Fishing!!

  05/01/2013
 Our mate Frank and a couple of his neighbours with al their children are camping at Lake Tinaroo up on the Atherton Tablelands. We decided to take the van up and stay the night with them as hey have taken two motor boats with them to do some fishing and generally muck about in the water.
 We arrived at mid-day in time for an early lunch and then the boats were launched. We spent some time towing kids around this enormous lake on inflatable rings trying very hard not to chuck them off. There are 3 families with , we think 10 children altogether  ( the little buggers won’t stand still long enough to count them!) and of course they all wanted a go on the doughnuts. Two boats, two doughnuts and we don’t think we lost any of them!
 Later, the children went back for an early supper while we went out with frank to fish for Barramundi. The result…… an unmitigated disaster! I managed to lose a complete fishing line and lure as it snagged the lake bottom. The next rod I used ended up with the line looking like a birds nest! That was when we declared it beer o’clock.
 The boys had put out crab pots the previous night and had had a very good result, catching 79 Redclaws, they are similar to crayfish. We had also dug up out of the shallows of the lake dozens of freshwater mussels. With more than enough grub for everyone we were invited to supper, prepared by Franks neighbour Troy and his wife Carly.
 Everyone helped to shell the red claws when they were cooked then the whole lot was thrown in a pan with white wine, sweet chilli sauce and cream and served with pasta. Now this is my kind of camping! Supper was delicious, pity we couldn’t contribute some Barramundi! Afterwards we sat around the campfire, the kids toasted marshmallows on sticks and we nattered with our Tooheys Extra dry!

 06/01/2013
 It’s amazing the difference in night time temperature up on the tablelands. We would have stayed another night if we hadn’t been looking after Cooking Fat, ( we left him 4 bowls of grub, some cat food and a tin opener), Jane said if we had stayed another night, the duvet would have had to have come out, that’s how chilly it felt compared to down at sea level where the night never drop below 23C at the moment.
 The journey only takes 1 1/2 hours so we were back at sea level in plenty of time to phone for the Boat Club transport and spend a couple of hours on the deck overlooking the marina, a view we will never forget. Allen and Lorraine joined us later back at the Ponderosa for early evening drinks and nibbles, something else we won’t ever forget.

 07/01/2013
  We are not sure exactly when Paul and Lorraine will get back but it’s likely to be this coming weekend. So, we need to get our act together, ready for take off as we don’t want to hang around for long once the Macs return. It would just prolong our sadness at leaving Clifton Beach       “just get on with it”    is our plan.
 So today we have spent working around the Ponderosa, Jane doing housework, cleaning an acre of white tiles indoors, plus washing the van curtains. The wet is still lurching in. albeit very late but there is some good rain around and comes mostly during the night. It gets us out of constantly watering but of course everything grows like mad, can’t have it both ways, though we are lucky we are not getting the extreme temperatures they have in the south. Bugger, we will soon be heading that way!