Wenlock Wildies - October 2012

Friday afternoon could not get here quick enough.  I packed the truck up early and headed off to the school swimming carnival for the year with the intention of scooting out as early as possible, picking up the kids on the way out of town.  I tossed up whether to take the quads or not and decided there were too many things in the boxes on the trailer that I would need like the compressor, tarp and camp oven so I thought bugger-me I'll hook it on and hope for the best.

With two other cars with me I was sure we'd manage whatever the track into the Wenlock river had in store.  It got dark quite quickly and the panels of my truck are testament to my lack of depth perception and driving skills anyway but winding through there I felt like a precision driver weaving in and out and around fallen trees and burning scrubland.  A few courage-cans later we were there and I had two options to get down onto the bank - a whopping vertical drop of soft sand OR a windy, jack-knife-waiting-to-happen option two.  I chose vertical.

Rookie error number 1.   I should have taken the quads off up the top. But instead, I dropped it into low gear, lost some air out of my tyres and pushed through the sand until I came to the camp site.  How I was going to get back up was a thought best put aside for another day.

We jumped straight into the clear, running Wenlock river and washed away any remaining travel nerves with cold beers and cocktails in the creek.  We had a few snags on bread with sauce, threw the swags on the ground and we were home.

A beady pair of eyes made there way down to our camp shortly afterwards and judging by his lack of response to anything we did to scare it away, he was definitely a salty.  Dogs had to sleep in the back of the ute this trip much to their disappointment.

Saturday sunrise was spectacular over the river and we hopped up for a cold swim and cooked up some pannies with shaker cream and chocolate sauce.  The kids were keen to "go on an adventure" so I got the quads down and my friend and I (with kids hanging on the back) set off with the rifle to see if we could come across some pigs in the nearby swamps and billabongs.  We saw fresh markings and diggings but the quads must have scared them off.  We pushed a track over the newly burnt ground and found a nice 'secret spot' and wallowed in the shallows for awhile before heading back to camp.  We came across a large stick creature that landed on my friend's arm and the kids got to see him up close. I've never seen one so big and like a white, paperbark branch.  I had a stick come up under my quad footings and spear into my bare sole which required some first aide but it was lucky I didn't need stitches.

We spent the remaining time in the creek, spoilt by cheese and crackers, peach cocktails and ciders.  A few little spangled perch fish were biting our feet and legs in the water, one of which scared my friend a good foot in the air after the crocodile incident the previous night and then Xavie decided he was going to catch one.  Two rods set up with little hooks and a loaf of bread in hand, we set off down the creek and within a few minutes he was hooked up and brought in a nice size sooty grunter.  Not to be outdone, Makayla then threw hers into the crocodile hole and pulled out a very large sooty grunter as well.  They were stoked.

After lunch our friends went on a wood chop mission and the camp oven coals were calling.  For dinner we had a selection from 3 camp ovens with an assortment of marinated sirloin pork, slow cooked lamb and all the vegies we could bring.  We backed it up with some toasted marshies and red wine.  It was like Christmas.

The kids were 'busted' early after their day of swimming and quadding and we weren't far behind them.  No croc that night so he must have gotten the hint.  We woke up early again and cooked up the smorgasbord of pancakes and wraps with coffee and it began to dawn on me about how the heck I was going to get out of this like piece of paradise.  We packed up mid-morning and all of a sudden my friend decided she could stand it no longer and floored it up the vertical incline.  We could hear her scream a few F bombs and adrenaline forced her over the lip with SUCCESS.  She was very proud of herself as were we.  There was also no way I was getting up with the quads on so the kids rode them down and I tried to turn around and head up too but it was a no go.

Rookie mistake number 2.  Don't try turning in a circle on soft sand with a trailer on the back when you're loaded up.....  I thought I might have to be pulled out when the Navara's new turbo proved worth it's weight and I finally got some grip in the sand and turned around.  There was no stopping now, I had to just go for it.  The vertical incline was not going to be possible so I attempted the winding, vertical hill instead.  I got half-way up and my windscreen was facing the sky, tyres thudded back to earth far slowly than I was hoping for but then I had to hook it to do a vertical 3 point turn to get up the last bit and almost jack-knifed but made it without a scratch....just.  My whole body was shaking and my adrenaline was pumping through my skin.  It was after this I also decided that I will definitely be keeping my hubby around - even if it's just so he can do these types of jobs instead of me.
There is no way I think I could ever do that again.  Needless to say we all cracked a beer at the top and checked all our knots before making the last heading for home.

