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70cm of saltwater barramundi

We spent four great weeks up in North Qld enjoying the hospitality and companionship of old friends, family, mates, the dogs and fishing till I had had enough (never! ). Definitely the best Barra fishing I have ever enjoyed with over 35 Barra landed and a personal best Barra of 70Cm.

Sadly all things must come to an end and it was now time to head west for home. I knew that Linda would be chaffing at the bit to get home – so it was “the pedal to the metal” and travelling at the fastest rate we had ever travelled we were soon at Haslam in SA (west side of Eyre Peninsula).

2,836Km in eight days travelling- it took us six months to get to North QLD !

We decided to do travel to home via Broken Hill as we had never been that way before.

The movie at this link is my biggest effort yet using still camera shots, a few drone shots and a lot of dash-cam footage (something I had not thought of using before despite it recording every minute the car was moving).

They don't mince words out in the bush

Outback QLD and NSW is a bloody mess with most paddocks grazed down to dust , almost no stock to be seen (sold or moved) – hopefully the drought will break soon as its getting pretty desperate out there.  I have seen a lot of road kill on our travels but nothing like what is lying on the side of the road between Charleville and Bourke – thousands and thousands of roos (red and grey), hundreds of emus and a smattering of the smarter goats and pigs.

OH&S gone crazy - a dump point is now a confined space?

We never saw anything that looked like grass till we reached Peterborough in SA.

The movie at this link is my biggest effort yet using still camera shots, a few drone shots and a lot of dash-cam footage (something I had not thought of using before despite it recording every minute the car was moving).

Link to my longer than usual video is HERE

Across the Nullarbor in two days’ time – after watching the Eagles win!!

Bedford Weir

Sunset on the McKenzie

Bedford Weir Campground is 26 km from Blackwater on the McKenzie River. We had camped here before in September 2015 to fish in the “Saratoga Spectacular” fishing competition. Long term followers of my travel blog might remember that we were spectacularly unsuccessful in catching any Toga but Linda won $100 in the novelty red claw draw.

We had been keeping in contact with our caravaning friends Steve and Carol who were meandering north from Vic so we met up and headed out to the campground.

Tea break

Linda and I were determined to better our Saratoga record (zero last visit) but after flogging the water to foam for four hours a day for a week only catfish saw the landing net. Time for a change of plan – early in the week Linda had a smashing hit on a spinner bait which looked “toga-erish” so out came the smaller spinner baits and lots more Toga hits. Linda soon had two big 70cm Toga in the net but after 5 hook-ups I still had zero score. 

Catfish Kerry

On the morning of our pack-up day I set out to our favorite spot for a final foray to snatch a sneaky Toga and was finally successful with a 65cm fish netted and photographed 15 min before go home time. Bad news was that on the way back to the ramp my outboard failed and I may have cooked the motor. Last three kilometers was on my little electric motor with breath held wondering if the battery would hold out.

Roast dinner with friends

Enough about fishing – every afternoon/evening we enjoyed the company of our friends Steve, Carol and Roxy (the bull dog) sitting around the camp fire for drinks, cards, cook-ups, more drinks and lots of laughs.

Sad to leave Bedford Weir but we will always have great memories of laughter, food, card comps, wine and beer, camp fires and the occasional elusive Toga.

Made a short video link is HERE

Glebe Weir

The Glebe Weird Mob

We visited Glebe Weir (near Taroom in central Queensland) during our first trip around Australia in 2012. The lure of water-side camping with Saratoga, Yellow Belly, abundant bird life, flushing toilets, and powered sites all for $7/night per van drew us back again this trip.

Unfortunately despite hours out on the water casting spinner baits, walking the dog, jiggling small hard body divers, and even resorting to smelly bait - not a bump or bite was felt.  Luckily the eagles, whistling kites, pelicans, cormorants, ospreys, azure kingfishers, herons, ducks, swallows and cheeky fly catchers kept us amused whilst flogging the water to a foam during our fruitless fishing expeditions. Our red-claw efforts fared no better than our fishing – “you should have been here last month “was the frequent quote from the locals! Not sure why the fishing was so poor but perhaps the full moon and muddy water had something to do with it?

