The Deer Antlers Debate

On a late night fishing mission Malcolm and me stepped over something I thought looked like plastic, Benny went back to have a look though and decided they were antlers... This is probably because a couple of days beforehand he was talking to a local ranger told him this was the time of year that deers would come onto the beach and shed their antlers. I didn't think they were antlers but the debate had started!! Over the next few days Benny managed to convince his mum and dad they were antlers but Bill (our neighbour) was on my side, he thought they'd come from the sea. I wasn't sure what they were but I knew they weren't antlers!! When we left them out in the sun they shrivelled and in water they regained their shape again, it was strange stuff like plasticy... Anyway Benny took a photo of them and googled it and guess what they turned out to be.... A sharks pectoral girdle that held and supported their pectoral fins!!! So here are the photos to show they look nothing like antlers ;) good on ya Benny :*

 

 

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Sat 14th Dec - Music!!

Another over-cast day, cold again!! Another day for getting jobs done!! Well for Benny anyway ;) I caught up with the blog and Benny started making a box for the speakers to go in the camper trailer so we can have the option of music :)

 

 

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8th - 13th Dec - Malcolm and Trish arrive

Sun 8th Dec

Went for a wander around the local beaches, chilled out

 

At the look-out

Mon 9th Dec

 

Got some jobs done in the morning, Benny raked a path out the back of our camper to where out toilet hole is going to be!! I tidied things up in the camper/kitchen. Late arvo Trish and Malcolm (Bennys parents) arrived so it was lovely to catch up with them, have a few drinks and get their camper all set up. They've got a slide on camper trailer so they put the legs down on that so they were free to have their ute to drive around with us.

Our home-made bush dunny!! Complete with beach drift wood and a loo-roll holder, notice which way the loo-roll is on mum ;)

 

Tues 10th - Wed 11th Dec

 

The weather didn't really feel very summery, it was blue skies but the wind chill factor made it quite cold, so everyone was wearing lots of layers and keeping warm!!

Filleting the Gummy shark Benny caught, yum!!

 

A Christmas postcard to send home....not 'quite' summer yet!!

 

Thurs 12th Dec

 

We all went for a bit of a drive down to the River just past Bemm, the fishing wasn't great at the rapids (too many sticks and rocks for the lures to get caught and lost on...) so we had lunch of crackers and tuna. A local rocked up while we were eating and told us a bit about the rapids, fishing and snakes... I think we all thought he was a little bit odd but gave him the benefit of the doubt. We found another fishing spot just down the river "Dollys Garden", this seemed like a bit better spot but no fish :( On the way back through town we called in to get some ice from Dave (one of the locals we met in the pub on Friday) he very kindly let us use the back of camp site for Benny to hose down his ute from all the mud he collected from exploring the local tracks!! After we were chatting to Dave and got to asking him about the local we'd met down the river, Dave laughed and said that all the locals called him "Rainbow Man" the story goes that there some government guys were working outside his house and this guy came running past him full tilt, after a while he came back all hit and sweaty, the workers asked him what was going on and he said "didn't you see it? I was this close to getting to the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold!!"

My love of pelicans continues!!

Cool Little chair carved out of a tree stump

 

Friday 13th Dec

I got a txt from the post office in Orbost to say the esky we had won from 4WD Action Magazine was waiting for us to pick up!! We were nearly out of fresh stuff so Benny and me got a list from his parents and headed into town to collect our winnings and get some shopping.

 

Getting the washing done....pink suits Benny ;)

 

 

 

Our prize, a new cool-box, just in time to fit all our Christmas drinks!!

 

Yummy tea when we got back of steak, salad and home made chips :)

 

The weather came in too, a little bit of rain but lots if thunder and lightning, a group of guys had turned up to fish on the beach so we felt a bit sorry for them!!

 

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Sat 7th Dec - Bills Roast

The night before Bill had invited us over for a roast so after pottering around in the morning and having a quick fish we went over to his tent about 2ish...he had the fire going and a lovely bit of beef cooking, we didn't eat till about 6ish cos the spuds were refusing to brown, at least they weren't crunchy!! Bill did say that roast potatoes weren't his forte!! The whole dinner was yummy though, beef, veggies, almost roasted spuds and gravy :) Thanks Bill!!

Benny helping with a row while waiting for the roast!!

Bills camp

 

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4th - 6th Dec - Pearl Point and Getting Stuck!!

Wed 4th Dec

 

It was hot and humid in the morning so we had a walk along the beach, no fish but took the shovel and disappeared behind the sand dunes for a bit!!

 

Later on it started raining...and didn't really stop, tent leaked a but but nothing drastic and cos Benny had put a tarp over the main tent area at least the bed didn't get wet this time.

 

Thurs 5th Dec

 

More rain, and wind, and thunder and lightening.

Read books. Had a beach walk. Tried to keep warm.

Tried to perfect my sun dance!!!! My bikinis were feeling neglected ;)

 

Fri 6th Dec

 

As we had decided that we were going to stay at Pearl Point we needed to stock up on fresh stuff and wanted to pick up a few things from the nearest town to help make camp feel more like a home for the next month or so.

