Dundee Beach and Channel Point

We had received mixed reports on Dundee Beach, so we weren't entirely sure what to expect. We met Dave and Jana at Dundee Downs and made our way down to Dundee Beach where we enjoyed a pub lunch at the local pub/caravan park. The food and service were both pretty shocking, but the beer was cold, the view was nice and we could fill up our water tanks so we stayed for a couple of hours. Still - we knew that we could find somewhere better to spend the week so we high-tailed it.

Dundee Beach

We had heard about a great free bush camping spot just South of Dundee Beach (towards the mouth of the Finnis River) and decided to set up there. After letting down our tyre pressure (we didn't want another bogging incident) we were cruising along the soft sandy beach searching for a nice spot. We scored a great camp site and we enjoyed beautiful sunsets every afternoon.

 sunset behind our camp fire

The fishing in the Finnis River wasn't bad either and we left with bellies and freezers full of delicious salt water Barras. Wazamundi even managed to beat his Yellow Waters record and pulled in a 65cm Barra. Dave also got his first legal Barra which put a smile on his dial. The crocs were particularly large, friendly and inquisitive (especially whenever a fish was landed), and we had to constantly keep an eye on them.

Wazamundi is a regular now...

 A very happy Dave

If we hadn't prearranged our permits for Channel Point we probably would have stayed another couple of nights - it really was a top spot! After a quick restock at the Dundee Store we were on our way again. We arrived at Channel Point later that afternoon (with our second flat tyre of the trip) and also noticed that the suspension on our trailer looked a little dodgy, or as Dave informed us, it was "F%$#@!", and just to top it all off, the the back door of the Cruiser had jammed itself shut and was impossible to open which made unpacking very difficult.

You could say that our Channel Point adventure had not started off particularly well, but when the boys took the boat out the following morning our luck turned right around! They caught a couple of good sized spanish mackerel and a bunch of smaller ones and Dave even got a nice Jack on a popper. The only problem was making more room in the freezer for all of the fish (one of the mackerel would have been around 10kgs alone - so we are not joining the ranks of freezing filling grey nomads). If anyone has any good Mackerel recipes - send them our way, we have already smoked it and tempura battered it, a mackerel Laksa is next on the cards..........

Tides were massive and the area isolated which made fishing from a small boat difficult over the last few days, but we still managed a couple of trips, but they were much quieter. When we weren't fishing we were playing our new favourite board game Sequence, you could say that things got a little heated as the four of us are all quite competitive (and it was pretty obvious that Dave and Waz were cheating).....

Waz and dinner for the next month

Waz is a SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) - he regularly does the dishes...

Jana and Belle preparing chilli mud crab nori rolls

Waz and Belle at Channel Point

After our previous experiences dealing with mechanics and parts and the delays often experienced, we decided to get onto the suspension early. We pulled out the Satellite phone for the first time and got dialling. Luckily, John Squire came to the rescue (and no doubt Lynn behind the scenes) and arranged for parts to be sent to Katherine and a engineer to fit parts in Katherine which would mean only minor delays for our onward journey.

Yowie trying to use the sat phone

Toad in the fire.........

We also decided to stay in a nice comfortable hotel for a couple of nights. We are currently enjoying all of the mod cons that you city slickers take for granted...... We have air-conditioning, electricity, in-house restaurant and Fox News. We don't even have to wear our thongs when we have a shower, or take a torch when we need a mid night wee - we have our own bathroom without a resident snake or spider. Waz even bought Belle a surprise present this morning - a three pack of Rapala X-Rap Extreme Action Slashbait (lures for those not in the know)..... Hmmmmm wonder wonder who the present really was meant for?????

Once our repairs have been done we are going to make our way towards the WA border, our first stop will be the Victoria River........