DAY 79 - 92 (Elim & Bathurst Bay)

DAY 92 - Sun 19 Sept

• Yesterday Geoff bought us tickets to the Davis Cup which is being played here in Cairns today. We decided to go to Church first and leave early. It was such a great message though we couldn't leave! Andy Gourley, who founded the Red Frog Schoolies Outreach, preached an awesome and inspiring message that Christianity is not a spectator sport. And if you are a bored Christian it's totally your fault, not God's! Also on being open to the Holy Spirit's leading despite your own plans and agenda's. 
• The tennis was meant to start at 11am and when we walked outside from Church at 12 it was pouring rain. So we came home and I spent ALL afternoon blogging... it's a big entry isn't it! At about 4.30pm Geoff randomly said, "Quick, the tennis has just started, let's GO!" So we jumped in the car and madly drove the 10 mins to the stadium - we saw about 20 mins of tennis before it started raining again. We sat in the pouring rain until 7pm hoping the rain would clear so they could play again - it didn't. It's continuing tomorrow at 10am if it's not raining. So we are back home again now so I can finish the blog! I uploaded what I had written quickly before we left (and hadn't quite finished), not expecting people to find it updated! Sorry to all who read it already! You guys are fast. 
• We plan to hang around Cairns for a week or so and then head off again. Perhaps start making our way west to Karumba - we'll keep you posted!

DAY 91 - Sat 18 Sept

• It was a day of cleaning, washing, and tidying up after our camping adventure. 
• Geoff is now threatening to sell the Caravan and buy a Camper Trailer because we can't take the caravan everywhere. And he figures the best places in Australia are off the beaten track... I'm not convinced and LOVE the luxury the van offers especially after a remote camping trip. Last night after dinner I unpacked the table and put everything away without even leaving the dining room table - how good is that!

DAY 90 - Fri 17 Sept

• You know it's time to leave when your toilet paper supply is dangerously down to 2 squares left! We would love to return to Bathurst Bay but I feel it should be named something more like "shark bay"... or "man-eating-monster bay"... or even "death-by-swim bay!" Watching the water you would see turtles surface at least every minute if not more. You would often see fish jump, and once I even saw a manta ray jump. We would often sit at camp just watching the ocean - so full of life!
• Sadly though we left Bathurst Bay and made our long journey to Cooktown to pick up the caravan. We had not had a hot shower in 12 days and had not washed our hair or used soap for 8 days! AND we were COVERED in mozzie and sandfly bites. SO ITCHY!! Still are - Geoff is scratching his feet as I write this. At one point I counted 13 bites just on my one hand and at times Geoff looked like he had chicken pox! 
• While we were gone, we had bravely left the fridge on in the caravan (running on gas) as Geoff assured me it would be fine. To my horror, when we arrived at the caravan, the fridge gas light was OFF! While we were away I had been praying the fridge would stay on as we had meat in the freezer including a fish head for the crab pot!! We gingerly opened the freezer door - knowing the smell could be certain death. To our much relieved surprise the meat was all still frozen! The gas must have just ran out no more than an hour ago. Praise God he even hears our small prayers and cares about the little things in life! What an awesome God to bring us home when he did! 
• We decided to push onto Cairns. Yes, you read right. Cairns again for the 7th time! It is our home away from home. The owners of First City Caravilla know us well now and were happy for us to check ourself in late (as we didn't arrive until 9.30pm). A hot shower and soap was muchly appreciated!

DAY 89 - Thurs 16 Sept

• After a yummy pancake breakfast we took the tinnie to the close off-shore reef where we had some fun catching fish... most of which we didn't know what they were and hoped they weren't poisonous because we ate them! If any of you fish pro's out there can shed any light, feel free to comment!

• Geoff decided he wanted something bigger so he rigged up a big dead bait with gang hooks and floated it out the back of the boat. I was just using a single hook fishing the reef. I find this funny because I was the one who hooked a heavy 7ft shark. By the time I got it to the boat my arms were shaking! Again, we dont know what sort it was...

