Day 32

4 March 2013

Packed up Mallacoota camp this morning and hit the road again. We were considering staying more nights in Mallacoota to clean them out of flathead but decided we had enough for now. Hehe

Our journey took us through Cann River, Orbost and Lakes Entrance. This was a very nice seaside town and also very touristy, for a Monday there was people everywhere, places to stay here are quite expensive too so kept driving. Bairnsdale, Sale and down to Ninety Mile Beach. WikiCamps has led us to a few free camp spots on this beautiful beach so we headed down to Golden Beach. All along the esplanade here is campsites numbered from 1-20. Some are quite boggy and small, some not real level but we found 19 was pretty good for us and set up here just for the night.

Easy setup as we kept the ute hitched up so took us no time at all. Joel did a bit of chainsaw work on some dead trees and helped clear the bush up a bit. Nice of him! And we may have used that wood to start a fire which we cooked our steak and vegies in the camp oven on. Oh and our scones for dessert!

And that's us done for the day!

Carly & Joel

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Day 31

3 March 2013

Sunday morning woke up to a beautiful sunny hot day! Yay! So after breakfast we decided it was time to chase the flathead again!

Joel had played around with a few soft plastic and cut tails off ones and superglued them to the other just to see whether they would have any effect... They looked ridiculous of course but the proof is in the pudding I guess...

There are moorings here for your boats along the waters edge and they cost $4 a day to park your boat in them. We made a discovery that there was old mooring points right up the end towards the rock point and beach end. We asked the lady at reception if you have to pay for these and she said she didn't even know they were there and we should have just parked boat there and not asked! Haha so that's what we did. So it was a lot easier this morning to go fishing as we just carried our gear to the boat, jumped in and off we went.

We started well, flathead straight up! And this continued pretty much all morning! We ended up getting 8 keepers ranging from 35-40cm, 1 dropped at the boat, 1 undersize and 1 that Joel cut the gills and went to wash it over the side of the boat and it slipped from his hands and swam away!!! Oops!

Almost bagged out and we were getting hungry so back to camp for lunch!

Joel loves looking at everyone else's set up and saying how great, good, awesome of a set up they have. I told him the smorning he keeps reminding me of Kath & Kim when they see anything and say "that's nice, that's different, that's unusual!" Joel does this with pretty much every van setup he sees "that's a good setup, ooh that ones a good set up, ooh very nice!" Haha it makes me laugh and is a bit of a running joke at the moment!

Anyway totally off track....had some lunch and decided to see if we could get some more flatties this arvo! Unfortunately it was super windy which we felt hindered our fishing and we only came home with one! Overall though 18 fillets later, gives us (or Joel) a few free meals so can't complain!

Last night at Mallacoota tonight, tomorrow heading to somewhere near Lakes Entrance.

I am also thinking about setting up a Facebook page for the blog....seems that it is a little bit annoying to come to the website all the time to read the blogs and the email subscription doesn't seem all that reliable....what does everyone think about this? Should I do it? If you think it's a good idea please let us know cuz even though I am not a huge fan of Facebook it is where everyone goes for the daily news of everyone's life.....

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 30

2 March 2013

This morning we woke up to blue sky and somewhat warm sunshine. No complaints here!

Market day today, Mallacoota has markets from 9 to 1 just behind the main street. Easy walk from the holiday park so we walked over to check them out. There was about 12 stalls selling a range of products from fruit and vegies to jewellery and arts and crafts. While we didn't buy anything they are worth just looking at in case there is anything you might like. We then headed down the Main Street and stopped at Lucy's cafe for breakfast. Scrambled eggs, coffee and a muffin, not bad, nothing to rave about though. Then to the bait shop to sort out a bit of new tackle for our rods in the hope that we may be able to catch something today!

New lines rigged up and we head out again. It was much calmer today than yesterday which meant we were drifting at a good speed to pick up some flatties....and we did! We got four all up, but 3 keepers. They have to be between 30-50cm to take them.

I did also manage to catch quite a few shells! Not sure what is inside of these but they clamp shut on the hook and you can't get the hook out! Annoying cuz they are heavy enough to make you think you have a fish as well!

