Pt Augusta - day 3

This is it - today is the day we are going to catch some Kingfish.... So up we get at 4:20ish and get ready. If you could have spent the night listening to the noises coming out of 3 guys from both ends who had spent the night drinking and eating pizza and barbie food, you would understand that it was enough to make any zoo enclosure proud. I swear Michael was going to cough up the last weeks worth of breakfast a couple of times, but somehow he managed to keep it down for another day - not by choice tho I reckon.

We had a fog free morning so got out to the squid grounds relatively quickly and was still pitch black. My hands were colder than a bitter ex wife's heart, and it seems the squid thought so too and they stayed away. 

As the sun poked its head up above the mountain ranges however, the beautiful backdrop became second thoughts as the squid started jumping on our jigs and giving us that false sense of hope that this might just be the day we catch those sought after Kingfish. 

As we motored our way back to the Power Station, Peter got a call from his mate saying they were "busting up" in the shallows, so we hoofed it over and saws a great big school of our target fish rolling around on the surface. I immediately reached out for the camera while Pete jumped from one side of the boat to the other to get his new rod and popper to cast out amongst them. Apparently I can't video and drive a boat at the same time, according to the irritated tones flying out of Peters mouth as I am going left when I should be going right, and then going right when I should be going left. It turned out that the other 2 boats trying to get amongst the action had the same unlucky luck and the fish disappeared shortly after. We spent the next hour chasing them around the shallows, but as per the last 2 days they were nowhere to be found again. It was also at this stage I noticed The GoPro still recording the sky as I obviously forgot to turn it off... And I am seriously hoping I did actually press record earlier. I guess I will find out shortly. ... Later arrives and you guessed it..... I never pushed record initially, and then pushed record when I thought I was stopping it ...%^#}{!!!!!  We know we saw them so that is all that matters. 

It is beautiful weather again... So I am happy to sit in the sun and enjoy not being at work. 

(Picture was to be inserted here... If I had a picture to insert)

As they say.... a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.

Pt Augusta - Day 2 - Part 2

Fishing isn't meant to be easy (for catching them anyway..) The fish were not playing fair today so we headed South to a wreck about 10km down the gulf.

At least we were getting bites now, but the wind picked up and the tide was roaring out at about 30km/hr meaning it was almost impossible to get the bait to the bottom. Frustratingly we couldn't hook one so we changed hook sizes and presto... I landed out 1st fish. It took me nearly 5 minutes to get it up to the surface, only to discover it was a flathead about 8cm long!  We caught another 8 or so, ranging up to a maximu of about 15cm before deciding it just wasn't worth it. 

Today was one of the days when phrases like "A bad day fishing is better than any day at work" were thought of....... Or "This sucks- let's go get a beer". 

After cleaning up back at the cabin, I headed out to see Brenton Fabian who is now living up here and had a nice barbie and chat before heading back for an early night.... Ready for an early 4am start tomorrow. 

Pt Augusta - day 2

Yesterday was a long day. We dropped Michael off at the boat ramp just after lunch and saw some guys with a couple of good Kingy's, and immediately felt confident the afternoon was going to produce some good fish. Who was I kidding? Not a thing. 

This could only mean one thing.... Time to go in and have a drink. And a second thing... Sometimes fishing sucks.  

We went to the pub to drown our sorrows , have some dinner and go back to the cabin to plan tomorrow. The result was the Bridgy brothers falling asleep (separately..) within twenty minutes while I sat up and watched Harrison Ford in The Fugitive for the 5th time, and shopped for bits for my GoPro on EBay. 11:15pm and I am knackered. Off to bed. 

Tomorrow arrives with a lot less urgency and we headed out just on 6:30am. The fog was all around again, but not so thick and it produced some great photos. 

It took a while but we finally got some squid for bait and as I write this, have tried every method we can think of to find these elusive buggers they call Kingfish, but instead find myself sitting in the sun writing this blog. 

Luckily we bought out enough food to feed most of Ethiopia, so I don't have too many worries about sitting here enjoying the serenity of dead calm waters... And no fish. 

And besides... It's Monday, and I am not at work. 

Pt Augusta - Fishing

Not really a caravan holiday, but worthy of a blog regardless. Drove up late yesterday afternoon to meet Peter and his brother Michael at the Big 4 caravan park, where they were already spread out in the small cabin with more fishing gear than the local tackle store. 