• All week we had be cohabiting with these green bullants... At first we had a mutual understanding but now they were beginning to be most annoying... they were on EVERYTHING. I wiped my face on a towel after brushing my teeth tonight and one bit me on the face! 

• We spent the afternoon packing up as we were leaving in the morning. When it was a bit cooler, I collected some shells on the beach...

DAY 88 - Weds 15 Sept

• Not keen for a repeat of the day before with the 'nasties', we decided to head in the opposite direction to some other islands. It looked to be a better day for wind so we took the chance and headed over to them. Along the way though, the seemingly ever-present wind returned so we found a protected reef on the other side of the island. Geoff caught some nice trevally and a Dugong surfaced right next to the boat! It must have sensed a kindred spirit onboard. 

• Once back at camp, Manda decided to set up the hammock without the help of Geoff as they were not currently friends... Geoff later disclosed that he had laughed so hard he cried watching me angrily try to set up the hammock and then needed to dig a hole in the ground for my butt... he secretly took this photo for your viewing pleasure...

• We went for a late night fish in the tinnie but I was a little freaked out at the thought of hooking another 'nasty' at night when we couldn't see it. Didn't have one bite though. 

DAY 87 - Tues 14 Sept

• Today started like any other day yet it will be a day that we will remember forever and one day, no doubt, tell our grandchildren about. We are still in shock over what happened. It was just so surreal and unbelievable... The wind had seemed to die down a bit so we headed off in our tinne 10kms away towards Cape Meville and the islands. We had heard from Ed and Noel that there was great fishing at the islands but also some 'nasties' too. Along the way I caught some live bait. Once we got to the point of Cape Meville, the first island was only about 50m away but there was no protection from the strong south easterly winds. So as it was too rough to get to the island we decided to anchor at the point and do some 'balloon' fishing with our live bait. (The balloons just hold the live bait up near the surface and when a fish strikes the live bait, you see your balloon fly across the water before the balloon snaps off). Not long after we got there, about 50-100m away a croc surfaced. It wasn't too big so we didn't pay too much attention to it. After awhile it would disappear below the surface for a bit and then check us out again. Geoff's balloon suddenly danced across the water but he was bitten off even using a steel trace. While Geoff was fixing up his line again, my balloon snapped off but no line went out. I thought, 'that's strange, wonder if I still have my live bait on'. I slowly started to wind in my line, then suddenly the near 6ft shark on the other end realised he was hooked and went ballistic. He began leaping completely out of the water vertically and spinning ridiculously fast like a corkscrew. This was happening about 30m away from our 12 foot tinnie and I've heard stories of these crazy sharks jumping into boats. And considering our croc friend watching us, I didn't plan on ending up in the water. With one eye on the leaping shark I asked Geoff to please hand me the pliers so I could cut my line. I was torn between cutting my line for obvious and necessary safety reasons and trying to retrieve some of my line back that was rapidly leaving my reel. When I looked at Geoff, he was staring at the leaping shark with the boondy stick in his hand and I thought, that's not going to do a whole lot here! And then as the 6ft shark was returning to the water after another mad spiralling jump, a MASSIVE SHARK SWALLOWED HIM!!!! We were both stunned, shocked and speechless. It happened in a split second. There wasn't any splashing or fighting. He was just smashed in one quick, smooth movement. All that was left was some blood on the surface of the water. It was all quiet again as if nothing had happened. We were both at this point thinking for a shark to be big enough to swallow another 6ft shark whole it must be a WHOLE lot bigger than our little 12 foot tinnie. Suddenly our boat felt very very small. Needless to say, we pulled up the anchor and got out of there! The 'nasties' others had spoken off seemed to be a gross understatement!!!! We really wish we had taken video of it as it all happened so fast, but no we have nothing to show you sorry. You will just have to imagine it... In the photo below of us heading home you can see the tip of Cape Meville just above Geoff's hat... 

• For the record, Geoff said today "I love balloon fishing"...
• Later that night, our first attempt at damper nearly needed the axe to cut through the 8mm charcoal crust. The inside was still edible though... we will have to practise some more I think. 

