Update from Groper Creek

It has been a while since I have posted. Quite a few things have happened. Let me start with the van.
There was a leak in the plumbing system and of course, it was in the worst possible place to fix. I had to pull the fridge out to get to the problem. After working out was the problem, I ordered a part from the internet and when it arrived went into Ayr to get the remaining items I required. The fix didn't take long however I was without running water for about a week. Another $150 spent.

Groper Creek has been a great place to stay. I have met a heap of people and everyone so far has been very friendly. While the boat has been out of action I have still been out fishing with generous people taking me with them. When I come back next year I will have more experience as to where to go and a boat setup the way it needs to be.

I will be heading to Katherine NT at the end of this week to work the mango harvest. It is only 2300k's from here :( I am going to try and take 10 to 12 days to get there. Hopefully I will have some time to look around on my way there. It would be perfect if I can get some work back in QLD for 4-5 weeks before I go back to Brisbane for Xmas.

I don't know if I will have internet etc in Katherine as I will be staying on the farm. So I will posting this when I can.

Here is a few pictures of Groper Creek.

Says it all

See how high off the ground the houses are ( and Telephone). Floods come up about 10' (3.3mts)

Looking east 

All out fishing

 

 The Jetty

This is me!

Another day in paradise

Started with a 60cm flattie on a trolled lure over a sandbank.

Groper Creek - the first few days.

So much to report. I am writing this at today's date and not a few days later. Well where do I start. The morning after I arrived here I had a walk around, met my next door neighbour, John, who has been coming here for 8-9 years. In fact most of the people here have been coming for many years. The good bit is they are not stuck up and are glad to have a chat and too include you. Most are really nice.

These are some photos of my set up and the park

The next is the view from my annexe

Got the boat all setup ( more stories on the boat later), found out so information on where to fish, what baits etc. Most people fish for Grunter and today one of the guys ( Roy) caught what I believe is the largest this year - 65cms, that's one big grunter. 

Lucky I bought the cast net as everyone gets their bait ( prawns) for around the jetty. My first attempts where ordinary to say the least so I asked one of the regulars for some tips. He was only too obliging and with his help I have pretty well master cast netting. Yesterday, I was netting for prawns and I could see plenty at the top of the net but when I brought it in there was only 1 or 2. Talking again to the guys, I went to Ayr and purchased a draw string net from a tackle shop that gives discounts to people from Groper Creek.

Fishing

Have only  been out twice as at today due to boat problems. the first day I didn't catch anything as I only had squid for bait and really in truth was more scoping out the place rather that serious fishing.

Yesterday I went out and had a good bash at fishing and also put the crab pot in.

Started with catching a catfish of 50cm and then a bit later a 50cm grunter - really good fun.

The crab pot was baited with a tin of cat food and the left over squid from the previous days fishing. While it did have a couple of crabs, they where too small. One of the crabs was generous enough to leave behind his two claws as I was releasing him. Matter of fact I just put them in the pot now to have for lunch.

The water temp is still a bit low but when it heats up I think there will be some great fishing stories to be told.

Boat

The first day I took the boat out it felt as if it was surging. I put that down to not much use of the motor for a while. I also realised that the trim pin was not with the motor and that was resulting in the bow being very low when on the plane. 

The next day I took the boat out it was going great in the morning. With one person in the boat I estimate that it does about 15 kts. Pretty good. However, when I was about to come home the motor felt like it was cavitating when I did anything over about 4 kts. Therefore my trip home took almost an hour. I was trying to work out what was the problem and I thought that the prop bushes where failing, so when I got back I was lucky enough to have a spare prop. I put the spare on the motor and took the boat out for a trial and guess what, it was working perfectly, problem solved or so I thought.

This morning I was really excited, I had fixed the boat, I had good bait and I knew where I was going to fishing, what a beautiful day I was going to have. Murphy's law always comes into play. First the dolly wheels kept falling off so I looked like a fool getting the boat to the ramp. By the time I got the boat in the water I was stuffed. But never mind I was going to have a great day fishing. Then I power it up, hit the throttle and it was doing what it did yesterday. SHIT. 