I did arrive however to a feed of sausages and chicken garlic roll with a mountain of salads that had been whipped up by the local Woolies staff. 

First things first, I got the esky out of the car and cracked a cold bourbon and coke (It had been a 3+ hour drive here so I well and truly deserved one.... Or 2....... Or 3....)

After settling in, the YouTube videos started and we managed to check out the knot experts to see if they were as good as us in tying the good old FG knot.... About the same was the end conclusion. 

We set the alarm for 4am and lay down. Michaels snoring and sleep talking and oxygen sucking antics didn't help matters and I swear I was ready to call 000 half a dozen times as he gasped for air. 

Any way, 4;40 arrived and we woke up with a start. No-ones alarm went off, but somehow Michael woke anyway and we got moving. 

We got down to the boat ramp shorty after 5:20 and just to add to the morning's excitement, the fog limited visibility to about 20 metres. Considering it was still pitch black, there were boats moored all around us, wharfs, shallow waters and the occasional concrete beacon pole, it became a very slow yet exciting journey out. What became very apparent was that without navigation gear and GPS, the water is s very dangerous place to be in these conditions. At one stage when the GPS stopped working due to the slow speeds, we suddenly realised we had circled the same pole 3 times. 

We eventually got out in front of the power station and cheered at making it without running into the half a dozen poles that didn't have lights and skimmed past the side of the boat close enough to start me thinking its lucky I wasn't emptying my bladder over the side. 

We shot out to the shallows and caught a dozen squid for bait and then the day began. 

Come on Kingfish.... Where are you?

Milang - The Mardles Arrive

This morning, Tyler had been invited over to the Hardy's for the day and a sleep over, so i took off with him just after 8am to drop him off back in Mt Barker. The weather was terrible in comparison to the lake, with a cold wind blowing the Autumn leaves everywhere, and just feeling cold and miserable.
After dropping him off, I decided to go home and drop some extra bits off that were no longer needed, and make use of the amenities where I could sit and think in peace.
I then ambled back to Milang, to find the Mardles had just arrived. Daniel was proudly showing off another one of his erections, whilst Tracy and Liv looked after the kids at the playground.
It wasn't that long after when we all decided to crack open a bottle of wine, some nibbles and start to settle in for the afternoon..... and that is pretty much how it went on.
We boys and Kayla set up a game of cricket, and despite every child wanting to change the rules every time they got out, it was fun and allowed an hour of the afternoon to pass.
We invited the neighbouring campers over for a chat and to sit around the fire, as Kayla had become best friends with their 6 year old, and Dylan was keeping their 3 year old boy happily entertained.
We may have all drank a little bit too much as well as over indulged, but again, was a good night to just sit and be, and have a chin wag. Tomorrow we pack up, and back to reality

Milang - a day of nothing

After a late night for the kids, we were blessed with a sleep in till 7:30..... Despite all the dogs in the caravan park going off at every bit of movement. I broke all my rules and let the kids play their iPads for an hour or so whilst we drifted in and out of sleep, before succumbing and getting up for Brekkie. 

I cooked bacon and eggs for the kids and I, and then eventually we went for a walk into "town" to get some stuff and just have a look around. 

Before we knew it, it was lunch time and we headed back to the van. 

Dylan had been hassling me every 5 minutes to do some fishing, so I got out the shrimp pot and rods and finally headed down to the lake to satisfy his needs. After 3 minutes and no bites, Dylan's patience had run out (gee....: there's a surprise), and he took off with Tyler to be grow a ball around instead. 

I couldn't even get a shrimp into the net, never mind a carp that is supposed to be so prolific in the lake, but just standing out on the jetty with no-one bothering me and the peacefulness of the water shimmering in the afternoon sun was well worth it. - and the couple of cans of bourbon I had may have also helped. 

If it wasn't for the building need to relieve some pressure of the drinks, I may well have stayed there.... But I also needed a refill do something had to win!  Got a fire sorted for tonight. Time to relax in a chair. 

Milang - June long weekend

So it was only 10 days ago when we decided we would go somewhere close to home for the 3 day winter break. Milang was booked and the planning started.

