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| Our patch of beach |
After almost 12 months of planning we headed off to Three Bays camping spot on Tamala Station (
Tamala). Its quiet a trip from Collie (just over 1,000km) so we did the trip up in three stages - Collie to our site van at South Yunderup, thence in convoy to Geraldton and then into Tamala Station.
Talk about everything including the kitchen sink! Two cars, one trailer, and one boat all packed to the hilt with:
four gazebos, two car fridges, beer, tucker-box freezer, beer, bait (yep that smelly stuff), generator, a weeks supply of wood, beer, a weeks’ supply food, BBQ, gas cooker, beer, 100 litres of extra fuel, 120 litres of water, fishing tackle, beer, a dozen rods, 2 tents, 6 tables, three porta-loos and tents, beer, solar panels, swags and stretcher beds, cooking utensils, cameras, drones, go-pro, beer, the kitchen sink and most importantly five excited campers.
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| Tamala sunrise |
The road in to Tamala off the main Shark Bay Road transitions from good bitumen, good gravel, corrugated gravel, corrugated gravel and limestone, to corrugated gravel, limestone rocks and deep sandy patches. There are only a few areas where 4WD is required to be engaged but you would not venture this way without a 4WD and a set of max tracks.
Pulling onto the beach at Three Bays you immediately forget the 1000km trip to get here - two kilometres of flat clean shelly beach with views across the Freycinet Inlet to Three Bays Island and North and South Guano Islands – Wow! They only let three groups book Three Bays camping area at any one time so you have a half a kilometre of beach to yourself.
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| Pete and Trev getting ready for fishing |
I had some concerns before arriving about where I would launch my boat and where I would moor it at night. Turned out a beach launch at the camp was easy and putting out the bow anchor and using a star picket on the stern rope made things pretty simple. Getting the boat out was a little harder but after three attempts using the max tracks we were easily out.
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| Linda's nice fis |
Enough about the camp – let’s get down to the important stuff! The fishing in Freycinet Inlet is famous for the pink snapper and the Inlet lived up to its reputation. As usual when going to somewhere new and there is 1000’s km2 of ocean to drop your line in – it’s a little daunting at first. But after a little bit of experimenting we found a spot that consistently produced – it was around 11km out from camp but hey you know the old fishing axiom – “never leave fish to find fish”. We were blessed by the weather Gods for the whole week we were there – mild nor-easterlies in the mornings and glassed out conditions every afternoon. With twenty pink snapper (most of them over 70cm), two black snapper, and two good size flathead and plenty of “butteries” for bait it was a fishing week to remember. Pete caught the best snapper at 81cm on the first trip out – nice fish and gave his line and arms a stretch!
We did run a little low in a few supplies – bait (lucky Trev brought a BCF store with him!), beer and wood (luckily Rick and Noleen were heading home and did a home (beach) delivery for us).
Great weather, great food, great fires, cold beers, great company , fishing and a fantastic camp spot – Tamala had it all.
Have spent many hours trying to learn my new movie making software – not a gun at it yet but getting there – short video can be found
HERE
