Trying to troll up a big barra down Heath’s Creek, but had to settle for a nice barred grunter (not quite the 40 cms legal size though).

The Burdekin Grower Race Day at the Burdekin Race Club, Home Hill is a real eye opener. It is like the Melbourne Cup for tropical north Queensland. The fashions are amazing. And everyone gets to take home as much locally grown produce as can be carried – fabulous fresh melons, tomatoes, capsicum, corn and much much more. Eight of us went from the caravan park and a great day was had by all (especially Bob with 2 winners and 2 seconds out of 6 races).

Catching prawns for bait off the jetty.
Exploring the many side streams and the main channels for possible fishing spots.
Species caught so far include : whiting, grunter, flathead, sickle fish, school jew, leatherjacket and lots of mudcrabs.
Allan had 13 mudcrabs in 2 crab pots today.
But the prize for the specimen catch today goes to Siobhan for a cracking flathead (see pics).
More of the same tomorrow (hopefully).

After one last overnight free camp and a quick stop at the (world famous) Big Mango, we arrive at Groper Creek – it is like returning home to a favourite family, a real country community. We pick up the boat from a really generous country Queensland bloke – Norm – what a top man. The boat is ready for us to hook up and off we go to Groper Creek.

The first 2 days are full on fishing with some success – mud crabs, great whiting and some flathead. The prawns are ‘on’, so plenty of bait. Thanks to ‘Wasser and Pam’ who let us follow them to some productive fishing spots on the Burdekin River. We also meet one of the locals – a 4 metre croc.

Our friends from Pelican Waters, Alan and Anne Gray arrive to join us for a week. The first day on the water is very productive resulting in an entree of salt and pepper prawns and a main of fresh whiting.

After a slight mishap with the meeting of Bob’s cast net and a very large snag, Anne and Siobhan do a very good impersonation of a sewing circle to resurrect the cast net.

It is Friday morning, the 2nd of May and it is time to hitch up and hit the road. The first leg up to Groper Creek is 1,200 Kms which takes 4 days , 3 nights. Our nightly stops are at free camps along the Bruce Highway. At one we are joined by some local wildlife. At another we encounter a formula 1 lawnmower event ! It is difficult to explain the wonder of the open road again.

The time has come for the big one ! We plan a 10 month trip which will pretty much take us around Australia. We start by heading north (away from the cold Sunshine Coast weather) to a favourite haunt, Groper Creek. Hopefully, a month’s fishing will result in a stocked freezer. An ad in the local Ayr newspaper looking for a boat to rent while we are there resulted in a call from Norm, who has offerred a tinnie for our use. Thanks Norm.

Before we start, our home needs a little care and attention.

Then we pick up the van from storage and park at our unit for 3 days to get everything loaded.