CATCHING CRABS

THURSDAY/FRIDAY
Helen and I had a bit of cycling to get us going again as we feel we’ve done too little by way of walking etc. of late. We had a few trips out – all of which were interrupted by a chill at the beach – nice!

FRIDAYS ARRIVAL
Bernie arrived quite late on Friday evening so after Wayne had been good enough to collect her we caught up briefly and got stuck into a few stubbies with her, the early night turned into an early morning and we eventually got to bed about 3.30 – we had a lot of catching up to do!!

AND GETTING STUCK INTO IT AGAIN – RAVENSWOOD / MANDURAH
Well, with the arrival of Bernie we had a full weekend booked!

South of Perth in a place called Mandurah there was a crab festival and we’d managed to secure a couple of rooms at the Ravenswood Hotel for the Saturday night. We (Wayne, Helen, Bernie and myself) set off a little later than expected (nothing to so with the late night of course) and got to the Ravenswood about 1pm. We had a spot of lunch and, of course, a small beer.

Wayne spoke with Kyla who would be setting off soon with Mel and also spoke with Alan and Sandy who weren’t too far away and we came to the conclusion that it would be better to chill at the Ravenswood for the day and visit the festival in the morning rather than rush around at that point, we found a nice spot, a table just next to the river and relaxed, waiting for the troupds to arrive. We had another beer and welcomed Alan and Sandy – Kyla and Mell were another couple of hours (allowing for getting lost etc.) and Claire was another 1/2 hour behind them (allowing for missed junctions after what was ,meant to be a short cut etc.).

I then went to Waynes car and got the tuna heads and crab pots and we went down to the river (literally a couple of metres from our spot at the pub!) where we attached the tuna heads, and after a discussion of strategic positioning with Wayne we threw the pots over into the river.

It wasn’t too much time before I couldn’t wait any longer and insisted on checking the pots – both Wayne and Alan assured me that it would take more than 15 seconds for the crab to have a pop at the tuna so I waited for what seemed an eternity and then ventured down to the pots. In the first pot we raised we had a Blue Manna crab who was was big enough to keep so in the esky he went – looking all lonely at that point however it wasn’t too long before there were a few more in there chilling out!

   

The crab collecting went on throughout the day with the more experienced of the group leaving me to it whilst they concentrated on alcohol consumption and general chit-chat. By then end of the day we had 9 crabs in the esky – a fair compliment for a first try and given we where just at the side of the river and not out more which would have been the ideal. We were joined by a group of kids at one point as they were interested in how many we’d caught and I enjoyed gloating at the mammoth catch we’d managed!

There was only one crab related injury and, Contrary to my original fears and probably what most readers that know us will be thinking, it wasn’t me!! Alan received a nip on the finger whilst showing me how to handle these buggers out of the net to check the size (and that the females don’t have any eggs) when – OUCH!

As the afternoon became evening and the current was likely too calm to catch many more I chilled with the rest and had a few beers with the tattoed women (these were the consolation prizes for drinkers of Jack Daniels and believe me there where many tatoos lay around!)

  

The night continued and, as the pictures indicate here so did the drinking. There was a live band later but we still managed to create more noise than them too!!

The Ravenswood has a ‘no shots’ policy after 10pm,which we found this strange given they were happy to sell us the shots from the bottle shop attatched, but we were in the mood for some shots! We started by being discrete, having our shots and quietly getting rid of the evidence, but the more comsumed the less descrete we were. We think the biggy was when Wayne started shouting 1.. 2.. 3.. drink jyst before the drinks were consumed. The barmaid then came over asking if any shots had been consumed, to which we replied of clourse not we know the rules, however we were not beleived and the bloody miserable sod behind the bar decided to bar us! We’re not sure exactly what was said but we suspect the fact it was Alan and Wayne that ‘had the discussion’ it probably wasn’t too constructive in terms of keeping us in liquor.

We pulled the crab pots, threw the last lucky Blue Manna’s into the esky and headed for our rooms where gin, southern comfort, kulua and Jack Daniels were waiting for us – good planniong on Kylas behalf, not that she was expecting to be barred from the pub of course!

THE CRAB FESTIVAL
In the morning we all headed to Mandurah, heavy heads in hands, for a hangover fixing brekky.

Brekky was had and hangovers remained (for some of us at least!). We had a wander around the Crab Festival which was lots of different stalls (such as boats, jet skis, python stroking, junk food and a motorcycle stunt show – oh, and a crab restaurant) up and down the river side. We spent about an hour walking up and down and then decided a trip to Singleton Beach (where we’d come last time we were down this way).

The beach was as expected, bloody splendid!! We body surfed for a while (where I lost my sunnies) chilled and after drying off headed on back to the house. Bernie and I slept most of the way back to the continual mocking of Helen and Wayne and I gave in on returning back to Kyla and Waynes and required a few hours feeling sorry for myself on the bed. So while Bernie and I slept Helen, Wayne and Kyla had a few hair of the dogs to get rid of any last remains of a hang over!

CRAB MEAT FRESH STYLE!
In the evening Wayne showed me how to cook and get the meat from the crabs – this was fun and tasting the meat as soon as they come from the pot was a real yummy treat!!!

We had the crab meat with some huge steaks (that none of us managed to polish off!) and a load of scallops with a salad – a feast indeed!!! I had an early night leaving Helen, Bernie and Wayne skying and feel human again at the moment!

ANOTHER DAY FOR CHILLING
Today we where supposed to be going to Wedge Island but, unfortunately, Zara had a bad night last night and was sent home from day care so Paul’s had to postpone/cancel Wedge Island and we’ll see how it pans out over the next day.

We had a spot of good news by way of a Lotto win – only $55.80 but we then bought a scratch card for $5 and won another $15 – sure this was a pure stroke of luck and not karma we decided to stop gambling and keep our winnings – although we did buy a tasty bbq chicken as a treat!!!!

In the mean-time Wayne’s filled the pool with water so…

you guessed it!!

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