Fishing for Mice

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DAY 443


I could hear Andy stirring, the light was already breaking through and a low glow of orange was tingeing the sky. Not long after the alarm went off, I did not groan, Andy got out of bed and I followed, it was 6.00am, a now unusually early start for the pair of us.

Andy put the kettle on for a cup of tea while I got dressed and grabbed my camera, by 6.18 we were out of the door and sat in the Patrol, with a block of cheese. This morning we are off to have a dabble with the fishing rod again, Andy had re rigged the line last night so we set off to the low bridge over the Murrumbidgee where we went last night and tried again.

We were all set the hook was baited with the cheese and Andy took the first cast. The morning is beautiful and great to watch the sun come up properly but the wind coming across the bridge was quite cold so I had to put my fleece on.

It was then my turn to cast, plop! In it went so I played with the line a bit to try and make the cheese look like it was something swimming around in the water, then suddenly I felt the line go tight, I gave it a yank and started to reel in, but suddenly I could not reel in any further so Andy took over and then the line broke. I am sure we had something there but if we did it obviously got away the problem being that the line is not heavy weight so it will only take 10 pounds in weight. The other part is that while I am sure we had a bite to start with, we could actually have snagged it on some debris in the river.

So we re rigged the rod and re baited with more cheese and away we went again. A couple of times we thought we had something and reeled in but the line went loose again and then as the hook came up we could see our cheese was missing, it seems like we are feeding cheese to the fish this morning so we hope they are enjoying it.

We had not seen anyone at all in the hour that we had been there, and suddenly we heard the dulcet tones of a Landcruiser trundling over the bridge heading our way, I moved to the side so that I was out of its way when it came across the bridge. I could hear it slow down to join the bridge and then part way across I could hear it slow up to stop, I thought for a second is it the fishing permit inspector (we do have one by the way, you may have read it yesterday!) but no, it turns out that smiling at us from the other side of the windscreen was Andrew Wemyss and his Son Josh, we got to know Josh when Andy was helping out on the harvest and later on met his family when we went round to dinner.

I don’t think any of us could believe the coincidence and the most unlikely of places to bump into someone you know, but they are off to work today as they are building a new dam for someone on a property near Robert and Helen.

We chat for a short while, but Andrew needs to get off the bridge as someone else is coming, it is a single track bridge and not to mention they have a days work ahead of them. We say our goodbyes with the promise of catching up again.

The next car came onto the bridge and stopped, he just wanted a chat and to find out if we caught anything, we explained our novice status and said no, but he went on to say that we may find it difficult if we try to land a fish from the bridge as it would give the fish time to wiggle off the hook, which now we know what our problem has been!

Equally Andy was worried that if he caught a fish can he just throw it back in from the bridge or should he walk down the bank of the river and just gently put it back in the water, problems problems, we will cross the bridge when we come to it.

After a few more tries and the realisation that fish obviously like cheese, we headed back to Woodstock, we find a note from Helen “I am helping Robert with the irrigation at the big dam, please put the fish in the fridge to keep cool and I will clean them when I get back!” Thanks Helen, she had faith in us, or was it a tongue in cheek comment, hmmm?

We had some breakfast and then made headway in packing up, Andy took the outside to do the trailer and I went into the bedroom and packed the case, sorted through some stuff that needed throwing away or keeping and gradually the room was cleared of all our belongings.

Today closes another chapter for us as we leave Woodstock, lock stock and barrel and head back to Canberra and the start of our next chapter of our adventure.

I was going to use the blog title of “Who Stole My Cheese?” today but we came up with an abundance of titles and had to choose, however cheese is an important subject today, not just because of the fishing we did this morning but a long while ago back in Blighty I was given a book entitled “Who Stole My Cheese?” (It could be “who moved my cheese” but its close enough) the reason for the book was because the company that had just taken us over, I, along with many others was just about to be made redundant and found it in their hearts to give us all a copy of this book.

Today made me think about this because basically the book is one of those corporate self help books that just tells you not to wait for someone to move your cheese, you should really go out and find new cheese before your existing cheese gets moved. You may think I am waffling but in a nutshell I suppose we have spent the last 14 months looking for new cheese, we have tasted a lot of new cheese on the journey, but we need to find some cheese to keep us grounded for a short spell, I suppose is what this week is about as our new chapter opens and gets started, I start work later this week, for now this is my new cheese, I just hope that it is a nice cheddar and not stilton.