As for the Wenlock river, Thank You for another fun-filled adventure.

Until next week...

September Shenanigans

The countdown was until the September school holidays and the big fella had a list of jobs to fix on my truck before he left for his Cairns TAFE safari after the hols. There was no way I was going to sit around the house for two weeks, with the outlaws Nanna and Pop, and the very thought of being housebound without 4WD whilst he was away for the 7 weeks after the hols was my worst nightmare for sure.

Luckily for me, after a good 8hrs on the hoist after work, it was a green light.  We picked the visitors up from the airport and headed up to the falls for a few days.  Fruitbat falls did not disappoint and we wallowed under the first lot of rapids and waterfalls for about an hour before moving around to Twin and Eliot.  We set up camp at our secret "no tourists allowed" spot and enjoyed our own private waterfall and wild sanctuary.

The boys headed out to visit another crew about 10mins on quad but there were too many of us to squeeze on if we included the essential esky and snacks so I opted to drive around with Nanna.  We almost got into Canal Crk's entrance but the last water barrier was a big sticky so I went to put it into 4WD and it was stuck. No 4WD.  There were a few F bombs out the window and a quick mental punching session and finally another car came past with a young group in the front and I asked them to tell the quad camp up the road that I had no 4WD and had headed back to camp.

Everyone that knows me knows very well I don't like to miss out on fun so going back to camp to wait was not going to be pretty.  The fact that I had no 4WD, four hours from home, was a slap I also wasn't prepared for.  The first hour I waited I was cranky. The second hour I waited I mellowed out a bit and wallowed in the creek. By the third hour I was thinking "hmmmm, I don't think they got my message."  My hubby had found another tourist up the road from us who'd crashed their trailer to pieces and his stomach starting churning when he couldn't find me.  My sense of direction is poor at the best of times but he always seems to find my track and come get me but this time it took him a bit longer; no harm done.

We spent another couple of days swimming, jumping and washing under the crystal clear water and then headed back into town so hubby could go back to work.

The next day we washed our bags and refilled the Trailblazer with more beers, cheese and camp oven roasts and headed this time up to Pennefather for the full moon in the hope we'd get to see the turtles lay.  We stayed in the 5star shack on the beach and the weather was spectacular to say the least.  The camp set up quickly and we filled our bellies and filled the quads ready for the night ride up and down the beach.  It was about 6:30pm when we came across our first mumma turtle on her way up the beach.  She was magnificent and very patient.  The kids crept close enough on their bellies to touch her flippers as she dropped a few dozen eggs from her own.  This close encounter will stay with them for life.  The first night we saw plenty of tracks up and down the beach.  Ghost crabs were in full force and there were also quite a number of roosting birds on the beach this trip too.  Turtles were laying all over the beach and some had climbed more than 70m up the beach, over the dunes and were laying on the road.

The local council has just recently graded the entrance to Pennefather beach and every "tourist-nufty-idiot" now spits out on the soft sandy beach rather than going the swamp tracks behind the laying areas which means we saw at least a dozen cars churning up and running over nests all day long. It was heart breaking.  Many nests have been posted with signs or have debris marking them but it didn't seem to make any difference. Hopefully the new ranger up there can sign or rope off the entrance for awhile to help them.

We woke up early to flick lures up and down the beach and feed the many large pelagic's scaling the crystal clear water. It was too tempting for me and I had to get in and have a quick swim.  We saw a little 2.5m croc on the beach who hung around us for awhile but that was about it.  We chased the schools of mullet and blue salmon but they weren't interested in our smorgasbord of soft plastics or poppers.  Xavie had a ball with his overhead but I learned that you pay a dear price for cheap line. Never, ever again.  For every cast he got right there were at least 5 that birdied which meant that no one on the beach could fish until he could.....

