We got up at 6.00am and were ready to go by 7.30am. We said our goodbyes to Cal, Paula and the boys, the camp host Greg, and a few others and hit the road for Point Samson, some 630km away.
We stopped in Exmouth to top up on fuel and Sue schooled the girls as we headed south into a fairly fierce head wind. Eventually we turned east, and then west onto the main highway, and stopped at Nanutarra Roadhouse for fuel. Unfortunately their autogas pump was out of action, so we topped up with unleaded, both the car and a jerry can just in case. We gave the girls a break from the schooling and Sue joined me in the front to work on the blog for the next leg to Fortescue Roadhouse.
We topped up on petrol here and Sue again joined the girls in the back for another bout on the books. Our last stop was at Karratha Roadhouse for autogas and petrol, where Sue again joined me in the front for some more blogging. We had a good tail wind by now and so trialled the air-conditioner for the last run into Point Samson. We arrived at about 3.30pm and set up the van. Sue went for a walk to stretch the legs and I set up the boat trailer for the next day, before tucking into a well earned happy hour.
Point Samson - 29 September 2012
I spent the morning preparing the tinnie and tackle, while Sue did some laundry and then we all ducked into Wickham to pick up some groceries, before returning to settle down in front of the box for the AFL grand final between Hawthorn and Sydney. Sydney were the better team on the day, emerging as 10 point victors. After the game, Sue went for a walk and the girls joined her on their bikes, while I rigged up some mackerel rigs for the next day.
Tonight we enjoyed another great meal of Pilgramunna calamari.
Point Samson - 30 September 2012
Up at 6.00am, we launched at 7.15am and headed straight for Cal’s mack spot near Bezout Island. We drifted out two garfish under balloons, both on wire of course. Mackerel have very unforgiving teeth. I picked up a small shark early, which the girls were keen to keep for dinner, as they had never tried flake before. To fill in time, we cast a small chrome slice across a nearby bommie and Georgia and I picked up two small queenfish, which were released.
Noah for dinner
At about 10.15am, Sue’s rod went off big time, spewing out around 50 to 100m of line. It was mack time at last. This was to be Kelsey’s fish, as she was due for a big one. With a bit of help from mum, she set about bringing a beautiful big Spaniard of 16kg to the boat. It put up a really good fight and she was one tired little angler at the end of it, but she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. I promptly dispatched it with a few choice blows to the head and we kept it in two damp hessian sacks until we returned to the ramp later.
Sue & Kelsey with their ripper Spanish Mackerel . . . . our first for the trip
We fished for another hour or so without luck, and on the return trip home we spotted some bust ups not far from the end of the Cape Lambert wharf. We cast the same small chrome slice into a school of feeding mack tuna and Georgia picked up her first of the species, around 3kg. I picked up another small one, about half the size, before we returned to the ramp.
Georgia's first mack tuna off Cape Lambert
Back at the park, I cleaned the macko and shark, and tidied up the boat a bit, before planting myself in front of the telly to watch the NRL grand final, with my beloved Melbourne Storm taking on the Canterbury Bulldogs. Canterbury were favourites, having won the minor premiership, but Melbourne had all the experience. In the end, Melbourne triumphed with a 14-4 victory and the two keen rugby fans, Georgia and I, celebrated with great gusto. Not being big rugby fans, Kelsey and Sue went for a walk to escape our carry-on. That night we enjoyed another great meal of mackerel in beer batter using Cal’s recipe.
Point Samson – 1 October 2012
We got up at 6.00am, launched at 7.00am and enjoyed a nice quick run across a much calmer ocean to the mack spot at Bezout Island. We again put our garfish out under balloons and within half an hour had 2 really good hits, which took a lot of line, but failed to hook up. As the tide rose to its peak, the action slowed right down to a stop, so we cast to the adjacent bommie again. This time, a school of big eyed trevally were in residence, and we picked up a few on the small chrome slice. One I hooked, was almost back to the boat when it got monstered by a whaler shark of about 5 feet long right on the surface. The shark and I had a tug of war for about 20 seconds before I managed to reef the hapless trevally out of his mouth and quickly drag it to the boat. The shark wasn’t too happy about losing it's meal and took off in hot pursuit, missing the trevally, but in the process hooking up to Sue’s bottom fishing rod that was sitting against the side of the boat. She had to grab it in a hurry to stop it disappearing over the side, but luckily the shark bit through the nylon trace quite quickly.
One of the large bulk freighters receiving it's last feed of iron ore before departing the Cape Lambert wharf
With the action on the macks still slow, Sue fished the bottom with bait, picking up many stripeys and small bluebone, and sharing the rod with the girls. I kept one stripey and put it out as a live bait for the macks. When the run-out tide picked up its pace, so did the action. We scored another ripper run on the smaller rod and this time it was Georgia’s turn. I handed the rod to George as the mack ripped off 100m of line. The fish slowed and then again took another 50m of line at an even faster pace. We feared it might have a shark on its tail, and this unfortunately proved to be the case, as Georgia pumped back only half a large mackerel, which had also had another large bite taken out of its gut, courtesy of the gentlemen in the grey overcoats.
During Georgia’s fight with the mack, the larger rod also went off and this time it was my turn to do battle. Knowing there were sharks around, I got stuck into it on the heavy gear, but again my fish lit up the afterburners and I soon felt a knock through the line, after which the fish slowed down dramatically. My fish was still very heavy and eventually I got it back to the boat, missing only it's tail, with all the good meat still intact. Why the sharks hadn’t returned for the good bits we’ll never know. With so much mackerel now on board, we bagged them for the trip home and headed back to the ramp.
