Look out - it's Old Gregg!

My rod is bent way over the boat, into the water, and my wrists are aching. I am afraid the rod might snap. What ever is on the end of my line is pulling pulling pulling and as soon as I give it a little slack, it pulls even further. I'm starting to get excited now; a few minutes have passed, and Jase is watching me with an eager grin on his face. Now it's literally dragging the boat along the water, against the current!
*snap* the line breaks and it's gone, just like that.
"I reckon that was Old Gregg!!" (Captain Trauma knows who I mean, and so will any fan of the brilliant British comedy 'Mighty Boosh')

Balla Balla River

Plenty of catfish are good for sport but not great table fare.
However, on two separate occasions we were given fish - first by a couple who accidentally exceeded the bag limit and had to offload some of their catch ("Umm.... sure..... we'll help you out....") and another couple who caught a magnificent Golden Trevally which was simply too much food for 2 people, so they gave us half the fish!! (i suspect that might have been Old Gregg too)

This is the Whim Creek pub, complete with paraphernalia including dead bugs (see below). Behind the bar is a tough not-so-old broad who serves you with a no-nonsense attitude.

Native pigeons, quail, budgies and finches are everywhere!

20km from the Whim Creek pub is the Balla Balla inlet, where you can simply pull up your rig and camp wherever you want. In the above photo you will note that almost all campers opt for a communal arrangement and camp within close proximity of each other.

We choose this lovely spot several hundred metres away: no generators, no loud talk-back radio, just us.

We stayed here for 6 nights, wihtout power or running water; and it was bliss.

The sky is simply massive, and at night it's fun to spot satellites amongst the stars using binoculars.

These are not diamonds; they are naturally formed salt crystals where a puddle, isolated from the tidal water, has evaporated and left the salt behind. Not surprisingly, there are many salt mines in the vicinity.

Wildflowers!

These photos were taken just after dawn. The side of the road is alive with colour, purple, yellow, white and red - here there are many patches of Sturt Desert Pea; one of the prettiest flowers you will find in Australia. We had to pull over and take a couple of photos.