DAY 86 - Mon 13 Sept

• Early this morning, just out the front of our camp, I had caught some live bait and needed some water in my bucket for them. Being croc wise we had tied a rope to the bucket handle so we could throw the bucket into the water without going near it. After a few failed attempted to fill my bucket with more water than sand, I tried again. As I was pulling in the bucket, I saw a 6ft shark behind my bucket! It must have been attracted to all the splashing!
• We also checked our crab pot and it looked a little sad... we think a croc must have had a go at it. There were no crabs.
• Later that morning we saw a massive, black croc about 100m off the beach that would have been as long as our car! It looked like a big tree trunk floating, except it would disappear (seemingly every time I tried to photograph it) before resurfacing again. Check out the croc tracks we found at a creek when we went for a drive...

• On the way home from our 'exploring' drive we stopped at Ed's and Noel's camp to have a cold beer and coke with them (they were both retired and loved fishing here). At 4.30pm we followed their boat to a close offshore reef and I caught a large gold spot cod. More dinner! 

• After dark we fished off the beach, where Geoff caught some catfish and some other silver fish that we thought might possibly be grunters - but not fully sure. It was a bit of fun though.

DAY 85 - Sun 12 Sept

• There were GALE force gusts of wind ALL night and we both hardly slept. However, the tent surprizingly held up well. 
• We went for a drive to find the freshwater waterhole and instead came across a beautiful green creek that ran into the ocean, complete with fresh croc tracks down into the water. We threw in some lures and I caught a trevally and a gold spot cod. Dinner is served! I then caught some small live baits which we put on a hook and I taught Geoff the fine art (not really) of balloon fishing. Not too long later I had a MASSIVE hit... the fish was running to China at about 100 miles an hour with my line. I saw it splashing and jumping - it was the fish of a lifetime! And I stupidly tightened my drag as I thought I was going to run out of line... and SNAP... the line broke and I lost it. It was one of the most exciting and most disappointing (at the same time), moments of my life. I'm still getting over it! Then it was Geoff's turn...

• After our day of fun on the beach we found the freshwater waterhole which would become our bath for the next week (although we couldn't use soap or shampoo)... It was very refreshing! 

• At the waterhole I met and chatted to a real bush chick, (I mean that in an admiring way). She used to be a professional roo shooter and LOVES to go pigging to "stick 'em" (which I learnt means to kill a pig with a knife once the dogs have held it). She had a massive scar down her leg from a pig too. She had been to Bathurst Bay a few times and said we should be careful of croc's as this is where a guy was taken out of a tent by a croc. Remember that story?
• Geoff put our crab pot in the creek with our fresh fish heads. Yes, we felt we were ready to try cook another! 

• It was another beautiful sunset... I haven't doctored this photo at all!

• Before we went to bed, Geoff secured the tent for another very windy night. Our campsite is now an obstacle of ropes going in every direction (and by the end of the week, Im sure I had tripped over most of them). 

DAY 84 - Sat 11 Sept

• It was a record pack up and leave this morning as our enemies were still out there waiting for us to emerge from the safe cocoon of the tent. We were on the road before 7.30am. 
• The track was definitely rough and our average speed was about 20kms per hour but still didn't even need to engage low 4WD. Some photo's along the way...

• We hoped Bathurst Bay would be worth it as it was a long, rough ride (for about 220kms all up). Not difficult at all but definitely the roughest road we have been on. Geoff was bitterly disappointed we didn't get stuck once and the winch wasn't used. Along the way, we went through a shallow freshwater creek where we stopped and had a 'bush bath' and washed some clothes.  
• What we found was a remote, beautiful, shell covered beach with lush green creeks and no-one camping near us for at least 300m. In our opinion, we definitely got one of the best camp spots as we were one of the first to arrive there that afternoon. 

DAY 83 - Fri 10 Sept

• We said goodbye to Eddie and Elim Beach, stocked up with some more food and fuel and began the remote Starcky Track heading north. 

• The track got progressively worse but not nearly as bad as Geoff would have liked. He did not even need to put the car in low 4WD. We picked a campsite near the Starcky River on Hammond Beach. There was no-one else there except for some professional crabbers. 

