2 lucky ducks on the road again

Deep Reach Road where Fortesue River crosses

We woke to another glorious morning sun shining with a gentle breeze, this morning after breakfast John and Josie are going to drive us to some of the places in the Park. After the work was done our first stop was Deep Reach, it is part of the Fortesue River with picnic tables and places to enter the river for a swim, it used to be a camp area but unfortunately the general public tends to trash things too much, now it is only day use. We then headed out to where the river crossed the road, the  road was passable with only approximately 30cm of water on the road, at this point it is clear to see how high the river flows as the water corporation has water pipes going to Karratha and they are approximately 13 meters off the ground, Merv and John went for a walk along the pipe it had a board walk and safety rail, Merv said it was possible to see a large body of water on either side of the road, people take their kayaks to launch there and explore the river. There is a road we wanted to...

It was a lovely quite night so we both had a good night's sleep, after breakfast we decided to walk to the homestead which was a couple of kms away, when we had a look around we saw another walk that went through the wetlands, unfortunately when we got to it it was closed as the latest cyclone had destroyed  the walkways, so we continued up the hill to the lookout, it was a nice walk, flowers and birds but no wildlife, by the time we got back we had walked 11.5kms. In the afternoon Merv worked on the jacks as one was making a bit of noise. In the evening John drove us up to the lookout to watch the sunset and the moon rise, of course with a glass of wine. It was late when we got back so it was only BBQ sausage and salad for dinner.

A normal start to the day it is moving day again today we are off to Millsteam National Park. We had quite a big grocery shop to do then we left Karratha fo Millsteam. When we arrived Josie and John met us as they are camp hosts, after we set up we had dinner with Josie and John, they cooked pork spare ribs on the BBQ, afters was a game of UNO 

Today would have been sister Sues birthday. We are packing up and leaving Forty Mile Beach today heading into Karratha for a night to do washing and generally clean up before we head out to Milstream national park tomorrow, we fueled the boat and truck today on the way in but will do our shopping in the morning. Nothing much happened today, we saw a very large flock of budgerigars as we were on our way to Karratha. Merv made a nice loaf of bread. It was very nice to have a hot shower, even though we have a strip wash each day I do miss a shower. Had a wine and nibble we didn't feel like dinner, we had a late lunch of fish left over from last night. Spoke with Liza as we will be out of phone range for about a week.

Another beautiful day a bit more wind than yesterday and coming from the SW so it will be cooler, Merv said he doesn't think it will drop like yesterday. We went out fishing taking our cray and fish wings with bread and butter for a picnic lunch. We went half way out to where we were yesterday but I could not relax, the whales where jumping and carrying on everywhere and even though they were a good distance away you never know when one is going to come up beside you. The wind had come up making it quite lumpy, Merv caught one really big black snapper, I  caught a good sized striped snapper and had it approximately 10 feet from the boat and a big mackerel came through and took the lot leaving only the head, it didn't even pull any line and if we both hadn't  seen it we would have blamed a shark, people are always saying they get sharked off that makes me wonder how many times is it mackerel, sailfish or any other large fish. When the wind increased and we weren't catchi...

This morning is one of the most lovely mornings in quite awhile, gentle NW wind predicted to drop so it was definitely a fishing day, packed up a picnic lunch and headed off for the day. Merv had found some spots that looked like could be good fishing areas so we set our sights on them, they were approximately 20kms away, when we got out that far in the open there was a bit of swell running with the wind but wasn't too bad. We hadn't been fishing too long and I caught a sizable very pretty fish that we didn't know what it was, certainly more than big enough to keep but I thought it was too pretty and we really didn't need it, so it was safely released then I caught another smaller pretty one, different type but it went back also. While we were fishing I started hearing weird sounds, it wasn't long before I realized that it was whales calling, with all the many whales we have been around, we have never heard the noise they were making, it was so loud and everywhere. ...

