To the Little Finnis (and Big)

Graham showed us the Little Finnis today - was good to follow him in as the mouth can be a little tricksy - you need to follow the channel in. Tim Cowen also went with Graham.  I had my two boys.  We launched at Dundee Lodge.

Was a nice day - Danny caught a couple of barra.  We were surprised by how many crocs were in the Little Finnis - which is really just a big creek.  One particularly large one was pretty scary - especially when Daniel through his orange at it.

 We went to the big Finnis on the way back to the lodge but didn't have any luck.  Was good to explore the river though.

Another nice barra

Graham and Tim Cowen trawling

A decent croc with a bit of bacon

Cape Leveque Trip

A place holder for our Cape Leveque trip Jun 26 - Jul 11 2010.  Will update with details and photos.

Fri 18 Jun - Last day of school

Fri 25 Jun - Dads last day of work

Sat 26 Jun - Drive to Wyndham to visit and/or pickup Monica

Mon 28 Jun - Drive to Broome - stay there 1 night

Tue 29 Jun - Drive to Middle Lagoon - stay there 3 nights

Fri 2 Jul - Drive to Cape Leveque and stay there until Friday 9th of July

Fri 9 Jul - Drive back to Broome and stay there for the night

Sat 10 Jul - Drive to Wyndham and stay night

Sun 11 Jul - Drive home

Mon 19 Jul - Back at school/work for all of us

Michael (Mikey) Brown 15/4/86-4/1/10

Whilst on holidays in Queensland we recieved the shocking news on this day Gwenny's nephew Michael Brown has tragically passed away due to an electrical accident at home.

Mikey was only 23 years old and had only been married about a year to his beautiful wife Allison.

Mikey's parents are Gwenny's older sister Dorothy and husband Colin.  He was the youngest of the family with Nathan, James and Jonea his elder siblings.

Sandy Creek trip

Our boat the "mudskipper" wasn't real sea-worthy

This was the 2nd time we had been to Sandy Creek.  This spot is basically at eastern side of the base of Coburg Peninsula - on the mainland near where the Goulbourn Islands are.

The last time we were here was a bit of a disaster - well it was a nice trip except Craig and I got shipwrecked trying to get there by sea in our old boat "Djambalawa" in 2003.  But thats another story!

I don't remember much of this trip but am putting it on the blog as I am with many other trips etc just to have a record for our family diary.

From memory we went for perhaps 5 days - I can see the photos I uploaded here were taken on Friday the 20th of September, 2009.   You drive across the East Alligator (Cahills Crossing) and then turn left onto the Coburg Road a bit past Oenpelli.  Then its a right turn off the road to get into Sandy Creek before going up the peninsula.

There were quite a few of us on the trip.  Colin and Dorothy, Michael Brown, Gwenny and I and the kids, Jessie and Rob, Baggsy and Melony, Graham and Robyn and some of their boys, David and Anne.  I've probably missed a few.

Here's a few things I remember.

There's no fresh water at the campsite so I think Colin brought in a big tank of water on the back of James' ute and Jessie setup a shower and all.

The campsite looking from the creek

You camp right next to the mouth of the creek on the west side.  The creek is quite deep but the mouth is a bit shallow with a bar you have to watch out for depending on the tide.  We'd launch the boats each time on the sandy bank which was a little boggy - but no problems for my Discovery 3!

I don't think we caught a lot of fish - although there might have been one day when Rob and crew got a few jewies in his bigger boat out wider.

 

Here's a few more photos.

 

 

David borrowed this fibreglass boat from a friend

Robby one with the land

A panorama of the creek from where you'd launch showing the exit to the sea

Mike and Rob

 



John and Sonia's wedding

John and Sonia were married today at the Botanical Gardens by Peter Ezzy.

Sold the Pathy

Now that I've bought the disco we needed to sell our Pathfinder - luckily it sold pretty easily - in fact straight away when I put it on the side of the road at the Howard Springs turnoff.

Was able to sell it for a little more than what I owed on it.

Bought a disco

Gwenny and Paul flew down on the night of Wednesday the 29th of April and stayed with Aunty Kris.

We picked up the 2nd hand car on the Thursday from a private seller who lived on Toorak Road.  We noticed it had a bit of mud inside up high on spots where it shouldn't be but Paul had already bought it sight unseen!  We learnt later it had been drowned but it was still a great car anyway - especially once an electrical fault was sorted.

We had a good trip home.  The first night (Friday) we only got as far as Mildura as the car had a new engine and needed a 1000km oil change.

The saturday night we stayed in an underground hotel in Cooper Pedy.  Sunday night we stayed at Wycliffe Wells which we found a bit weird.

We got home Monday evening the 4th of May, 2009 with no problems - loved the car!