Australia — Getting Out There

A nice relaxing birthday fishing session

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 20:43:00 +1100

I’m in Brisbane, Queensland for the Matildas vs Nigeria football match on Thursday night, as part of the FIFA [FIFA: Fédération internationale de football association] Women’s World Cup. As today is my birthday I decided to take the day off work and spend it fishing and relaxing in the sunshine. So I packed my light gear and travel rod and hitched a train out to Sandgate, and fished the beach around Shorncliffe and the river inlet into Cabbage Tree Creek.

The sun was shining and I was so warm, even though the locals were all packing the puffer jackets and looking like they were north of the wall 🤣! There was a decent 20 knot wind in my face and the surf was choppy, but I hit up a little rock wall next to the Shorncliffe Pier thinking with the shelter from the wind and the shallow beach it looked like a prime flattie spot, and I was right: caught a nice little 32cm flathead on a soft plastic.

From there I walked around the point and fished along the way, between rocks and surf until fishing from Baxters Jetty where I caught a decent little tailor. I kept walking into the inlet, following around a few yacht clubs until ending at a boat ramp where I had a chat with some locals who hadn’t had any luck for a few weeks.

I called it quits about 15:30 and headed off on the train to Nudgee Cemetery to go visit the grave of my grandmother and uncle and take Nan some flowers.

I then caught up with an old mate from Ballarat who’s living up here now, and we went for a nice birthday dinner at The Plough in Brisbane’s riverside dining district.

All up a nice day fishing and roaming around a new part of the world I hadn’t yet fished = a good way to spend my birthday!

A little flathead caught on the rockwall near Shorncliffe Pier

Walking around the point at Shorncliffe

Walking around the point to Cabbage Tree Creek

A tailor caught at Baxters Jetty

Selfie on Shorncliffe Beach

Rock wall next to Shorncliffe Pier

FIshing the rock wall at Shorncliffe

Melbourne to Brisbane by train for the Matildas

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 15:11:00 +1100

The FIFA [FIFA: Fédération internationale de football association] Women’s World Cup is in full swing and this lucky little bugger has tickets to the Australia vs. Nigeria match in Brisbane on 27 July. To make a real journey out of it, I decided to opt for the overnight express passenger train (XPT) from Melbourne, via Sydney, to Brisbane instead of flying.

I’ve never travelled in a sleeper carriage on the train before. I took the train home from Adelaide in 2019 but that was a day trip. I really wanted to try it and this was the perfect occasion. I had the time to get to Queensland (2 day journey) and I was able to secure a sleeper berth on both services (Melbourne to Sydney; Sydney to Brisbane). I shared the sleeper cabin last night with a young uni student named Damian, who was travelling home having caught the train down to Melbourne a few days earlier. His reason for taking the train was because he really loves trains, and public transport but had never ridden the XPT [XPT: express passenger train] before. He was a nice guy, but quite talkative, especially about his passionate interest in trains 🤣 so considering this week’s trip is partly a bit of respite from caregiving I found it slightly challenging to keep up the chit-chat for the whole journey.

Otherwise the journey was pleasant, relaxing and I really enjoyed it. I watched some Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and read my book [Currently Flawed Hero by Chris Masters, about the Ben Roberts-Smith war crimes defamation case against Masters and Nick McKenzie, who wrote a similar and thrilling-to-read book about the case called Crossing The Line, which I recently finished]. There was a canteen in the middle carriage which served hot drinks and snacks, the staff were all friendly and helpful, and I really felt like my little working holiday had already started before I even get to Queensland.

I’m writing this now sitting at Central Station in Sydney. We left last night at about 20:00, and arrived this morning at 08:00. I had about 6.5 hours to kill before catching the 14:45 to Brisbane, which should get there about 05:00 tomorrow morning.

I left my heavy suitcase at Central in the baggage storage area and roamed down towards Haymarket, and then to the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre to have a sneaky shower. There are showers in the sleeper carriage of the train, but I wasn’t game last night so opted for the aquatic centre instead, which only cost me $4 entry. It’s a nice little trick Danielle and I often utilise when travelling through towns where we don’t have accommodation, as leisure centres offer a nice hot shower and somewhere to shave for a tiny fraction of the price of a motel room.

Walking out of the aquatic centre a fresh, new man I wandered down towards Darling Harbour and had some breakfast at Adria Bar, which was absolutely awful. The coffee managed to be both bland and burnt, whilst the bacon and eggs weren’t thoroughly cooked but the toast they were sitting on was burnt solid. I wasn’t going to say anything but the bill came to $44, and then the man asked me, so I gave him the brutally honest truth 😂.