Some of my friends reading this will remember what I am talking about as they worked for the same company and the best thing about all of that were the long term friendships that we secured out of a significant amount of change. Suffice to say that we all found new cheese!

Anyway, it seems that by 10.30 most of our packing up was done, we just needed to put the remainder of our gear in the Patrol, the trailer was all ready, I stuck the new registration sticker on to show it is registered until December 2010, so that is all good to go.

Andy has wrestled the huge Patrol wheel onto the roof rack, it probably weighs about 40Kilos and is a dead weight lift getting on to the roof, still he manages it somehow. Our swag which used to be secured to the trailer is know on the roof rack also, I think the changes we have made to the truck and the trailer have been good ones and will make our lives easier while we are still using the trailer.

We popped down to see Jason and Kristy to bid them farewell and to wish Kristy luck with her new career, she is moving up to Wagga next week to start training to be a nurse, which we hope goes well for her, though we do hope to catch up on a camping trip with them both on a weekend camping trip sometime next month.

We see Candy and the remaining puppies, (another 4 of them leave today) we say our goodbyes to all of them, although they are not really interested they just want a fuss, but while we all sit on the veranda to chat, the dogs, including DJ, Kristy’s puppy, are all spark out lying around Kristy in the shade, it is hot so who can blame them, it’s a dogs life.

We find Helen back at Woodstock, we do a few things to finish packing, Helen has prepared lunch, Robert arrives so we all sit down to eat lunch. But after lunch Robert is sleepy so disappears for a nap, we say our goodbyes just in case he is not awake by the time we go.

We head out into the paddock to say goodbye to all the lovely Woodstock dogs, they are all lolling around in the shade as the day is hot (currently 36 degrees C), we give them all a fuss, they are pleased to see us, I think that they were all hoping that we would let them off for a run but not today, not yet anyway.

Wally and Toby seem to be friends again, Wally’s snout seems to be getting better he was not bothered by it at all, we had heard Robert say that Wally had jumped Kimba’s fence again and had his wicked way again yesterday.

Its funny Wally supposedly has a weak back leg that sometimes stops him getting on the back of Roberts Ute when Robert wants him to work, but that old war wound never stops him doing his Kangaroo impression when he wants to get in for a cosy doggie cuddle with Kimba the “tart”.

Dog by dog we go and say our goodbyes, Andy from left to right and me from right to left so everyone gets a fuss, though I have to go back to Trixie again as She is such a lovely dog and my favourite (sadly to say), oh actually Tiny is my favourite too, but Toby is in there too, it really is difficult to have a favourite!

With everyone suitably stroked and fussed we go back in to say our fondest farewell to Robert and Helen, we adore being at Woodstock and we have some of the happiest memories of our time in Australia being here, I think we have learned so much about rural Australia.

After handshakes and kisses we are reluctant to go but we have to, so as hard as it is we jump in to the Patrol and head down the very long drive, then turning right on to the road to Gundagai, the red and white Woodstock post box fades away in the mirrors, then we down the Hume Highway and back towards Canberra.

The Journey was good as usual not a lot of traffic at all, the afternoon was hot, so the air conditioning was on full blast until Caroline turned it down as it was too cold and too uncomfortable.

It was strange again towing the trailer, something we haven’t done for ages, except for when we took it around the corner on New Years Eve, you get used to the weight of everything.

We arrived in Canberra at twenty to six or thereabouts; Rocky and Misha were outside, there were tell tale signs of more carpet in piles as Susan had started a project the week before removing the old carpet from the beautiful wooden floorboards in the house.

As soon as we walked in Rocky the talking dog, did what he does best started to talk, so we tap on the door and Susan comes to greet us, and as soon as Susan opens the door the smell of roast dinner fills the air. Susan told me to stop dribbling on the floor, as dinner would be ½ an hour and I would just have to wait.

Well it was nice to see Susan and be back in Canberra as the phases were now falling into place as once again we have all of our belongings in one place, but not for long/

Dinner time came and Susan who is a great cook served up roast pork, and the full trimmings, washed down with a bottle of champagne, Susan’s alcohol free period is official over tonight and I guess we do have stuff to celebrate, but when I opened the bottle the cork was not going to come out, the top part of the cork broke off so I used a traditional cork screw, however the minute the remaining cork came out the contents just exploded out all over the floor, oh what a waste.

The rest of the evening was spent watching a bit of TV and bringing our stuff in sorting a few things out and that was about it.

We head off to bed, the night is warm, both windows are open, the overhead fan is spinning and we drift off to sleep.

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