The boys flew out of bed to play
with Finn while we took our time to pack up. The only thing on our agenda for
today is driving and fishing so we were happy to let them run! Around 10 we
headed south back towards the Gibb. We really enjoyed the detour and were so
happy that we took to time to do it!
After about 40kms I thought it
would be interesting to see what it was like inside the van as we drive down
this, some time bone jarring, dirt road. I locked myself in the van, sat on the
bed and De rolled on for about 10 minutes. After the first 30 seconds I was in
a state of delirium trying to decide how to get out of the van. The van was
shaking and pulsating from every angle and I was positive it was going to
implode on my. After 45 seconds I was still in a state of mild panic as I
hugged the stove top sure it was going to come loose. Another 15 seconds later
and reason started to kick in knowing that we had already been of heaps of
roads like this and it was highly unlikely that it was going to implode...but the
next nine minutes were pretty bloody scarry, especially as unknowingly I
managed to choose a section that had ‘red dust corrugations’ the deepest and
worst. Mercifully I heard De changing down through the gears brining the rig to
a stop. I was out of there quicker than Jack Flash and let another 5PSI out of
the tyres in sympathy for Gator!
We pressed on and were excited to
get back onto the Gibb. It is around this time we achieved two major
milestones. The first was 20,000kms on the trip. Unfortunately as we had no
reception I couldn’t look back at the photo I took of our odometer as we rolled
out of McEwan St so we took a couple of well educated guesses. The second was
all the three’s, but we took it a step further. As the truck rolled over
33,333kms we had lined up the trip meter to be 33.3kms. I also slowed the truck
down so we were driving at 33kms/hr and just to top it off I got us to as close
to 3333 RPM as possible....The things that amuse small minds on looong drives!
After lunch we unhooked Gator and
went bush bashing to a secret fishing spot we had been told about on the Durack
River. It was only 7kms it but it took us the best part of ½ hour to get there!
It was pretty bloody warm as we scrambled across the rocks that make up a
massive river in the wet season to a secluded water fall. I got everybodies
rigs ready and as one we started casting. With my second cast I was on to a
barra, she put up a meagre fight and was landed with a degree of ease. With
photos taken I put her in a puddle behind me as at 60cm I thought I might be
able to upgrade her!
The four of us spent the next
three hours casting and casting and casting. I had a few chasers and also
managed to get a cat fish but other than that it was a very hard slog. Two of
the three water bottles were spilt and when I went to check on my catch after
an hour or so he had disappeared. I had a quick look but wasn’t too worried as
it was virtually impossible for him to escape. Later the boys located him under
a rock and I got a stick to chase him out, which I did very successfully.
However he had gained enough strength to skim through a gap that must have been
1mm wider than him and back into the falls...oh well! I was quite philosophical
as barra are the one creature in this world that I struggle to kill. They are
majestic beasts and I feel as if they are (sometimes) left to swim another day.
We were all veeery hot and even
more thirsty as we hopped back to the truck and then bashed our way back to the
road. While we came out empty handed we had just been fishing in a pretty
special spot in an amazing part of Australia.
No comments:
Post a Comment