I know we are weeks past Christmas now, unfortunately our Internet coverage at Inskip wasn't very co-operative and since returning home I have been flat out working, so this next instalment has been slightly delayed - my apologies.
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| Finally at Inskip. |
By 6pm everything was done, boat anchored securely out the front of camp and time for a well earned drink and then dinner.
For those who don't know where Inskip is, it's at Rainbow Beach. For us, it's a 2 hour drive north of the Sunshine Coast. When you get to Gympie take the turnoff for Tin Can Bay, hang a right at the next Tin Can Bay sign, then another right to Rainbow Beach then follow the signs from Rainbow to Inskip. You do need a camping permit from the National Parks, but because it's a recreational area you can bring your dogs camping as long as you have them on a lead/rope the whole time. It's only fair, not everyone wants a dog running into their camp and some dogs don't play nice together either.
For the first time in about 10 years or more, we actually saw 2 dingoes at Inskip trotting through the camping area - one the normal tan colour and the other black.Unfortunately we had a few days of passing showers/rain, so the boat didn't get used which means no crab pots were put out. We also suffered a couple of leaks in the tent canvas, one not too bad as it ran down onto the floor but the other ran down onto the bottom of the mattress on Craig's side. Next morning we ducked into Rainbow to the hardware store to get some silicon and canvas repair. If that doesn't work there is always an empty ice cream container to put at the bottom of the bow where the water is running down onto the bed - leaks won't spoil our holiday! The NP Rangers were popping in each day and were nice enough to come back one afternoon to let us know what the weather forecast was and that we had 2 days of king tides, we knew about these but it was really nice of the Ranger to come and let us know.
In amongst all the rain Dave arrived on Friday 23/12/11 to setup his camp next door (the whole Turton/McStay gang will be joining us on Xmas night after family festivities at home are finished). In the meantime Dave setup the camper trailer, kiddies tent and the compulsory toilet/shower tent - all in all it resembled a small suburb!
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| Boris not happy with all the rain & cold |
Luckily just after he finished setting everything up the rain came down. Since it took the better part of the day for the small suburb to be set up, we had entertainment for most of Friday....After the rain passed Craig decided to give fishing a go, he managed to catch a whiting, 3 stingrays & an eel, the only thing worth keeping was the whiting!
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| If I cover my head, I'll feel better |
25/12/11 - Xmas Day
Santa found our campsite and so did the fine weather, so after coffee was made it was time to open presents - even Boris got a present which he was most happy about when he smelt it.
After a nice bacon & egg roll breakfast, Craig thought he'd try his hand at fishing for a bit, what a relaxing Christmas Day!
We're expecting our friend Simmo and his dog Mitch to arrive around 1:30pm hopefully.....We even bought some tinsel for a makeshift Christmas tree and solar powered Xmas lights to put around the annexe. Unfortunately the Xmas lights have only worked one night so far :(
After some directions were given over the phone to Simmo he found the campsite and Santa even left he and Mitch a present.
Some refreshing Xmas drinks were had, along with the entree of Garlic/Ginger prawns and Sweet Chilli Prawns. About then Simmo thought it best to setup his tent before too much Xmas cheer was consumed and we told him if he didn't setup his tent he wasn't sleeping in our camper with us!
Simmo's tent erection certainly gave us a little bit of entertainment, for such a small tent it seemed to take a long time to put it up!
Apparently the tent can wait, the boys decided to go hunt some yabbies while the dogs played in the water for a bit.
Eventually Simmo & Craig returned to setting up his tent, from my point of view it was a good giggle.....
Hello's and Merry Christmas's were exchanged along with presents for everyone, then Dave set about unloading and constructing more bits of Turtonville, while Simmo, Craig and I sat down for our Xmas dinner of roast chickens, crusty bread, prawns and crabs - yum mo! We eventually retired for the day, leaving Dave to finish setting up camp.
26/12/11 and onwards
Next morning brought with it some beautiful weather, blue sky, warm sun and just a little wind. There was some water sports happening from camp - kayaking, paddle boarding and the likes. Crab pots went out this morning, a bit of fishing was done. 
