TUESDAY 11 AUGUST     PUNSAND BAY

The couple who complained about last night’s noise complained some more this morning – because later comers had hedged them in. That is not hard to do in a place with this sort of vague layout.

It was hot and humid.

We relaxed, sat about, read, wrote cards. John fished from the beach.

Up at Reception we were able to buy more beer. In this weather, it does not seem to take the two of us all that long to go through 24 cans! Here, it was $45 for a 24 can slab. Slightly cheaper than Bamaga.

Had a gas bottle filled there, too – $21.

Punsand is white owned – a little anomaly in the area north of the Jardine River. Actually, increasingly so, anywhere on Cape York. Any potential Native Title to the Punsand area was extinguished when the undersea telegraph cable was laid from here to Timor. The man we talked to at the bar said that the Injinoo have tried to get it back. I hope they don’t – Pajinka demonstrates what happens to tourism operations then! Because of their grievance about not owning Punsand, they do not do much upkeep on the roads leading to Punsand, even though they have the contracts to maintain all the roads north of the Jardine. Can’t say they are doing a great job on the other roads, either, for that matter.

Tea was chow mein, made with chicken noodle soup and rice cooked into it. One pot!