Burketown trip
Submitted: Wednesday, Apr 12, 2006 at 00:17
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Member - Tim
Hi All,
Ther were some posts a couple of weeks ago about wether the gulf are was open yet. I posted about the trip we were doing to
Burketown.
Well we went, we got there without any trouble at all but once we were there the rains started again. Just got
home today by plane and had to leave the car and boat up there. I will fly back up when it dries out enough to drive out and bring it
home.
Only got the boat in the water for a couple of hours before the rain started and didn't catch a fish. We fished from the
bridge just out of town with lures when some of the locals arrived with live bait. Within 30 seconds they had one fish, and five within about half an hour. My nephew caught one small one the next day and then the flood waters came down and the water turned to brown soup so no more fish, then the
bridge went under water anyway.
We eventually had to decide to fly
home and thanks to the generosity of the local
mine people we got out to Townsville on one of their charter flights today.
I have put up some pictures here.
Burketown Photos
A bit dissapointing since we didn't really do what we wanted to but we still had fun. I will get the boat in the water at least once when I go back up to get it :).
Tim.
Reply By: Willem - Wednesday, Apr 12, 2006 at 06:04
Wednesday, Apr 12, 2006 at 06:04
Nice slideshow Tim.
Brings back memories of my time in that area in the mid 1980's
When it rains up north nobody goes anywhere...lol
The bird in
pic 11 is a Brolga. If you see a bird looking similar with a longer red sock over its head, then it is the Asian Sarus Crane. They do fly in to Northern Australia, but aren't seen very often.
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Tim - Wednesday, Apr 12, 2006 at 14:07
Wednesday, Apr 12, 2006 at 14:07
Thanks Willem,
I thought it was a
Jabiru or a Brolga but for some reason thought I had been told it was the
Jabiru last time we were up there.
I was thinking about your story of getting stuck for a couple of days on the road from
Gregory Downs to
Burketown while we were travelling there. In fact the road for us was fine. The council had the graders out working on it even though it hadn't officially been opened yet. We thought we were at the end of the rain as cyclone Larry had passed and the water was going down in all the rivers. Couldn't of been much more wrong unfortunately :).
Tim.
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Trevor R (QLD) - Wednesday, Apr 12, 2006 at 08:16
Wednesday, Apr 12, 2006 at 08:16
If you need a friend to go and drive your car back, think of me. It may take me a week to find the road out of town but I'll get there eventually hahahaha.
Good to see you made it back.
Regards Trevor.
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Tim - Saturday, Apr 15, 2006 at 23:55
Saturday, Apr 15, 2006 at 23:55
Hi Trev,
I think I will have trouble finding the way out myself. I towed the boat 2500k so I won't leave without something to show for it :).
If you want to tag along in a few weeks just let me know :). I suppose it depends if you have got out of the dog house after scratching the car :).
Tim.
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Trevor R (QLD) - Sunday, Apr 16, 2006 at 08:27
Sunday, Apr 16, 2006 at 08:27
Happy
Easter mate,
I'm out of the dog house, I give the car a REAL GOOD polish and most of the scratches came out. It's the best the car has looked in a couple of years at the moment, shouldn't take long to change this though hahaha.
Cheers Trevor.
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Reply By: Bob Y. - Qld - Saturday, Apr 15, 2006 at 21:05
Saturday, Apr 15, 2006 at 21:05
Tim,
Too bad about the fishing. See on TV last couple of days, that they have cancelled the
Barramundi Fishing Comp for 2006, until 2007. No doubt the continued rain has put the mocka on travelling up that way, for some months.
Good to see some photos of that country again.
Hooroo...
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Follow Up By: Member - Tim - Saturday, Apr 15, 2006 at 23:53
Saturday, Apr 15, 2006 at 23:53
Hi Bob,
Yeah, I had this idea that if I stuck it out till
Easter I would be the only non local there with a boat and should be able to pick up a prize :). Good plan until they cancelled it. I don't know if the water would have cleared up enough anyway since it was still rising on Monday. I think the comp over in the
Daly River (nicely downstream from
Katherine) would have been cancelled too since I think that runs at
Easter as
well.
Oh
well, when I go back to collect things I hope the fish are there again.
Tim.
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Member - Beatit (QLD) - Friday, Apr 21, 2006 at 08:03
Friday, Apr 21, 2006 at 08:03
G'day Tim,
A bit slow on this post for me but found it loooking at the SE Qld gathering post. Just wanted to say that I like the photos - they are just great. Don't get to see these areas in the wet very often, particularly with vehicles (and boats) in them. It highlights how totally different these
places can be with some decent rain.
I suppose doing it this way you managed to get 2 trips in, even if the 1st was a wash out. Hope you are busy with that cast net so that on your return you'll have mastered the art of live bait gathering and be in with a better chance to catch those big barra.
Kind regards
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Jo and Mark - Friday, Apr 21, 2006 at 09:59
Friday, Apr 21, 2006 at 09:59
Hey Tim! I'm sorry it didn't quite turn out how you intended.. and now it is going to cost more money than intended!!!!
You are quite the photographer! Between you and Andrew we are now equipped with professionals!
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