The Adventures of Chris and Terry’s kids
The mighty Fitzroy claims another victim…
A nice relaxing day on the Fitzroy at Red Air. Dad and I fished, Emma lay on a towel and read, and Mum did her best to chase fish upstream. In all honesty though, Mum was very excited by the prospect of being able to do her “500 metre” daily swim without actually travelling one metre. Worth noting that we didn’t actually catch any fish in that spot… not sure why!
A busy long weekend transplanting our herbs from their pots to a new herb garden out the back. Since we haven’t really been able to get lawn growing at all out the back, we thought it may be better to just dig it up and plant things in it instead.
So far, our herb garden has six basil plants, one developed chilli plant, two chilli seedlings, two oregano bushes, chives, parsley, two rosemary bushes, mint and two curry seedlings. We may keep digging it out further in the next few weeks as our cherry tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin and capsicum seeds begin to sprout.
After a couple of weeks of frustrating fishing (three undersize barra in a row!!!), we took a longer trek upstream at the gorge, up to a spot that we were later told was “just past the first hole”, but “not quite the second hole”. We had a great session with the sooty grunter, pulling in five great size bream.
Two weeks without even a decent run on the barra lines, Troy and myself then decided to try a different tack – Donkey Crossing. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that the rain from a couple of weeks ago had made it impossible to get the car (and therefore the boat and trailer) anywhere near the water. Not to be outdone by nature, we took the boat off the trailer, pushed it down the bank, and carried it the 50 metres or so to the water. Absolutely knackered, and wondering if it was all worth it, we then waited for Andrew and his son Liam to arrive before trying a troll in an area that surely had not had a boat (and therefore a fishing line) in it for a long time. Sure enough, I managed to break the run of undersize barra and pulled in a very nice 75cm beauty. With only a few weeks left surely before the water gets too cold, it was good to get at least one more before we wait for October to roll around!
In what has become an almost annual event (two Easters in a row, anyway) I made the trek to Looma for a couple of days of fishing – this time with Emma in tow! We travelled across with a couple of friends, Troy and Sally – Troy taught in Looma for four years, and for him it was as much a chance to catch up with his adopted family as much as relaxation.
After a quick lunch in Camballin, we thought we’d drive to check out some camping spots… unfortunately, the water doesn’t flow downstream as quickly as we thought! Whereas in Fitzroy, the water is low again, and almost beginning to clear up, the creeks around Looma were still in full flood – the closest we were able to get to the Fitzroy River was about ten kilometres away! Needless to say, this limited the fishing.
We trekked back into New Looma and met up with the family. They suggested a billabong right in front of the Liveringa Station homestead (Looma is on Liveringa land). When we showed reservations about effectively camping in someone’s front yard we were assurred that no-one lived there as it had been condemned. We trotted off, set up camp, and then launched the boat and kayaks into the billabong and proceeded to fish (unsuccessfully).
About 5:30pm, the ute pulled up, the station managers who live in the homestead got out (talk about bum information!) and began to berate us. Although we were able to deflect the “This is traditional Aboriginal fishing grounds, you can’t fish here” talk by dropping the names of the Looma chairperson who had given us permission, we had to agree that it was unsavoury to camp in their front yard. They allowed us to stay that night (as it was already dark), and we packed up camp and drove back into the Looma the following day. Fun, fun!
We spent the following day relaxing at the creek crossing that cut us off from the river, launching the boat there, trying some fishing, failing, swimming and generally relaxing. At one stage, Troy motored off, and came back fairly excited about a creek joining the main creek about a kilometre upstream. He decided to motor back, while I unhitched the camper-trailer and drove the car along the track to get there. I didn’t get there. Now, I’m sure I wasn’t as badly bogged as Derek was in Herald Bight, as it only took Troy’s Troopie three running rips with the snatch-strap to heave me out. Black soil is nasty stuff, especially when you hit it in third gear. We gave up on the creek upstream.