For lunch I made a camp oven pork belly and veal roast with the best vegies. It was divine.  I also realised that I was down the big fella this trip and still had another roast in there by mistake so we cooked it up too and dinner was yet another reason why my pants were growing tighter and tighter.

That night we saw three mumma turtles within an hour walk up the beach and lay. The kids kept saying "mum, we're the luckiest family in the whole, wide world hey mum?!"  Yes we truly are.  One turtle had a big croc or shark bite out of her shell leaving her left back leg completely exposed but it had healed over and she was obviously ok.  The second turtle had her back right foot eaten and it was flapping around like paper so digging her hole was a mammoth and frustrating effort for her. Three holes later she decided it had to be good enough and we left her in peace to finish her business.  The last turtle had been turned around too many times and had gotten herself disorientated with the fire lights in the distance so the kids used their torches to guide her back to the water which I'm sure she was grateful for and Mak and Xav were stoked.   By 8:30pm Xavier was heard saying, "Mum, I'm busted" and fell asleep on the quad and Mak's eyes were in the back of her head shortly afterwards so we headed back to camp.  As we drove into camp my headlights spotted a track right out the front of the shack and we followed it up, past the debris, over the dunes and up near the road, then back down again.  We found her buried beneath the sand half-way back down the beach and she was in the middle of laying so we watched her finish and then headed to our swags ourselves.  There must have been dozens laying that night as the beach was filled the next morning with the best writing a kid could ever read.

62 days, I think, it takes for them to hatch.  We saw them laying from July so I think I've got this weekend at the Wenlock then back to Penne for the new moon and hopefully be lucky enough to see the full cycle begin again.  What a true miracle.

A big thank you to Nanna and Pop for sharing in this adventure.  You will be surely missed x

Mid Year Madness & Monsters!

Since my hubby no longer has school holidays off any more it was just the kids and I off on our adventures this time.  Quads hooked up, rods restrung with new line, lures stocked up and ice aboard we started our first week at Pennefather beach where we shacked up for a week of shenanigans.

On the first morning we woke up early to watch the sun come up over the back to find the manta rays feeding and cleaning in the shallows in front of our camp.  The mother had her babies in toe again and there were a few shadows following them – maybe cobia.  They were almost close enough to touch and we loved eating our shake-a-pancakes on the sand and watching them.

For the first few days the kids practiced flicking lures with random success.  Mak picked up a nice blue salmon and then some sharks.  Xavier hooked up some queenies and trevally but spent most of his time hand feeding our mullet to a small black-tipped reef shark that kept beaching itself in a frenzy for more. I think he fed it at least half a dozen when Mak decided to put a hook in hers and flick it out.  Within a few seconds she was on and her reel was screaming.  A 2m+ shark launched out of the water like a barra and almost spooled her little rod when the tip of it snapped off.  Mak was squealing with excitement and fear and a few tourists up the beach came down to watch as she tried to haul it in.  She did her best for about 10mins when the shark busted her off with one last jump. .. 

By then we were on a real fishing frenzy high and were hoping to get something else when in the middle of the channel appeared something brown and large like a manta ray but had a girth like a whale; gliding just under the water. It had no fin and I racked my brain to think of what it could possibly be. There was only one explanation…… it was a monster.  As soon as we saw it, it disappeared and we didn’t see it again.  Maybe it was a dugong? Finless whale or shark? I don’t know…

The turtles had started to make their way up the beach at night to lay their eggs and we took both quads up and down the beach each day looking for their tracks and making up stories about what must have made the tracks and what they were doing.  The kids loved this game and there was such a variety of tracks that some of them really stumbled me.   

When we weren’t fishing and it got too hot we quadded up to the tunnels for a swim and a picnic.  We ‘smashpooed’ and conditioned our hair and washed all the sand and bushman off before heading back to build up the fire and whack the camp oven on for tea.  Each afternoon we watched the sun go down over the water, ate some cheese and crackers, washed it down with cold drinks and played endless games of “I spy” and story telling in the hammock.  One night we saw what looked like a ‘pirate’ ship cruise past us and I thought it might have been a junk boat with boat people on it but then it was gone.  We later found out that The Duyfken, an endeavour looking ancient boat, came into Weipa for the weekend for everyone to view.

