Tweed Heads, 2010

July 6th, We left Iluka in the rain and travelled to Tweed Heads, along the much worked on winding Pacific Highway. It was the slowest trip as we were stopped at roadworks, many times. We booked into the Boyds Bay Holiday Park at Tweed Heads, for 2 weeks. The rain had stopped so I was able to set up the Caravan and get the boat off the car as well. This Park is on the Tweed River and has its own boat ramp, we can see the ramp and water from our site, so this is our type of Caravan Park.

July 7th, It was wet and windy all day, so went to the Tweed City Shopping Centre for a wander around. Joan rang to let us know that Robert & herself were driving up from Newcastle, to spend a week holidaying with us from the 30th July. We have now extended our stay until the 7th August and secured a Cabin for Joan & Robert. We booked our tickets for the Australian Outback Spectacular 2, featuring the “Heroes of the Light Horse”, on the 4th August. The State of Origin was a great game to watch and just when NSW thought they had it won, Qld. scored in the dying minutes of the game and secured a white wash, so sad.

July 8th, Wet and windy again to-day, so no chance of getting the boat in the water.

July 9th, It was overcast this morning but I put the boat into the water and went to try the fishing. It was bedlam on the river, there was a Bream Fishing Competition on this week-end and powerful speed boats were ripping up and down the river. I managed to catch a 32cm Flathead, undersize, so it went back into the water. We were supposed to have a “Welcome for the Winterers” free BBQ to-day in the Caravan Park but it was cancelled due to the bad weather. It did rain all afternoon. I noticed that something had hit the car windscreen and causes a foot long crack to appear. I have no idea what or when it occurred, so need to get a quote to replace it.

July 10th, Had a quiet morning, reading, and after lunch we drove to Fingal Head to watch the “weigh-in” for the first day of the “Bream Fishing Comp”. We had met 2 of the entrants, Dave Salino and Richard Creighton. Richard was a boat owner and was on the site next to us. It was very interesting, each boat owner had to take a non boat-owner participant with them for the day, selected by random draw. It was strictly a lure fishing competition. All the fish had to be kept alive and after the weigh-in, returned to the water and must swim away. If a fish did not survive, it didn’t count. The aim of the competition was to have the highest weight of catch with up to 5 legal sized fish, on each of the two days of the Comp.

July 11th, We went to the final day “weigh-in” for The Bream Fishing Comp and stayed for the Presentations. The boat owners competed for money prizes, with first place being worth $2500 down to 10th place at $150. The non-boaties prizes were goods to the same value as the owners. The Comp. was sponsored by Ugly Stick and had 45 boats entered (90 competitors). Dave has said he would come back next week-end to take me out and show me how to fish with lures.

July 12th, Went out fishing, no luck to-day. Called into the Ford Service Dep’t after lunch and was told my 90000 Klm Service would cost $390. On the way back I spotted a local Mechanic, advertising “Log Book Services” so I asked for a price for my 90Klm Service and booked the car in for Wednesday when he told me, “around $200”. It pays to shop around.



July 13th, Went out fishing again, the River was very busy, not surprising, as it is School Holidays. I had powerboats, River Cruise Boat, Jet Skis and Fishing Boats sharing the River with me, then to top it all off, as I was drifting on the outgoing tide and about 50 metres from the road bridge when I looked up and was shocked to spot a large black body floating in the River just in front of me, of course it was a Spear fishing guy. What a relief! I caught 5 Bream to-day but they were all undersize. I am going to give lure fishing a good try, so went to a Tackle Shop and bought some new line and lures. I have been told of another spot where they have been catching fish, so will try that to-morrow.



July 14th, It was overcast and windy this morning, so will not be going fishing to-day. The car went in at 9am for its 90k service. With an additional handbrake adjustment, the total cost was $215.

July 15th, Went fishing to-day, armed with lures and cooked prawns for bait. Caught a lot of undersize fish, all but one on prawn, bream, whiting, flathead, flounder but just before calling it quits for the day I caught a 35cm flathead, which Val cooked and enjoyed for dinner. At last, the drought has broken and I have caught my first keeper at Tweed Heads. Val is keeping busy knitting Boleros in “feathers” wool, for the girls.



