever seen and a Peron's tree frog who decided our bed might be a good place to hang out!

We' re at Netty's place in Kyogle now and just got back from a couple of hours fishing at Lynches Creek up the road. One of Netty's friends kindly let us access the creek via their paddock. What a great place, there was a nice deep hole for fishing and swimming. Here we indulged in a lovely lunch and a spot of fishing. Bronson came up trumps with a huge catfish caught on a soft plastic.

Aside, Lulu has had a bit of an upgrade to her battery system. We had some cables made up in Grafton so we could charge the auxiliary battery off the alternator when we are driving. This should help us out when there isn't much sun about.

We are both well, a little sleep deprived before the rains hit a couple of nights ago. It's getting bloody hot in Lulu at night time, especially if there isn't much of a breeze. We have been sleeping upside down in the van so our heads are near the open windows. We think we need to engineer a mozzie proof way of leaving the boot door open overnight so we can get some air and hence some sleep. Might even splurge and buy a 12volt fan.

Heading up to the Gold Coast tomorrow to see all the ex Tassies we known up here. The place seems to be full of them. Keep an eye on the trip photos as we'll attempt to post a few recent fishy photos to prove we can actually catch fish! Be good peoples!

Give me a home among the gum trees

Greetings from Station Creek Beach, somewhere between Coffs Harbour and Grafton. We've just spent our first night here nestled amongst the gum trees, battling the mozzies and sand flies. They're pretty thick! Not to mention the scrub turkey and goannas that lurk around the campsite looking for unattented food supplies! We had a decent couple of days down at Coffs where we finally blooded our saltwater fly rods landing a few flathead each. Much to Bronson's mum's disgust all were released back into the creek to fight another day! The weather has been so-so. Luckily we got a bit of sun yesterday to keep the fridge going. Hopefully we'll get some more today. We're hoping to do some bait fishing today as there are jew fish in the area and we need bait for those. Not much else to report I'm afraid other than we're both well and so is Lulu. Looks like it's time for breakfast so we'll catch yas all later. Love from us!

Mmm Bop

If we hear another Hansen song....well it will be too soon! From Gloucester to Gloryvale via Thunderbolt's way, named after captain Thunderbolt himself. Gloryvale camp was a lovely place, nestled next to the river, quiet and relaxing, even managed to fit in a swim. Then the gloriousness was shattered with the arrival of our lovely campsite neighbours. They were fully deserved of their titles - the king and queen of bogans (and offspring in tow too!). After the same CD (featuring Mmm Bop and the Bitch song just to name a couple of our favs) was played at a kabillion dbs for the third time we packed up camp at 8.30pm and sodded right off up the road to Bretti camp. Bretti looked more like a mobile home and caravan nirvana on the side of a river but it was much quieter despite the over population. On to Walcha continuing up Thunderbolt's way and camped just out of town at Apsley falls. The falls were impressive but we went to bed more excited about the fishing prospects of the river leading upto the falls. The new day came and went without any fishy tales to tell. There are no fish in the river, well not that we could find anyway. The camp ground was great though and we ended up having two nights here despite the poor fishing. Then up to Maree's birth place Armidale, not a bad spot really but the lolly shop near St Mary's school could not be located. From Armidale we continued with the touring route as recommended by Damon, along the waterfall way. We camped one night at Hyatt Flats and managed to bag a couple more trout (4 browns and a rainbow for Bronson and 2 browns for Ruth). The road in was a little hairy but Lulu carved it up. The next two nights and Australia Day were spent at the next camp ground Wattle Flat on the Styx River. No fish caught but we had a relaxing couple of days swimming, drinking cider and listening to JJJ's hottest 100. Now we find ourselves on top of a mountain overlooking Coffs Harbour. We had the afternoon in town poking about the marina and walked out to Muttonbird island (not that it's really an island anymore) and encountered a couple of turtles frollicking in the briny sea. Brons even managed to wrangle a Blue Tongue in true Steve Irwin style! We are now waiting for the sun to come up tomorrow so we can go fishing in the Coffs Harbour Creek, we called in to a tackle store to get the low down on where the fish are biting and we were put on to some flathead and mangrove jack hot spots. Oh and we saw the big banana, it was big and bananaery.

For the record the bass fishing trip to Gillies Creek tally:

Damon 2

Rob 1

Ruth 1/2

Brons no comment!

P.S. Weather has been bloody great. Solar system is working it's arse off!

Somewhere over the rainbows...

Tonight we find ourselves on the outskirts of a little town called Barrington not far from Gloucester. We have spent the previous couple of nights in the very foggy and mostly wet Barrington Tops where we enjoyed a couple of good sessions chasing rainbow trout in the Manning river and Pol Blue creek. All in all we managed 18 rainbows and 1 brown trout. The fish were mostly small but still great fun on our 3 and 4 weight fly rods. Unfortunately due to the fog there weren't too many sights to see but we enjoyed ourselves immensely all the same. We even spied a male lyre bird in full plumage as he took flight across the road to avoid us. This afternoon on our trip down from the tops we pulled over to look at a small red bellied black snake trying to swallow a rather large frog someone had previously run over. We also happened upon a pair of water dragons, neither of which would allow Bronson close enough to affect a wrangling! Tomorrow we're planning on heading north along Thunderbolts way towards Armidale where Ruth's mum was born. Apart from the fog in the Tops, the weather hasn't been too bad. A rather nasty looking thunderstorm passed over us today without incident. For a while it looked as though we were going to cop it. The cooler temperatures in the mountains made for much better sleeping conditions but the nights will once again be warmer now that we're closer to sea level. That's about all the news we have for now. We will probably be out of reception for the next day or two until we hit Armidale. Take it easy peoples!

PS. Damon, you were right. The pub at Moonan Flats is an absolute corker!

On the road again...

Yes we're back to touring the country having returned from a trip back to our native Tasmania. We had a nice time visiting family and friends for 3 weeks and managed a few fishing trips in which we were much more successful than our mainland forays. We even hiked into lake Nameless for a couple of nights picking up some nice brown trout from lake Explorer on our walk in. Thanks go out to our families for putting us up (and putting up with us!). It felt a little strange not having our own place! Upon returning to Sydney we stayed a few nights with John and Judy who we really cant thank enough for their hospitality. We also need to put a shout out to Seamus who took us out on Sydney harbour in his boat for an evenings fishing. Unfortunately the fishing action was very slow. Ruth caught a small eel while Bronson somehow reeled in a star fish! After three nights with the Reids we headed up to Singleton to stay with friends Damon, Donna and Tilly who have just welcomed their son and little brother, Joe into the world. In spite of having a 4 day old baby in the house and Damon's parents Rob and June, they were only too happy to have us park our little van on the front lawn for a few days. Again we really appreciate the hospitality. Damon was able to take us for a fish where Ruth managed her first bass on the fly. Bronson on the other hand came up empty handed losing the only fish he hooked after a poor leader join failed! We enjoyed three nights with Damon and family reminiscing old times and gleaning camping and fishing hints for our future adventures. We took a day trip into Medowie where Bronson and family lived for a couple of years and caught up with Aunty Colleen and cousin Elizabeth which was fantastic. Today we find ourselves at Lake Glenbawn having put up with temperatures in the high 30s. It was enough to force us to seek refuge in the cool but uninviting waters of the dam (it's only a little grotty looking!). It has cooled off considerably now as we sit here being attacked by mozzies! Our plan is to head into Barrington Tops for the next couple of days where we'll once again be chasing trout that supposedly call the rivers home. Anyways, I cant type and swat mozzies at the same time so we'll love you and leave you. Cheers!