DAY 9 - EASTER AT TANNUM SANDS 2021.....

 Well today ended up being as last day at Tannum, even though we had booked and paid for an extra night, my back had given me so much grief during the night, that we decided if I could manage to get an appointment to see my chiropractor the following day we would pack up and go home today even if it was evening before we arrived home.  The thought of three more sleepless nights before I could see someone was pretty much doing my head in.

We had planned an early start this morning as we needed to go out in the boat and bring all the crab pots back in ready to be able to go home...  Steve needed my help to do this, which meant we also had to take the kids with us...

We were out on the water a little after 6.30am, and it was beautiful.  Such a still day....

All ready to take off for a morning on the river..

perfectly still day...

The water was like glass this morning..

It was nice to get out with Steve on the water.  It is the first time this holidays that I have managed to do it as usually he has had others who have wanted to go out with him.  Often it is their only chance to get out so I usually let them go as I know I can go out with Steve anytime, especially now that we have retired.... 

Beautiful reflections on the water this morning..

Out in his happy place

Mind you we have had very little time to do it since we have retired, but here is hoping that we will manage it soon...

Willow was keen to help Poppy pull in the pots.  She had been doing this for him when they last went out on Sunday so was quite eager to show me how it was all done...

We had eight pots to collect and the first creek we pulled into we came across a sandfly infestation...

Now I being very allergic to the beggars meant we needed to do some thing pretty promptly.  Steve's brother had told him about Thermacell, a new way of keeping sandflies at bay.  The machines are not cheap but supposed to be very effective, so before we came camping Steve went to Bunnings to get a couple.  

Sand fly exterminator....

 I must admit I was pretty skeptical, as you hear about lots of remedies that are suppose to work but I have had very little success with them.  Anyway he got the personal one set up and I was blown away by how quickly our personal space was rid of the pesky little irritants...

We started right up the Creek collecting the furtherest crabpots before heading back towards the boat ramp to collect the rest.  Some of the creeks had a couple of crabpots in them so we spent a little time there maneuvering around all the mangroves..

 

We didn't have any luck with crabs today.  A few of the pots have Ginnies in them, and one of the pots had a buck but he was just 1cm too small.

 

In one of the last crab pots we pulled up we found the carcass of a Ginny crab.  Something had eaten out the body and had done a pretty good job of it also.  It all looked pretty fresh so hadn't been done that long ago.  I had never seen this before..

As we still had a little time on our side, Steve decided to take us up for a little burn to the mouth of Wide Cattle Creek.  It was such a beautiful day and with the tide fully in, we were able to get right up to the mouth..

The disturbance of water at the mouth of the creek...

Once we got back to the boatramp, Willow decided that she would like to have a go at driving the boat.  Steve normally lets her and we had been so busy trying to collect the crabpots so that we wouldn't get caught with the tide, that we had pretty much just rushed back down the creek.  Now with some time to spare he let her have a little drive around the creek just up from the boat ramp.  She was tickled pink...

We spent a good hour and a half out on the water and it was such a lovely way to start the day...

Now it was time to head back to our campsite and see if I can make an appointment to see the Chiropractor tomorrow.  That phone call will determine whether we are going home today or staying tomorrow....

Initially when I first rang there were no appointments but Emma his receptionist was happy to see what she could do...  An hour or so later I got a phone call to say she had shuffled some appointments around so that I could be seen and so now it was all systems go to try and get all packed up and out of the park later this afternoon.

It was quite humid today also, without any breeze so the sandflies were also pretty bad today.  In the end we set the kids up in the van with the air con running so that they could watch a movie or two whilst we tried to pack up.  It was pretty slow going with me with a very sore back and Steve with a very sore foot.

It pretty much took us the rest of the day to pack, with our friend Tom coming over to help Steve pack away the annex and the tarp over our dining area.  This would have been hard for me to do, as it required a lot of bending over  trying to fold the tarp and annex.  I was so thankful to Tom for helping out. 

It was around 4.30pm when we finally pulled out of the park and we had a good run home getting home around 6.15pm.  We  only bought the necessities in tonight leaving the rest of the unpacking until the following morning.

As we really didn't have a lot in the way of food in the fridge at home and it was also pretty late and getting close to the kids bed time we decided to head to McDonalds for dinner...

Well that's the end of another Easter at Tannum Sands...