July 17th, Went out fishing but still not catching a legal size fish

. I’ll keep trying. Went to South Tweed Heads Sports Club for dinner to-night, meals were great, met up with our neighbours in the Park (Pat & Jerry) and a Rock Band was playing, which we all enjoyed. Val had a flutter on the pokies and came home with $320, very handy.



July 19th, Didn’t go fishing to-day, so added some angle brackets to my boat hitch to strengthen the design. It was bending up when reversing, not good.



July 21st, It’s a long time between drinks when it comes to my fishing abilities, but to-day I caught a bream and a flathead, just legal. After filleting & skinning, Val ate the whole lot in one meal. She suggested that she should have used the rolling pin to make them look bigger, how rude.



July 23rd, Went to The Sports Club at 10am for table tennis, where I was made very welcome and enjoyed the exercise.



July 24th, We packed lunch and headed off to Southport, firstly to make a stop at Spotlight then on to The Home Show, with included some Caravan & Camping exhibits. It was an interesting Show but didn’t have many Caravans, which was our main interest.



July 25th, Had an early dinner and went to the Sports Club for table tennis.

July 26th, Packed up everything and moved to site 70, only 3 sites away. It’s not my favourite move as it’s almost as much work as moving 300 klms. When you extend your stay you can’t always stay on the same site.





July 27th, Val had her hair done to-day while I went out fishing. The rain chased me in eventually but I was very happy to bring in a 41cm flathead. Val enjoyed one of the fillets for her dinner.



July 29th, Too windy & wet yesterday & to-day to go fishing, in the boat. It stopped raining about 6pm, so threw a line in off the bank and caught 2 bream (25 & 30cm)

July 30th, Joan & Robert (our friends from Cardiff, Newcastle) arrived today to holiday with us for our last week in Tweed Heads. We went to the Sports Club for dinner and raffles. The meal was good but no prizes in the raffles.

August 1st, Robert and myself have been out fishing for 2 days and I’ve caught nothing to date. Robert, on the other hand, has caught a small bream & flounder on Saturday. We set off to-day to try a new area that had been recommended and wasn’t doing any good, when, just to add to my woes, I was pulled up by The Waterways for a complete check of my tinny and safety equipment. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to put an extra lifejacket into the boat for Robert and this was deemed to be the most serious offence and could not be excused, so I’m now $100 poorer, when I pay the fine. After a quick stop to pick up the missing lifejacket we carried on fishing and came home on dark with a 37cm bream & 2 flatheads (40 & 43cms).



August 2nd, It was a windy day but we still ventured out for a fish. The going was very bad when we got out into the main part of the river, the wind was much stronger and we were drifting at a very fast rate of knots. To-day was my day as I finally caught a 37cm flathead but the conditions were so bad that we called it a day and went home.

August 4th, We all went to the Twin Towns Services Club at 11am to see “The Drifters” Show. It was fantastic and we all thoroughly enjoyed the show, this was our kind of music. We stayed for a light lunch at the Club, a flutter on the Pokies and for a $20 investment came home with $190. We just had time to get ready to go to Helensvale to see The Outback Spectacular Show 2, featuring The Australian Light Horsemen. It was a great show, with a very good 3 course meal, and we were amazed at the abilities of the horses and the skill of the riders and all the special effects. I would recommend this show to anyone.



August 6th, Had a final fish this morning, without any luck, then packed up ready to leave to-morrow morning for Brisbane. Joan & Robert left for Cardiff with an overnight stop at Port Macquarie.

Iluka, 2010

June 26th, This is a great Caravan Park, right on the Clarence River, clean amenities and has its own boat ramp. I won’t be using the boat ramp, as it is far too steep for me and there are other places close by to put the boat into the River. We spent to-day checking out the local Shops. No big Shopping Plaza s in this Town, still they have all that’s necessary, 2 Supermarkets, Bakery, Servo and Bottle Shop, which covers our necessities. We were recommended to visit the Marina, as the seafood is fresh local caught and delicious.