We finished the day off with a walk from New Looma (where we stayed in the community shed rather than set up camp for one more night), with a couple of local boys showing us the Looma Rockhole, about a two kilometre walk away. Great stuff! Overall, even without the fishing, it was a most relaxing couple of days!
Another annual Easter trip to Shark Bay is over. For the second year running, we were joined by Derek and Joy for a week. Last year, the four of us were a little cramped on “Cape Rose” (RL24 trailer sailer) but this year we enjoyed the relative luxury of “Sandpiper” (Court 750).
The plan was for Derek to tow our off-road camper with his Mitsubishi Magna while we would tow “Sandpiper” with the 4WD. Having launched “Sandpiper” at Monkey Mia, Derek would swap the trailer to the 4WD, park the Magna at Monkey Mia and proceed North through Peron National Park to a camp site at Herald Bight. Meanwhile, we would sail the 20 nautical miles to Herald Bight. Alas, the grand plan started to unravel early on when, after a night at a caravan park in Denham, I couldn’t find the car keys. They never have turned up so I suppose you can call them “lost” rather than “misplaced”. Fortunately, we had a spare set so we set off for Monkey Mia. Once there, we found that the spare keys did not include a key for the tow hitch pin so Derek had to drive the 4WD back to Denham, find someone to cut the pin off with an oxy torch, return to Monkey Mia, swap hitches and trailers (the camper has a Tregg Hitch) and go on to Herald Bight.
We sailed North under a very light Easterly. For a while, we pretended to gain some advantage from the wind by running a jib but eventually the lack of air would not even hold a sail shape so we just motored. We arrived at the camp site about 1:30pm and were horrified to find that the beautiful spreading Tamarisk trees that had provided shade since early in the 20th Century had been cut down by the authorities to avoid issues with public liability. Insanity! With no sign of Derek by 3pm, I enlisted the aid of a chap camped a kilometre down the beach and set off to search. We found him about half a km inland and well and truly bogged (both car and trailer). A troopie with two German tourists had stopped to help so we hooked on a snatch strap and soon had the car moving.
However, it refused to budge with the trailer attached so we formed a train with a Defender snatching our Ford Explorer which snatched the camper. With this arrangement, we made it through to the beach and set up camp on the saw dust remains of the Tamarisks.
Over the next few days, we enjoyed some magic weather and some terrific fishing. The nearly-best fish of the week was a large spanish mackerel that took a trolled Halco Laser Pro off Cape Peron. He managed to get it up to the boat before losing it. Just as well, as it was too much fish for us to handle.
Derek and Joy departed at the end of the week and we took some R&R in Denham. A highlight of the Easter weekend for us was a reunion of the “Class of ’79” for the students who attended Shark Bay Primary School. I had much pleasure in catching up with some of my former pupils and their families.
The second week we based ourselves at Monkey Mia, sailing North to Cape Rose and down to the Southern end of Faure Island. The fishing was excellent, with some very large black snapper and a couple of super sized tailer. This trip represented a return to the Eastern Gulf of Shark Bay after many years of exploring the Western Gulf. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have promised to return to Monkey Mia on our next trip.
Better late than never! After two months of wondering where the rains were, the Kimberley finally got some water into its river systems. While the Fitzroy River technically went into flood (the flood level is 18.8 metres, and it got to 20.6 metres), it was the Brooking Channel’s flood that cuts off the roads within the townsite itself.
Amazingly, as quickly as the water levels rose, they dropped – from a 4 metre crossing on the Geikie Gorge road on Saturday, by Tuesday we were able to cross the road. These photos were taken on Sunday morning, and it had already dropped by about two metres overnight. With all this rain (and who knows if it is the last of the wet), it should mean there is plenty of water in the river until next wet – so the fishing should be great come October/November! I’m planning to do a fair bit of fishing these Easter holidays, including getting to Looma to tackle a different part of the might Fitzroy.
