So I figured seeing as I have lots of photos of all the times I've gone 4wding with my mates, that a series of 4wding Misadventures stories would e appropriate. Exotic locations, alcohol, cars, rough terrain...what could go wrong!
First in the series is Eurimbula National Park, which is just north of the Town of 1770 on the Discovery Coast. We go here at least once a year, usually for Pikey's birthday.
And I love it.
There are goannas and snakes everywhere, nice beaches, decent fishing, and a wide range of coastal habitats to explore, plus some fun stories of our times there. I've only been out there twice because of uni getting in the way, but everyone else goes more regularly.
We usually camp at the Bustard beach camp area, which is right on a long beach which goes out a long way at low tide. The Middle Creek estuary is right next to where we normally camp, and is full of barra, muddies, dolphins, sharks and all other cool stuff. We caught a flounder and a puffer once!
I can't really remember much of what happened on the first trip...just lots of drinking and fishing.
There were lots of red back fairy wrens (
Malurus melanocephalus), but they are tricksy little buggers, so I only managed to get this photo of a female in a cabbage palm.
Pretty butterflies everywhere too.
And the goannas just waltz right through the campsites! This is why you keep everything sealed and locked away, kiddies.
My reptile whispering skills proved to be shit, as usual.
The trick is to lay flat on the ground and hope you don't get eaten.
The flat beach is perfect for skimboarding.
There was a cool little beach hut thing...perfect for a crumbed sausage or two.
Dunes? What dunes?
The track out to Bustard Beach.
Pikey fishing in Middle Creek. I think the Middle Creek campsite is just on the other bank.
All I caught was a pipi and a baby leatherjacket :/
Possibly the classiest we have ever been on a camping trip. Thin cut potatoes fried in lemon juice and herbs, with cheesey white sauce made from scratch. SO. GOOD.
The next day it rained and rained and rained..and then this weta looking thing crawled out of the bread basket. It was huge, and fat.
The beach on the last day was lovely and overcast and disgustingly windy.
Quick stop at 1770 Marina to feed the fish and we're on our way home, not coming back for another year :/
2013 saw us back at Eurimbula again, this time with a larger group of people, we stayed longer, and got drunker! Yay!
On the way out! Heading out early this time.
At the start of the year, there was a massive jellyfish bloom. The blue blubber jellies were EVERYWHERE, but they only cause minor irritation if they sting you. Bluebottles on the other hand...ouch. Rory got stung by one of them while we were there, and Georgia was stung by an irukandji a couple of weeks beforehand. The bloom meant that there was plenty of sea lice, which aren't actually lice, but planktonic baby jellyfish that posses stinging cells. So they are a pain in the arse even when there isn't a bloom, but these things were just bloody everywhere. And the stings are made worse if you're wearing clothes (Check) and are hairy (Check). So I got pretty flogged up. But one good thing about the bloom was that there was plenty of large dead jellyfish to play with!
Gotta wash off all the gunk and sand before releasing your dead jellyfish into the big blue.
So picturesque.
Be free. Be wild.
At night time, all sorts of fun animals came out to play. Possums, rats, toads, spiders, crabs, and even a snake. Fun times.
Really really big huntsman with egg sac
One of the fattest toads I have ever seen.
Some sort of rodent. Not sure if native or introduced.
Baby coastal carpet python. Such cute wow wow.
Next day we went swimming and got flogged by the sea lice.
But now to the serious stuff- fishing. We don't muck around. There are some nice barra in the creek, but there is one monstrous one that we always manage to hook but never land. We almost had it this trip...except it used up all of Pikey's spool so he had to run down the creek bank so the line didn't snap. But it did.
One of the most memorable moments would have to be when we were targeting flathead in the shallows, and they just wouldn't bite. Pikey was getting frustrated and annoyed, because they were nice big flathead, decent legal size. The strange thing was, that they were in pairs...turns out they were actually mullet. So we got the cast net onto those big boys and used them for bait.
What do you do when you have lots of dead jellyfish and plenty of boredom? Jellyfish Pacman!
May have gotten a little burnt.
This is what the blue blubber jellies look like when they are all washed up, and there were bloody heaps of them too.
On the last day I found some
Eulamprus skinks in a tree, and managed to snap some shitty pics.