It was the last morning when I went out the front to stoke the fire when I noticed very clear slides in the sand at the front of our shack.  Excitedly I woke the kids to come look at what I thought were turtle tracks. They ended just a few metres from our swags with the fire in between us.    On closer inspection I thought to myself that the girth wasn’t as big as a normal turtle track and dismissed it as perhaps a small turtle.  Then I noticed there wasn’t a hole where the eggs should have been and I dismissed it thinking the turtle mustn’t have been happy with the spot and turned back.  It was at least 50 – 60m to the water’s edge so it was a long way to come and just turn back.  As we followed the tracks back towards the water, the sand got more moist and it was very clear to see the claw marks and it was at that moment I realised a large crocodile had walked up to us in the middle of the night….  The footprints were bigger than my outstretched hand.  It was a bit close to home for me so I packed us up and we came home for the night. Friends of ours that came the next day said they saw the croc still waiting out the front the next day and it loitered in the shallow waters hoping we’d return I’m sure. It was a dinosaur about 4.5m long. Another monster…

We spent the weekend at home with Az and washed off our gear, filled up the ice again and set off on adventure 2 on the Monday out to the Wenlock river to wallow in the fresh water river.  The kids flicked soft plastics into the deep holes and got some Togas and Bass. 

On the second morning I dragged the kids across the river so they could reach the deep hole as it was up to my waist and the current was too strong for them.  Halfway across we saw a shadow coming towards us in the water and I grabbed the kids and hoisted them as high as I could out of the water until I could see what it was.   It was a barramundi just cruising on past us up the river and didn’t give a second look.  It also didn’t give our lures a look in either…..

After the Penne croc incident I used the spotty each night to check the water as there’s big saltwater crocs in the Wenlock and just as many stories but saw none.  Thank goodness. The camp just up from us had a small one hanging around their camp their whole trip but it was much deeper and we could see the bottom in our spot.

The kids spent the next few days running their cherubim pots and using them as livies or eating them.   Both of them were getting good with their flicking and from the campsite I noticed a friend of mine walking towards our camp with a backpack on.  He’d gotten bogged a few hundred metres up the track and needed help. I quadded up with my shovel but it was past that point in the sticky mud so I had to go back and the get the truck.  Snatching him out backwards was easier than we both thought and before we knew it he was out and ready to continue.

We quadded up the many tracks around the Wenlock exploring for new spots and hidden treasures.  We looked for croc spots and when we stopped for someone to wee we heard the weirdest noise coming from a billabong.  Every few seconds there was a high pitched squeal like an elephant….or a monster.  This was going to be too many unexplained monsters for me so I convinced the kids to be brave while we investigated the noise. We followed it up the bank and around the back corner and found an old windmill that was the culprit.  Thank goodness!

After 11 nights camping outside, several monsters, a croc in camp and a belly full of cheese,  we were all starting to crave a hot shower and our own beds as well as a squeeze or three from dad and headed home, batteries charged and ready to plan our next trip.

The Grunter Run!

There's nothing more exciting than when the Grunter start running.  Every man, women, bunch of kids, cousins and anyone that can possibly hold a line is down there. Baits, livies, lures - it doesn't matter. It's like people are completely taken over by a blindly exciting feast just waiting to be caught.   With Mak on my left, Xav on my right we launched our assault early at about 6am and I threw the cast net and got a good selection of bait.  Dad had gone hunting so it was just us today.  We had a bag of squid incase my throwing arm let me down....My dad taught me to throw them when I was about 8 but he's a lefty so I throw lefty too with a technique no one up here would recognise lol.

We started off the wharf and it wasn't long before Xavie hooked up.  I set his drag pretty loose as he only has 12lb line so pulling up a 50cm grunter looked like he was hauling in a marlin. He was squealing with excitement and at one stage I thought his rod was going to snap in two.  We got it to the surface and this fish was enormous...... too heavy to pull up onto the jetty and the weight of it snapped the line about a metre from the hook.  Devo'd!

Mak was next and her fish was about 45cm but fought like a jack hammer and the same thing - PING as we tried to haul it up onto the jetty. 

