Point Stuart Trip

Well its Darwin Show Day today but we'd rather be bush!     So we set off on the Hardies 4wd track today in a little convoy.   We had Rob and Jessie, Wayne and his wife from Paul's work, and Johnny and Sandy.  I think there was another car or two also that I can't remember!

Pulled up on the Hardies Track waiting for the Toyotas to catch up!

We had a good drive along the track although Johnny's little Hyundai 4wd bottomed out in some rocky areas.

We came out on the Point Stuart road and then camped for a couple nights at the Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge.

During the two nights we visited Shady Camp, Point Stuart (although the road was closed right at the end!) and did the walks around the lodge.

There was some nice looking buffalo bulls at the lodge behind a fence that Paul, Jessie and John went to have a look at.   They mocked charged us a few times and we weren't real confident in the flimsy three-strand barbed wire fence between us and them!

The camp at Point Stuart.

A captive buffalo at Point Stuart Lodge

Another shot at Shady Camp during golden hour

Paul saw this Sea Eagle diving at the last moment
and just got it grabbing an eel at Shady Camp

Overnighter at Douglas with some of Pauls work colleagues

Paul had booked a trip to Douglas Hot Springs with a few work colleagues a few weeks ago to show them the place as they had never been there - well one had been there years ago.

 

Just went for the one night but had a good time and some more practice with the camper trailer.  We took the scenic route home and the others enjoyed the view at the top of the Telstra Tower hill near Robin Falls.

 

Was good sleeping weather without being very cold - although it was cold enough for some nice steam early Sunday morning when we all went down for a swim around sunrise.

 



Testing the camper at Douglas

We spent the long weekend at Douglas Hot Springs and used our new old camper trailer for the first time. It went well although we're still learning how to set it up etc.

The weather was a bit hot during the day but cool enough for sleeping at night.  Water was nice and there wasn't too many others there.  A few of the family went including Rob/Jessie, Tim/Tania, Baggsy, Kevin/Jo etc.

Coomalie Creek Church Camp 2012

Was a good time although the kids were a bit slack and didn't go with Paul and Gwenny.  We camped in our tent near the water and it was beautiful listening to the water all night whilst sleeping.

One memorable part was Paul taking Naree and Isaac Possingham to the clinic at Batchelor to get a fishing hook removed from Isaac's thumb!

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

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

 



Rosanna is 15 today

Rosanna turned 15 today whilst we are camping at Douglas Hot Springs.

Paul and Craig rescued at sea!

Well getting on the front page of the newspaper wasn't quite in Paul's plans!

A large family group were going to the Sandy Creek campsite in Arnhem Land near the Goulbourn Islands and Paul thought he'd take the boat around the coast by sea instead of drive like the other "land lubbers".  Seemed like a good idea at the time!  

Paul and Craig set off just after lunch on Sunday the 6th of July, 2003.  They launched from the Nightcliff boat ramp and had a rough trip into the chop north where they reached the sheltered Trepang Bay on Coburg Peninsula to camp the night in the boat.

The next day the going was pretty slow as they had strong easterlies against them and a nasty chop.  Paul knew the weather wasn't going to be great but the strong wind warning that eventuated wasn't forecast initially.   By Tuesday night they reached Point David which is at the southern tip of Croker Island.  The Oyster Farm there had a little jetty and the workers were very hospitable allowing them to tie up for the jetty for the night.  They also had diesel they would sell so Paul took the opportunity to fuel up - he had enough but had used more than planned with the very poor conditions.

Wednesday morning they set off into a very stiff easterly pretty concerned about the weather.  Once they got into Mountnorris Bay a bit they could enjoy the scenery as the eastern part afforded good protection from the wind.  There was a huge school of big prawns and they got a few fish trawling through them.  They didn't stop to fish though as they wanted to get to their destination.  The rest of them were due to arrive at the mainland camping spot the following morning (Thursday July 10th).

When they came out of Malay Bay and started rounding Cape Cockburn they were confronted with huge standing waves.  Paul desparately wanted to turn back to the sheltered bay they had just exited but didn't feel he could safely ride the waves unless he kept boat's bow straight into them.

They inched along taking each of the waves wondering if the boat would be inundated or tossed backwards.  An engine failure would be catastrophic.   After a long time Paul was able to direct the boat in close to the eastern end of the cape, De Courcy Head, where there was some little shelter at the base of the huge cliffs.

They sat there for a few hours through the afternoon - trying to get out a few times but each time turning back as the waves had not lessened out wider.   They wandered about trying to get into the beach with supplies and camping there for the night but eventually decided to set the epirb off and get rescued.  The winds where turning more northerly and their little bit of shelter wasn't guaranteed through the night.

Well the rest is history - there was newspapers and tv crews waiting for them back in Darwin when they landed in the helicopter - as well as some very worried and then relieved family!

Paul and Gwenny was able to still drive out a couple of days later and join everyone else there as planned.  Fortunately Robby was able to take his boat up on the Friday (11/7/03) and find the boat - which was unfortunatly laying on its side in the fairly gentle surf by then.  But he did retrieve a lot of valuable gear from boat.

They all drove back home on Sunday the 13th of July.

Paul's insurance company was very helpful and salvaged the boat and repaired it - including a brand new engine etc.


Baresand Island trip

Took the boats to baresand for the Darwin Show long weekend in 2002.    We left from Dundee and went north with 3 boats - Rob and Jessies big centre console "Megabite" and Baggsy brought his 16" dinghy that he bought off me (from memory Graham needed goggles and a snorkel on his trip and made a few comments about how wet the boat was when he arrived).

