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Published: February 27th 2007
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snoopy, the beast!
This 4L straight V6 will get us around australia (WE HOPE!!). Its the second week of the tour, and we have wheels!! We bought a 1989 Ford Falcon stationwagon from a car dealer, for about $4000 (about 1800 pounds), and was previously given the name "snoopy" by its previous owners. Now for those of you who thought that we were going to buy a campervan, this turned out to be more expensive that we thought, and would have cost us even more in maintainance. So we opted for this car, which has enough space in it to put a double mattress (once we have the back seats down), and will save us a lot of money in accomodation. Having said that, the camp sites are only about $20 per entry/night, so thats not too bad. We have bought sleepingbags, cooking equiptment, tent (given through dave), and we are ready to go!!!
First stop is actually staying with zoe!! We are staying in a little sleepy town called Hawkes Nest, which is about 3 hrs drive (and a little speeding), north of sydney. It feels like i should be in nashville, tennessee or somewhere, and i think that australians have a bit of an identity crisis, as they don't know if their
HAPPY TO SEE US
Little Lilly is growing so fast, and has a load of expressions for all occassions!! europens, asian or american!! Still, their arrogance remains (to some degree atleast), on the roads, where, if you thought driving in London was traumatic, then you have seen nothing yet mate!!
Driving up the pacific highway is somewhat boring, with little to see. However, there are various tourist routes to take, which pretty much gets you to the same place, sometimes quicker than the highway, and have some really breathtaking views. Farming is a huge commodity here, and the green pastures, wide open spaces, and country air (smell of cow dung!), reminds me of some jersey roads. Being a fairly new country, its is actually pleasant to see green open spaces, not taken up by starbucks, mcdonalds or big high rise buildings. Driving alongside great lakes is also a sight worth seeing, as these lakes are indeed huge.
Hawkes Nest is a sleepy little town, with no more than about 5 streets!! However, its based around the Myall lakes, and this provided me with my first lesson, courtesay of Larry (zoe's fiance). FISHING!! Now i've never really had the inclination to do any fishing, primarily because i would not know what to do, and it seemed quite boring.
a britney moment
you can just hear her say it...."what a twat!" But i have actually stumbled upon something which i quiote enjoy, and will give me a lesson in life that i truely need-PATIENCE!! Trying to tie your line to a swivle (twice), and then onto your hook is actually quite a fidly process, and my first time doing this eneded up with all sorts of swear words, a lot of kicking th edust, and nearly throwing the whole rod into the lake!! But, as my dear girlfriend pointed out during my red faced moment, patience is the mother of all virtues, and actually, when i finally calmed down, and took things a bit slower, presto!! But all was not done just yet......
The preocess of casting off is another technique which, once mastered becomes idiosyncratic. However, the reel has several things on it that can either help or hinder your quest, and after taking nearly an hour to tie of the swivle and hook, it took me another hour to untangle the mess i came up with on my first cast off. Having taken the time to feed the line through the various holes on the rod, tie off all the knots, i decided to test the reel action, only
happy with mum and dad
Larry, Zoe and baby Lilly. Hawks Nest. Feb 07 to find out that i had not attatched the cord to the bail arm section, and therefore the line was only ever attatched to the rod and not to the reel. It had also tangled up in the bit behind the reel, where it attatches to the rod. F##*K! S**T, B#**#CKS!! So i now have to cut off all the knots that were painstakingly made, reattatch line to the rod and reel (through the bail arm this time), and now i'm ready. Only 2.5 hours later!! but now i'm gonna catch a big F"ing fish for dinner.
So off i cast, in the motion that was taught to me by larry, and I can feel a hit already. "That was quick" i thought as i started to reel in. And it was getting tougher and tougher to pull in. The rod was bending and making this high pitched noise. I've got something, i've got something. You've got something alright rob. The biggest,............... baddest.....................
SEAWEED you've ever seen in your life. Great!! So i untangle the mess, and cast off again for a second go. This time i feel another hot on the rod, but i cant pull this
gottcha!!
Lilly in the car. Cute!! one in. SHIT!! the hook has got caught on something, and i can't budge it!! I pull and I pull, and try and shake it, pull from the left, pull from the right, then finally..........got it. Only, i've got nothing except the line. The weight, swivle and hook are all gone, and i've got to do this again!! "Bollocks to that, i'm going home now!!" And that was my first experience of fishing.
I have had much more success since then, catching bream, flatheads, and even a macreal (to my amazement!!). Infact, the first fish i caught was so tiny that i wasn't quite sure what to do with it, and carmen had decided to have an afternoon nap, so i had no one to capture my first catch!! Infact it was probably a good thing, as in trying to unhook the poor fish, which was flicking itself about trying to release itself, and me trying to catching the slippery thing, it was all a bit embarrassing!! Infact i dropped the thing between some rocks and could not get it out, so the poor thing died for no reason. Ahh well, its only a fish!!!
Speading a week
what an action!!
getting into the cricket. England are on the up. I still think i could make their team for the WC. Move over freddie, here comes robbie!! with zoe and her family was quite a relaxing affair. Lilly (zoe's little girl) is growing up so fast, has a great smile, loves the water (although starts shivering after about 30 mins). its great to see, and sends a little flicker of broodiness through my body (but don't tell Carmen!!). Muzz and His girlfriend (also called Carmen) came up, and we had bbq's, surfing and lots of alcohol!!!
It will soon be time to leave, and head off to pastures new, for the continuation of the trip. There is, however, a reason to return to sydney later, which i shall not divulge until the time is right. For now, hoever, the first 2 weeks of life in australia has been a ball, and we are really looking forward to the next episode. Stay tuned folks!!
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