So we found paradise. Fisherman’s paradise that is. And wow is there SO MANY FISH. Every time you look at the water there’s a fish jumping out somewhere in the distance.
This long sandy headland with the turquoise water of the river on one side and the roaring pacific on the other is called Wooli, and it is an epic drive away through beautiful national park. The kind of drive where you know for sure you’re going somewhere good. The far side of the river bank is all sandstone cliffs and MASSIVE sand dunes, and to top it all off there’s a freshwater waterfall that runs over the cliff at the very point where the river meets the sea. This place is jaw-droppingly sacred. It’s almost like a temple of all things beautifully Australian. Dry scrub, lush swimming, red dirt. Every time I look up there’s an eagle circling and there’s more black cockatoo’s than I’ve ever seem in my life, and I mean like more than 100 in the sky at once! There’s even emus here!! We didn’t spot any though. But I did see my first azure kingfisher so I was pretty happy with that. The “town” (I say town but it’s more just a collection of beach shacks and just one shop – the oyster shack) seems to entirely consist of fishermen and holiday makers and I guess it’s because there’s pretty much no work opportunities here and it’s am hour to any other town. Would make it hard to be a local. But even in peak season it was remarkably quiet. Most of the day we had the river to ourselves!
We had to eat fish while in fisherman’s heaven of course but I wasn’t game enough to attempt fishing with a toddler so we picked up some fresh fish at the oyster shack and watched an oyster boat arrive from up the river and unload it’s haul direct into the shop. Doesn’t get fresher then that!
In hindsight we probably should of gone for the oysters but Yilla LOVES fish and she was so excited to walk out the door with her package and go cook it up straight away. We set the camp cooker up under a tree and Yilla impatiently prodded the fish with sticks while it sizzled.
I would love to be able to say that it was delicious but the tragic reality is that something went terribly wrong. Now readers if you have advice on cooking fish I would really love to hear it because clearly I SUCK at it! It was rubbery and over cooked on the outside and still completely raw on the inside?! So sad. We really gave it our best go to eat it anyway but eventually gave up and buried it, hoping the tree would enjoy it more than we did. Bum-bow what a flop!
Food Oasis 