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!