After lunch Dave & Craig decided putting the windsurfer together would be a good idea - now tell me if I'm wrong, but 2 blokes who haven't windsurfed in about 20 years and are lets say a "little" bit heavier then when they last did it and not so agile, are just asking for some sort of injury to occur...... Surprise, surprise no injuries were sustained and they actually stood up and windsurfed! At least they were sensible and put the smallest sail on first time. Although a comment was made a few days later to do with sore arms. 
Another activity undertaken today was putting the kids on the tube behind our boat and seeing who could hang on the best.
Well at least until the outside cover of the tube disintegrated!
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| Julie & Portsea stuck in the mud! |
Talking about injuries, it seems I'm the one who suffered an injury - it appears one night I decided to sleep walk off the bed in the camper and plummeted nearly 2 metres to the floor, waking to Craig saying to me in a worried voice "are you alright" and finding myself sitting on my backside with my knees up around my eyes. Result: one very sore right knee that was very swollen and limping around with some pain for a couple of days, oh and still discovering bruises a week later. Damage to camper: one badly bent bow that was involved somehow in the fall, that will have to unbolted from the camper so we can close it up and repaired once back home. Call that a pretty good nights work really! Of course I have coped a few days of being the brunt of all jokes, but thankfully my knee is getting better.
Simmo decided on the afternoon of the 27th that he would pack up and go home, due to a storm that was due to pass over us later that afternoon - he was then the target for comments like "you're such a girl". The storm did come, it was intense but brief and we had let our camp neighbours know just in case.
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| Jon & Di coming ashore with Honky |
Jon & Di decided to motor up the Sandy Straits the next morning for a night and what a night it turned out to be for them, unbeknown to us. Their boat nearly burnt down around 6:30pm due to an electrical fault that cause a smouldering fire and burning plastic insulation. Jon tossed Di and Honky into the tender and then decided he'd try and save the boat, with the help of a fellow boatie and his fire extinguisher Jon managed to smother the fire and the boat wasn't in too bad a condition. They spent a very sleepless and dinner less night on board. Next morning Jon made the decision to try and get power to the motor say they could at least move the boat, with a phone call to the sparky back home to double check things he achieved his goal. Rather then cancel their holiday, Jon & Di decided to motor back down to our campsite to our surprise when we saw them motoring in. Once onshore they recalled the night before in detail for us and since they didn't have any refrigeration on board now we had a BBQ dinner on the campfire and cooked the meat they had. After a few well deserved cleansing ales, we called it a night. Next morning they came ashore for a nice hot cup of tea and breakfast and after discussion and the realisation that it was New Years Eve, they decided to stay another night. We had enough food to feed the 4 of us and a friend of Jon's was bringing his yacht around from Tin Can to join in the festivities for the night. All in all you'd call it a great night with plenty of food, lots of chatting and the occasional drink.....
Next morning Jon & Di headed back to Tin Can with Craig to help load the boat onto the trailer and headed home to the coast. We continued to have fun and relaxation.
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| Craig windsurfing |
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| Julie giving windsurfing a go |
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| Craig & Elliot going to rescue Julie... |
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| Dave kayaking |
Dave organised his dad to come up the day before we were leaving, to take a load back in his tinnie and he packed as much as he could in that tinnie!
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| Dave's first load to go home... |
We had to celebrate Craig's birthday while we were at Inskip, so we got a little cake and stuck a sparkler in it for him. After dinner and cake, Dave & Craig stayed up chatting and try to work out how to solve the worlds problems. The next morning Dave did ask him, "did we end up solving any problems last night" answer: "no, not really, except for solving the problem of the bottle of rum being to full....."
Right, it's leaving day, disassembled the bent bow in the camper so we could close it up - no problems, took forever to pack up for some reason then boy decided it was time to take the boat out of the water. He's taken out on the beach at camp a few times before without a problem, however that was not going to be the case today.....
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| Boats on and the cars down to the chassis in mud! |
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| right, we'll try the winch.... |
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| no good |
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| bring in the recruits & the snatch strap - Landcruiser 200 series |
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| nothing happening.... |
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| still nothing.... |
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| and still nothing! |
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| Hilux and boat trailer getting lower into the mud now |
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| Lets take the boat & trailer off and try just snatching the car |
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| Well that worked! |
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| Now the boat trailer |
Inskip's a great place to have a holiday, we love going up there as there's lots to do - no wait I mean to say, it's a terrible place you won't like it, don't go there!