Another beautiful sunny morning still too windy to go fishing but it looks good so far for tomorrow. We went to the launch spot before breakfast just to give us an idea where the water will be in the morning and what time we need to be leaving and returning. Nothing exciting happened during the day, Merv made a nice fresh loaf of bread so we can take sandwiches on the boat tomorrow. In the afternoon we walked along the beach with the metal detector found ring pulls, cans, an old knife blade and a sinker. We were talking to an older couple who has camped along from us with their mobile home, they were telling us about their portable shower, when we got back to camp the lady brought it by to show us, they bought it from Kings at a cost of $20 it has a lead that goes to a cigarette lighter fitting that runs a small pump which is submerged into a bucket of water, there is a long hose with a shower head with two settings as well as an on off switch, I will be getting one of those when we ge...

Sun again this morning but unfortunately still windy so we delayed getting out of bed just enjoyed our coffee and read our books. After we were up and about we decided to get out of camp and go down the road to a dry creek bed and try the metal detector, we could not get any positive signals, it was all over the place, not sure if a lot of garbage has washed in there from quarry works, there was hornets there that wouldn't leave me alone, I had plenty of bugger off stuff on but it made no difference, I put a long sleeve shirt on to protect my arms but they were all around my legs, when they started around my face I had just had enough so called it quits, next time we go out I will wear long pants, shirt and fly net. We left there and headed down the road further towards Karratha to a free camp area on a river that has lovely swim areas. We were surprised by the amount of people camping there, it is supposed to be a 24hr stop but with everything full with covid travellers the ranger...

Well it's still windy, the sun is shining no clouds in the sky but the wind would blow you into next week, there is absolutely no chance of going out in the boat while  the weather is like this. The day started off in a lazy way and stayed that way all day, apart from Merv making a delicious loaf of bread and us  going for a couple of walks, one a very long one.

There was lots of beautiful stars during the night so yeah the clouds gone. We woke to  lovely sunny morning not a lot of wind but it picked up quickly as predicted. We weren't going anywhere specific so we had our coffee in bed and stayed there reading till 10o'clock.  After the normal morning things Merv pulled out all the things up the front of the boat checking everything was ok, I made up some rigs, instead of tying knots I made some experimenting using crimps. We then went for a huge walk down different tracks, along the beach and back via the road. While walking I never get sick of looking at the beauty of the ocean and at the moment wild flowers on the dunes, there are also so many tiny birds in the mangroves and dunes. We had a very late lunch when we got back and once again sat and read. Hamburgers for dinner and UNO 

Another easy start to the  day the weather is very overcast and unfriendly looking, the wind was up so there wasn't any boats going out. We did our normal morning things then went to the caretaker for the book exchange and got three more  books.  We went for several walks during the day, then cooked Thai green curry with some of our spanish mackerel for dinner, which was followed by lots of games of UNO and plenty of laughs 

There wasn't many people around today to go out fishing being a week day and Merv wanted to go out and have a look at some areas that appeared to have channels, these are approximately 20kms away. We had to wait till approximately 10o'clock before we could go out as the tide was too low before that, there was a bit of wind coming from the south west, we had rain over night probably the edge of the storm they had in Perth. When we had gone approximately 10kms the water was very lumpy, wind one way swell the other, so we decided it wasn't the right conditions to go further out. We just drifted with the sea anchor down hoping the wind would drop, we picked up a few small fish and some mackerel that went back. The wind dropped for a short time it looked like it was going to get pleasant, we saw dolphin, dugong, lots of very large bait fish hanging around the boat and a very large sea snake. I am always amazed at nature, nearly every day we see the sea eagle fly low over us with...

Another beautiful day today, we could easily have been on the water but decided to have a break, we have enough fish anyway so we thought to do something different. After getting ourselves out of bed and organized we drove the 8km track up to the rock platform to try some rock fishing. When we got there some other families were there fishing, they hadn't had much luck so we tried with lures first, I tried a couple of squid lures while Merv had on lures to try to catch mackerel or trevally. Neither worked so we opted for baits on floats, there was lots of little things chewing the bait but nothing to catch. The water was crystal clear and tide right in which I was glad of as I had the same reaction to my second covid as the first, only I was out there, I suddenly overheated with perspiration running from me causing me to want to vomit, I took my shirt off soaked it in the ocean and put it back on and sat with my feet in the water, I was tempted to just jump into the water but I don...

