Day 45

DAY 45 – Monday
We got up and had showers and started packing up.  The first tour of the Barramundi Discovery centre was at 10am, so we headed there.  After a short film showing how they breed the barramundi and release them into local waterways, we headed into the area where the tanks were.  One tank was a breeding tank that contained both males and females, one tank held spare females, one tank held spare males, and one held Sooty Grunters which they were also breeding.  The fish in the tanks were the biggest fish ever!  The lady gave us some small fish and told us to hold them by the tail and just dip the head slightly in the water.  The barramundi see on the top of their head, and swam over to the fish, grabbing them in one fast move.  They grab like a vacuum cleaner by sucking rather than biting, but their swift movement scares the crap out of you!  All you could hear was the swish of the water and the occasional scream of the frightened fish feeder!  When the tour was over, we had a quick cuppa then went back to pack the van and hook on.

When Darren was backing the Pajero up to the van, a large hole appeared in the earth (possibly and old drainpipe caving in).  This caused a bit of excitement for the boys, but after letting the management of the park know, and placing a rubbish bin over the hole so that nobody else would drive into it, we were on our way.  We also said goodbye once again to Marilyn and Warren and Jimmy and Sue who were also staying at that park.

We made a short stop on the way to Normanton to take a photo of some brolgas.  It was really amazing to see them wandering wild beside the road.  Then at Normanton we stopped at the bakery and had pies for lunch.  The bakery was set up in a backyard shed.
We drove to Croydon and stopped at the Lake where the boys had a swim and then Darren and the boys tried to catch one of the elusive Barramundi that gets stocked there by the Barramundi discovery centre. Darren managed to land a couple of tiny grunter while Mitch hooked a Murray Cod that was slightly undersized and is illegal to keep up here. We hit the road again for the afternoon before pulling up at a roadside camp next to the Gilbert River. 

Darren and the boys set up the opera house nets and put them in the small amount of water that was left in the river.  The boys put on their orange overalls to avoid being bitten by mosquitos.  We chatted to two other couples that were also camping there the night, Darren checking out all the gadgets one of the couples had for their van and ute (Has he got some idea’s now!)before having hot dogs and vegies for tea.