Our solar system neighbours -  Moon and Mars

Talking about moons – while we were camped here the longest total eclipse this century occurred. Apparently the next one is 105 years from now in the Northern hemisphere – did a bit a  mental math and came to the conclusion that I might miss that one - so set the alarm clock for 4:30 AM and donned my coat and beanie to photograph the red  moon.  Despite researching “how to photograph” the moon my resultant photos were a little disappointing with all the photos being a little blurry.  I did the calcs and realised that at my slow 10 second shutter speed the moon moved about 2.5 mins during the shot – enough to perhaps blur the shot (that’s my excuse!).  But was well worth getting out of bed - as the  night sky in the middle of the bush miles from any light pollution is a pretty special on any night and to watch the total eclipse red moon disappear into sunrise was better than listening to Molly (and Linda) snoring.

Packing up the tinny

Since we were here last time the local Banana Shire (good name for a Queensland town 😊😊)  has added a water filtration system for drinking water at the camp – so now a perfect (if the fish came back) bush camp site. Understandably very busy this time of year – but all grey nomads here - so friendly, happy campers.

If you’re thinking of coming this way - a week at Glebe Weir is a great way to spend some time – you might even catch one of those elusive fish 😊.

Made a short video link is HERE (watch out for the drone attacking Galahs).

Inskip Point

The Britton bunch

Whilst visiting family in Brisbane we all decided to head out to Inskip Point for a week of camping, fishing, relaxing and catching up. I can’t recall a time when all four Britton siblings were together for any extended time since we were children so this was going to be a special time for us all.

View across our little bay from our campsite

Inskip Point is situated just outside of Rainbow Beach and is where thousands of 4WD’s catch the ferry across to Fraser Island.  There are several designated camping areas within the Inskip Point Recreational Reserve but after studying Google Earth and Wiki Camps we decided that we would try and secure a spot on the calm inside of the point where it would be safe for my sister's grandson and easy to launch and retrieve our little tinny.

Granddad time!

As is was the start of school holidays on the Friday Linda and I headed off early Thursday as the advance party to try and secure a spot on the calm side for us and the rest of the gang who were to follow on the Friday (apparently some people still work?).  As luck would have it (and a bit of good planning) we got two great spots within meters of the water – but lucky we got there Thursday morning as there were plenty of “lookers” as we were setting  up.

What mud flats?

Beautiful quiet place every night except for one where two middle age “ferals” set up behind us and decided to that is was OK for him to verbally abuse his missus (and anyone else that complained ab out the  noise) till 2:00AM using the loudest and crudest language imaginable. When they started up again just after 7:00AM and the “lady” giving her beau a shovel beating for breakfast we decided enough was enough and rang the cops. A few hours later they were given marching orders and packed up and left – peace and quiet returned!!

It's in the genes! My sister Donna and friend

Fishing was a little quiet with only a few flatties and whiting succumbing to our lures but they were good size and good tucker.

At the Carlo Sand Blow

It was great to spend a week with the Brisbane bunch - fishing, cook-ups, a spit roast, campfires, walks and several coldies being the order of the day.

As usual I made a short video while we were there - it can be found HERE

Pindari Dam

Camp site at Pindari

As were driving away from Pindari Dam after a 12 night stay, Linda and I agreed that this camp is one of our all time favourite spots in Australia!

When we arrived there was  a deep sense of “Déjà vu” as we drove into camp and parked our van at the same spot (even using the same hole to level our van)  that we had parked at almost two and a half years ago we visited this area.

Sunday breakfast

Why do we rate this camp so highly?

• Million dollar views from our van over the dam
• A picnic table provided for each site
• Clean toilets 25 meters from our van
• Hot Showers a 1km drive away
• Over 100km² of dam and river to explore and fish for Murray Cod and Yellow Belly.
• Boat ramp 500 meters away from camp
• More firewood than you can poke a chainsaw at.
• Rubbish bins everywhere
• Wild life galore

*** All of this is provided free ***

Master Angler!