From Darling Harbour I walked around to Circular Quay/The Rocks, checked out the George Street markets and then took the train back to Central. I bought myself a birthday cigar at Market City in Haymarket and checked out Paddy’s Market, then headed back to Central Station again and checked my luggage in, sat on the platform for a few hours and just basked in the warm sunshine.

It’s been a fun trip so far. I have a sleeper cabin on both legs of the trip, and although I shared last night I have this leg all to myself (so far: fingers crossed for no late bookings! 🤞).

Arriving in Brisbane, Sunday 23 July

Last night’s journey was far more comfortable. I enjoyed my sleeper cabin all to myself, got some good shuteye, and feel thoroughly relaxed. Of course the extra time in the journey is always going to be a factor, but I would elect to travel that way again over a flight in a heartbeat! Being able to stretch my legs, walk around, lay down and sleep, and just have some time to myself was pure bliss!

I arrived into Brisbane’s Roma Street Station this morning at 05:00! I headed to the hotel only to find they didn’t open until 09:00. How was I going to occupy 4 hours? By going fishing of course! 🤣

I walked down to the Brisbane River and climbed down from the bicycle pathway to some rocks, and hid my suitcase and bags under the pathway out of sight. [I wasn’t leaving them, but with my back turned I’m always a little nervous about theft.] I set up my travel rod and gear and cast some plastics, and some metal spoons. I caught a whopping dusky flathead, my personal best (PB) by a large margin: he would have gone 70–80 centimetres at least. I had left my landing net in the suitcase though, so after fighting him a fair bit I tried dragging him up on to the rocks to let him go, but he snapped off and took off before I could get the lure out of his mouth or get a photo. A very nice welcome to Brisbane, anyway…

I packed up after a few hours and visited a farmers’ market just up the road, got some nice produce for cooking during the week and took a taxi back to the hotel, where I’ve left my bags and come to a café called Coco Cozy to while away some time waiting for check-in. An old friend is going to take me to a nice Japanese garden nearby, so I’ll go do that before checking in later today.

Sneaking away mid-week for an Eildon fishing session

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:38:11 +1000

With everything in my life being so busy lately, I managed to get away for a sneaky mid-week overnight fishing trip on Tuesday afternoon, returning last night.

I didn’t catch any fish, but it was wonderful to get away and get my lines wet, hanging with some mates. They booked a cabin for their Easter family holiday, so I grabbed an unpowered site at the same park and pitched my swag for the night. We fished all day at our various favourite spots, saw plenty of fish, but they just weren’t having anything we put before them.

Some young guys were catching small browns by drifting worms in the Goulburn, but for the most part the fishermen around us were striking out as well. Luckily for my mates they got onto some fish the day after I left, which is nice (for them! 🤣).

Despite the lack of a fresh catch to eat for dinner, I had the most wonderfully relaxing day. I packed a pipe and sat by the Pondage when my phone buzzed to tell me it was 13:00, and time for a daily routine at Starlight where the Melbourne office gets together to have a go at The Age Quiz. I logged in over Microsoft Teams to the group chat, got a few groans that I was out fishing, and that was worth the trip just for the giggles!

Fishing at Gilmore’s Bridge at Thornton

Fishing under Gilmore’s Bridge at Thornton

Fishing at the Eildon Pondage

Panorama of Eildon Pondage in April 2022

Planning a tour of the Apple Isle: Tasmania 2022

Wed, 07 Jul 2021 12:38:39 +1000

With international borders closed (for Australians, anyway) until god-only-knows-when, and a nice local trip looking very attractive as an introduction to touring for my partner Danielle, we’ve been planning a Tasmanian East Coast cycling trip for a few months now.

We’re hoping to take the trip next year. Danielle is a native Tasmanian, so we’ll finish the tour by staying with/near her parents in Sandy Bay, a suburb of Hobart. The Spirit of Tasmania ferry berths in Devonport, so with our start and finish points decided, it was simply a matter of working out the route. I found a good PDF guide on the Discover Tasmania website, but the link has since disappeared into 404 heaven. Using the outline detailed in this guide, along with a Hema map of Tassie, we’ve outlined a nice 15-leg route that will take us 13–14 days in total riding, across perhaps three weeks (given rests and sightseeing).

Continue reading after the quote

Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to. I don’t much care where — Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.

Lewis Carroll, Alice In Wonderland

Update: We’re going! We’re finally doing it!

We have booked the ferry, and some of the accommodation, and we’re gearing up to do our tour this December!

I wavered between just updating this post or creating a new one, and decided upon the latter.

Tell me about the new adventure!