Prologue: My appologies for being so quite for the last two weeks. We have been travelling across the Gibb River Road and there is NO reception...so now I should have a number up soon.
After having a quite morning around camp we all jumped in
the boat and headed back over to the inlet for a fun morning of fishing. With
Sam’s first cast he pulled in a gar fish, which amazingly enough was what we
were targeting! We thought we were in for a good morning’s fishing but over the
next 2 hours we tried everything again with no success! We parked the boat on the sandy shore and the boys swam around
scarring the gar fish that De was still trying to catch and I was scared pooless
when a long tom, a super fast long skinny fish, tried to take one of my lures
about 1m from feet in ankle deep waters. I’m not sure if I tried to jag it or
if it happened naturally when I did something that resembles a Toyota jump, but
I think I was in contention for an Olympic high jump medal as well!
The boys came over to visit in their uncles truck, riding on
the running board and dragging their feet in the sand as they went. I took them
over in Rufus to check a net they had set and then for a run up the inlet.
Throughout the journey Psy had been carrying a large knife, why I am not sure,
but as we approached the shore he dived of, but not in the normal fashion but
as if he was about to stab a turtle or shark. He then ran up the beach a bit
and started to dive from a 6ft high dune into ankle deep water using the same
cat like dive. It was hilarious and amazing to watch his natural ability. As we
headed out we trolled a few lures and Sambo managed to hook up a big eye
trevalla and got it beside the boat but he lost it as his brother had tied it
on for him. Poor bugger as that is about the 4th lure he has lost!
After lunch our crabbing guide hadn’t shown up yet so we
convinced the three boys, Psy, Tyson and Elijah, that Jack and Sam had been
playing with to take us crabbing. We loaded them in the back seat, 6 including
Daniel, and headed of towards another lagoon where the crabbing is better. 20
minutes of driving down narrow over grown tracks and we arrived at an old camp
that looked out over a massive tidal flat 3 or 4 kms wide and 5 or 6 kms from
the mouth to what appeared to the river mouth. It was an impressive site.
However there was no time to take it in as the three boys
bound down the rocky bank and across the flats. Within 100m we were already
strung out. I was determined to keep up with them to see how they spear them.
This was pretty easy to do in the beginning as we were just walking across
sandy flats.
Poking out of the sand here and there were large rocks with pools
at the bottom of them. At each rock Psy and Tyson, who had the spears, would
look around poking and prodding underneath it. Psy had pulled ahead a bit and
it wasn’t long before I looked up and he had a massive crab on the end of his
flimsy little spear! We all ran excitedly towards him and after a couple of
quick photos he was off again.
I tried to convince him to slow down but he said
he didn’t want to be near the whole pack of us as the crabs can hear us coming.
Ok then I’ll have to keep up with him and let the others fall behind. I was
going pretty good across the flat but the rocks ran out so it was time to hit
the mangroves. So here is the 30kg agile Aboriginal kid dancing through the
mangroves with this 90kg white bloke who has the agility of a caged elephant
chasing after him. To make things worse in one hand I carried a large plastic
container for the crabs, with the other I held my SLR camera and I also had its
bag slung around my shoulder. In the beginning I tried to follow his footsteps
bouncing from one mangrove root to the next but every third or fourth was
breaking. I was now lathered in sweat and breathing heavily when Psy called
that he had one. I caught up and there it was in a muddy hole it claws standing
upright in defence when and a second later Psy had him speared and was ready to
go on. I had to work hard to convince him to pose for a photo!
We bounced along through the mangroves for another 20
minutes before we headed back to the sandy flats, much to my delight let me
tell you!
The crew was spread out over about 1km with Tyson guiding Jack and
Sam looking for crabs but at the same time spearing small fish. Psy managed to
find a jenny crab who had sunk herself into the mud so it was now my turn. With
the dexterity of a 2 yr old I pushed the spear through her back and I now had
ticked another one of my bucket list!
Everbody had now caught up and the hunt
continued along the edge of the mangroves. The boys were continually throwing
their spears at anything that moved and the boys were having a great time doing
their best.
We were about 3 or 4kms from the car and I was watching the
sun and the tides to make sure we could get back before the sun disappeared. We
started heading for home but Psy headed off towards the spot where we had lost
a crab along the way as it crawled into its hole. Pretty soon he was calling
out that he had it and he needed another spear so we all doubled back to help
him drag it out. Now with 4 crabs on board (3 massive ones and my little Jenny)
we headed for home most of the way with
me barking at all of the boys to hurry up!
We made it back with at least 5 minutes of light left to
burn, piled in and headed back to camp. The trip back was like a circus with
the 6 boys all chattering, laughing and singing songs. Once back we cooked up
the crabs while the boys, having learnt from their slack effort the day before,
did a great job of lighting the fire!
We demolished a couple of the crabs for dinner and after
what was a massive day, one of if not my favourite of the trip so far, we all
headed to bed exhausted!
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