Noting all the pluses above its worth mentioning that the camp is not for everybody.

• There are only 4-5 sites suitable for a caravan (all will test your reversing skills)
• There is no drinking water available
• There are no good walking tracks (too hilly and rocky)
• Nearest shopping and fuel 55Km away at Inverell
• No phone or Internet at the camp (some signal at the shower block 1 km away)
• You need a boat to fully enjoy the spot
• It’s mainly a fishing camp so if fishing isn’t your thing its probably not worth staying long.

We caught up with some guys from the Byron Bay Freshwater Fishing Club who we met at the same spot last time we were here – great bunch of keen fisho’s and beer drinkers.

Pindari Dam – BCF-ing good!

That's my seat!

Short video starring "Molly the Mutt" is HERE

Chaffey Dam

Chaffey at sunset

Readers of my blogs from previous trips may recall that we have stayed at Chaffey Dam 45kms outside of Tamworth several times. A great peaceful spot on the dam with toilets, hot showers, dump point and usually fish. 

Unfortunately despite our best efforts the fish didn’t want to come out and play this visit (a first for Chaffey Dam for us). Even got up an hour before dawn one day to get the early bite but an hour of freezing still didn’t produce any fish!

Our camp at the top

The whole area is very dry at the moment with not much green to be seen anywhere so hopefully they will get some good rain (after we leave!!). The weather when we stayed was near perfect with no wind and minimums of 0C and maximums around 21C.  Great for a fire at night and donning shorts during the day.

Morning chat with Peter the caretaker

We normally camp near the dam so we can leave the tinny in the water but the lower flats had been underwater a year or so ago and dry and dusty so we decided to glamp it and camp close to the toilet and shower area (in hindsight a good decision noting the poor fishing results).

No log too big for a Stihl!

A few notes for travellers:-

• Prices have now gone up to $5/person per night (used to be $5/vehicle)
• The hot showers are $1/shower by donation
• There is no drinking water at Chaffey Dam but lots of shower water from taps supplying dam water. There is beaut drinking water available at Nundle from a tap at the public toilet block just on the outskirts of town.
• Say hello to Peter the cleaner/caretaker - he's been looking after this place for 7 years - 7 days a week and doing a great job!

The girls chilling out

It’s been a while since we have stopped anywhere longer than a week so the break at Chaffey was just what we needed to catch up with reading and Linda even let me win one game of Yahtzee!!

Made a short video – link is HERE

The Gong to Orange

Pop and Grandson time

With two Sons, two Grandsons, two Granddaughters (one who we had never seen before), and a Daughter-in-law all living in Primbee just south of Wollongong we detoured along the south NSW coast to Primbee staying a night at Bodella State Forest and two nights at Milton Showgrounds on route.  The weather when we were at Primbee was absolutely miserable with gale force winds blowing straight up from Antarctica so there was no fishing in the son’s new boat but we had five great nights with family.  With drinks, darts, family dinners and catch-up time with the Grandies - the five days went quickly.

After leaving Wollongong we headed up Mt. Ousley, out the back of Sydney and up through the Blue Mountains – pretty steep in sections but after our trip through the Snowy Mountains the trusty Pajero hardly flinched at the steep inclines.

My two girls and their three sisters

Noting there was no clouds or mist we decided to do a short detour in Katoomba and head out to Echo Point and do the tourist thing with a photo or two of the most photographed bit of rock in Australia – the “Three Sisters”. Pretty quiet day on a Wednesday only a few thousand overseas tourists, twenty busses and packed walkways.

There's trout in there (apparently)

After the photo shoot we headed to Lake Wallace a great free camp just outside Lithgow – Lakeside camping with clean dunnies, dump point and TV reception – nice spot. I had brought a trout lure to catch one of the stocked Lake Wallace trout but that Antarctic blast had followed us from Wollongong so with a max of 13C and min of 1C overnight we bunkered down with the diesel heater in the van earning its keep.  We thought “it can’t get much colder than this” – WRONG – we were yet to get to Orange!

