Made it to Drysdale Station!

Today Jase & Roddo made it to Drysdale River Station at about 2.30pm where the plan is to leave the 'big boat' behind and the tinnie is left on the roof of the 4X4.
In the morning the boys are going to explore Walcott Inlet for a few days.

The closest town to Drysdale River Station is Kununurra which they passed through yesterday about 360Km to the east and because of its remoteness,
it has pretty much everything such as a small general store, accommodation, a riverside Camp area, a homestead Camp area that has full ablution facilities,
a licensed dining room offers evening meals and breakfast, Vehicle, tire and welding repairs and of course, fuel.

Drysdale Station is only open each "dry" season (approximately April to November), so the boys don't have a lot of time before 'the wet' starts to settle in.

It was interesting to learn that the area surrounding Drysdale station is 1,200 ft above sea level and although it is well and truly in the tropics
it can get the odd very cold night (getting below - 4 °c at times in winter!)

Tonight the boys are having a good dinner at the licensed dining room because the next few days will be what ever they catch.

Tomorrow, Jase will contact me via satellite phone giving me updates on what they are doing - so stay tuned!

Kevin

Jase & Roddo's Itinerary for the October Trip

Well, Jase and Roddo left Noosa on Saturday the 10th of October heading for the Kimberly’s yet again in North West Australia. The itinerary is:

Saturday 10th October: Travel up the A1 Highway until they reach Rockhampton, where they will turn inland on the A6 then reaching Cloncurry and then on the A2 until they reach Mt. Isa.

Sunday11th October: Continue on the A2, leaving Queensland and driving into the Northern Territory until they get to highway 11 which takes them north. Eventually they turn left heading for Daly Waters before heading north again.

Once they reach Katherine in the Northern territory, they head South West on Highway 1, crossing into West Australia reaching Kununurra.

The plan is to leave the ‘big boat’ at Drysdale Station (this has been pre-arranged) and drive the dirt track into Walcott Inlet with the ‘tinny’ on top of the Patrol. The plan is to explore the inlet for about one week.

All in all, Noosa to Drysdale Station should take around 30 to 36 hours.

For those readers new to the Adventures of Jase and Roddo, check out the original blog about who they are here

You can also visit Aussie Fishing Adventures to find out everything about Jase & Roddo here

or get Twitters here

Kevin Oliver

Who are Jase & Roddo anyway?

Jason Andrews and Rodney Quinton are two Aussie blokes that love their fishing. That in it’s self is not unusual, since fishing is possibly the number one pass time in Australia. But these two blokes like to fish where no one goes, right into the true essence of wild, untamed Australia, off the beaten track, out bush so to say.

Jase & Roddo are not your typical weekend adventurers. They are, in my opinion, experts in chasing a dream. Their dream is to fish in the North West of Western Australia where no one else goes. The fish are, according to Jase, “prehistoric” – that is, no one has fished there so the fish only get bigger and bigger!

Who am I? My name is Kevin Oliver and Jason is my brother in-law.

I am ‘laid up’ with a major back injury and the only way for me to live the dream of hard core adventure fishing is to follow these two guys.

To be honest, even if I was able to join them, I am too soft for what they do. The fact is, these two guys are so far off the beaten track, out of reach with other people, well away from tourist operators that I am to soft and afraid of what can go wrong and besides, 12 weeks is just to long to be away from my beloved lounge chair!

This is why I love their DVD’s. I can watch everything they got up to from the comfort of my lounge chair.

A tremendous amount of planning and preparation goes into each adventure. From having drums of fuel dropped off at secret locations to back-up plans for when things go wrong, there is careful planning required.

The equipment they use must be reliable in the extreme because there isn’t anyone to help. They do carry a satellite phone to call for help if required, but it is used mainly for theme to contact their wives and to contact me so I can post up-to-date blogs on their progress. Generally, they contact me twice a day. Once in the morning before they head off for the day and again late in the day when the make camp. This way, I can provide interested people with details of the plans for they day, the weather conditions, where they slept and what they caught for dinner etc.

The Vehicle they are using is a Nissan Patrol Diesel with a turbo and 4” lifter kit. This allows them the power they need to toe a 3 ton boat and supplies as well as give theme the clearance they desperately need off road.

Jase built the aluminum boat specifically for these trips. It has all the mod-cons for communication, mapping, sat-nav etc. It has two long range fuel tanks, plenty of storage for fish, crayfish, oysters and anything else they catch to eat as well as dry storage . The boat is powered by a Mercury 150 4-stroke outboard that offers all the power they need.

When it’s time to make camp, they sleep under the stars (when safe to do so) with a fire to ward off wildlife and when it is not safe, due to crocodiles mainly, they sleep on the boat.

So if you are interested in following their progress, keep an eye out for my blogs. I will be keeping you up to date twice daily starting in Saturday 10^th of October when they leave Noosa.

If you would like to know more or purchase the first two DVD’s from their first trip, the please visit http://aussie-fishing-adventures.com or you can keep up to date with twitters at http://twitter.com/BarraJack

Regards,

Kevin Oliver