Took a short break from local fishing in June and went on a road trip to Western Australia. Drove from Perth to Kalbarri, Kalbarri to Monkey Mia, Monkey Mia to Carnavon, and Carnavon to Exmouth. Stayed in Geraldton on the way back too. Altogether, it was good time spent with family, and we managed to catch up with Fishing Daniel in Perth too.
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| A view of Perth City from the windy hills on our first night. |
Day 1. Arrived in the evening, met Jason at the airport, got the car from the rental, and drove to my cousin's place in Applecross, Perth, to spend the night. Met Carol and Linda, thanks for the wonderful homecooked dinner. Met up with Daniel, who showed us his home 'tackle-shop' with more Shimano Stellas in one location than any other tackle shop I've seen. Thanks Daniel for a great dessert at Chocolateria San Churros and a night tour of Perth, with a great view from the hills.
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| Met up with Daniel for dessert, some late night shopping and some sightseeing. |
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| Leaving Carol and Linda's house at the start of our road trip. |
Day 2. Started off at 8am, took a few pitstops along the way, and ended up at one of the best fish and chip places in Geraldton for lunch. After lunch, we headed to Kalbarri, a short drive up, and checked into a cozy double storey resort apartment. Did the first fishing of the trip that night by the town beach, Chinaman's Beach. How apt, when my brother, with his interesting Chinaman's moustache, and I were the only two guys fishing at the beach. The girls played at the beach, picking shells and stuff. Being ambitious, I used big pilchards on ganged hooks, hoping for a Mulloway or a big Tailor, but to my surprise, after losing one or two good takes, I landed a familiar fish, a Garoupa. Had a superb fish, calamari, crabstick and other stuff, with chips for dinner, and called it a night.
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| Barnacles on the Wharf at Geraldton served up good ol Aussie fish and chips. |
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| This Garoupa must have followed me from Singapore to Kalbarri. |
Day 3. Had a pre-dawn session at Chinaman's point in Kalbarri where my brother hit a nice big Tailor which put up a good fight. Me, I was just trying to hook them on metal lures and I could see the huge Tailors chasing the lure right up to the beach but the solid hookups did not materialize and their interest soon waned. At 8am, we went back to the resort, packed up, and headed to Denham.
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| Big Tailor at Chinaman's Point in Kalbarri. |
Along the way, we took some tourist routes and went off the tarmac to reach some hiking trails. Hiked to a scenic lookout called Nature's Window, where Nature had carved a window (duh) into a huge rock. Very interesting, and very beautiful. I think everyone loved this part of the trip a lot. After a few hours of hiking and picture taking, we got back on the road to Denham.
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| See why it's called Nature's Window? On the road from Kalbarri to Denham. |
We reached Denham in the late afternoon, and spent some time enjoying the nice rental apartment and looking around the town and the beaches. We hunkered down to the town jetty for live calamari, and managed to bring a big one back for dinner. Our masterchef session began with my mum being the first contestant, deciding to cook a traditional Chinese style dinner of fried brown rice with various dishes, including the Calamari.
Day 4. No travelling today. We rose early to meet the dolphins by the beach at Monkey Mia, one of the key highlights of the trip. There was no disappointment at all despite the light drizzle. As we stood in the water, the dolphins came right up to us and the lucky few were given freshly caught fish to feed the dolphins. Another wonderful experience.
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| Interaction with wild dolphins at Monkey Mia, what an experience! |
After the dolphins, I tried fishing off the beach, but did not have any bait with me. Fortunately, my daughter had dug up a live clam and gave it to me to use as bait. With that one teenie bit of clam, I landed a big Whiting (Pasir Pasir, or Swa Chiam). That was enough. With that one Whiting chopped up into little chunks, we landed more and bigger Whiting, which were really fun to catch. Then, I saw a dark shape in the water just at my feet, it was not a dolphin but a Shovelnose Ray. Always the opportunist, I swopped my Whiting rig for a large single hook on strong leader, hooked up a Whiting, and cast it in front of the Shovelnose. It took no second invitation. The fish just plopped itself over the bait, took it in its mouth, and started swimming off. That's when I closed the bale arm of the reel and struck, and that's when the train took off! Wah! So fun hearing the screaming drag off the beach, but I had faith in my tackle and technique, as I slowly tired it out after a few more runs, and managed to get it close enough to the beach for my brother to grab its tail.