Magnificent view from Mt. Canobolas - yesterday

Orange is a large inland City a 1000M above sea level - a really pretty place in late autumn with the yellows and reds of the deciduous trees creating a colorful backdrop to the City. We stayed at Linda’s nieces place where her Niece, Husband and Family made us feel welcome and at home.  Molly even had a friend to play with!  We joined the family for Saturday soccer, a kick-boxing match and a nice dinner at the local Bowls Club –  a good day out.

Before wrapping up this blog I have to mention that Lake Wallace was a sauna compared to Orange – maximum temperatures of around 10C and overnight minimums of around 0C had us shivering in our several layers of clothing we wore everyday – not even winter yet!

Made a short movie - link is HERE

The Snowy Mountains

To get from Jingellic on the upper Murray to the coast we had a few options  - the more adventurous  one was up into the Snowy Mountains and down to the coast at Bega via Browns Mountain. 

We checked the weather and saw that they were forecasting storms and snow for the high country from Thursday onwards so we packed up on Monday and spent Monday and Tuesday climbing up onto the Australian Alps and then back down to the coastal plain at Bega.

Day one saw us travelling through the small valleys and ranges to a free camp at Jones Bridge near Tumut.  This is going to be easy!

Day two saw us leaving Tumut and heading up into the Alps. The 8Km climb from Talbingo to Kiandra where we ascended 1200M is the steepest climb we have ever completed towing our van. After an hour of being locked into second gear through what felt like a hundred hair pin bends we finally reached the top – got out and kissed the Pajero on the bonnet!

The next couple of hours were spent travelling across the high plains (max temp around 14C at midday) before descending down Browns Mountain (locked in first gear) 1200M to the coastal plain.  Almost three tons of caravan pushing you down the hill keeps you on your toes!

Car, dog and Crew were all glad to be down the hill - but it was two days spent in some of the most spectacular high country scenery and we were glad we took the alpine route.

If your car and nerves are in good order and you’re in this part of Oz – it’s a bucket list must do.

We took lots of photos but no drone flights so I have put a lot of the photos in the video found HERE

Camp 9 - Jingellic

Jingellic Reserve

When I was sitting in my lounge in Collie mentally planning our trip along the Murray River, Jingellic Reserve looked to be the perfect last camp – as far up towards the headwaters as you could camp with a dog in tow (Kosciusko National Park from there up), grassy bank on the river, reports of Murray Cod, and 100m from the pub.

Unfortunately after launching my tinny it became obvious that the fast flowing stream that was the Murray this far upstream wasn’t going to be suitable to our style of fishing as the electric motor had no chance of holding the boats position against the current and most of the river was very shallow. So after one quick foray up the creek the tinny went back on the roof. BUGGER!

View from under our awning

But our stay at Jingellic was still really enjoyable with the crystal clear young Murray River gurgling past, a good meal at the pub and Molly was in dog heaven – two big dogs to play with and the old fella camping down the front supplying a constant supply of chicken wings and dog bones.

Talking about Molly’s friends – one was a border collie that thought my drone was the best thing it had ever seen to play and catch. While I was trying to land my drone and trying to stop the dog leaping a meter up to catch it – yep crashed my drone again – fortunately “eagle eyes” Linda found the bit that broke off and with a bit of glue its seems to be its usual buzzing self.

A sad man and his book

This last photo is taken as we crossed the Murray River for the last time this trip – I had brought a book called “Camping and Caravaning the Murray” which now will be sadly retired to the bookshelf.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our month camping on the Murray – it’s a journey well worth doing if you want to soak up some of the quintessence of Australia’s longest river.

A short video can be found at THIS LINK

Camp 8 - Tallangatta

Shades of autum

I don’t normally do blogs when we stay in Caravan Parks as they are usually short stays only to take a deep breath, get the big items of washing done, fill up with water and head off to our next bush camp.  After a week at Kyffin’s Reserve at Lake Malwala we decided to stay at Lakeside Caravan Park in the small town of Tallangatta for two nights to catch up on the stuff I’ve listed above. The town of Tallangatta Info HERE is famous for being the “Town that Moved” in 1956 when the original town was to be flooded by the new Hume Dam.

