Croc Wise in Croc Country

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DAY 336


After our glorious relaxing day yesterday, we planned to go and finish off seeing the things left in Seisia and its surrounds that needed seeing.

I was up again at 5.50 and just started to beetle around and do some blog work whilst Caroline carried on sleeping, but as soon as she heard the water being poured into my mug Caroline appeared as if by magic.

Our lovely neighbours Billy and Jeanette were up early, busying themselves as they were off to Thursday Island, sandwiches to make, drinks to prepare etc. and as we had done on Wednesday they walked off toward the wharf where the ferry now coming past our campsite and just about to dock.

We stood on the beach waiting for the Thursday Island ferry to go past again we wanted to wave as it went by, and as soon as it turned left by the buoy past the hidden sandbank we went off to find some wrecks of crashed aircraft that are marked on our Hema Cape York map.

The wrecks were all around what was the old Jacky Jacky aerodrome, when the Japanese were pushing on down through Papua New Guinea a lot of bases had been set up for bombing raids.

A DC3, a Beaufort Bomber and a Curtis Kitty Hawk were our intended targets and with Caroline at the map we drove out of Seisia, through Bamaga and out toward what is now Bamaga Airport.

We took a dirt track which Caroline thought would be our best bet, and about 3k’s down the track through dense forest and bush land we found the wreck of the Beaufort Bomber, the way the wreckage was laid out I really couldn’t work out if it had been brought here to be broken up or if it had actually crashed here. What I do think that since 1944 souvenir hunters have had lots of parts off it, and obviously if it had of crashed then the bodies would have been removed at the time.

We spent a little time walking around and taking some photo’s being very mindful that it was a very hot day, and as we were out in the bush, snakes might be present, so we were watching the ground underfoot very closely.

Getting back in the truck we headed on down the same track which we had come in on and the bush was getting thicker and thicker, and rougher and rougher and we still could not see the wreck of the 2nd plane, we see part of a tree trunk hanging precariously in another tree, so eventually we had to turn around and go back the way we came.

Our next stop was Bamaga International “Cow shed”, well airport and it is definitely not international, but it is sweet!!

We walked in and there was noone there, it was all open, just empty, is was like a tiny church hall, but to this area of North Queensland it was probably as important as Heathrow airport is to the united Kingdom.

We walked around and took a couple of photo’s and there was a memorial plaque for the 2 crew and 13 passengers of a plane that had crashed on approach to the Iron Range Airport in the Lockhart River after leaving en route to Cairns on the 5th May 2005.

There was also a memorial for the crew of the wreck of aircraft that we had just seen in out in the bush which had crashed on the 2nd July 1944 whilst on active service.

Leaving the airport a road train had stopped to deliver a cargo of aviation fuel and the driver was running the hoses out from the truck to the large storage tank, again noone else was around.

Our next stop was the boat ramp, we turned off the main road and went down another rough track for 3k’s pulling up at the concrete boat ramp that ran down to the waters edge.
A large sign warning of Crocodiles was displayed. Before we jumped out of the truck, we cautiously looked around first then said that we need to be alert, and we must not go too near to the waters edge.

We walked around the side so we were as high as we could be and look down and take a safe view of the water. It is fascinating wondering what predators are watching, we threw a stone in to the water to see if anything made a dash for it, and I swear we both experienced the same thing.

When a Crocodile closes its mouth really fast it makes sort of a hollow sound, the same sound a dog makes when it tries to catch flies, well be both heard it loud and clear, so after a couple of photo’s it was time to b*gger off. It’s a pity that we did not have a dead chicken with us that we could have tossed in to the water to see if a crocodile would swim out to it, of course from a safe distance inside the safety of the truck.

We drove back to the campsite, it was about 2.30 so we had a couple of hours of the afternoon left to do nothing.

Tomorrow we are starting to head back down so I want to prepare the truck tonight when the sun is going down and it starts to get cooler.

For our last Seisia sunset we walked along the beach just up from where our trailer is parked and sat on the sand, it is truly a beautiful place, there is not a lot here, no fancy shops, bars or coffee houses, but if you can cope without all those trappings this is the place you want to come and visit.

The road is adventurous, so much so that it gets cut off in the ”Wet” season which is technically the summer, the people here mostly Torres Strait Islanders are very friendly.

Goods are expensive, things like diesel, food and all other commodities are, as they have to cover vast distances to get here before they are sold on, so as painful as a litre of diesel is at $1.90 compared to Cairns at $1.26 the fuel has had to travel many Kilometres, just to get to the pump, probably being brought in by sea.

We both agree that we have been privileged to be able to adventure this far north to the tip of Queensland, and we will definitely do it again.

We finish a bit of blog work off and I look at the statistics, we have just passed 30,000 yes Thirty Thousand hits on the blog, that is truly amazing, whilst reading I see that that we have produced 380 entries.

So if we took the same calculation that we have used before and said every blog took 2 ½ hours to produce, edit and upload then based on a 40 hour week it would equate to 23.75 weeks work. (Take note Wallaby Wanderers, you thought that you too were having 12 hard earned months off work!!)

It was teatime and tonight we have left overs from our Chicken and Cashew curry and the Pasta and Bolognaise. We make every effort to eat leftovers and waste nothing. While we have dinner the stray dog turns up again, she turns up nearly every meal time, I think she will be upset tomorrow when we leave here, she wags her tail at us every time, she seems to be quite lovable, but then a hungry dog knows how to use her charm to get food.

After dinner, the washing up was done we started packing our storage boxes that go in the trailer, and gave the Patrol the once over, as it was cool by now let the tyres down to 30PSI hopefully to give us a slightly smoother more controlled ride when we start the journey back.

We sit talking to Billy and Jeanette they are great fun, another couple wander over they have a well set up Toyota Prado and are leaving tomorrow heading back down the “Old Telegraph road” and we just sit all telling little stories about our journeys around this vast country.

We discuss what may happen to Cape York if a bitumen road is introduced all the way through making it accessible for all. I am sure that in time the tranquillity would give way to progress from hotels, more caravan and camping parks, thus more people, more business would have to be introduced to sustain the numbers of people. Perhaps food and diesel prices may come down with demand. But for the best part, Cape York is what it is now and I am glad that we have seen it before progress has truly spoilt it.

We see a glow on the horizon, we saw this last night, Billy confirms that it is the lights from Thursday Island; he asked one of the crew on the ferry today. To the right we see again another familiar glow, it was there last night, but tonight the glow is stronger and you can clearly see fire burning, it has been smoking up there all day, no doubt it will burn until there is nothing left to burn, we do not worry this burning is several kilometres away from us.

It is time for bed, we are all tired and we will be up early for the off in the morning so until tomorrow bloggers.

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Photos

Wreck
Wreck of the Beaufort Bomber

Seisia International Airport
Not very international