Denham to Carnarvon

Russ and I left Denham this morning and headed to Carnarvon. It's just over 300ks and we only have two days here, but it's the best shopping we'll have for 2 1/2 weeks. We arrived here, st up the van, drove up North River Road, back down South River road and got a car load of beautiful fresh veg and herbs. Then we hit Woolworths! This morning, we used our last two teaspoons of coffee bought in Perth for $12 per 500g can. In Denham, that can was $24! Tonight we paid $13 at Woolies Carnarvon for another two!

It was so very sad leaving Denham this morning. We've had 2 weeks and two days there with Brice and some lovely neighbours. I cried when we left as they are all quite elderly and we can only hope they will still be there when we get back in two years-particularly Brice who is really quite sick with bone cancer.

It's been a lovely couple of weeks that have flown by. It's amazing how much happens when you are supposed to be doing nothing. We have done lots of fishing in our tinny and managed to go out 4 times with Brice in his boat. The first two days in it (Brice's boat) were a bit lean fish wise, but the third and last were great. Our second trip out was really just a sightseeing tour-over to see the salt works and the private town of Useless Loop. It's 121ks in from the road to Denham on dirt all the way, or about 25 nautical miles from Denham. It was a lovely day and great to finally see the place. On our third trip last Saturday, 4 of us caught 21 quite large fish, and yesterday (our last) was the best.

Just the 3 of us headed out and the sea was absolutely "boiling" with tuna feeding all over the place. Brice doesn't like tuna, but knows we do, so stopped the boat and we started to trawl with lures. Brice caught a fish, but lost all his gear-a few minutes later a tuna circled the boat with his bright orange lure in its mouth! Then Russ caught a nice one which we got into the boat so we were happy! Russ filleted it and we have 6 feeds (inclding a big one to share with my sister) in the fridge and freezer. We ate one tonight and I reckon it is the best feed of fish I've had so far.

We left then and went on to catch a couple of good black snapper, a big pink snapper, 5 red throated emperor, 2 big Charlie Court cod, and just as Brice said we should head home, Russ caught a huge Morwong. A shark (at least 3 metres) spent a long time circling the boat grabbing fish we caught and released, we saw sea snakes and dophins and all those schools of tuna feeding-it was a wonderful day.

When we got home, Russ and Brice filleted and packed the fish while I went down to the butcher and picked up a ROASTED leg of lamb I'd ordered for our dinner. All I had to do was cook some vegies, make some gravy and we had a wonderful dinner.

The night before last, Brice bought 10 green crabs and I cooked him his first ever chilli crab which he loved. We really have had some wonderful meals together!

When we weren't out fishing with Brice, we would take our boat to Monkey Mia and target Flathead. We've got very good at finding enough nice sized ones (about 50cm) for a good feed. Or we would take the boat to Eagle Bluff where we could catch ourselves a feed of snapper.

Last time we took the boat to Monkey Mia, Russ headed off without the lights and rego attached to the trailer (something he often does!) A cop passed us going the other way, then next minute I saw him in my side mirror with the lights flashing. I told Russ he better pull over then asked if he had his licence "NO"! I said he better act dumb (not real hard to do I think!) anyhow, the nice boy gave him a warning on both counts, talked a lot about fishing and sent us on our way-how lucky was he!!!!

I've decided that Denham is the place I have enjoyed the most on this trip so far and I'm looking forward to coming back in the not too distant future.

Tomorrow, we are off to the farmer's market in town here,then Sunday we will travel to Coral Bay (only about 230ks) where we will spend a week swimming, snorkelling and fishing. Then it's on to Exmouth for more of the same.