Wed 23rd July – Day 74: Burketown

2 hours of school work done, we packaged up the last 2 weeks to send off to ‘Shanti’ and the kids were free to run around under the many sprinkler systems discharging water all over the caravan park. Sprinklers for all you Sydney and Brisbane folk are devises which spew gallons of water all over the lawns to keep them alive (many of you will remember them from a time long ago before the water police, when you could wash your car on the driveway with a hose, fill your pool to overflowing and everyone had rolling green lawns).
So what is there to do in Burketown proclaimed ‘Barramundi capital of the world’? FISH of course, and that’s just what we did – all afternoon. Pete had a few hot tips from the locals and we headed down to the Albert River, lunches packed, drinks, snacks and Nintendo’s for later on when the boredom inevitably sets in!
At the first spot both kids enthusiastically cut up smelly prawns, baited hooks and cast lines into the fast flowing water (Crocodiles forgotten). A few bites were had, mum caught a Bream and then some other fish (looking much like a small Jewy). By the second spot (we had to keep moving so master Pete could get his Barra!) Chloe remained in the car playing solitare Uno. Toby cast in a few half hearted lines, and by the time we got to the third and final ‘sure thing’ they both stayed in the car playing DS and making short silly videos on their digital cameras. This didn’t deter Peter or I for that matter – we had a lovely afternoon on the banks of the Albert feeding the fish and having a few quiet coldies. Close to sundown the Bream were ‘on’ and I pulled in quite a number, one was even big enough to keep but I didn’t have the heart (Pete was still fishless!). The final straw was me using Toby’s $9.95 rod and pulling in a whooper only to have the line, trace and sinker snap at the last minute – he was not happy….
Finally as darkness set in and the kids began to complain about hunger pains we packed up and headed home for Steaks on the BBQ. After dinner, Pete decided to do some night fishing and we sent him off with fishy prayers – he came home near midnight with not a bite to show for his troubles. He had come home via the pub which on a Wednesday night was ‘rockin’ - the local drunkards confessing ‘there are no bloody fish around here this year, mate’.
Burketown Caravan Park (powered $30/night)