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!