A surprise visitor and fishing success

What are the chances of someone you know being sent over from the UK by the company they work for, to a town only half an hour away from Point Samson?  We couldn’t believe it when our good friend Andrew Smith sent us a message to say he would be in Karratha for the week with a couple of work colleagues to give a training course.

Winston was delighted to see Andy again but I think he was wondering what had happened to Andy’s girlfriend (and Jonathan’s cousin) Sophie.   Sophie was in fact back in Chester, spitting chips at not being able to come too.

The trio had a bit of time off and were keen fishermen so they drove over to Point Samson where Jonathan joined them.  They caught quite a variety of fish.

The Trevally were big enough to eat and very tasty they were too!

 

11,000 km later – the 2 ½ Bradshaws reach the Top End

What a journey it’s been, all the way up the Stuart Highway from Adelaide to Darwin, with a detour to Uluru.

We arrived in Darwin on Tuesday and are staying at a Barramundi fishing and conservation park on the outskirts.  It has everything to keep the 2 ½ Bradshaws happy.  Winston can run around off leash with the owners’ two corgis and have a cooling dip in the lake.  There’s a tinnie for campers’ use which Jonathan takes out to try and catch a Barra for supper.  It’s lovely and peaceful and I can sit reading, watching the birdlife and taking photographs.

At the Darwin Italian Festival – missing my little Fiat.

Darwin’s year round temperature is consistently around 32 degrees C and the seasons in the Top End are referred to as Wet and Dry.  May to October is the peak visitor time during the dry season when the night time temperature can drop to a cool 20 degrees.  We’re also now in croc country. The crocodylus porosus or saltwater crocodile is known as a ‘saltie’ in the Top End and it’s definitely at the top of the food chain.  The highest concentration in Australia is around Darwin and the river systems to the south.  After being hunted nearly to extinction, they are now a protected species in Australia and there is estimated to be 200,000 of them in the wild.

We saw possibly the most famous saltie of all – a 5 metre male called Sweetheart who is stuffed and on display at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.

Whilst I can’t say I’m a fan of salties, I did feel sorry for old ‘Sweetheart’.   He terrorised boaties in the 1970s, and in 1979, it was decided to catch him and keep him in captivity.   They gave him a sedative but thought it hadn’t worked as he was still active.  What they didn’t realise was, it had shut down the system which prevents crocs from drowning.  Sweetheart became tangled underwater and slowly drowned.

The taxidermist given the task of stuffing Sweetheart actually took home some of the meat for dinner.  Here’s a link to this very interesting story:  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-04/the-darwin-sweetheart-crocodile-taxidermy-story/7587666

Sweetheart then went on a tour of Australia to promote the Northern Territory, though I’m not sure how telling people you’ve got dangerous saltwater crocodiles persuades them to visit!

The other particularly interesting exhibit at the museum tells the story of Cyclone Tracy which devastated Darwin on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 1974.  The cyclone reached wind speeds of over 200 km/hr and destroyed over 70% of buildings in the city.  Seventy-one people lost their lives.  They have a dark, sound proof booth where you can hear a recording of the cyclone at its height.

Jonathan flew to Australia with his mum in January 1975 and can remember their plane being diverted to Darwin to pick up evacuees.

 

Continuing North …

Daly Waters Pub

A real surprise on the highway.  The pub must be making thousands of dollars every night from drinks, pub meals and the campsite.  Mostly grey nomads there and the pub knows how to entertain them for the night with a beef and barra bbq and live Aussie country music singalongs.  It was nice to sit in comfy chairs with a cold beer at the end of a long hot day though.

Travellers have left all sorts of things hanging around the pub such as hats, thongs and underwear.

Bitter Springs, Mataranka

Bitter Springs is in the Elsey National Park.  It’s a thermal pool where the water rises from underground at a fairly constant 34 degrees C.  Dogs not allowed of course but the pool is only a short walk from the campsite where we’re staying.  Reception hires out noodles and masks and snorkels.  It was a lovely refreshing swim in this dust and 30 degree heat.

Jonathan went off fishing in the nearby river but after spotting this freshie lurking in the water, he decided an afternoon lounging in the hammock was much safer. 

We’re now only 110 km South of Katherine and 424 km South of Darwin.