 

After our shopping trip to Orbost we thought we'd check out a few of the tracks near the river on the way home....Benny wanted to try a muddy hill, got stuck and needed the winch, a lot of the tracks were over grown but we found one that was on our map and looked ok, we came to a "small" creek crossing. Benny did the right thing and got out to check the depth cos we could see it was fairly fast flowing, he walked down the left wheel rut and back down the same wheel rut, it came up to his ankles.... We set off the cross it and sunk into a massive hole on the right hand side, the side the forgot to walk back on!!! He tried to drive forwards and of course the back of the ute sank into the hole, we were stuck!!! Because of the angle of the car the water was flowing onto Bennys door (he was the low side!) so he climbed out of the window and set to work getting the recovery gear set up, including the winch for the second time that day... On his way back into the car he tried to use the bull bar (round metal tubing..) as a stepping stone but cos he feet were already wet that proved slippery and he was straight into the freezing water, it was quite funny, well very funny from my perspective, hence the fact I've not got any photos cos I was laughing too much ;) The winch worked a treat and we were out on the other side, whoo-hoo!! Although we didn't get to go far before there were trees down blocking our way, too thick to cut through even if we did have a chain saw...back to the water then. I wasn't looking forward to it cos I knew this time my side would be the low side and I had all my stuff in the footwell, including my camera, iPad and laptop, so I was busy securing everything as high as possible in the cab and Benny was setting up the winch for the 3rd time that arvo! Once he was set he helped me across so I could attach the winch to a tree on the other side (it didn't reach where we were at the starting point), Benny had tested the depth of the hole time and it came up to his chest height, bloody big!!! Luckily we got through, otherwise we would've been walking for help!!

 

To celebrate our recovery we stopped and had a drink at Bemm on the way home, Bill met us on the decking, he'd been there all arvo and was heading back to camp but ended up having another 3 rounds with us, introducing us to all the locals :) We ended up having dinner in the pub that night cos it was just easier!!

Getting out the recovery gear

 

Getting back in after falling in!!!

 

 

Dead end!! No chain saw.....

 

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Tues 3rd December - Finding Pearl Point

Packed up pretty early before it got too hot (32 forecast!) stopped in at Orbost and then headed out to check out a free campsite at Pearl Point (they're aren't many free sites along this coast, alot of them are National Park and they've all been per-booked in a ballot system for the Christmas holiday period, this free site was first in best dressed!!). We decided to go "offroad" down to the camp, along Swampy Track and Hekarwe Track...we made it with the trailer but there must have been a bad storm cos ALOT of threes were down. When we got to Pearl Point the viewing platform down to the beach gave us a great view of a rocky outcrop and sandy beach :)

 

There was already one guy "Bill" who had set up camp but there was a spot we thought we could claim and save space for Bennys parents and Paul & Jen, if they wanted to join us :) After talking to our new neighbour "Bill" a gentleman in his 80s that had been coming here for years, he said the sites got filled up pretty quickly...he'd put his tent in the middle of 4 sites as his family were coming down to camp with him over Christmas.

 

As there were only 6 sites in total we took the boat off and dumped that in one of the sites to try and save it and then decided where we wanted our trailer/tent....we ended up having to manually push the trailer around so the tent awning wasn't facing into the bushes!! HARD work, trenches dug to try and flatten the sand a little, wood boards out under the wheels to help push but we eventually got it and the tent just fitted perfectly under the trees :) it was going to be our home for the next month or so :)...a swim later (the water was FREEZING!!) we put the rest of the tent up and relaxed :)

We had a trip to the local pub in the evening, Brimm (population of 70 people) to see what it was like and use the public toilets (none at camp). Locals were friendly and knew Bill!!

Rainbow over our camp on the first day.....a good sign!!

 

Pearl Point Sunset

 

 

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Mon 2nd Dec - HOT Sand!!!!

Mon 2nd Dec

 

We were woken up by another camper telling us she thought "our" dog had a sore paw...Benny got up to chat with them, they were a couple from Melbourne with their own dog, they'd recently driven to Sydney for a course for their dog, to teach him how to jump off things into water, as there was a little jetty at the campsite they were getting their dog to practice it's new found skills??!!!!

 

During brekkie a land rover rocked up and the owner whistled to "dog" who was actually called Enertia, she did live at the farm up the road and the lady told me she regularly slips her collar and comes down to the campsite for an explore!!

 

We decided to have a walk and fish along the beach, we had to walk over 2 sand dunes to get there though and the sand was HOT!! My feet are still used to shoes and so barefooted it was pretty hard to handle, Id run and Benny would go in front and scrape out some sand and make a cool spot for me to jump onto to have a rest....worked pretty well, like interval training!!

 

Walked along the beach and came to a deeper section, caught a couple of tailor each but they soon disappeared, I went for a lie down in the sun/wind and Benny kept fishing.

 

Another lovely fire that evening, it was my turn with the fire and Bennys turn to cook!!

 

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