Our time in Weipa

To all our family and friends, welcome to our Blog.  I hope you enjoy the read, though this one is a little lengthy, as I had some time on my hands here in Weipa, thought I would give it a go.  I am learning as I go, but if you have any tips if I can do it better, leave a comment.  Oh yeah you have to start at the bottom for the start of the journey.  We look like setting off to the tip tomorrow, yes we have tyres!!  So I will update again when we get some good service, till then hope everyone is well and happy and not wwwww....ing too hard!

We arrived Weipa on Saturday 11.30am, our priority to get the tyres sorted, went to one mob, they shut at 12 today... Mel not impressed with their service or lack of, so went to the opposition round the corner where the guys much more receptive and jovial for a Saturday morning, Mel explained our dilema - ordered the tyres, they be here on Thursday arvo truck, that ain't so bad we can blow a week in Weipa.  We booked into the Weipa Camping Ground, lovely setting by the shore, however we dare'nt put a toe in the water for fear of crocs taking a liking......

 

We notice we are the only 2WD in camp, feeling a bit lonely, but hey we are doin' it our way!  We have a good look around Weipa driving, motorbiking, pushbiking.   The week goes rather quickly, Thursday arrives, got the call - tyres in town, hours after Mel left to get tyres fitted, I was a little concerned - he come back, no tyres the two fronts did not fit because of the springs, guess what another week in Weipa --- yes we can do this, after all it is a lovely spot.  The sunsets are great, though Mel has now banned me from taking any more sunset pics!

We've done the bauxite mine tour, quite interesting - 30% workforce is female, it's above ground mining and the dump trucks are BIG mothers!    Mel snuck behind the DO NOT ENTER MINE SITE on one of our outings for this pic, but don't tell anyone...

We have explored Vyces crossing, a nice little fresh water running creek about 1/2 out of town, "any crocs out here Darl?" Nah they don't like clear running water, they like to hide, "Ok great" but that didn't stop me from having my "Croc radar" out... nor my Darl so I found out later.   We were amazed at the plants growing beneath the water, bright emerald greeen plants, we also come across a bower bird nest, with pink pegs, red lighter, shells, green broken glass, you gotta wonder how the hell do they get all those things there.  Oh yeah, we went to Woolies that arvo to stock up, when we told the checkout boy about our morning at Vyces, he asked did we see any crocs, apparently a dog had been taken not so long ago, great!   Take a look at the photo, you wouldn't think there would be nasties lurking beneath would you....

 

Went for epic ride on Suzuki to Pennefather beach or should I say attempted..  The road went on and on, it wasn't just corrugations, which the bike handles well, you hardly feel a thing with my arse half hanging off the back bouncing around.    This road had big washed out bog holes, huge pot holes and it was quite challenging for my Darl I think especially cause I was bouncing around on the back, a few expletives come out.    Our main concern was running out of fuel, this place is about 75 kms from the camp ground  (150kms round trip) and darl was not fully confident of how far the bike would go on the tank. We did pack an extra 2 litres.   We stopped one chap, you don't see a lot of vehicles when you out and about, how much further, he said about 10kms, I think we went for another 15, it felt like it. We decided to turn back, no photos taken that trip, it was all a bit too challenging, we didn't make it to Pennefather, I bet it was just around the next corner.....  Made it back to town when reserve kicked in, just as well, I didn't really fancy getting stuck "out there" with two bottles water, 2 sangas and a mandarin!   Below is a pic taken at Red Beach where we saw 3 crocs sunbaking (500 metres off shore at low tide, now that's a safe distance).

 

We sit here and watch the camps come and go, you name it we have seen it, from lean too's to huge mother 4WD motorhomes, one motorhome was towing a caravan, what the?  And it was just a couple, capitalist I say!   And yes we have seen a small number of 2wd come through, about 14 old Peugot vehicles, an "old" ford ute, station wagon etc.    Really it is just a waiting game for us to get our tyres, but we have heard SO many stories of 4WD breakdowns, clutches, gear boxes, springs, holes in fuel tanks, etc., etc., and they all come here to wait, so we don't feel so bad waiting for our tyres.   One 4wd rocked up yesterday on the back of a truck, we have heard of so many swamped 4wd and rollovers, one 4wd and caravan come a gutser also, don't know about the occupants.  Actually we are still the only 2wd we have seen that is towing a trailer but I might add my pretty little Camel camper is looking a bit worse for wear these days, a bit gravel blasted looking, I guess it adds a bit of character!

 This croc has seen better days, we stumbled across this not far from the camping ground, on one of our explorations.  

We got our hand lines out one day and off we went to the jetty to try our luck, as the day before we saw they were hauling them in.  My darl caught the first (and only) fish within 20 minutes a nice BIG bream (the biggest Bream I have seen to date caught off the jetty, go Darl!) Me?  I just sat there for 2 hours untangling my beepin' line.  We were pretty chuffed with our catch, took it home, what do we do with it now, we looked at each other..    Quick if we get over the fish gutting tables, maybe we can conn someone to gut and scale for us, and we did!   The rest was easy, stuffed it and baked on barby, we savoured every mouthful.   

We were on a bit of a high and decided to try our luck again the next day, but I think our eagerness did us in, cause we got out there too early, apparently something to do with the tides and the wrong bait, (prawns are the go, we had squid) a number of things really, anyway back home feeling pretty down with only managing a couple good bites in as many hours.   We haven't been out since, though Mel has befriended an 'ol mate in camp, who has a boat and he's been out fishing with him a couple days, yesterday he caught a stingray and just about crapped his pants!   He did bring home a small grunter and bream which we cooked up for lunch, yummo.  You know people bring there freezers up here just to fill with their catch to take home, we happy to catch one fish for a feed.

 

We've had a drink at the Bowls club, the pub, the Golf Club.  A couple Fridays ago (yeah we been here that long), we went to the pub for a drink cause it was Cairns show holiday day.  It was extremely dark in there for a while.   We met an interesting tribal elder, Malcolm, works in the mines, 4 days on 4 days off, on his days off he drinks for 3 days then dries out 4th day before going to work.   Very well spoken and dressed.   Started telling me all about the family, how your aunty not your aunty and your grandmother is your sister, and the littlies are respected higher that the mum and dad, it all got a bit confusing after a few drinks, I just nodded.  Mel got tied up with younger, rough head, mate Kevin... all in good jest, Kevin started hugging and kissing Malcolm and boy I thought it was going to be on, Malcolm sternly reminded Kevin that he was an elder and was to be respected, Kevin cowered down to him, I was getting ready to vacate the premises as didn't want to get caught up in any comotion, Mel would have enjoyed it but we left soon after that...

Sorry one more sunset, I might sneak out again this arvo and try and catch another before we go......

One of our little pushy expeditions at low tide over the mud flats, don't worry the croc radar was working overtime.

Thursday come around this week and we waited for the phone call, (re tyres) but it did not come, we were feeling a bit glum about it and that was the first night we didn't have a "happy hour" bit over drinkin, BUT we built a bridge and got over it.   Got onto the tyre place Friday, they say the tyres are difinitely on the truck and will be here Monday morning 01/08, isn't that the horses birthday.    So another couple days, all good - but we are ready to move on now.