Australia - January 2002

January 14,15 - Cania Gorge

After the initial weekend it was time to try out Mum and Dad's newly renovated slide-on camper. Due to the hot conditions and the lack of air conditioning in the house, Laurie and I had already been using the air-conditioned comfort of the camper as a bedroom. Now it was time to try it out as a mobile house. The chosen destination was Cania Gorge - a place none of us had been to before. With boat in tow, we made the trip in about 2 hours, quite long enough with three in the front of the Landcruiser. This dam and natural gorge is located about 12 kilometers north of Monto in Central Queensland.

The water level at Cania Gorge was very low, and we selected a spot to park not far from the water where we could leave the boat in and keep an eye on it. There is a caravan park and campground a couple of kilometers from the dam itself, however we chose to stay right by the water. We were to later find out why the campground is so far removed. During the evening hours, trillions of small (non-biting) insects were attracted to the lights in the camper. We were able to keep most of them at bay, but a few thousand or so still managed to seep inside. We are all very grateful that these weren't mosquitoes or sandflies, as I am sure we'd have been packing up early otherwise.

Of most interest to me was the fishing potential of this waterway. I had heard it was well stocked with bass and other natives, though the catching of these proved more difficult than I thought. In the end for an afternoon and one morning we caught (and released) our share, with the two saratoga being the highlight. I had never caught a saratoga before, so this was excellent (and also gives me one up on Simon, who has still yet to catch one).

Preparations at home. A lot of unseen work was put in (mostly by Dad) to modify the camper to fit his ute. You can just see the air-conditioner protruding from the back of the camper, and the extended tow-bar necessary for handling the boat with the overhang from the camper.	On the way out of town we called in to see Mum (and borrow some wire joiners). We had extended the tow-bar and trailer lights for the boat, but not the electric winch cable!
This is a good view of where we camped and put the boat in. Finding a piece of flat land was difficult, but we improvised by parking the wheels on a couple of boards.	Here you can see the stairs at the back of the camper, and the very quiet generator that kept the air-con running.
Definitely a highlight - my first saratoga. These are a very pretty, primitive fish with huge scales and big teeth. We released all the fish we caught this weekend.	Another pic of the saratoga.
This was the only Australian bass caught on the weekend - a good fighter on a great bass lure (the Storm Hot-n-Tot).	A good silver perch. The small rubbery mouths on these fish make them somewhat difficult to hook.
This unlucky turtle was actually jagged on a lure in the back foot. It was released unharmed after a quick photo. There were thousands of turtles in the Gorge.