Right! That did it.  I launched our last resort - my rod with a 40lb leader.  Grunter number 1 landed aboard but only just....

The tide started to change and the bites were few and far between so we knew they'd moved on.  We grabbed our gear and esky and piled back into the red racer to our new spot (via the servo to get an icecream).  We threw the mud crab pots in our secret spot with some stinky-ass mullet in there and wished them luck!

By 9am we went across the refresh our bait supply and try our luck off the point.  Nothing but snags, catfish and a croc there.  Time to move on.

We launched our attack at Red Beach.  Within 5mins of my live mullet hitting the water, my rod was running!  I had 15lb line on it with a 40lb leader and live fish.  Barramundi - come on!!!!!  This fish was a heavy bastard and wanted to run.....but it didn't jump so I was beginning to get sceptical now.  From behind the bush, Scott our Chemist popped out and I couldn't contain my excitement.  On the verge of snapping the line or yanking the hook from its mouth in sheer adrenaline, I took my time and adjusted the drag on my reel.  Please, please, please just let me see what it is before I stuff it up and now at least I had a witness if it was a record fish.

20minutes later I'm still fighting this monster and as soon as I think I'm winning it'd bloody run again.  A shimmer of silver glitter and what look like black lines down the side appear running parallel to the beach - ooooooh it could be a threadfin!  Yah, that'd be good!  It runs one more time then I wind like crazy!  Both Mak and Xav are frothing at the mouth and I'm yelling at them to hop out of my way - yes it was going to be their fault if I lost it for sure!!!

With Scott still next to me, eager to find out what this monster was too, we finally got a good look at it. 

A stinking Queenie about 75cm long.  It had taken my mullet then spat it out and hooked itself underneath it's carriage so I was hauling this thing in on it's side.   Devo'd.

By 10am it was getting hot and the kids wanted to check their mudcrab pots so I gave my Queenie to a lady down the beach and off we went again to find better luck.

1 small Jenny in the pot and our others were empty with the markings of sharks so I packed up the pots and put them in the boot. 

It was time for the big guns.  Little red car is like a go-cart that gets smashed, crashed and can go through mud puddles with the agility of a 250cc quad.  I took her, loaded with the lines and pots and kids out to Red Bank and from there launched our final assault on the Grunter.

Both Mak and Xav are competent casters now so at least I can put my line in the water without having to stop every 2mins and re-cast them out!  Wooshka, first line took off and I had a good feeling about it.  Yep - a good size grunter.  Then it was the kids - 1 catfish and another grunter.

It was on like Donkey Kong!

For tea we had fresh grunter in the pan with garlic, butter and salt.  Even the dogs got fresh fish for dinner!  Yee Haa! 

(P.S I couldn't find a hat so the fluffy santa cowboy hat had another outing x)

A Sunday Morning Chase - not for the faint hearted!

The Sunday morning drive started well and around 5am.  We piled into a friends Ute and locked the dogs into the cage on the back until we got out of town. Dorothy knew the minute I put the harness on her what she was in for and she could hardly contain her excitement.  My mates brought their two dogs too which are experienced hunting dogs so we hoped some of it would rub off onto our gollute.

We crossed the bridge which is temperamental on the best of days during the wet season but considering I had packed a chook and a bag of fruit, we weighed up the risk and it was worth it.  About an hour out of town we slowed down and let the dogs out to ride on the back of the tray.  It wasn't long before Rarney was keen and just infront of the car we saw a lone boar, completely unaware we'd pulled up behind it.  We all jumped out of the car and the chase was on!  One of the blokes went left of the fence, the other went right and I went under and over into the mud in the sheer excitement.  Dorothy learned her first lesson about barbed wire and, needless to say, was a bit nervous about running at full pelt behind this boar.  Judging from the warn in pig track along the creek, this boar was well ahead of us and he knew every hiding hole.  I picked myself up off the ground at least 3 times chasing Dorothy without a collar and hoping she'd stick with the other bloke who were far quicker than I was in the pursuit.  Close to spewing with exhaustion, I stopped running and splashed my face in the creek trying to catch my breath.  I spotted the other bloke about 100m from me and made my way to him before I got too lost.  We heard a gunshot and then the car horn and thankfully made our way back to the car. They'd double backed chasing the pig and were waiting for us.  The boar was nowhere to be seen.