As it turned out, all 3 kids have a school disco on Friday night that doesn't finish till 9pm. In my usual caring manner, I announced that I was going to go anyway and left mid afternoon for the huge 50km trip. Setting up isn't quite as straight forward when on your own I now know. Try getting a van level without getting out the car 10 times to check the bubble level on the A-Frame!

And then when unrolling the awning, I found it was full of rotting gum tree leaves and soaking wet. I swear I had cleaned it as I am pretty anal about keeping everything on the van clean, but it was wet and messy when packing up at Clare, so I can only assume that a brain fade happened and I forgot. 

Anyway, finally got set up, cleaned the awning and made all the beds, unpacked everything and sat down with a cold brew despite the fact it was only 10 degrees outdoors. 

Went back to pick everyone up from the kids school at 9pm and turned around to finally get back here just after 10. 

The kids are exhausted, but excited. I am excited, but exhausted. Tracy is too exhausted to be excited. 

Clare - time to go home

Don't you just love those camping nights on the eve of having to pack up, when you hear the rain start coming down at 3am and just knowing it is going to be horrible to pack up in daylight!
luckily for us it was only a drizzle, but it started and is still going at 10pm tonight as I write this, although it is now technically P!$$%#@ down.
I had fairly well prepared for the wet last night, and had packed most stuff away and put up one side annex wall to keep stuff underneath dry, and was quite chuffed about it too, as I stood watching the rain coming down with the occasional gust of wind, but everything remained pretty well dry.
We were going to hang around a bit, but this miserable weather ( only 10 degrees too ) made the decision easier to just pack up and go.
Daniel and Olivia made good headway and were off first, whilst we were a little slower, but as usual I was in no rush. Rob was discovering that packing up the Jayco Swan in the wet with Nicole not hearing his ESP requests, all helped keep him warm with steam coming out of his ears, so I backed off with the video-ing of his frustrated mutterings. We said our goodbyes and set off. (They are heading off for 3 weeks to Mildura and the Grampians, so there is plenty of time for them to practice their psychic and subliminal messaging to each other when it comes to pack up time in the future.)
We headed home uneventfully and started the usual post camping chores of 5 loads of washing, emptying the van and car etc, before finally sitting down to tea.
I put together the mandatory video blog of the trip, and am now planning our next holiday....
https://drive.google.com/a/weyland.com.au/file/d/0Bwd2qwl47JWtNlRESGM4aFM2cmM/view?usp=sharing

Clare - Easter Bunny arrives in town

Anyone would thing the kids were a tad excited this morning. Dylan woke up at 5:30 and thought it would be ok to start looking around the caravan for any "bunny droppings". And that is before taking into account the hour the clocks needed to be turned back. Grrrrr. 

After threatening him with Easter being cancelled if he didn't go back to sleep, he lay quietly, but with one eye watching for any sign of movement from us. 

It was about 7 o'clock when Tracy decided to sit up which was his ticket to leap out of bed, razz up Tyler and Kayla and race around the van like a fox chasing the Easter Bunny. 

He managed to wolf down about 3 eggs before we took all the eggs off all of them to avoid any early morning vomiting, and they were off to the jumping pillow for the rest of the morning. 

I did manage to get some pancakes cooked for Kayla, but even they weren't as good as chocolate eggs, so that mix has been stashed in the fridge for another day. 

This holiday has been fantastic with all the kids only fighting once or twice a day, but playing away from the campsite for the whole time.  (Which generally gave us a license to open a bottle of wine prior to lunchtime and continue on until we couldn't eat or drink another thing. )

Today we never left the caravan park and enjoyed what appeared to be our last gone sunny day. The showers are supposed to set in overnight, which should make packing up so much fun with the ground turning into mud and everything getting wet as we try to pack up. 

In the meantime, we are spending yet another night sitting around the bonfire, drinking copious amounts of wine and generally chatting about the day. 

Has been a great holiday with perfect weather in a great location. Have a great set of videos that I will be stringing together when I get home and publishing to have a fun reminder

Clare - Easter Saturday

Despite having way too much red wine yesterday afternoon, I think the early night was my saving grace and the reason why I woke up feeling fine this morning. Phew. 

The kids have been playing a game in the creek behind our van for the last 2 days and were immediately over there again this morning after breakfast, and with the weather climbing towards a beautiful 26 degrees today, that meant us adults could just sit and relax with books in the morning sunlight. Just fantastic. 