This took us pretty much all afternoon so we headed in to fillet and eat them! They have a really well set up scaling and filleting section just up from the boat ramp. We headed there and ran into a nice man who showed us the best way to fillet flathead which was very nice of him! While you are filleting the fish there is so many seagulls flying around ya head, and pelicans just standing all around the tables waiting for something!

It is a bit unnerving having a mob of pelicans stalking you! We gave them some easy food (fish carcasses) and we were on our way. Joel had them on the frying pan in the weber before you could say "fry the flathead!" And eaten pretty much just as fast, pan fried in garlic butter fresh flathead....mmmm

Joel then washed his dirty car to try and make it look half respectable!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 29

1 March 2013

First of the month! Which means we have been travelling for one whole month!

Woke up to mainly blue sky's but still freezing, one out of two ain't bad. Decided to do some early morning fishing....since this is a place for fishing! Put the boat in and headed out to try and get some yabbies (or nippers as they are called in Victoria) going to pump nippers just does not have the same ring to it! Anyway one nipper later we gave up and decided to just try the plastics. In Victoria you have to wear your life jacket all the time in the boat unless you are anchored, which does not go down real well with a qlder haha but here we are sporting the fashionable cheapest life jacket you can buy! (Can not say too much about Victorians as there are some Victorian readers! Hehe)

I'm still not sure about plastics, I am a bait girl and I just think its alot easier to know when the fish is actually biting, I have a bit of trouble with the squidgees....think I have a fish so reel in to find nothing, don't think I have fish and there is a flathead on the end of it! I saw the flathead and got a wee bit excited so started reeling like a crazy person up to the boat and the flatty shook its big head and got loose! We saw it and everything! Disappointing! And this would be the only fish we saw all morning.

Headed in to go for a bit of a drive and scenic look. Joel was searching for 4wd drive tracks and there are a few around here, however I would not call them 4wd tracks, more like roads similar to the Sunshine Coast after lots of rain, just potholes everywhere. So Joel got pretty bored of that so he found his own 4wd track.....

And got the car very muddy and dirty! Which was his aim!

Came back to camp and I went for a bit of a run around the park and Joel wanted lollies from the shop so I did that on the way. Realized I must of looked like a dickhead running with 2 bags of lollies! People were probably thinking I was running with them cuz I couldn't wait to get home and eat them! Haha ok I had a couple when I got home! : S.

Bit of TV, chicken pasta bake in the Weber (of course) for dinner and off to bed ready to go out and try fishing again tomorrow.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 28

28 February 2013

Last night we had torrential rain. The camper is soaked and we are ready to get out of here! We waited till 8am in the hope that the rain would subside however we were not that lucky! Putting on our just dried raincoats, we headed outside to start packing up and get soaked again!

Packed up and back on the road heading towards Mallacoota, just over the Victorian border. The trip was about 4 hours and it did not stop raining the whole time we were travelling! There was not one break in the rain it was so constant.

Made it to Mallacoota and it was surprise surprise, wet and rainy too! We yet again donned our raincoats and set up in the rain! We decided to do a full setup with full annexe so if it did rain the whole time we were here at least we could sit in the annexe rather than being contained to the camper.

Set up and what happens....rain stops! Typical! Had some lunch, did some washing (the new age way), checked out the water and did a bit of shopping at the local shops. Mallacoota is right on the water and is known for its fishing...and that is very noticeable when every caravan here also has a boat attached to it somewhere! So tomorrow we are hoping for a fine day and good fishing! Will let you know if we get either!

Apologies for late blogs, we ran out of power in this shit weather so we are now on a powered site at Mallacoota which is a luxury! Another luxury that we have missed is a hot powerful running shower! (The Coleman 30 sec showers we have been having just aren't cutting it!) I jumped in the shower here, pretty much after we had set up, and it took all my strength to get out! (I really only did, for fear of the lady outside of the shower timing me and yelling at me for using too much water) haha. It was pure heaven and I am already looking forward to the next one! Oh the little things that seem so big right now!

Raining again tonight! Over being wet!!

Carly & Joel

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