Boar 1, Hunters 0.

The dogs were keen as after their first run and it wasn't long before one of the boys spotted a mob on the side of a dam.  We pulled up down-wind of them and snuck up from behind.  I was carrying my hubby's knife and it's too big for me so running with it is like running with a light-saber so I strapped it to my leg and over my pants.  The dogs could smell them but they were near the base of the hill, the dam water cutting off their only escape.  One of the boys cocked his rifle and before the pigs knew we were there we were on top of them.  Trap sprung.  He shot two instantly and Dorothy took one with Gypsy on the other side.  One of the boys called out to me and I stuck it quickly.  "More pigs, More pigs!" we hollered out to the dogs who responded by chasing down the mob over the other side.  One of the dogs double backed as the mob turned on it only to see the other two lugging dogs in pursuit as well and the three of them together took them all down like a well-oiled muscle machine. We were all on an adrenaline rush by now and the dogs washed off in the dam and cooled themselves off.

Pigs 1, Hunters 3.

Twenty minutes down the road we saw a dark shadow and recognised it's shape before it lunged into the long grass on the side of the road.  There were puddles and holes everywhere and before the car had pulled up to a complete stop, the dogs jumped off and the boys took off after them.  "Mob! Mob! Mob!" I heard one of them yell out.  This boar, instead of running away had led them all back into another mob.  The dogs were barking and bailed up a big sow and as I ran my fastest through the grass another sow ran in front of my legs and I went ass over in the mud again.  It took off in the opposite direction and I made my way over to check out Dot and the boys.  One of the boys had stuck a sow and I yelled out "More pigs! More pigs! Gettem Dotty"  Rarney and Dot took off on the scent trail and caught up with it about 250m away.  By now I was convinced I was going to break my leg, get bitten by a snake or vomit from sheer exhaustion but once they're on, they're on and you have to be fast.  I caught up with the dogs and my other friend and got my second pig for the day.

Pigs 1. Hunters 5.

The sun was starting to bake up now and all the dogs needed water and to cool off.  We started to make our way back to town and the two of us rode on the tray on the lookout for one more to make our half/dozen.  The wet season grass was high and visibility is much harder so the more eyes the better.  Almost back to town, Rarney got keen again and we stopped to let them have a smell.  Dorothy and Gypsy were all chasing Rarney and were ready to go again.  They took off into the bush with the two of us in pursuit when Dorothy went right and Rarney went left.... Oh shite! without a tracking collar and with only a few successful hunts under her collar it could have gone badly.  I followed my friend and hoped we'd catch up with Dot soon when I saw her galloping at fall speed after a big sow.  Both her and Rarney took it from either side and they bailed it up in a mud wallow.  Gypsy came in as final straw and one more Cape hog bit the dust.

Pigs 1, Hunters 6.

We were home by lunch and overall it was an awesome way to spend a Sunday morning!

For Valentines Day this year I got conjunctivitis and a new hunting knife. My hubby got a new hunting collar for our Dorothy and a new chest plate as the last one got a bit damaged when our galloping dope learned the hard way how to get through a barb wired fence at full speed in chase of a boar....

Tried our luck at Triluck!

Hubby had to go out to Cairns for a few days PD so the kids and I said yes to our mates who were going to throw a swag into their tinny and head up to Triluck Crk for the night for a fish. 

I threw some beers and snags in an esky, wrapped up a swag for us to share and the kids and I were set.

The shack is on a sandy bank in between "Crocodile lake" aka Triluck Cr and the ocean.  There's a dog cage up in the tree and the whole shack is enclosed with sheet metal about a metre high as the crocs walk across the bank in between. (you can see their tracks and they are tracked online).

We flicked some lures, got a couple of fish then settled in for sunset over the ocean.  A few rolling clouds of a monsoonal storm began to encroach on our turf and the wind was building quickly which was great cause it blew the mozzies away but we strapped down in case. Lucky.  The kids jumped into the swag off the ground and it wasn't long before the rain came down hard.