A late slow start today, after the normal coffee in bed and breakfast we had decided that we wouldn't go out fishing in the boat today as we had enough fish and when we walked up to the toilet area and saw all the boat trailers from boats that had gone out we were pleased, there was between forty and fifty, mostly  locals from Karratha too much pressure on the fish, when we do go out again we won't be bringing heaps back.  I cryovaced and packed our fish away in the freezer, while Merv gave the boat a good tidy and clean. After our chores we went for a walk up along the mangroves as the tide was high and we wanted to see if we could spot any rays or turtles, we saw them in there years ago, we didn't see any this time but when we got down to the far end where it is sandy and clear we went for a swim. After lunch we went for another walk heading the other direction to go for another swim, the walk took quite awhile as we stopped talking to other campers often, we did have a s...

When we looked out this morning it was very heavy cloud and black and raining on the horizon it almost looked as though we were in for a thunderstorm, there was no wind. We had thought about going over to Eaglehawk Island but seeing as it looked like thunder we didn't want to get 27kms away and have lightening around us, so we went to the island that was approximately 10kms away. The water was perfect, the night had been warm and it was still very humid and calm. As we travelled out we saw large sea snakes, turtles and heaps of fish jumping all so easy to see when the water is calm. We went fairly close to the island, the water was so clear we could see the most beautiful large colourful corals of all shapes and types, with fish swimming past, the biggest sea snake ever and a huge turtle. It didn't take long for us to get pulled in to the coral when we started fishing or just getting caught up on the coral so we took our stinkers off and just let the bait sink, wasn't long ...

The difference between high and low tides, and it gets a lot lower we have to be really careful what time we come in, we have to watch the tides

Today we are going into Karratha to fuel the boat, get a few more groceries and have my (Selina) second covid jab, they rang yesterday and booked me in for 10o'clock so there is no sleeping in this morning as we are forty miles out we thought we should leave around 9 o'clock and it was just as well as half way there we came up behind a wide load, it was 8 metres wide, the tray from a very BIG truck, the truck carrying it was getting along approximately 80kms so it wasn't so bad. When we were doing our shopping it was as though there had been panick buying  both Coles and Woolworths shelves were nearly empty, we spoke with one of the young men there and he said they were having problems with the warehouses getting the stock to them. Merv went to the tackle shop and got himself a gidgee, I think he has painted cray in mind. There was people everywhere as it is school holidays I had a big head ache and glad to be out of there. We fuelled up and got out of town, on the way in t...

A day off the water today a bit windy so we decided to have a break and explore up the other end of the beach. We waited till after lunch then jumped in the truck and went up a 4WD track that goes out to a rocky ledge near the creek mouth. When we arrived there was three young men fishing, they had already caught a golden trevally, as we walked up to them they were just pulling a octopus out of the rocks, there must be quite a few octopus about as when we were fishing the other day Merv pulled up his line it had two small ones on the hook, one fell off but he kept the other one for bait. The tide had gone way out so we walked down around  tidal pools that was left in the rocks, there were heaps of fish in the ponds as the ponds were quite deep, there was some painted Cray but Merv wasn't quick enough to get them. There was all sorts of things left by the tide, beautiful clams, a large conch shell with its snail, which Merv returned to the water. It was too muddy to go near the rive...

It was nice to have a bit of a sleep in and start the day off at a leisurely pace. This morning it was catching up with some cleaning and definitely washing smelly fishing clothes, Merv made a fresh loaf of bread. We went for a walk to see how many boats had gone out today, there was only a couple as the wind was SW quite strong on the water and picking up, the day was lovely and sunny and the bit of breeze stopped it from being too hot. We spent a bit of time Merv had a phone appointment with the doctor to get a prescription and I was on the phone trying to get an appointment for my second covid jab.  After lunch we went for a long walk approximately 10km up the beach, it was very low tide, there was quite a lot of people trying to catch a fish from the beach, it is school holidays so there are quite a few families here as well as grey nomads. We were talking to one young man who had caught a large sqid from the rocks in the morning so  I must try for one next time we go out....

