Category Archives: TRIP

Claire’s 40th in Kakadu

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We went down to Cooinda lodge for Claire’s 40th. We decided camping would be too much with Eddie, and we got a (very expensive) small cabin. It was very nice though and perfectly suited to us.

Each afternoon we went for a swim. On the first morning we went to Nourlangie, and on the second we went to Ubirr. We were unsure how Eddie would go on these sort of long bushwalks. Well the “path” part wasn’t his favourite, although with a bag of pretzels in his hand he did not seem to mind. But climbing the rocks was his all time favourite activity – that and “doing what Maggie does”.

Maggie was loving it of course, but it was just amazing to see Eddie keeping up. He would refuse to let anyone help him too much too – holding the hand was okay but not taking him over rocks.

On the way back home we tried and failed to get to Ikomarrya and we ended up at Pine Creek for lunch. There was old fashioned trains there to play on and Eddie was in seventh heaven!

On the top of Ubirr

Another Day at the Barra Farm

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Maggie and I took Pa to the farm today for his birthday. It was very easy to catch fish in the afternoon session, basically all the juvies around 40cm were going to smash each prawn. We all got one and moved onto trying to get bigger stuff. We didn’t succeed (a few did) and soon Maggie got over it and we went back to the juvie pond. She had an absolute ball, getting fish after fish. All in all she got 6 barra, and was getting really comfortable holding them up by the end of it.

Trevally Fun

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Mike and I went to the vernons again today. First cast I got a massive pike and from there a bunch of smaller trevally. We went exploring for a new spot and got a variety of very small things like trout, cod and bluebones. Then we hit the goldie hole and it really fired – got quite a decent feed.

So all in all it was a good day, the only thing it was lacking was a real “photo fish”.

Two at once on my lucky lure picked by Maggie

Gippsland Trips 2023

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Had some reasonable weather when we went down. We managed to get to the beach (in the morning to avoid the wind which was a good move) as well as Stratty bridge and McKinnons.

Seaspray – Maggie loved it but complained about how cold the water was. Eddie was uncertain at first but slowly warmed to it. Flo was there and liked to dig – and eat – the sand.

Stratty Bridge – We actually went twice as it was the kids favourite spot. There was a strong current in some shallow water which let Maggie ride her board down it. Eddie was in seventh heaven with all the rocks and sand and water to play with. He did not want to leave at all. Maggie “rescued” a girl which involved her getting freaked out in the thigh-deep water because of the current and Maggie took her hand and brought her to the shore. She loved it and everyone heard the story as soon as she saw them.

McKinnons – It was interesting as there were loads of cars and tents on the rocks. It wasn’t as kid-friendly as it had been in the past with lots of alcohol going and music pumping. We found a quiet-ish spot. Ed didn’t quite like it as much, I think because of the difficulty he had with moving around on the rocks. Was still a nice day though.

Vernon Fishing Fun

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Went out exploring today. Lots of small fish and a few “alright”ones.

Mike got a great Queenie in and two big trevelly nearly in but sharks took them. We found a stream full of life but there were sharks everywhere. Did some shore fishing too – always fun.

Got 10 coral trout on lures all quite small. Probably 30-50 bluebones all small

My best was working for 30 mins to get what we thought was a metre trevelly in… only to find a shark!

Two sad stories of the day was hooking up a decent trevelly and having the hook pull free from my new expensive lure. The other was me filliting the Queenie for dinner… dropped it in the water to give it a quick clean and the fish grippers somehow came out from its jaw! Dropped it right under so no dinner for me.