Day 181 - Barra!!!

Finally, I've caught a barra. After about 10 different days of attempted barra fishing, I've finally got one. And what a day. But let me go back a bit.

This morning I was in Charters Towers, and I happened to have a chat with a "grey nomad" about Barra fishing, and he gave me this great advise. Apparently yesterday he'd been fishing on the Ross River, just out of Townsville and happened to get on to a few, and he gave me the details. Not 2 hours later, there I am, fishing on the river, avoiding both crocodiles and ross river fever, and I hook up!!

As you can see from the picture above, it's a beauty, if a little on the small size. Sorry Steve, I didn't break your 86cm fish, mine was more like 45cm. But it was still a lovely fish, especially since I'd been wanting one for so long.

Once I'd got past the success, I left Townsville (for the 4th time), and headed south, until I got to the town of Bowen. Now, I'd never heard of this place before, but apparently it's a trendy place to go to, there's lots of resorts and caravan parks right on the beach, including a nudist beach, and snorkelling the reef, right off the beach. I did the later, and had a little snorkel off Horseshoe Bay, but unfortunately the weather was a little rough, and visibility wasn't that good.

So I'm off to Mackay tomorrow, and hope to find a motel with a big screen TV to watch the Pies game. Go Pies!!

Oh, for those that read past the pictures, I did lie a little about today's fishing. I did catch a Barra, actually 6 of them, but I was in a Barra Farm, just like the Trout Farms back in Vic. As I'm moving out of Barra territory, I felt the need to catch one, since I'd tried so long in difficult circumstances.

Go Pies!!

Day 180 - From Mission Beach to Charters Towers

Hi Everyone,

After a lovely day yesterday, I thought I'd try and have the same today. The first thing I did after leaving, was head to a nearby walk, called Lacey Creek walk, where I got to walk through lovely rainforests. The main reason for this walk was to see Cassawaries, but like my luck this year, I didn't see one. I did see a lot of bird poo though, in an area set up for Cassawaries, but no birds themselves.

From there I headed back south, until I got to the Murray River. No, not the same one as in Victoria, but a river with the same name. And because I saw it there, I felt I had to go see the waterfalls for the river. And it was a lovely waterfall, very peaceful and tranquil.

After relaxing a bit there, I headed in to Charters Towers, via Townsville (again), and looked around the town. It's an amazing town, hardly any of the buildings have been changed in a hundred years. And at the top end of town is a hill, which used to be mined for gold. At the top of the hill, every night, a short movie is played, called Ghosts of Gold, which describes the history of the town. Very interesting.

Now, after 1 day in-land, it's time to head back to the water. I'll be getting close to Airlie Beach again by tomorrow's end.

Enjoy your day.

Murray River Falls

Charters Towers - WW2 Bunker

Day 179 - On to Dunk Island

Hi everyone, I hope your day went well. For me, I've jumped back into my normal travelling self, and have filled the day.

So, at 6:30am I was up, and by 7am I was on the road, as I drove from Townsville to Mission Beach. My reason, to get to the beach there by 10am, so that I could catch the last ferry to Dunk Island.

Unfortunately, I got there at 10:05, due to lots of roadworks on the road. So damn!! But luckily, there's a taxi service to the island, so I got on that and happily made it to the island.

And I have to say, Dunk Island is pretty. There's not too much on the people side of things, a resort, an airport, a couple of shops, and that's it. And after looking around a bit, I regretted not organising to stay there, as the resort looked lovely, with 3 pools, tennis courts, spa centre, and lots of beach activities.

But since the weather was pretty bad (again), I moved away from the idea of swimming and sunbaking all day, and walked the circuit walk around the island. It was a great walk, about 10km, which included a climb up a 500 metre mountain. Unfortunately, when I got to the top, the rain was pelting down, so the photos didn't get done.

When I got back to the beach, I had about 2 hours spare, so I kicked back, opened up the book and relaxed.

Now I'm back in Mission Beach, a lovely town, that has a lovely beach. And looking forward to relaxing some more. I'm staying in a Motel that is built into a rainforest. Grooovy!!