I now have the motor in at the Yamaha dealer in Ayr and we will see what the outcome is. I have been around boats big and small all my life and I am stumped, and so is the dealer. Anyhow tomorrow is another day. I will go and top up my supply of prawns this afternoon seeing I have no fish to clean.

What today has done is give me a chance at some housework, like washing. I didn't realise how much washing I had, so at least it is done now.

Will let you know the outcome of the motor episode when it is finished.

I will post again in a few days.

Life is good.

St Lawrence to Groper Creek.

Took off early, about 8.30 and was only going to head to north of Mackay. didn't realise how short the journey was going to be, I would have ended up stopping at about 11.30am, so decided to hell with it I will go all the way to Groper Creek. Arrived at around 3.30 so was about 6 and a bit hours travelling. A long way towing a van. I was stuffed when I got here. Only incident was that I almost ran out of fuel between Mackay and Proserpine. Get looking for a decent servo but did find one 30k's short of Proserpine.
This is the furthest north I have been since Jeff Hill and I rode our bikes to Cairns, many many years ago.

When I arrived at Groper Creek I expected to find a sleepy caravan park with not that many people in it. Ha! it was like a fishing comp was on, there was so many vans, boats and people.

The next blog entry I will look  around the park and do some fishing and report back.

This was my trip

Benaraby to St Lawrence

The day started early. Up around 7am ( great not to have to get up a 6am anymore) had a look around the campsite and noticed that there was a lot of hiaces etc with one or two people in them. Put everything away and hit the road around 8.30. Did my first fuel fillup of the trip and am averaging 18.5l per 100k. Considering the weight I am towing I am pretty happy with those figures.

There was a fair bit of traffic on the road, particularly into Rockhampton. Ah Rockhampton, I ount how many times i've been to Rocky but was amazed this time as to how the north side has grown. It is starting to get very large.

Anyway, kept heading north on the Marlborough stretch, tryting to avoid holding anyone up. I achieved that. I must tell truckies to stop complaining about caravans and if they see one that has uhf to contact them, simple communication would hopefully reduce the amount of vile coming over the radio about caravans. yep, there is inconsiderate people in all walks of life.

So 320 k's after I left Benaraby I arrived at St Lawrence, arrived at approx. 12.15. It was a good drive today.

Me and my GPS. We used to be such good friends until I updated the maps etc the other day. Today it decides that I shouldn't go the main way into St Lawrence but the goat track of the northern entrance.

See Photo

A good test to find out how well sealed the caravan is. I might have to have a very long talk with the gps and one of us is going to win. I just wish I knew which one it would be.

Here is some photos of where I am camped for tonight. Set the tv up to watch the afl finals tonight. Will be heading up the road tomorrow, just dont know where I will get to.

Today's Travels

Bauple to Benaraby

Left John and Marg this morning after their special breakfast of eggs poached in gravy, very nice. Boy,is there a  lot of roadworks. Almost all the way. I did approx 400k's today at an average of just over 70 k's per hour .It was very tiring as you had to be aware of roadworks almost all the way.

Arrived at Benaraby about 3pm so have had the first of a couple of beers already. Yum, and much needed. Just had a walk around the area and it is quite nice and a fair few vans etc in already. Talking to guy you had gone down to the river to do a bit of fishing and saw his first crocodile lurking in the water. Needless to say that was the end of his fishing, apparently they dont have too many crocs in Woolongong.

Anyhow this is a couple of photos of the van at Benaraby.

Brisbane to Bauple

Left Brisbane around 10.30 after 5 weeks with the kids. Will try and get back for Xmas.
It was extremely windy but the caravan held really firm on the road, which made me feel very comfortable.  Bauple is only about 260km from Brisbane so the trip was about 3hrs.
Not much to tell about the trip as it was uneventful until I followed the GPS when I got to Bauple,  it took me up a dirt road that had no through road signs every couple of hundred meters but I kept going. Yep you guessed it, it really was no through road so I had to turn around. You think I would have been smarter.

Spent the afternoon with John and Marg, which was lovely to see them again.

Here are some photos.

John and Marg's house at Bauple

The days travels