Back at the ramp with our abbreviated spaniards
Back on shore we found a lucky fisho and offered him the intact mackerel torso, which he gratefully accepted. We kept the severely shark bitten mack, as our freezer was almost full from the day before. Cleaned later, it perfectly filled what space was left in our freezer.
Our plans to leave for Broome the following day, meant another afternoon of packing up for me, while Sue went for another walk. The girls enjoyed air conditioning in the van and watched a Harry Potter movie we had recorded earlier.
Happy hour was followed by dinner and an early night.
Broome - 2 October 2012
Big day today, as we planned to have our biggest day on the road yet, just over 800km to Broome. Being such a long day, we decided to hang the expense and put the foot down with the air-con running to minimise our time on the road. By travelling at 100kph instead of 80kph, we potentially would save ourselves 2 hours on the black top.
Sue schooled the girls in the back as we drove to our first fuel stop at Port Hedland. The teacher continued until our second stop at Pardoo Roadhouse and then joined me in the front for a session on the blog.
Sandfire Roadhouse was next, before our final leg of nearly 300km saw us at Roebuck Plains Roadhouse, only 30 odd km short of Broome. We experienced our first rain this afternoon, our first major drop since Queensland back in May.
We set up at the Cable Beach Caravan Park and the girls immediately hit the pool. A blinder of a pool, even having its own waterfall with a cave behind it.
After a very quick happy hour we bundled into the car again and headed off to the Stairway to the Moon markets, on the foreshore at Roebuck Bay. We grabbed some food from the stalls and enjoyed our meals on the grass. Then we cruised the market before sitting down in the dark with many others, overlooking Roebuck Bay, waiting for the moon to rise over the sand flats.
The Stairway to the Moon is created when the rising full moon reflects off the wet sand flats left behind at low tide. This occurs from May to October during the dry season, over 3 consecutive nights each month. Unfortunately for us, the rain earlier had left some cloud around, and the moon was partially obscured, so we didn’t experience the full effect of the reflections on the sand flats. We left for home and slept very well that night.
The Stairway to the Moon over Roebuck Bay
Broome - 3 October 2012
The girls hit the pool straight after breakfast and then we went into town to the tackle shop. Here we made enquiries about camping at Telegraph Pool on the Fitzroy River, further up the track. Considering the heat, the dirt track in and the conditions they said we could expect, we decided to give it a miss and make a run for the Territory and the Daly River instead.
We had a wander around town and then grabbed a lazy meal at Maccas, before dropping into another shopping centre for some groceries, and finally returning to the van. The girls hit the pool again, while Sue and I did some more trip planning.
We had an early dinner, before heading into town to Sun Pictures. Here we watched Madagascar 3 on deck chairs under the stars, in Australia’s oldest outdoor cinema. We all got a great surprise at one stage, when a jet flew very low overhead and landed on the adjacent airport runway. The movie was great and straight afterwards we drove to Roebuck Bay again, to see if the last night of the Stairway to the Moon would be any better than the previous one. The cloud wasn’t a problem tonight, but a higher tide meant most of the sand flats were still covered with water, again reducing the effect. We took a heap of photos anyway and then returned to the van for the night.
Broome - 4 October 2012
This morning, surprise-surprise, the girls again hit the pool. I called my boss, Des, at John Holland, to let him know that I would be returning to work on November 12, giving him one month’s notice as planned. I couldn’t reach him and so left a message. He called back about 30 minutes later, only to tell me that the bottom had fallen out of the coal market in the previous 2 to 3 weeks and, that as they didn’t have enough work in hand, I no longer had a job to return to. Not the sort of news we were hoping to hear, and it put a real damper on the rest of our day. There may be a few other possibilities of ongoing work with John Holland and he said he would call me back in coming days, when he'd had a chance to explore them, but for now things didn’t look good.
We joined the girls for a swim in the pool and then came back and had some lunch, all the time tossing around ideas of where I could pick up some work. Just about every city of Australia was discussed.
After lunch we dropped into the post office, but our mail still hadn’t arrived, so we would have to make other arrangements down the track. We picked up some fuel and then returned to the van for the afternoon. I packed up a few things, while Sue went for a walk.
Leycester’s Roadside Stop - 5 October 2012
We got up at 5.30am and hit the road just after 7.00am for another big day in the saddle, just under 800km. Sue schooled the girls during our first leg to Willare Bridge Roadhouse, where we picked up fuel and then continued on to Fitzroy Crossing. We refuelled again here and Sue joined me in the front for the next run of nearly 300km to Halls Creek.
We completed the last 100km to Leycester’s Roadside Stop, arriving at about 3.30pm. I promptly set up the van, then cranked up the gennie and the air conditioner, as it was about 40 degrees in the shade. Thank God for the air conditioner in the car!
Katherine - 6 October 2012
We left Leycester’s just before 7.00am, stopping only 60km down the road at Warmun for our first refuelling. Next stop was Kununurra, a further 200km down the track. Leaving Kununurra we stopped at the WA/NT for a few quick photos before continuing on to Timber Creek. Sue took a break from schooling the kids and joined me in the front as we continued on to Victoria River Roadhouse. Here we stretched the legs and took a toilet break.
We arrived at Katherine at 5.00pm local time, losing 1½ hours at the border crossing. We set up the van at the Boab Caravan Park and enjoyed another well earned coldie or two at happy hour.
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