Another great day the weather is supposed to be a bit windy but not too bad and dropping so we decided to make the most of the nice weather and once again had breakfast got ready for a day on the water and headed off. Once again there was several dozen other boats gone out, some of then zodiac type and they were going long distances. There is two spots we want to try the cod bank and Eaglehawk Island, both approximately 20kms away but we have to wait until we go back into Karratha to fuel up we don't want to go long distances unless we have plenty of fuel, we plan to go to Karratha on Friday. We went straight to the 8 metre spot, still lots of small snapper, not many mackerel Merv caught a couple, I got another nice flathead. I was broken off twice by very large sharks, think they liked our burly. The day calmed off and became better than the day before. The tide was very low when we came in, it is very tricky there is reef and rocks everywhere and only a small section of beach to ...

We have woken to a beautiful sunny morning very little wind, we had breakfast grabbed some food and drink for the day and headed off. There was a bit of breeze on the water but the forecast was for it to drop, it did turn out magical. We went over to the nearest Island 8kms away, there is a nice hole at the front of it we wanted to try but unfortunately three guys decided they wanted to go spear fishing there, no dive flag and they were swimming everywhere even right over near our boat, it was a little worrying so we left. There was another spot in about 8 metres Merv had noticed so we went to that, we started catching heaps of undersized black snapper, huge grinners and butteries so with the butteries and grinners we had plenty of bait. There was dozens of large school mackerel swimming about and chasing the fish we were pulling in so Merv put on a lure and had a lot of fun casting for them, they were jumping and diving all directions, we kept two for bait. We caught two large remora ...

Another windy start to the day no fishing just walking, after breakfast we went for a walk up to the beach were we launch and checked the tides. On the way back we met some people from Devonport and we got talking best places to fish. Merv made a loaf of bread, we had lunch then drove down to the far end of the road and walked around the mangroves and beach in the area we don't normally go. Down near the beach close to the road was a young sea eagle sitting up on its nest, as we came back a parent was also with it, the nest is quite low which made it very easy to see the birds. Some wine and games of UNO before a hamburger and salad for dinner. We are hoping to go fishing tomorrow otherwise we will end up being a foot shorter with all this walking.

Started off windy today and picked up badly all day, there wasn't much to do but the normal chores then two really long walk up the beach. A fisheries officer stopped at our camp to explain the change to the new possession rules, we had been reading them and it was a little confusing so we were pleased he stopped, he was going to every camp that had a boat. While we were talking to him he mentioned that he doesn't go far, his favorite place was Eaglehawk Island approximately 27kms away, if we can get some good weather we might have a look, it is a bit of open water here so is prone to swells. Just omelette for dinner, the night is so cold so snuggle in bed and read a book with music playing.

Wow this is the first time since I retired that I have been up before daylight, we wanted to make sure we were up at the right time to have enough water to launch, it was crisp and quite cool but the wind was reasonably gentle and the sunrise glorious. Quick breakfast and head on out , when we got down too the beach Merv wanted me to back the boat in then go and park the truck, he said it was much easier for him to handle the boat in that situation than myself, I  was stoked it has been so long since I have been physically able to drive the truck it was a nice way to start the day. We went out about 3 kms and tried for some bait, had enough in no time so we went to explore around an island that was another 5 kms away. When we got near the island we found there was lots of reefs about and shallow water, the reefs were not marked on the gps so it was keep a sharp lookout. The water conditions weren't very good there was quite a big wind slop with a swell running a different direction...

Another windy start to the day, we did expect it so we aren't disappointed, it was a very quiet nights sleep and once again been able to lay in bed and look out at all the stars to put you to sleep. We didn't do a lot today went for a huge long walk on the beach and just checked where the tides were for when we want to get out and fish, there is a lot of reef around that we have to be aware of.   We are having an early night as we plan to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning to go fishing 

Today is the day we leave Point Samson so we got moving a bit earlier this morning to pack up. John and Josie were leaving to go to Mill Stream today they will be camp hosting there to the end of the month we are headed to 40 mile beach. On the way to the beach we stopped at Karratha to top up with groceries and fuel, it was nice to be on the road again. When we reached 40 mile beach it was starting to get busy but we were lucky enough to find a large area that was marked as two sites, above the mangroves overlooking the water and far enough away from the majority of campers. It was dead chook from Woolworths for dinner. It was a beautiful evening so to celebrate our new camp site we sat up on the tray of the truck on our chairs with a wine and crisps to watch the sunset, our very own sun deck.