They checked the boat a few times to make sure it was tied up right and not taking on too much water then we settled in for a few reds and solved the problems of the world.

Squished in between my two rats in a swag I was awoken at 3am with my girlfriend shouting "The boat's going under! Cass HELP!".  I leaped out and ran down to see that the transom had gone under with the weight of the rain water and angle it was tied up to when the tide went out further than expected.  My mate was in the boat bailing like mad but the water and rain were coming back in two-fold.  HOLY SHITE! This was not a place you wanted to be near the water let alone at night or worse - stuck here for days until someone came looking....

My girlfriend held the spotty while I climbed into the boat too and used my weight (who knew my ass would come in handy one day lol) to balance out the boat while my mate bailed.  At one stage the boat swung out into the middle of this damn creek with me perched on the bow like a human sacrifice. I was hoping to God not to lose my balance in crocodile lake cause there'd be no coming back.

Have you ever heard a crocodile up close?  They sound like the GRUDGE aagggaagghhhaaggghhh and he was not happy with us in his bed.  He popped up a few times then we lost sight of him but you could hear him and he was way tooo close for us who were now knee deep in his home.

My girlfriend kept the spotty on him while we bailed like crazy, balancing and hoping luck was on our side.

About 20mins later the boat was looking better and we came closer into the bank, tied her up and took it in turns to check her.  The rain was pouring and we all knew the croc was next to the boat so there was going to be no chances taken on repeating that exercise ever again.

The following morning the kids woke up and we headed back into shore with my rats none the wiser of the events of the past few hours.

We tried our luck at Triluck and, if anything, came home safely with another good story to tell.

NYE is swamps, waterfalls and open country

Loaded up with sparklers, glow sticks, party hats, fuel and poppers, we set out for one of our favourite spots with friends to bring in the new year with the typical muddy shenanigans that a campout brings during the wet season and this one did not disappoint. 

We spent the first few hours swimming in the creek then moved up to the waterfall to wash our hair and get a natures-own fully body massage.  We flicked some lures at the base of the waterfall and picked up a couple of barramundi but nothing big enough to eat for lunch. 

In the arvo we set off on quads to check out the swamps and see if we could pick up a few pigs in the marshland.  The kids strapped on their capgun rifles and day packs and dad loaded his .308 to his bike.  I'm certainly not the best quad rider and have had more near misses than anyone in our group so I like to take it fairly steady but when you've got two keen-as ratbags hanging on the back, the esky, and trying to keep up with the boys who only know flat-out, there's going to be issues.  I hit 1 bog hole in 2nd gear and quickly lost traction which meant I had to get off and push myself out. Lucky for me, Mak took the control and she drove us out while I dragged my legs through the mud and grass to catch up.  Xavie was on croc control and after spotting one in our local fenced in sewer pond this week, I wasn't taking any chances.   As we rounded the swamp, the water was getting higher and we noticed the black clouds heading straight for us and we were at least an hour away from camp so thought it better to head back.

It started to rain within minutes and every creek crossing was deeper than the last.  Some of them I had to walk the kids across then tried to negotiate the rock bottom blind and hoping for the best. God I love manual motorbikes!

What came next was one of the biggest storms this season.  The dogs went crazy in the mud and so did our kids.  Mud angels, mud slippery slides into the creek, dad's skiddies and doughies, rain showers and shenangians.  One minute the water was at my waist and within minutes it was up to my arm pits. The creek was swelling and swelling fast.  We pulled all the tubs off the ground and the creek burst it's banks and the water flowed through camp.  There was nothing to do but give a good ol' cheers to the clouds and make the most of the cool weather. 

3 packets of sparklers, 50 poppers, glow necklaces and glow sticks hanging from the tarp, music pumped, drinks flowing and we saw in the new year with all the grace that 2011 could muster.  The rain stopped about 4am this morning and the river bank receded slightly but not enough to swim in safely so we packed up and headed on home after a last minute quad ride.

So many wonderful memories and adventures were had in 2011 with fantastic people but it'll be nothing to what 2012 will bring I'm sure of it!

Bring on 2012!