As this is the low season for the Caravan Park we were allocated a dam side spot. Wow what a view – although the Hume Dam is only at 30% it’s still an impressive sight for our site.

View from our van

Have been playing with a new program to stitch panoramas together from multiple overlapping photos (my drone has a panorama mode where it automatically takes a series of photos in a 180 degree arc). The program is called Microsoft ICE (no - not a site for Bill Gates to sell drugs), its very easy to use and best of all free to download. The photo to the left of this text was done using my normal DSLR on a tripod and taking five overlapping photos.

Mitta Mitta River Valley

While we were at the Park the forecast for the day we had planned to leave was for 30ml of rain and gale force winds – not a good day for setting up at a free camp so we ended up staying 3 nights.  On the last day we went for a drive to Mitta Mitta – a small town further up in the ranges – a good preview of the beautiful countryside we expect to see on our way up and across the snowy mountains National Park in a week or so.

It’s a well-used cliché but the folk in small towns are definitely more friendly and happy to help out – we really enjoyed our stay in Tallangatta.

Camp 7 - Lake Mulwala

Our camp on the lake

I’ve had Lake Mulwala on my bucket list since some friends told us about the fantastic Murray Cod fishing there some years ago. Lake Mulwala is nestled between the twin towns of Yarrawonga and Mulwala on the Victorian/NSW border and is one of the major irrigation dams on the Murray River below the Hume Dam.

Moon rise on the lake

Mulwala is aboriginal for “lots of dead trees standing in water” – not really - but as the lake is full of thousands of drowned red river gums this would be an appropriate name. We stayed at a free camp called Kyffin’s  Reserve LINK HERE just outside Mulwala township – a little hard to find a level spot but with a little effort we set up within meters of the lake edge next to a little bay for the tinny. For info for fellow campers – there is a dump point and fresh town water tap at Owen Bridges Park only a few kilometers away from camping area on the edge of Mulwala township and firewood was easily found 8-9 K’s out on Tocumwal Road.

Linda's two nice cod

That’s enough for the background information - we were here to catch Murray Cod on spinner baits and hopefully surface lures. Day one saw me out a half hour before dawn (3 degrees) throwing small surface lures at the shallow water packed with sunken logs – and woo hoo – after two splashing hits a 52cm cod hit the landing net. Back home for a leisurely breakfast and then out casting spinner baits at the tree stumps with Linda. Linda caught two beautiful 59cm and 62cm cod and I caught another 53cm undersize cod (legal size is over 55cm and less than 75cm).

Even the old fella caught a cod

Day two saw me land a nice 64cm cod on a spinner bait and that was the last we caught for some days. We spent the next couple of days casting lure after lure with no result. Now for some maths - fishing seven hours a day for five days with a cast every 15 seconds x 2 fishermen equates to around 8000 casts over the 5 days fished. Total score for our visit were six cod with three legal keepers – so a lot of hard work put into those cod but worth every minute.

My "First Mate" Molly

We would recommend Kyffin Reserve as a free camp on beautiful Lake Mulwala – close to everything and you can even catch cod off the bank (if you remember to take a landing net). Gave the drone a few flights (bloody white corolla's tried to attack it) - video is HERE

Camps 5 (Wood Wood) and 6 (Koondrook)

On our way from Gasden’s Bend to Lake Mulwala we did two “one nighters” near Wood Wood and Koondrook.  Our preferences for a one night stop are (if possible):

• to be far enough away from the main highway so we get away from the traffic noise (especially road trains)
• to have a view and plenty of firewood
• to be far enough outside of town so the local hoons don’t think it’s a challenge to do burn outs under our awning.

Both the one nighters met these and were pleasant stop-overs.