Before we knew it, everyone was back at the campsite looking for lunch. I was pretty excited by that, because it meant we were heading off to the wineries soon. 

Headed off to Annie's Lane 1st, as it has always been one of my favourites. Tasted a few, bought a few. Job done. 

Next stop was almost directly across the main road at Crabtree. This one was more of a boutique family winery, but unfortunately wasn't overly nice wines either. Didn't stop is trying them all though. 

Rob had done a superb job at looking after ALL the kids (with help from Daniel) whilst we alcoholics were tasting the wines, but nicely bowed out of visiting anymore, so Nicole and the kids returned back to camp with him and left us to actually look after our own kids. 

We decided to only visit one more and chose one that we haven't been to before, and that was Jeanerett Wines.  This has turned out to be my new favourite Cellar Door. Beautiful wines, a really pleasant guy serving us, and a great big cat picture book to keep the kids entertained. Again, we relieved him of a few of his nicest bottles, and then called it quits and set back to camp, where of course we got out some of the finest cheeses and a taste of each of the wines we just bought. 

Another great way to end the afternoon. 

Clare - day 2

The day started with the usual bacon and eggs for breakfast, and not much else. 

It soon got to lunch time which seemed to be the appropriate time to finish off the bottle of red wine that Tracy didn't manage to empty last night. That seemed to be the trigger to then open and finish another 2 bottles before tea time, and as such, I was pretty well gone by dinner time. However, a big feed, a hot shower and sitting around the fire started a second wind and we kicked on. 

We had a visit for a few hours from Ben and Clare Baker today, but other than that the day was spent drinking (by me) and stopping the kids fighting with each other. Sitting around the fire and chatting about nothing was the true symbol of what camping is all about. 

Look out Clare

It rained last night. I assumed that was simply because it is Easter and we are about to set off glamping. 

As it turned out , today's weather was perfect. The kids got home from school and the race to leave was on. 

We all bundled in and set off for Clare, shortly before 4:30pm. 

About 15 minutes down the road when we hit the 1st 80km/hr zone, the "Tracy must sleep" curse cut in and I was left to talk to myself as the kids had their noses buried in their iPads. 

Just over 2 hours later, we had arrived. I declared that my job had been completed - I got us to our destination safely - and therefore it was time to have a drink. 

Olivia and Daniel had already arrived, albeit only 5 minutes earlier, with Nic & Rob arriving 20 minutes later. 

We had a great meat and pasta meal heated up on the caravan stove, that Tracy had made before falling asleep, which made life very easy and was topped off by cracking a bottle of red. 

Beautiful weather tonight as we all sit around drinking and talking rubbish. 

Whispering wall

Tanunda
9th March

A lot of stuff got packed away last night due to the forecast of morning rain, but thankfully everything was still dry when we got up.
I reckon this was one of the most relaxed pack-up mornings I ever remember having... probably helped by the fact that I knew there was no boom gate at the entrance and we could basically leave anytime we wanted.
The kids took off to play some cricket (and stay out of our way) whilst we got everything organised, and we were off before 10am.
We made a detour to the Whispering Wall at Williamstown, which is basically a 144m curved dam wall, that unexpectedly created a natural phenomenon of being able to transmit our voices from one end to the other due to its shape.
An hour later we were home... an hour later we were unpacked, and the rest of the afternoon was spent washing, tidying, playing on the computer (me...), ironing (not me...).
Early to bed tonight.

Wine Tasting

Tanunda
8th March


Today started a little damp even though it was totally unexpected.
It had showered very lightly a few hours earlier - just enough to dampen everything except our spirits.
I decided to justify my bacon and egg sandwich by going for a walk once Tracy came back from her morning power walk. I suspect mine was a whole lot easier, and the fact that I ended up at the local Foodland purchasing an Iced Coffee was a true symbol of how serious I was.


