OUR LAST COUPLE OF DAYS AT TANNUM SANDS...

 Friends arrived at Tannum Sands on Monday.  It was nice to catch up with them.  When driving the boat back on the trailer the previous evening, the guide came unattached to the trailer, so on Monday morning we drove into Gladstone to see if we could find some stainless steel rivets so that he could fix it later this afternoon.

What an ordeal it became as we had to visit several places to try and find some...  In the process of visiting different shops, we thought we would head out to the marina and see if some of the boat yards and see if they stocked parts.  We had a little more luck out here.  It has been a while since we have been through here so I enjoyed seeing some of the public art here that I haven't seen before.

From my little research that I have done on this, it seems that these were added to the Marina in 2020 and were the works of  Shane Christensen, a professional sculptor who lives on the Sunshine Coast.  He actually calls himself an environmental artist which is an interesting combination of his past life as he worded in Conservation and Envronmental Protection and his current directions which is Chainsaw Carving.  These days he feels that educating people in how they can preserve and interact with fragile ecosystems is better achieved through interaction...  He likes to carve larger than life size animals, so that kids can climb all over them helps to give them a better connection to the environment that sitting in a classroom.

After a Feathertail Glider moved into one of his sculptures he realised that what he was creating wasn't just limited to art but it also gave native animals a home. It was through this that Shane has not started introducing native Australian sting less Bee Hives into some of his sculptures.  He found that they were instinctively attracted to particular types of wood that he was carving with. 

These new carvings are now a great excuse for locals to get outdoors and discover our fellow inhabitants of the area both the form of a carving and in their natural habitats.

There is so much more to explore around Gladstone... so many more little treasures to discover.. Before we permanantly move south, we need to come back for a day or two and explore this area even more.

We didn't have a lot more time to explore today, as Steve wanted to get back as we needed to take our boat down to the ramp and launch it, so that Steve could repair the trailer.  He was unable to do this with the boat on it...

My job was to sit in the boat whilst it was in the water while he fixed the trailer up in the car park..

As usual things didn't go to plan and the rivet gun ceased up on him, after he had only done half the job.  Meanwhile and hour and a half later I was still sitting in the boat out on the water.  In the end, he rang his friend to see if he had a rivet gun, but no he didn't so we then had to work out how we were going to get the boat back on the trailer.. 

In the end, it was the good old zippy ties that came to the rescue...  Steve zippy tied the rest of the rubber to the rail and then he manually pulled the boat back onto the trailer.    I thought the plan was that we would head into Bunnings to pick up a new rivet gun when we got back to the Caravan Park, but he met his mate Charlie heading down to the boat ramp.  He was heading out to put his pots in and Steve ended up offering to go back out with him... So much for heading into Gladstone..

In hind sight, it was probably a good thing that Steve did head out with Charlie and knew where he had put his pots, as a couple of days later, Charlie couldn't locate one of his.  Good thing that Steve had gone with him, as he was able to remember and when we went out the following day was able to go straight to it and retrieve it...

The following days, the boys took off early in the morning to check the pots and do a spot of fishing.  They were up before 6am.  I wasn't keen to get out of bed that early so I decided to stay home..

In the end the boys spent the day on the water coming home after 6pm that evening...

Whilst they were out fishing, my second cousin and his wife came to visit again for morning tea.  We had a great chat, looking at our family tree and trying to put some of the missing pieces together as well as updating it with our kids and grandchildren.   Charlie's wife Karen also joined us when she got back from the shops...

A great catch for the day...

Pretty poor outcome for a week of crabbing..

The crabs still weren't good, we did get one good muddy, but only one.... However, Steve had a great day out fishing and caught quite a few fish.  I think he got to bring home about 25 good size whiting and a cod.  We got at least five meals out of it all.  Charlie didn't have a good day at all...

Hopefully he will have better luck tomorrow.  On our last day, we took off early to collect our crab pots.  This is also when we retrieved Charlie's lost pot.  No crabs today, just one rather large cod in one of the pots.  We didn't stay out and do any fishing, as Steve wanted to get the boat cleaned up and packed ready to leave first thing in the morning.  He also had to set up the main Tarp for the Church group that was coming for Easter.  Fortunately for Steve, Charlie gave him a head to set it up after lunch...

Erecting the main tent for the group at Easter...

Our other friends, Tom and Ann Rayner arrived also this afternoon.  It was nice to catch up with them again.  We really will miss being with everyone over Easter.  Whilst the guys were erecting the main Tarp, Karen had cooked a fresh batch of scones which we enjoyed for afternoon Tea.  Just as we were about to head back to our Caravan, Tom and Ann popped over.  We all decided then and there that we would head to the Tannum Sands tavern for dinner all together for our last night at Tannum.

It was really busy when we got there with barely a spare table.  It was nice to not have to cook, and join our friends for a nice evening out.  The food was good,  meals were large, so in the end, Steve and I shared a Parmi Chicken meal with a pigs hoof topping.  It was a pork topping with a sort of BBQ sauce and it tasted amazing...

We've had a great week in Tannum... It has gone far too quickly, but we look forward to going again next year and spending time with out church family once again..