Fitzroy River Reserve Park

Day 5 (still)
Friday February 2009

Late Afternoon

In the late afternoon Kim went for a walk to report back on the limited facilities. At the time I was updating this journal and soon realized she had been away for 60 minutes. I unloaded the bicycle and headed in the directions she had taken (toward the beach).

The trip from the camping ground to the beach is about 1-2 kilometres and is fairly treacherous in sections along the river that have high ways and nowhere much to walk/ride. I knew the principal activity was beach fishing and assumed that she had got caught up in a conversation with one of the few beach fisherman trying their luck. The tide in the river was fairly low and it appeared shallow at certain points. I rode across the river only to find the other side deepening until it came up to my knees but powered over to the other side (wetting my leather walking boots in the process). I headed out to the beach but couldn't find her.

Upon returning to the camper (which I had locked) poor Kim was sitting on the steps looking pretty miserable. She had walked along the River (but in the other direction - inland) and had walked across a section of the bank when her feet sunk in the mud and shoes disappeared in the mire below. She has just bought these new (and fairly expensive) airated style of leather sandshoes and tried to clean them up in the river but being leather was really worried about them. So I found her sitting on the step trying to clean her shoes and sock and muddy up to her knees.

We soon sorted our shoes out with the shower and have left them to dry - should be right.

Evening/Night

The wind and rain came up in fairly decent front coming in from the north-east. I loved it (felt like being on a yacht) and battened down the hatches and wandered around closing vents that might let in rain (the pop top has 6 netted window/vents for air). The wind blew so hard I considered dropping the poptop for a few seconds and even checked the pilot light on the fidge incase the buffetting and swaying might have blown it out. But all was well, although we had trouble sleeping. I watched a DVD while Kim listened to the storm and worried a bit about being blown over.