DAY 71 - Sun 29 Aug
- Once again it was pouring rain and we watched from the comfort of our van the poor campers in tents packing up.
- Our week in the Daintree was up, and we decided to make our way back to Cairns (yes, again for the 5th time) as we had to repair Geoff's bike, one of our camp chairs had fallen apart, the car needed to be serviced and we decided we needed to sort out the tinnie so it wasn't so much work putting it in and out of the water.
- So right now as I type this, we are in Cairns AGAIN, I have corn beef on the boil and geoff is relaxing in front of the telly. Have no idea where to next, perhaps we will camp our way to bathurst bay? Who knows, but for now we have booked 3 nights in Cairns to sort things out and no doubt spend more money...
DAY 70 - Sat 28 Aug
- Van still stinketh much!
- We went for a long walk around the area... we assumed there were no crocs here...
- Myall beach, where we were staying. It's a pity we didn't take a photo before the bad weather came... There are SO many coconuts and pieces of coral along the beach.
- We had lunch at a Cafe along the way and the young girl working there recognised us as the "tinnie couple who caught the mackeral".
- Once we got home again, we checked the crab pod again and to my dismay there were now 2 crabs inside. One was female which couldn't be kept and the other... well, we still traumatised by the smell of the van and couldn't bear to cook another one. At least not for a while...
- I spent the rest of the day reading a book on the beach while geoff worked on a suntan on the roof of his mouth (feel asleep in the chair with his mouth wide open!). It was slightly embarrassing but at least he was quiet and I could read my book in peace.
DAY 69 - Fri 27 Aug
- It poured with rain all night, all day...
- Late afternoon we put on our raincoats and went to check the crab pod expecting to find nothing...
- It was a real struggle to get this big guy out of the trap... check out his claws! We now felt like real hunters living off the land - fish and crab for dinner tonight!
- One small problem... we had NO idea how to cook crab so we went for a drive up the Noah Range to get enough service to google "how to cook mud crabs"...
- Check out our feast...
- At one point whilst boiling our hunted crustacean, he let out a large fluff or something and it really didn't smell pretty. We really should have also googled how to eat the sucker, it was a mission! When we cracked open the body, all this poo'y stuff came out that really really stunk... we were not impressed....
- The caravan smelt SO bad after our crab meal we evacuated and headed over to the communal hut to chat to Paul and Kate (some fellow nomads we had met that had been travelling Oz for 3 years).
DAY 68 - Thurs 26 Aug
- When we checked it on Sunday, the owners told us that Thurs was meant to be the best day with only 2 knot winds. So we had planned to put the tinnie in today. (I need to mention too that we were offered our first job here... the owners want us to return and manage their caravan park next season - don't think so but it's good to know there are jobs available).
- We launched the tinnie on high tide and slowly crept out of the lagoon through a small passage in the coral just wider than the boat. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, the water was clear and blue, there were splashes of fish all around us and turtles popping their heads up. We trolled some lures and not long after I hooked my first Spanish Mackeral. YUM we had dinner. The plan was to release all others caught. Within 15 mins I hooked my second spanish, this time bigger. Unfortuntaly he had smashed my lure and it was half way down his goob, so died on retrevel. We now had LOTS of dinner. About an hour later, I also caught a small barracoota, followed by a small spanish that we tried to release but he was pretty dead and just sunk to the bottom. Not one fish touched poor Geoff's lure, even when he used my favourite that I had caught the first two spanish on... It was a magical morning that we will never forget. (We had temporarily lost the small camera so didn't get any photo's while we were in the boat - totally shattered as it was so great out there looking back at the Daintree Rainforest).
- When we got back to shore, we had nowhere to clean the fish. So we dragged the boat into the shallow lagoon and while Geoff cleaned the fish, I cleaned the boat and hoped no croc's would pick up the blood scent...
- We now had LOADS of fish... we had enough for 7 nights plus we feed 3 other families....
- We put one of the fish heads in the crab pod that we hid in the mangroves, and hoped we might catch a crab for dinner tomorrow night.
DAY 67 - Weds 25 Aug
- We enjoyed breakfast on the beach...
- Today we decided to keep out of the sun and do the notorious Bloomfield 4WD Track to Cooktown. We had heard stories of people coming unstuck on this track due to its steepness (mainly if towing). I was elated the track was so good (although quite steep at times) and Geoff was bitterly disappointed. Photo below is one of the creek crossings we went through...
- Black Mountain is basically a MASSIVE pile of rocks on the way to Cooktown... it's kind of eerie. Many hikers have gone missing while climbing it, planes go weird when flying over it and many think the Queensland Tiger lives there...
- When we arrived at Cooktown we watched an older man haul a large queenfish in using a handline. It was incredible, the fish nearly pulled him off the wharf! Another fisherman helped him land it but horribly got one of the large hooks straight through his little finger. I was pumped to go fishing but there was no more room on the wharf, so we randomly decided to launch our tinnie! (so much for keeping out of the sun)...