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| OK, it's not about the costume please. This fish really made my day, my month, my year. |
Hooray! My mission to catch a big fish in Australia was accomplished. Videos and pics were taken and the majestic fish was released to fight another day.
The ladies went on a Catamaran cruise around Shark Bay, and made a visit to a Pearl Farm, where the kids learnt how Pearls were cultured. They even managed to rescue a farm that had broken loose from its moorings and was drifting to shore. This prolonged their boat trip, but no one was complaining.
By the time they came back, I had a nice catch of big Whiting. Everyone was satisfied, especially me. Ahhh... this was almost paradise.
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| This is the part where the guy dropped his sunglasses into the shark lagoon... hmmm, how is he gonna get it out? |
Anyway, we went to Shark Bay's Ocean Park Aquarium for lunch (we ate Kangaroo meat...) and an educational tour, where they fed Coral Trout to their big sharks, (and the guide lost dropped his Ray Bans into the shark lagoon cos the shark pulled too violently against his rope). Nice place to visit, but we'll remember our bug spray next time cos of the sand flies. Took a scenic walk at Eagle's Bluff too, trying to spot a Dugong or Ray below the boardwalk.
Evening was Jason's turn to cook, and he stirred up some delicious pasta with deep fried Whiting which I had caught that morning. Kudos to the chef.
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| Berk caught the first squid, a small and cute one. |
After dinner, I had another go at the squid at Denham Jetty with Berk and we landed some. However, we had to give the squid away because there was no more cooking to be done until the next night in a different town. However, this proves that Denham Town Jetty is still one of the best places to land a big Squid.
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| Standard sized squid at Denham Town Jetty. |
Day 5. On the road to Carnavon. We checked out in the morning and made our way down the Denham-Hamelin Road, eager to check out two spots we saw on the way up. First was Shell Beach, a surreal beach made up of tiny shells. Trev really loved this place, for she loves shells. Next was The Hamelin Pool Stromatolites, one of Shark Bay's key features, where we saw colonies of bacteria growing out of the water. Such huge bacteria colonies must be the envy of all pond keepers, haha.
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| Shell Beach with surreal backdrop. |
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| Here's a close up of what the beach was made up of. |
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Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool.
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| OK, so we stopped for some information. A World Heritage area leh... |
We reached Carnavon in the afternoon, had some time to shop around town, and met the locals. There was even a nice big toy shop there where Berk got some Moshi Monsters she said she was always looking for. Evening was when the action began. After getting some fresh local seafood like shrimp, scallops, calamari and coral trout, with white wine and mediterranean spices, I had my ingredients ready for my turn to cook.
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| Small but feisty Threadfin Salmon and Mulloway entertained us for the evening. |
But before that, it was a quick hop to one mile jetty for some evening pre-dinner fishing. Walking one mile out and one mile back made for decent exercise too, haha. But the fishing was fun and we totally depleted our bait, landing Bream, Threadfin Salmon and Mulloway, the three main species here. All fish were released to fight another day, and we made our way back in time for me to prepare dinner. I made a special Mediterranean Seafood Soup which was completely consumed (nothing like warm white wine and sundried tomato based soup with chunky bits of squid, scallop, shrimp, fish, garlic, onions, baby tomatoes, celery and olives to cap a fine day). We ran out of soup to dip our bread in. Day 5 was super fun, but now it was done, and we rested for the night. The next day was the day we would reach Exmouth, the furthest point in our Western Australian Road Trip, where we swam with the largest fish in the ocean, but I'll leave that to my next blog post.
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| And there goes the Mediterranean Seafood Soup. Great for cold nights in a foreign land filled with fresh seafood. |