Whale fishing in Victoria

I popped into the local fly fishing spot to get a recommendation for the best fly to use on the Murray River and they sold me this!

Just for comparison, the titchy little thing below is the actual fly (now looking a little frazzled) that landed a magnificent 40cm Brown Trout which fed us for two days. By my reckoning, based on that scale, they have sperm whales in the Murray. Funny, I thought that they lived in the sea.

They tell me that the true target, Murray Cod, are basically a huge mouth with a tail and will happily consume unwary mice, rats, coots and small possums that are foolish enough to go for a swim. This I have got to see!!!

The one that didn’t get away

Dalgety is a historic little town on the banks of the Snowy River.  Interestingly, in 1904, it was shortlisted as a possible site for the nation’s new capital.

The holiday park had rave reviews and we were soon feeling very relaxed sat in the sunshine by the river.  Jonathan didn’t hold out much hope of catching a big fish here but went out early in the morning and late at night.  I was getting a bit fed up with eating late every night when he failed to catch dinner.  I told Jonathan we were going to eat before he went out fishing last night and would you believe it, within 20 minutes he was back, having caught a 40cm brown trout.

We baked it the following night, wrapped in foil, for 30 minutes with lemon, salt and pepper, olive oil and some fennel from the nearby community herb garden.  It tasted delicious and had a very delicate flavour.

Mt Kosciusko (nearly)

Jindayne Tourist Park was everything the 2 ½ Bradshaws could want from a campsite.  A camping spot right on the edge of Lake Jindabyne, dog friendly, walking tracks, Grade A amenities and a town within walking distance that also had a coffee roastery.  I’m sure the town must be much busier and have a different feel in the winter when it’s ski season.

This was the closest we could get to Mt Kosciusko, Australia’s highest peak, as once again, it was a National Park and no dogs are allowed.  There is a statue in Jindabyne park of Sir Paul Strzelecki, the Polish explorer who discovered Mt Kosciusko and named it in honour of the Polish leader.

 

“I’ve found a lovely quiet ‘day camping’ area on the Thredbo River,” said Jonathan.  “I can fish nearby while you relax in the van.”  Well he’d managed to pick the day when NSW Fisheries were holding a workshop at the site, on river flow testing, so we walked a fair way along the river until we were past them all.  There were some mighty gum trees and some mighty big wombat burrows too.  It made me wonder if wombat burrows had given JRR Tolkien the idea for hobbit burrows.

 

Jonathan manages to catch his second brown trout – twice the size of the first one!

Trout and about

We couldn’t leave this part of the world without heading west to the Snowy Mountains.  As we drove through the town of Adaminaby, we crossed ‘The Big Trout’ off our list.  Not the usual tacky looking big thing, but a high quality sculpture.

Joke photo with big trout

We camped up by Lake Eucumbene which is a very scenic and relaxing place.  The weather is still good, although cooling down at night.  I was able to sit and read peacefully, Jonathan went fishing and Winston loved chasing the rabbits.  The only downside for poor Winston was trying to shake off Betty, the manager’s blue heeler who took a shine to him.  She finally resorted to hiding underneath the van and jumping out at him.

This is the only photographic evidence of a catch – apparently the big ones kept taking Jonathan unawares and escaping the fly!

Not a joke photo with big trout

The Waterfall Way (a way with lots of waterfalls)

Bellingen

‘Danny Deckchair’ is one of our favourite Australian movies.  It stars Rhys Ifans and Miranda Otto and was filmed in Bellingen so we visited one of the filming locations.

Kilkenny House, Bellingen. The setting for ‘Glenda’s house’.

 

The Bellinger River and a spot of fly fishing.

Dangar Falls, Dorrigo

A disastrous stop for the 2 ½ Bradshaws – Jonathan’s fly fishing rod snapped and Winston was stung by a bee.

Dangar Falls

 

Ebor Falls, Ebor

A spectacular two-tier waterfall on the Guy Fawkes River.  The river was named by European settlers who named it after Guy Fawkes as they were camped there on the 5th November.  Ebor Falls are in a National Park and dogs are not allowed so we had to take turns looking at them. We stopped overnight at a very nice free camp site over the road.

Luckily we’re self contained as I didn’t fancy using the long drop toilet.  I felt sorry for this poor lady.
Ebor Falls