- We laugh about it now, but at the time it wasn't funny. It was like dumb 'n dumber go fishing! We pushed off and THEN geoff tried to start the motor. It didn't go and the current was getting swift. So we both grabbed a paddle and headed back to shore. It still wouldn't start, so we gave it 10 mins or so and tried again. This time it started. We pushed offshore again, Geoff put it in reverse (or so he thought) and we took off. Only problem was it was NOT in reverse and we took off forwards and ploughed straight into the boat ramp with a large clunk. We pushed off AGAIN and headed upstream. I caught 2 live bait (Geoff still owes me $100 for catching them as he reckoned I wouldn't catch a thing with my jig), and we drifted along with our lines out the back. At some point we had changed positions and I was now sitting at the back of the boat near the motor and Geoff was up the front. We hadn't really been paying much attention to where we had been drifting and suddenly we were WAY too close to one of the moored yachts. There was no time for Geoff to get to the motor so I had to start it (for the first time eva). So with Geoff barking orders, I pulled the starter cord with all my might... I must have used too much might because I flung myself into the centre of the boat. With arms and legs going everywhere I lunged for the boat motor put it into reverse (or so geoff told me) and took off. Once AGAIN only problem was, it was NOT in reverse and we charged straight at the yacht. With all our yelling and commotion, the people inside the yacht didn't even see us! - they had their backs to us the whole time. Geoff managed to push us off the yacht and we putted away... Not long later, Geoff was pulling in his live bait to check on the welfare of the little guy and right behind the boat there was a big splash and geoff had a big fish on! Poor big fish didn't stand a chance as geoff hauled it towards the boat at lightning speed. We were amazed at the size of the thing but not fully sure what it was. It had HUGE teeth and so we didn't want it in the boat. After some debate we decided to slowly putt over to another boat with our big fish in tow behind us still in the water. We called the other boat over and asked if they could help us identify the fish and whether you could eat it or not. They were like "WOW its a mackeral, great eating, defn pull it in before the sharks or crocs get it". We had some difficulty pulling it in tho as our net wasn't quite big enough but we managed.
- When I had a better look at it and checked it with my fish I.D book, I was sure it was a Striped Barracoota not mackeral. We googled barracoota and they are not much good eating especially one of this size (120cm long). They can have some sort of poisioning that causes your brain to swell! We decided it wasn't worth the risk and threw it into a river on our way home for the crocs to eat.
- Along the way home, we stopped at the Bloomfield Falls.... best I've seen so far....
DAY 66 - Tues 24 Aug
- Today we spent the day on the beach. We even went for a swim. At low tide the water receeds about 300m! We could walk out onto lava rock and check out all the rock pools - we saw a sea cucumber, octopus, cool shell creatures, and a big, bright blue starfish! The photo below shows the water receeded... (on another day tho)
- We both got really sunburnt and had painful showers for the next few days...
- Late in the afternoon, we walked around to the creek for a fish and on the other side of the bank was a crocodile (just near the mangroves). Crazy you can swim at the beach and yet there are 2 crocs that live in the creek only a few hundred metres away.
DAY 65 - Mon 23 Aug
- We moved our van into a better location in the Cape Trib campground... We had no power but had a private 20m track through the rainforest to the beach - fabulous! Things were looking up. (Just realised we never even took a photo of our perfect location - bummer!)
- We decided to go for a little drive around and check out the sites...
- For the 4th time we left Cairns, this time bound for Noah Beach in the Daintree Rainforest (about 120kms north of Cairns).
- Crossing the Daintree River on the ferry....
- There were cassowary signs everywhere... we hoped to see one from the safety of our car but no such luck...
- Arriving at Noah Beach campsite, we had a walk through to see if we could get the van into our booked spot. It was VERY tight, narrow and winding with tree's and posts lining the dirt road. We foolishly decided to "give it a go"... Geoff drove in the exit as it was closer to our site and I (with knocking knees) attempted to direct our 15m rig around the trees... we realised quickly our mistake and needed to now somehow get it out of there! We were both stressed to say in the least. I was madly running around the van like a plucked chook trying to check both sides, plus keeping an eye on the low, overhanging branches near the roof. Ray, a camper nearby came and gave us a hand directing. At one point, I looked at Geoff's bike on the back and realised it wasn't looking so good...
- Somewhere along the way his bike must have caught on a tree, and his wheel was bent like a banana... whops! didn't see that one. We were SO relieved when we got the van back onto the main road with no damage (other than the bike and the bike rack). For me, it was defn a low point of the trip thus far...
- Our helpful, fellow camper Ray had some troubles of his own... they had accidentely locked their keys in the car along with all their food, tent and sleeping gear. We offered our help and spent the next hour or so trying to break in...
- But with no criminal records, we were not much help! Thankfully another camper seemed to have the skills required and finally managed to unlock their car. We wished them well and headed further down the road hoping to find somewhere to park for the night as it was getting late in the afternoon.
- We found a campground called Cape Trib Camping at Cape Tribulation. So very grateful, we headed down to the beach to have a much needed 'happy hour' to relax after our stressful afternoon.
