Back From The Kimberly

[Luvit]

 

Hi everyone, I’m back from the Kimberly adventure over west. There was so much that happen it is hard to cover it all, so I will do it parts.

PART 1

This trip has been in the planning for a couple of years between a mate (Brett) and I. We have been friends for 30 years and said when we both had long service leave we would do a big trip.

We started our 2,400km trek from Perth to Derby with much excitement.

Besides dodging kangaroos, cattle and being passed by road trains the travel was enjoyable.

30 hours later we arrived in Derby at the caravan park and checked tides for the next day’s departure. Before leaving we logged on with the sea rescue and left all our relevant details with them and the caravan park manager. As we headed out of Kings Sound the muddy water gave way to an aqua colour before becoming the blue we were expecting.

We left at 1pm catching the tide and the first day we covered 280 km’s before arriving at a remote barge to refuel. Brett had prearranged a 200 litre drum of unleaded ($650 ouch) that is hand pumped aboard. The boat was full again for the next leg and we carried on to the our first safe anchorage for night one.

Our second night was a little more eventful than the first. We picked a safe anchorage in a sheltered bay, however our inexperience combined with and the massive tides made it a night to remember. Brett positioned the boat and set the anchor for night. We cooked up some dinner and planned the next day’s travel. The rain was coming down and there was a fair bit of lighting around. We dropped the rods down from the holders because having 1300 litres of fuel on board we thought it wise. Scanning the surrounding area, we could see a croc’s eyes reflecting in the spotlight, nice. We decided to get some sleep and I was lucky to get the cabin and Brett was happy to swag it on the deck. At 2.30am in the morning things changed quickly when a squall hit. Brett bangs on the cabin saying to get up quick. Bleary eyed we accessed the situation with water swishing around the deck. The call was made to put life jackets on as we started empting the kill tanks of equipment and bailing water. The wind was very strong there was lighting going off and the tide had changed. This meant the scuppers that were left open to drain the rain were now letting water in and we had the deck flooding because of the amount of weight/fuel on board. Although it is a self-draining deck the 2 massive kill tanks only drain when the boat is underway. We started bailing the kill tanks and dumping 70 litres of fresh water to lighten the load. The wind increased and the rain was horizontal when the anchor pulled and we were drifting quickly towards the rocks and croc’s. Trying to see in the driving rain was very hard but in the flood light beam I saw a bird flying frantically before dropping out of the sky and flopping into the water exhausted. Brett was letting more anchor line out via the winch while starting the motor and idling forward. With great relief the anchor took hold with the boat resting 50 meters from shore. We had dodge a bullet and stayed up the rest of the night till day break. We learnt a valuable lesson about anchoring that night. In the morning we with played with the sounder and learnt how to set the drift alarm, shallow water alarm and with the range rings, how to accurately measure the amount of anchor rope we fed out based on the stage of tide. The next priority was to get the fuel off the boat and lighten the load.

The area we were going to be fishing was unsurveyed and we were warned it can be quite dangerous by the sea rescue guy. We timed the entry into the inlet with slack tide to minimize risk. Even at slack tide the water was calm but boiling with whirlpools and upwelling’s letting us know we were just visitors in this untouched land. Being slack tide we thought we would try our luck at cast netting some bait at a small creek entrance. We edged the boat towards the small trickle that had some bait fish giving their presence away with ripples. I threw the net and nearly instantly some big thumps could be felt and to our joy and surprise we caught a 74cm Barra in the net!

We spotted a rock wall further down the inlet and was too excited to catch bait so we made a bee line for the wall. The third cast from Brett and he had a knock and his fourth he was onto a small barramundi. We end up with 5 hits and 3 fish with the largest going 90cm. Brett and I had a bottle of Bundy or Wild Turkey Honey on the largest Barra of the trip. I am happy to say the 90cm was not beaten.

We mucked around in this system for a while before moving onto others, picking little creeks on the map and heading off. It didn’t take long to start to see more crocs the further we got from civilization.

We didn’t see any massive ones but they still put the wind up you when they approached the boat.

We then shot up a small system and allowed the boat to be left high and dry when the low tide arrived late that afternoon

It was time to see if we could find a mud crab for dinner.

Unfortunately, we did not see any muddies or get any in the hoop nets for the rest of the trip. Surprising I thought they would be everywhere. We were a little nervous while hunting the muddies always keeping an eye out for those scaly critters. I did manage to slip over in the mud and cut my wrist on and oyster cover rock, Doh!

Waking up in a swag on the boat to see the sunrise each morning was amazing.

Part 2 coming.

 

[curranboy99]

Awesome report so far!

Seems like a trip you'll remember your whole life! 

Great stuff! :-D 

[EZY]

Bring on part 2, looks like a top adventure so far. EZY

[kmcrosby78]

Nice barra Wayne!!! And a 74cm in a castnet isn't bad either  Not sure how much news you've caught up on yet - in the State of Origin the northern team (Maroons) played much better than their fishing counterparts .........

[Luvit]

Yes Kelvin, i watched the game, a win, but not convincing.

[aussie123]

That's an amazing trip Wayne.

The scenery up their is incredible and I'd love to do a trip like that sometime myself.

[The Mad Hughesy]

great read so far, pics don't work for me though which is a bummer

[samsteele115]

+1 pics not visible for me

[Luvit]

5 hours ago, christophagus said:

great read so far, pics don't work for me though which is a bummer

I'm not sure why that is because they show up when I look at the post. I posted it the same as the others. Maybe admin can explain it? 

here they are without the words

 

[ellicat]

I can see both sets of pics.

Can you let us know what you're using - i.e. phone, tablet, pc and what browser etc.

 

PS

Welcome back, Wayne. (If all of you is back yet )

[Luvit]

Hi Ellicat

I posted them all  from PC in google chrome if that helps.

[ellicat]

Thanks mate, but was more for @christophagus and @samsteele115

[samsteele115]

the first post in the thread all I see is this where the photo is meant to be: 

Sony xperia and desktop computer.