We were able to anchor the boats close to the beach and camp on the island.   From memory we caught a few fish but nothing spectacular.  The highlight of the trip was when a turtle crawled up on the beach just after dinner time and starting digging a nest right next to us!   We all gathered around as it then started to lay its eggs - seemingly not worried about us.

The next morning the kids found little baby turtles going down the beach to the water (obviously not from the same nest!) and did their best to protect them from predators.

Another memory Paul has is waking up in the morning nearly covered by a dune and having a mouth full of sand!  Was a windy night and we were covered in sand.

Another notable event of the trip was Paul playing dead to attract a crocodile that was out in the channel - his ruse worked better than he expected as it immediately charged in towards him laying on the beach.  He did leave it to the last minute a bit to get up with Gwenny urgently shouting negative comments about his wisdom from up on the dune.

Robby then tried the same thing with a speargun in his hand but just as the croc got near him a boat came around the corner - surely he wasn't going to use it anyway!

It was breakfast on the boat the next morning as the annoying wind had dropped and Paul was keen to get out as he reckoned he could smell mackerel in the air!

We got a few and it was very calm as you can see in the below photo (which incidentally features in this wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrow-barred_Spanish_mackerel)



Gun Point camping trip

Camped for a couple of nights at Gun Point and had a really nice time with the family.

Apart from Graham catching a piglet, the only other memory of note was when Robby went for a drive and when we saw him walking back we knew something was wrong.

He had got bogged on a flat somewhere so my mighty Nissan Patrol had to pull him out - I made sure I got it on camera of course!



Camping at Coburg

We had been planning a trip up to the Black Point camping ground on Coburg Peninsula for a few months and as usual Jessie organised permits and got information etc.

We took our Nissan Patrol and our "Blue Submarine" boat.  Graham and Paul had a big day before the trip putting a new floor in the boat after Paul had got extra aluminium struts built in - it was built like a tank.

There was quite a convoy of vehicles and boats and trailers that made the trip.  David brought his white landcruiser ute with the "shark" dinghy on the roof.  Norma brought the green Nissan (Baggsy drove), Matty Hill took his SWB Patrol, Graham, Justin and Talea went with Geoff Beckett (Geoff had an 80 series and a boat), Robby and Jessie took their 80 series "Can do" truck with the boat Rob shared with Colin on the back.

The trip out was pretty adventurous to say the least!  Broken boat trailers and a box trailer rollover!  With some ingenious patching, including a tied on log to drag the box trailer on, we eventually made it to the campsite in the night.  Some parts had to be flown into the nearby ranger station to fix the trailers!

Exact dates are a bit hazy now - but the first photo Paul has is the big mackerel Rosanna caught on a little k-mart rod and reel - and this was taken on the 25th of September 1999.  This Saturday might have been the day after arriving or perhaps we needed a day to recover from the trip in and setup camp etc.

Rosanna's mackerel fed the whole camp that night - and Paul, not normally known for his cooking prowess, received raving critique of his battered fish cakes.

We didn't catch a heap of fish on the trip but it was good to see some new country.  Painted Crayfish were a popular target and the team did pretty well at getting a few of them.  There was one fright one night however when a few went out on the boat at night after crays and bumped into a reef - fortunately no serious damage was done.

On the Wednesday a couple of boats went to the Victoria Settlement as planned which was really interesting.  Was quite a ways up one of the big inlets in Coburg but it was lovely scenery and beautiful sheltered green waters.

Was a bit tricky with the tide when we went to leave the old settlement as the tide had come in which meant a little swim out to the boat in crocodile infested waters!

It was a good trip in all and although challenging it was worth doing.  The campsite was quite nice and shady although in September it was very hot out of the shade.

Fortunately the car trip home was pretty uneventful.  We travelled home on Wednesday the 29th of September, 1999.

 



Fishing competition at the Perons

We had an amazing fishing trip to the Peron Islands this long weekend.   Craig and I went in my boat and Graham Pattemore and Chris Errity went in the boat that Spot On marine had lent me (to make a video - but thats another story!).

Not sure of the exact date but it would have been soon after getting married and it would've probably been the middle of the dry.

We had awesome calm weather and I had never seen Bateman's Shoal with more fish activity.  I have memories of acres of tiny mack tuna jumping as big predators attacked them from below.

From memory we caught a 19kg and a couple of 17kg mackerel trolling Reidy's lures on spinning rods - the lack of a ratchet noise nearly meant us getting spooled a couple of times when we weren't aware of big fish tearing away with our lures.   Chris Errity took this photo from his boat where him and Graham were live baiting.  We had gone over to them to weigh our fish each time.  Of course Chris ended up getting the biggest one with a 21kg fish!

There were a few trips to the Perons just after I was married and most of them were pretty productive.

Koolpin Gorge trip

There was no real date when Paul and Gwenny decided that they were "going out" but they did do a camping trip with Gwenny's family to UDP falls and Koolpin Gorge many think that they came pretty good friends then...

This famous photo of them on lilos just floating around chatting might have been the start of it - or the time Gwenny offered to put sunscreen on Pauls back...

The camping trip was quite memorable as they had to rebuild bridges with dodgy logs and sticks and drive across them with their 4wds.  Rob and Jessie had their old green Landcruiser Troopy and Paul drove his yellow Suzuki sierra.  Steve Smedley also travelled with Paul and Gwenny. Graham Pattemore and Tim Cowen, as well as a guy named Lindsay.

Also at one time everyone had to stand on Pauls suzuki as he drove across a flooded river to stop it floating away.

Gwenny and Paul at Koolpin Gorge