Day 41 Dampier

We must have been exhausted. It’s the 1st morning I’ve slept in until after 6am since we began this adventure, and the 1st time the boys have slept in past 7:30.
Once we got started, we began with Jacqui putting a quick bacon & eggs together for breakfast and the boys spent most of their morning completing their school-work. We then took a drive into Karatha where Jacqui and I had our 1st real coffee since leaving Alice and most importantly, we invested in a landing net for that elusive fish we’ve threatened to catch since we began our journey. We also picked up some flippers and extra snorkels before heading to the beach for a refreshing swim, and then back to the van for lunch.
At the van we met our newest neighbours, two girls from Switzerland and also a couple from Darwin. We’ll probably meet them again as we’re all heading south over the coming weeks.
After a brief rest, Jacqui, Tom, and Jacob put up the caravan Christmas Tree while Zach and I headed across the road to try our luck, yet again, at feeding the family through a means other than Woolworths. We spoke with the site manager who suggested we head across the road, and that the preferred bait around here is Prawn. We took his advice and crossed the road with a couple of handlines and some steak I’d trimmed from tonight’s planned dinner. We threw the lines in and settled down for a bit of a chat when one of the lines suddenly shot up into the air from its resting place on the rock, and landed in the shallows. Zach and I immediately jumped up and while Zach pilled in the second line, I jumped into knee deep water to grab the spinning hand line before it disappeared out to sea. I caught the line and slowly wound in what turned out to be a 60cm Speckled Estuary Cod. Luckily we had a net so we landed dinner without too much trouble and headed back across the road with our trophy, much to the surprise of Jacqui and our new neighbours. We couldn’t wipe the smile off Zach’s face, or get the spring out of his step. He watched as the fish was gutted, scaled, and filleted and all through dinner, he kept talking about the freshness of the fish and how good it tasted. Yet again we’ve managed to deliver a day he’ll always remember. The day he got to eat the 1st fish he’s taken from the beach to the plate. Now I’m off to put up our mobile Christmas lights.
Cheers,
Jorg