Father's Day 2018

The beauty and colours of nature 

The last two years we have spent Father's day, which we've usually celebrated the weekend after, fishing at Bribie Island fishing and picnicking, as there's a gem show held there on the second weekend of September. This year however, my dad wanted to go somewhere that had the promise of big fish.

Anyone who's ever been on a road trip knows that early starts are common, for the passengers there's hours of available time to catch up on the sleep that was denied by an early start, for the driver, it's caffeinated beverages and snacks as well as rest breaks. These become so vital when you try to fit so  much into the day.

We left around 4.30am as we had packed the car the night before. I was feeling nauseous as I had helped Rick devour a bowl of potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli, the night before. Half asleep, nauseous, and always a little anxious, we started our trip, feeling like we were running away from the light of the morning sun, as it was slowly trying to climb over the horizon behind us.

The dust storm made for
 an eerie mornings drive

Our first stop was only an hour from home at Aratula to grab our first drink of coffee for Ricky to ensure that he was comfortable with staying awake, and I bought myself a sports drink as I know I was needing some electrolytes to back me up and stop the queasiness that I was suffering. Over the range, the sun continued to chase us, my stomach felt more settled, Ricky, unconvincingly awake, continued to our breakfast spot at Warwick, in the park near Bunnings. It was cold! When we had left home it was warm enough not to need pants, in the park, it was a different story!

Breakfast was done and packed away, we made our way to Inglewood where there was a Father's Day market with a car show. Our quick toilet pit stop at our usual park turned out to be a market stop with cars, sausage sizzle, market stalls and a well mannered and friendly pigging dog named Ziggy. She was a beautiful mixed breed, Great Dane and Dalmatian. I think I spent more time with her than actually interacting with everyone else.

The main point of the road trip was to go fishing. So Jay had picked a new road, less travelled, closer to the river, to follow to Gundy.

This is what the bust poets were writing about. 

The first spot was beautiful, it was exactly what I imagined the Aussie Bush Poets were describing in their tales of the outback. It felt like an oasis in the desert. There had been a fresh release from the dam and the fish were biting in that area. I wasn't fishing, but I was enjoying taking photos. There was so much I wanted to capture but felt limited by my skills and equipment, holy hell it was beautiful though. I made a mental note to go back there.

The second spot was very different. The water was a lot deeper, deep enough to be joking around about crocodiles or sharks, yes I know, neither have any chance of being in the rivers there. My Dad made a joke about the pot holes in the embankment being dinosaur poo! I said nope, that's clay, it's just softer that's why they've worn away. To me it looked like a stampede had been through there.

Lees Reserves. 

The water worn divots created little wells for the water borne creatures and plant life to thrive in. It's amazing how much life is out there by the water. There's a drought effecting a lot of the people outback, farmers harshly effected having to shoot their livestock or go another year without harvesting any crops. There in the barrenness we saw the red dust come alive, even if it was just in the small edges bordering the river.

There was an atmosphere of magic in the air. I imagined that the native Aboriginals would have told stories about the place, how the magic brought it to life, how the animals came to see it as their home.

Of course, I was tired. It was around 2.30 pm when my heart failure induced fatigue started to really kick in. Words slurred, incomprehensible and half falling asleep, I insisted that we start driving to the caravan park where we were going to be staying the night and start setting up camp so I could get some rest. I don't remember the car ride there.

Camp was easy enough to set up, the tent hadn't been used in nearly 5 years, luckily it was near fool proof, except for the fly which we had backwards and a random extra pole that we eventually worked out to be for the fly.

We had dinner early! I was just too tired that all I wanted to do was have a hot shower and change into my pajamas and get into my bed. It was an early night for me. I think I was asleep by about 7.30. We did have an early start to leave for Morree the next day though, but that's another post.