Fathers' Day on the road has, to date, been a quite affair. Most welcome phone calls from Cam and Stu, and the eminently sensible present of an electronic Dan Murphys gift card, has been the usual extent of the festivities.
This year was to be different. Whilst the normal family greetings continued (and remained the highlight of my day) we were invited to join others from our camp and enjoy the hospitality of the Kurrimine Beach Fishing Club at a function to be held in the grounds of the nearby King Reef Caravan Park. This is an annual affair and we were assured it would be a very good bash.
What a good idea....we'll be in this, together with half the town it appeared. When we arrived shades of all types were already dotted along the line of trees at the edge of the park
and were well occupied. I later discovered that many who take up residence in this park corner their spot almost at first light!
The salad table (on which we were asked to leave a contribution) was set up ready
I have to say the mobile oven in which the roast meat was both cooked and smoked, is one of the fanciest affairs of its type I have ever seen. To my annoyance, this one shot I took of it does not do it justice....it is a seriously good bit of kit with its multiple hooded BBQs and smoker chambers.
I was equally impressed with the end result when we later queued for a plateful of the various meats.
It was clear that some took their responsibilities more seriously than others when it came to the salad and desert table (or do some folk just have too much time on their hands??)
Given the crowd in situ on our arrival we took the sensible decision to set up shop on the periphery, where we had good shade (it was hot and humid) and no parking problems.
The very large tree under which we established ourselves was more than fit for purpose.
We had barely had time to knock the first top off when I heard something of a commotion in the main arena. This demanded an investigation. The first thing I noted was a queue of ladies. What is going on?
Well, of course, what else but the annual fish throwing competition? The field of contest had been roped off, the bucket which was the target of the throw was in place, and the whole event was under the strident and enthusiastic control of Ms 'Black an White', a local Asian lass with whom argument in not an option!
What an undignified end for the spotted mackerel which were hurled with more hope than skill by most of the contestants.
"Come on Liz, show them your throwing arm". I think a balanced report demands that I note 'herself' was not the most enthusiastic of players ("Yuk, I won't do it if they don't supply rubber gloves!").
But they did, so she did stump up, positioned herself carefully at the throwing line
and, in the manner described in that ageless Aussie vernacular, 'gave it a red hot go'. I was up before acceptances with this shot, foolishly yelling encouragement....the arc looked perfect. Alas this Kurrimine Beach 'flying fish' fell just short and bounced off the front edge of the target crate, but look at the style....worth a prize in itself!
You probably wouldn't believe me if I said that the poor lass was inconsolable, and you would be right. But, to her credit, she had humoured us and, despite her mutterings of 'bloody silly nonsense' and the like, she had admirably upheld the reputation of those from the rival caravan park as good sports.
Whilst we munched on, in the main arena much of the later part of the afternoon was taken up with the awarding of prizes to the more successful of the Fishing Club members, accompanied by the expected ribald responses following each announcement, but this was of little interest to us. We were more than happy to bask in the shade of our tree and enjoy a fine lunch, several cold ales and good company.
Did I have a good Fathers' Day?.....I think this silly smug look might provide a clue!
In my next, a few final farewell snippets from one of our favourite places in Australia. The time to be heading back south was fast approaching.
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