After a week teaching in Ngalapita, and no rain on Thursday and Friday, I felt confident enough in the roads to attempt a drive back to Fitzroy Crossing for the weekend to visit Emma. The road out was fine, with only a little bit of Low Range 4WDing necessary. Christmas Creek was the only hairy bit – it was flowing at 98cm, and crossing it in the school troopie saw the water coming up and over the bonnet to about two inches above the base of the windscreen.
But, safely home, I got to spend the weekend with my wife! An extra perk was being able to watch the Australia-South Africa game on TV as well on the Saturday night. Unfortunately, just as I left Ngalapita, torrential rain hit the area, and this resulted in me being unable to drive back. I left the car in Fitzroy Crossing, and was forced to catch the plane back in again – hopefully we can get the car back in next weekend. I took plenty of photos from my mobile phone of the flood plains – as you can see, the Fitzroy River is not in flood at the moment, but is certainly very full!
Almost one week down in my temporary posting at Ngalapita Remote Community School! After an illness to the Principal here, and a few teachers covering the classroom over the past few weeks, I’ve come in to finish off the term (two and a half weeks) with the kids.
Unfortunately, there has been a bit of rain during the week, which has made it very difficult to get out and about and explore too much. I did manage to get down to the local billabong, but alas, with no charged batteries, was unable to capture any pictures! I caught a couple of bream, but no barra.
The staff here are great, and working under some very trying conditions – it is a three teacher school, but with the school still one teacher down, there has been zero DOTT in the school at all this term. The community is very small, with about twelve to fifteen attending the school each day, aging from kindergarten to Year 11. My class is a Year 3 to Year 11 class.
There are two ways of getting to the main highway – one through Nookambar, the other through Djugaridi – alas, when it rains, it is near impossible to cross the Fitzroy River near Nookambar, and it is imposssible to get past Christmas Creek on the Djugaridi road. For that reason, we’re stuck here at the moment, with a plane flying in suppiles to the local shop. I am hoping that Christmas Creek will drop enough by tomorrow evening to drive back to Fitzroy for the weekend! I’ll try to take more pictures to post… hopefully with an authentic Ngalapita barramundi within the frame!
During the week a few of my mates took me out to Little Creatures to celebrate/commiserate the finalisation of my divorce. Good times!
It seems that instead of me having to give back the BBQ they gave me as a wedding present, they pitched in and got me a divorce present. You really can’t go wrong with mates like that! So thanks to Az, Andy, Luke, Brooke and Alan for the fantastic gift, the first results of which can be seen below.
| So what was the gift? A Wacom Intuous3 graphics tablet for making proper digital art. I’ve been eyeing one off for a long time but couldn’t justify the expense on a hobby.
Below is the result of my first night of playing around and learning to use the tablet. So far I’ve found two things: it speeds up the existing work I could do with a mouse (mostly bezier curves in Inkscape) by at least double; and it allows freehand sketching and painting that was impossible before with a mouse. |
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I think I’m going to get a lot of use out of this!
This is an attempted self portrait, drawn using the tablet and Corel Painter. The (virtual) media used is a 2B pencil and a dry-brush watercolour. Click the image for a larger version.
The long drive north from Perth (made all the longer by a food-poisoning episode that kept us in Newman for an extra two nights) showed the real difference between a Pilbara wet season and a Kimberley wet season. They don’t even compare, really.
On the drive from Broome to Fitzroy, we were hit with huge rains, slowing us right down with visability down to a bare minimum. Worst of all, about 30km out of Fitzroy we came across a flash flood across the road that looked a bit hairy… it was past my knees and nearly taking me off my feet when I walked it through. This is all on the Number One Highway! However, we left the windows down, seatbelts came off and zoomed through in low-range without too many problems in the end.
Upon reaching Fitzroy Crossing, the rains continued to the point where we have been issued with a flood warning (our house is not in any danger, though). The flood waters are now about 200 metres from the house, and lapping the back fence of the school. The photos are not great, as they have come from my mobile phone… but they are a start! Continue reading
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