Nice spot at Wood Wood

Wood Wood is a small town next to the Nyah State Forest in which we originally planned to stay - but after a drive thru the narrow and rutted tracks with trees scraping our car and van and only finding camps under those deadly River Red Gums we decided to stay closer to town.  Video of our camp is HERE

Another Murray River Sunrise

The Wood Wood Shop/Caravan Park/Bottle Shop/Laundromat/Café sells pretty good hamburgers and hot and spicy chicken so we sampled these for lunch on arrival 😊

Pretty spot at Koondrook

The Koondrook Canoe Trail Campsite is situated on anabranch of the Murray River and as the name implies is a pretty little backwater very popular with canoeists. Like the previous night this was not our planned spot as we were going to stay at the Gunbower Island Reserve but this too proved to have limited spots and most under those widow makers of River Red Gums. On our way out I did notice an Information Bay which probably we should have checked out on the way in! The campsites at Koondrook are mostly waterside, picturesque and well set up. Unfortunately there were millions of bindi’s  and our poor hound was not a happy camper. These burs were probably brought in by campers of the past - so if possible try and not transfer these to the next camping spot your heading for.

Camp 4 - Gasdens Bend State Forest

Our Camp on the "bend"

Gasdens Bend State Forrest is just outside Robinvale in Victoria and is the first camp site we had stayed on the Murray that was new to us and completely isolated from any other campers. Our good friends Steve and Carol from  Morwell in south of Victoria had decided on the spur of the moment to pack up their van and travel 620Km to stay with us for a few nights.

The Girls chilling out

After meeting in Robinvale we headed out into the bush tracks winding narrowly thru the red river gum forest to the river. It’s always a little daunting winding thru the forest on a rutted track not having any idea what you will find at the end. But as luck would have it we found ourselves camped on a clean sandbar well away from those dangerous red gums (infamous for dropping large branches on campers) close to the water and not a single burr of stone.

The River Rats of Gasdens Bend

Apart from one couple parked some distance away we had the place to ourselves – camping Heaven.

Daily dips in the river, followed by lazy afternoons,  before drinks and  the evening board game and dinner around the fire became the daily grind.

What a great days and nights we had on the “bend”.

Short drone video is HERE

Camp 3 - Psyche Pumps

View from under the caravan awning

We have stayed at Psyche Pumps free camping area just outside Mildura before and returned again this trip. Nice flat riverside camps each with fireplace and table and a view to kill for are hard to beat this close to a major town. 

Early morning river traffic

Main reason to stay was to head into Mildura for a number of things including -  picking up mail from the Visitors Centre, parts from Bunnings, a lure from BCF, some refreshments from Dan Murphey’s, flu injections from the local chemist, shopping at Woolies, and lunch at the Dockside Café (loved those beer battered flathead fillets).  A full day in town and then back to camp for drinks with fellow Grey Nomads – it’s a difficult and tough life but we manage. 

Old Pump Station

The Psyche Pumps themselves are a great historical site which has been well preserved and worth spending an hour or so wandering around soaking in the history. Originally built by the Chaffey Brothers in 1891 for irrigation via Kings Billabong it is still serving the same function today – plus providing a permanent water bird sanctuary. If you are interested in the history have a look at this link - http://www.murrayriver.com.au/the-chaffey-trail/psyche-bend-pump-station/

I made a short video(almost crashed my drone!)  of the pumps area –  and you can view by clicking Click Here

Camp 2 - Moorook

Carp caught on spinner bait!!

Parked on the green grassed river bank, flat sites, great boat ramp, flushing dunnies, dump point, drinking water, lots of fish to catch, and scenery to soak up, all at $10.50/night – not sure what brings us back to Moorook?? Moorook is a small town between Barmera and Loxton in South Australia with a small general store and club that’s open for meals and beers on Friday/Saturday and Sunday nights – not much to offer except a great spot to camp, relax and catch a few Golden Perch (or Callop as the South Aussies call them).

I

Moorook Laundromat

t was 41C the day we arrived so it was a slow and steady set up of our camp and a then a swim and cold beer, next day not much cooler so the set-up of the tinny took a little time.

Fishing was pretty good and most outings we caught several Yella’s on our ever faithful spinner baits.

Donald Campbell's Bluebird K7 - Lake Bonny

We took the opportunity while we were camped to do some sightseeing at Barmera, Berri, and lunch at Loxton – a nice day out.

Had a great time and we will be back.  Link to short  video here