Yes, I know that I have been very remiss in my posts but hanging around Darwin for this much time seems to have given us that NT feeling - Not Today, Not Tomorrow! The fishing has been woeful and if it hadn't been for Alan's cousin, Maureen from Perth, planning to visit us last week we would have been out of here ages ago.
At one stage we changed our plan of attack and put Tuf Cat into Darwin Harbour instead of just around the corner at Buffalo Creek. It was a beautiful day to start with and a great boat ramp - nice and wide and with pontoons so that the Captain didn't have to clamber onto the boat from crocodile infested waters like he normally had to. From there the day turned out like the others when the wind came up again. We couldn't even take photos of the Darwin skyline as the wind brought more smoke in from the constant controlled burns around the place instead of blowing it away.
Cousin Maureen arrived last weekend and we spent a couple of days showing her around Darwin. We then hoped for the best and took her out for a day on the water. Put some more crab traps down and then tried to lose some bait - which we couldn't even do!
The most exciting part of the day was getting back to the boat ramp on time. As low tide wasn't until about 5ish in the afternoon we thought that by getting back about 1ish would give us plenty of time (and water). Hmmm - oops nearly did it again!! The mouth of the creek was draining away rapidly and by the time we got near the boat ramp we could nearly see the rocks that are right at the bottom. Dropped The Captain off who nearly ran to the Turtle and trailer (not bad for a bloke who used to have a pair of bad knees) and put Tuf Cat into position for a quick exit. It wasn't going to be very pretty as the current was going rapidly one way, the wind was blowing hard the other way and The Deckie had a passenger that needed to be impressed by her skills! With moments to spare, The Captain had the trailer backed down the ramp (only just avoiding two teenage girls who were wandering aimlessly over the ramp), The Deckie had Tuf Cat on in one go, we were hooked up and out of there! Whew and I am sure that the back wheels of the trailer were sitting out of the water when we hooked the boat up. At least we made it!!
The next day we returned to retrieve the crab traps and whoopee - some more success - we even managed to catch a bream in one of them. It was about the best looking fish that we had caught all month but we had to throw him back cause he was just a little bit small. Strangely enough of the four traps we put in we only had success with one of them with four crabs and the bream. The other traps were empty although the bait had been removed obviously by very small critters.
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| Lonely Little Bream |
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| Ready for the Pot |
Thursday night was Mindil Markets night. Apparently it is a must but The Deckie just thought that they were just another lot of Markets. Heaps and heaps of people there and most of them head for the beach (just over the sand dunes) to watch the sun set into the ocean. An ordinary sunset with the best part being the little girl near us who got quite upset when the sun sank and couldn't understand why even though her Mum assured her that it would come back in the morning - thank goodness it did otherwise we would all be in a bit of strife!
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| Mindil Beach Sunset Crowd |
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| Mindil Beach Sunset |
As the weather was going to be a bit iffy over the next few days, we decided to visit Litchfield National Park and aren't we glad we did - it was beautiful.
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