• Just on dark we were annihilated by mozzies, sandflies, widges and anything else that flies and bites! We've never packed up so fast. We unzipped the tent at lightning speed and both dived into the tent head first over all our bags we had stacked near the door and then both lunged for the zip to do it up again. It was very commando style of us but totally necessary. 

DAY 82 - Thurs 9 Sept

• It was still blowing a gale this morning but we headed out in the tinnie and made the rough ride over to Cape Bedford to find some protection. Along the way, I yelled out above the wind and sea spray as loud as my voice would allow, that I truely valued my internal organs and would he (Geoff) PLEASE SLOW DOWN. When chatting to Eddie later that day, we mentioned we had gone down that way and anchored. He then mentioned that a large, black croc bigger than his 4WD lives right where we anchored. I said I was VERY glad we didn't see him. To this Eddie replied, "OH - he definitely would have seen you!". Eerie.
• In the afternoon we went for a walk up a gorge between the coloured sands...

DAY 81 - Weds 8 Sept

• Today we decided to 4WD to a remote beach south of Cape Bedford. The track obviously hadn't been used much as we spent a lot of our time hanging out the car windows breaking off branches.

• What a beach it was - it seemed to catch all the debris floating up the coast from the south. It was amazing just how many thongs (as in shoes) there were. There must be lots of people out there missing a thong, and if you are, I know where you can find it! There was also copious amounts of bottles, a tv, a honda motorbike frame, toothbrushes, flippers, heaps of rope and driftwood, a camera bag, books, and would you believe a yacht... just to name a few...

• Geoff's new nickname is "Dolly" due to his increasing breast size (Authors Note: This was Geoff's own suggestion)... Check out his hat... (I may have played a part in this one though)...

• The march flies here are really bad! At one point, I was holding our dinner plates while Geoff loaded them up from the BBQ, when a march fly bit my leg. I don't know what hurt more - the march fly bite or Geoff's attempt to kill it whilst still on my leg.

DAY 80 - Tues 7 Sept

• We woke up in paradise and decided to go for a quick run in the boat but it was too rough so we headed back to camp to relax. 
• Not long after other campers starting arriving and were quick to get their generators going - there goes the serenity!!
• After lunch we went for a drive along the beach to look at the coloured sands...

• And without thinking decided to climb a large sand dune to see the view. I say without thinking as it was a long, steep, hard climb for the 'bush turkey' and the 'dugong'. At one point, the 'dugong' thought the 'bush turkey' might need to perform CPR on his large frame. It was totally worth it though once we reached the top... What a spectacular view! The best we have seen thus far...

• Unbeknown to us, tonight was one of the KING tides for the year (a 3.24m tide!). And when you have parked your tent very close to the waters edge this was a small concern. (Eddie assured us there were no crocs at his beach - and we figured, as he seemed to be one with the land and all, he would know his stuff - hence our close proximity to the water). It is a strange thing to see a crab run through your camp closely followed by skip jacks! Amazingly, the water came within 300mm off the front of our tent.... phew! how close was that! The boat nearly ended up in the tent with us...

DAY 79 - Mon 6 Sept

• There is SO much to organise for a camping trip! We spent most of the morning getting ready to go - including buying jerry cans for an additional 40L of fuel and an extra 20L of water. The car is now FULLY loaded! 
• We dropped the van off at Geoff and Poss's place and met their son-in-law Bart. He is really into pig hunting with dogs... he told some interesting (and fully gross) stories.
• On the way to Elim Beach...

• Once we got to Elim Beach we were glad we didn't bring the caravan (the track got quite narrow towards the end with some low overhanging branches). So we set up camp and planned to stay a few days there in the holiday house (aka tent). Below is our campsite right on the water. 

• The campsite is on Aboriginal Land and is owned by 84 yr old Eddie (pictured below). When he was 75 yrs old, he spent two years filling up his ute with sand (by hand) to built up this camp area as it was originally swamp land. He also had toilets and cold showers. Awesome! When we arrived he was out spearing using traditional aboriginal spears...

•  We were the only ones there (except for Eddie) and as Geoff was collecting firewood he met one of the locals...