After arriving back at camp, we all (Well the Hardy's and us - the Marbles had already set off), and bundled into the cars and took off to visit some wineries. First stop was at the local metwurst store, where I am sure the lady had the shock of her lice seeing 6 overly excited kids (the Hardy's and us) come barrelling inside and asking to taste each and every sample available  after bundling them outside, we managed to taste a few and pocked one to bring back for the afternoon feast. Next stop was Kaisler, where I decided to start growing my taste sensations and chose all Shiraz. Turns put they were pretty nice, so I bought a bottle to "sip" this afternoon.
Somehow we next ended up at the playground in Nuriootpa, where we kept the kids entertained for 10 minutes or so..
Peter Lehman was next on-route, and is always a favourite, albeit a little expensive. I worked my way through the selection of 13 different Shiraz varieties, but the wallet made the final decision, because at $30 a bottle, I wasn't about to go any higher.

The trip back to the caravan park involved stopping at Foodland again for some cheeses and biscuits for this afternoons pig out, and then finally got on our way.
We came back and had the obligatory BBQ lunch and a few drinks, and then what seemed only an hour later, I set up a platter of cheeses, garlic metwurst and biscuits and started gathering the troops.
The drinks started flowing and the platter started disappearing. The atmosphere was getting funnier the more the alcohol was getting lower, until the wasps made it too uncomfortable to have the food out any longer.
We then realised it was past the kids tea time, so the alcohol took a well earned break and we started acting like parents again for a few hours.
Last night tonight.... has been great weekend a good short break only an hour away from home. definitely on the list for a quick weekend away.

South Aussie with Cosi

Tanunda
Saturday 7th March




After a few too many wines last night, I crashed pretty solidly and was happily snoring away when Tracy woke me up around midnight to let me know sleep was not going to happen with the guys about 3 vans away enjoying catching up over an entire esky of beer. So now that I was awake, I did the manly man job of puffing out my chest and walking over to them in my satin boxer shorts and ugg boots to let them know that being this loud at midnight is not ok unless I was invited. And quite clearly I wasn't.
I climbed back into bed and crashed instantly, finding out this morning that they apparently carried on for another hour, so needless to say, Tracy wasn't in her usual morning cheery self..
Once we were all up, Nicole decided she needed to go for a run, Tracy and Olivia went for separate walks (although I think it was a ploy to just meet up in the main street of Tanunda for coffee) and I cooked up a storm of bacon and eggs. I am still convinced my morning routine is a much better option than all these exercise based ones 


At 11am, the temporary whale water slide opened and the kids were off. They spent the next 2 hours playing on the slide, in the pool and the jumping pillow,  whilst I started checking out the wine tasting.... which was ok, but all it really did was start my appetite for getting a full glass from the van and enjoying the day.

About this time, Cosi from South Aussie with  Cosi, turned up and started filming. I got my 5 minutes of fame by being filmed getting my 5th top up of wine and when asked how was it, all I could think of saying was "not big enough!" We then had a look at the 20 foot white rhino and giraffe that Cosi had bought from a guy at 1770 in Central QLD. Dylan managed to get himself filmed onto the jumping pillow - complaining of course that there were too many kids in his way to do his front flips. Apparently it isn't being aired till September, but it is going to be well worth the watching.




The afternoon was spent sitting around the vans, having a drink or 3, and just relaxing the way caravanning allows us to.
I just love this lifestyle. Pity that I need to work to pay for it to happen.

Tanunda - Here we come

Tanunda
Friday 6th March




We picked up the kids on Friday night from school, with the caravan hooked up and squeezed through the back streets of Hahndorf eagerly waiting for the last school bell to sound so we could get going.
I had my best camping clothes on already with my weekend gardening shorts, black socks halfway up my legs and a polo shirt better suited to someone half my size- but I was comfortable and these days, that is what is most important. Tracy was so proud that she took off ahead and dis-owned me to avoid the embarrassment of being associated with me in front of all those school friends.

The kids were finally bundled in the car and we were off. We had a massive 81 km to travel for this trip, but like clockwork, the moment we hit 80km/hr, Tracy fell asleep and left me talking to myself about all the roadside sites to see.
Less than an hour later we arrived. Tracy went into the office while the rest of us spent what seemed like 2 hours in the car waiting for the financials to be sorted. Finally we got in, and set the van up. We have at last got things organised enough that setup is now less than an hour...... Meaning I can sit down and crack open a coldie ... And that is the best part about camping.

Turns out this park is a hive of activity over the next few days. South Aussie with Cosi (Andrew Costello) are here tomorrow filming and there are multiple kids activities, along with a BBQ and wine tasting for those of us that are a little older and like a bevvy or 2.

Cheers till tomorrow.