Houseboat Hopping (or "Oh, Ye Mighty Yabbie")

At the start of Day 45, we set out just after the Emu and the Shiralee (paddlesteamers) passed and before the other 3. Dirk was careful not to take any nasty shortcuts for at least the first part of the day. Later, we passed some creeks joining the river and saw those two steamers again. No sign of the others. The progress throughout the day was good... until the mid-afternoon.

It was mid-afternoon when we encountered the Brown family on their rented houseboat. Mr. Brown called to us to come over for a beer. We paddled up and enjoyed meeting him and his grandsons. It seems 3 generations of Browns were there enjoying a little fishing. One of his grandsons, a 16 year old, was particularly happy as he had just purchased his very own tinny with savings he had from his part-time job as a supermarket cashier. The family was from Adelaide, where the grandkids were undoubtedly missing school!

After pushing off, we saw another Houseboat named "Scoundel". Jokingly I told Dirk we should stop there for round two... but in fact it happened that they did also call us over. This group invited us onboard where we met the entire staff of a lighting corporation which were on the river for "training". I believe this if the training means in catching yabbies, drinking and speeding around in tinnies.

In any case, these guys were really hospitable and not only provided us with spiked lemonade, but also threw a couple of handfuls of yabbies into our bucket for us to take away for our tea (dinner).

We camped a little late that night, but enjoyed yabbies and garlic in olive oil pasta for dinner, while listening to Renmark's radio station - 5RM. Every 10 minutes or so, there is the anouncement for the "Mighty Yabbie Competition" where people can take the yabbies they catch in to an official measuring depot and be considered for a prize... one for the biggest yabbie of each week... and one for the largest overall. Somehow, seeing as we are fishing for yabbies with a largish shrimp net, I doubt we will catch any truly big ones.