Come Surf in My Turf-P2

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Come Surf in my Turf 24-25 January 2015 Fonty's Pool Manjimup





Saturday morning was quite chilly, the night had been really cool about 12 degrees, a big difference from the heat we experience overnight in Perth, we only slept under a very light doona, but the day soon warms up.



Today, we were doing something a bit different, we were booked on a boat trip on the Donnelly River. We needed to be at reception at 8am promptly to catch our coach, most people were already on the coach, we headed to some vacant seats near the back and very soon the full to brimming coach was on its way.



The coach took about 45 minutes to get to the jetty on the Donnelly River the driver of the coach was also the Captain of the Boat, a guy called Peter who was a very personable type of fellow and chatted away to us all whilst we were driving to meet with the boat.



We all boarded the boat, took our seats and set off, it was an interesting trip as Peter was very knowledgeable about the fauna and flora of the area, one thing he did point out was that there were no walking or driving tracks in to this region and as the bush was so thick when a huge fire came through the area a while ago, fire fighters could only tackle the blaze by air and they lost a huge amount of vegetation, but this apparently was a good thing as before the fire scientists had noted only a certain species of tree grew by the water’s edge and after the fire, with regrowth there were so many more species germinating along the water’s edge, such as Kangaroo Paw.



Another interesting thing we saw were the shacks on the edge of the Donnelly, only about 20, they are shacks that cannot be bought or sold, but are handed down through families over generations and they are only accessible by boat, and the current owners of the shacks have three years to bring them up to a certain standard everything has to come in by boat.



There are no services to these shacks as they are meant to be just holiday/fishing shacks, but they are looking pretty good and some of the shacks are now being fitted with solar panels for hot water and light, for the first time in the life of the shack they will have power! Peter said that someone was offered 1.3 Million dollars for one but could not sell it as it cannot go outside the family, though it has been said that some people are finding extended families!



We got to the end of the river which was a sand bar that divided the Donnelly river from the Southern Ocean, the sand bar was probably 150 mtrs wide and on the left the Salt water waves were smashing the sand bar from the Sothern Ocean, yet on the right hand side the fresh water of the Donnelly River was as still as a duck pond and apparently if there was a “fight” between the Ocean and the River the river always wins as the river does break through the sand bar which the Ocean never does, there we were standing on the this sand bar dividing two powerful sources of water which was truly amazing.



We had twenty minutes on the beach then it was back on the boat for tea and muffins and our return journey, it was a nice touch, the journey back was just as interesting, we arrived back at the jetty at about 11.45, were we boarded the bus and were driven back to Fonty’s Pool.



The afternoon was hot and Caroline was not feeling so bright so we had some lunch then we both jumped on the bed and rested for the afternoon, then we had to break tradition and start preparing dinner for tonight as we had 14 coming for dinner.



Why so many you ask? Well its simple, it was a thank you meal for friends that have done so much for us, we can hardly exclude anyone and of course such a great opportunity whilst most of us are in the same place. Not to mention, we always find a way to eat well whilst we are camping.



Like any good curry it was made a couple of weeks ago then frozen, all we had to do was warm it up, prepare the rice, poppadom’s, Samosa’s , and Nana breads, then get everyone together and serve it up.



The getting everyone together is easy, just tell them what time, what to bring and knowing there will be food laid on they will surely turn up.



The curry had been simmering for some time, it had to be divided into two pots as there was quite an amount, the rice was looking after itself in the rice cooker, then as required everyone had come armed with plates and fighting irons (knife and fork), ready for a feast.

It went off pretty well everyone had a plateful of Kangaroo Jack’s famous Chicken Curry, it was fairly hot, but not mind blowing though we had put a couple of loo rolls in the fridge just in case.



PJ and Alison were walking back from the ablution block and wandered over to our temporary Indian restaurant and said, jeez we could smell curry from over there and said we just followed the smell, PJ said “I love hot curry but Alison can’t eat it”, so we sat him down and found him a bowl of curry to satisfy his curry craving, then he went back to camp for dinner.

After our curry at 7.00pm we all went down to where all the other Toyota Landcruiser Club Members (TLCC) were as there was a film night planned, the evening had started to cool down a lot so as I was still in shorts, t-shirt and thongs I went back to change in to long pants.

After the first half of the film night, deserts were served for everyone, Pavlova, Custard Slice, Fruit, Trifle, Rocky Road, you name it our members cook it and bring it with them for everyone to enjoy, we had desert and decided not to watch the film that was being shown which was a film with Paul Hogan and Shane Richardson called Charlie and Boots so we slipped away and went to bed. We had seen the film before and would have watched it again, but the night was cold and damp and a warm bed was heard calling our names.

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Photos

Come Surf in my Turf
How about this for a cool Tee Shirt, Blog titles come from all sources

Come Surf in my Turf
Donnelly River cruise Boat

Come Surf in my Turf
All of us on the bus

Come Surf in my Turf
Our Bus

Come Surf in my Turf
Peter our Captain and Bus Driver

Come Surf in my Turf
The Donnelly River

Come Surf in my Turf
Everything has to be barged in and barged out, to the shacks

Come Surf in my Turf
One of the shacks on the Donnelly

Come Surf in my Turf
Caroline alighting the boat where the Donnelly river meets the Great Southern Ocean

Come Surf in my Turf
Parking on the Sand bar

Come Surf in my Turf
The sand bar, dividing the Donnelly river from the Great Southern Ocean

Come Surf in my Turf
Curry Kitchen

Come Surf in my Turf
The Mobile curry restaurant

Comments

[ThePass]

Eats
You do such a great job of feeding yourselves and others. Who needs a restaurant when you folks are around. Sounds like a wonderful trip down the river. I'm sure that some folks will find ways around the need for the 'shacks' to be inherited!! Keep up the great blogging. Haven't come close to winning the lottery, thus we won't be heading down under!!

[kangaroojack]

Come surf in my Turf
Hi Gary, Happy new yer,I can not remember if we have actually wished you that,so our best wishes. Thank you for the message on the blog, it was a great boat trip, the Donnelly river was amazing. Our Baot driver did say that there has ben some creative tries in getting hold of the shacks in the past, one of thiose would be awesome. Keep trying on the lottery,as we have had no luck. Our best regards Andy & Caroline