June 27th, I decided to design a hitch for the front of the tinnie so that I could use the car to get the boat out of the water. I noticed 2 boats, like mine, that had clamp on wheels and had made up a towing bar using the standard trailer hitch. I priced a trailer hitch at the local Boat Shop and they were $50. By the end of the day I had a rough design that I thought would work and should be cheap to make. My problem would be finding material locally, so that’s a task for to-morrow.

June 28th, Went to the local Hardware Store looking for anything that I could make my boat towing hitch from and did see a large shelf support bracket, made of flat bar material, a bit narrow but had possibilities. Then I went to the Chandlery and was unable to find any suitable material but his trailer hitch was only $30. A thorough search of the shelves could not locate the one the computer said was in stock. After discussing the problem with the Chandlery Guy and showing him my sketch, he suggested a search of the old workshop out the back to see what we could find. Lo & behold, he found a strip of scrap 3mm thick aluminium, long enough to make up my design and we agreed that it would be strong enough to meet the towing requirements. After passing over $1.45, all the change I had in my pocket, I rushed back to the Caravan Park to begin moulding my design into shape. After a trial tow around the Caravan Park, I was happy but needed to make some minor improvement to my hitch design.

June 29th, I went back to the Hardware to buy some more bolts to finalise the boat towing hitch. All up cost was now around $4. I completed the modifications and fixed the clamp on wheels with screws that located in holes drilled through the rib along the side of the boat. This was necessary to ensure that the wheels could not twist while being towed. I drove to the little beach area at the end of the Park and put the boat in the water. The towing hitch passed the test with flying colours. I set off to locate the local fish population, my new fishfinder was working well, with water depths up to 40 ft in places and plenty of fish on the sonar screen. I did catch 3 flathead and a couple of bream, but all babies. Disappointing not to get anything to take home. I had 2 problems with getting the boat in & out of the water. The sandy bottom in the water was too soft and the wheels kept getting bogged, making it difficult to maneuver and it was impossible to re-fit the wheels to the boat while still out in the water, due now to the need to position the locating screws into their mating holes. I have decided to try leaving the wheels on the boat to avoid the refitting problem.

June 30th, Went out fishing, leaving the wheels on the boat and it did not make any difference to the way it performed, so, happy with that solution. Took a cut lunch with me to-day, at Val’s suggestion, so I could stay out as long as I wished. Great Idea

but still didn’t help me catch “keepable” fish. Disaster struck as I was trying to drag the boat out of the water on to the beach ready for hook up to the car. The wheels had buried themselves in the watery sand and as I wrestled to free them, the boat moved forward sharply and knocked me back to fall into the shallow water, never a dull moment with me. Of course I had an audience, two other boats were coming in at the same time, so, wet to the waist, gumboots full of water, I carried on hooking up the boat and heading home. Yes, I did have my wallet in my back pocket, will I ever learn!

July 1st, It’s overcast and bitterly cold to-day so I’m giving the fishing a rest. I have decided to use the concrete boat ramp down at the other end of the Park, next time I go fishing. It will be a lot safer. Val is busy patchworking with her last “Spotlight” purchases.

July 2nd, Rained all day and was very cold.

July 3rd, To-day we moved from site 6 to site 40, on the waterfront, for our last 3 days. We would have stayed at Iluka longer, as we do like this area and it’s a nice Park, but it meant moving to another site and that’s a lot of work. It is School Holidays so I wasn’t surprised. We went into Maclean for lunch and to do some shopping, Val needed some patchwork supplies. We were pleased to find that they were having a Scottish Tartan Day Celebration and watched some dancing & pipe band music. I finished setting up the Van when we returned to the Park.

July 4th, Cold southerly winds all day which made the river too rough for fishing. I likened it to the surf at Bondi.

July 5th, It was overcast and cold but I was determined to go out fishing, even though rain was threatening. This is our last day as we leave in the morning for Tweed Heads. So with my cut lunch on board, I set off at 11am to try my luck. As you can imagine, we did get a shower of rain but I had taken my trusty umbrella, which must have been a strange sight to the other fisherman out there. I arrived back at the Van at 3pm and my only catch for the day was a Stingray, very disappointing. A quick coffee and I packed up ready to leave in the morning.