SUNDAY 26 JULY     WEIPA

John bowled all day in the Calcutta event. I had Truck, after dropping him off at the Club.

I read for much of the day. Came across a couple whom we had talked with when we were at Kalpowar. They are on their way back from the Top. Their rubber ducky boat thing that was on their roof rack at Kalpowar, had gotten too hot in the sun here at Weipa, on the way up, and had blown its bung, so they’d left it here to pick up on the way south. They recommended staying in the campground at Umagico but said it was not really clean. They had camped out at Vrilya Point too.

At 4pm, I went to the Bowls Club, by prior arrangement with John, who wanted me to take some photos on the digital camera of him bowling. He wants to look at his style to see if he can improve it. He was in a team with a couple of people fairly new to the game. The won one game, but lost two. However, he enjoyed the day more than he had anticipated and found the people much more serious about the day than he had expected, after the other night. His lunch was provided, as was a finger food tea after the event. He scored a stubby holder and a badged bowls cloth.

John bowling at Weipa

There was a brilliant sunset tonight. The smoke that has been around for a few days is causing good sunsets.

I had some vegie and barley soup for my tea.

John came back from the Bowls Club with a story about a well known TV personality, who does programs about surviving in the bush.  He was filming up this way, recently, and bogged his Landrover and damaged it, near Weipa. He retired to the Bowls Club, and drank, while others tried to fix the problems. Then he spat the dummy and flew south. The story goes that the vehicle had several Engel fridges in it – full of frozen meat packs and NON bush tucker!

This morning, I extended our stay for another day – this cost $16.

SATURDAY 25 JULY     WEIPA

After breakfast, John was trying to make a new box to pack the camping stove in, dropped the stove, so breaking some of the plastic casing round its base. It still works, though.

I bought groceries. John revisited the hardware store for glue and screws for the box. We replenished the wine supply. Bought bread rolls for lunch, and for hamburger tea.

After lunch, John went to bowls.

I went for a walk along a nearby bike path. It was too hot to walk for long – I only managed 35 minutes. Went to the newsagent and bought the Weekend Australian, which came in on the 3pm plane. Also bought three cheap novels. Put in another roll of film for processing.

John enjoyed his bowls. He played with a local builder called Rob-and-his-dog.

When I was making the hamburgers for dinner, one fell on the dusty ground and was irretrievable, so I had a meatless hamburger!

There was another beautiful dusk and sunset.

Weipa town is built on a promontory, that is between the mouths of the Embley and Mission Rivers. It was the Mission River that we crossed on the long bridge to go to the bauxite mining area, the other day. The port facilities and barge landing are in the Embley River, not out in the open Gulf.

The Embley River and port facilities along the river, from Evans Landing

FRIDAY 24 JULY     WEIPA

We did some shopping in the morning. I picked up the three lots of photos from the films I’d put in yesterday for processing. John browsed the hardware store, and spent $42 replenishing his fishing gear.

We walked a little in the afternoon – around the campground and environs. I also read the paper and finished a letter, and walked to post it.

We drove over to the town wharf and watched a tanker unloading fuel, for a while. All the fishing boats have to go anchor out in the channel whilst it is in, in case of accident.

Loading bauxite at a special wharf

Early tea was bought chips and a packet of frozen fish that I cooked.

We then went to social bowls. This was extremely casual. Most people played in bare feet and there was much drinking. I think the drinking was far more important to most there, than the bowls was. There were aboriginal kids running everywhere and much noise from a band that was playing. I felt very insulted because I was totally ignored by the five guys I’d played with, in the drinks round after the game, even though it had been my bowls that won my side a round of drinks. I have not before been in a club with such rude people. On the strength of that, told John I wasn’t going to play in their crummy old Calcutta game on Sunday!

We got home about 9.30pm and played a few rounds of cards before bed.

WEDNESDAY 22 JULY     WEIPA

In the morning, I did the washing, including the sheets and towels. Two loads, at $3 a load. Everything is getting more expensive.

I walked to the shops and checked at the PO, in optimism – no mail. I got the paper – Australian. Bought some groceries.

After lunch, we went for a drive around to the wharf area. We watched some guys trying to load a barge. The barge landing is not sealed and its loading ramp just drops down onto the sand. A semi with trailer being backed on, got bogged. So they backed up a front end loader to try to tow the truck out. That didn’t work, so they attached a truck to the front end loader. The antics, with much head scratching, examining of vehicles, were hilarious. When we left, the semi was still stuck and we wondered what would be attached next? We only left because we figured that amused spectators were probably not really welcome!

Back wheels of semi well and truly bogged. Front end loader coming to the rescue

Bogged semi attached to front end loader attached to truck……what next?

In the afternoon, it got really windy.

From the “security” of our tent verandah, we took part in the campground’s afternoon entertainment – watching newcomers hunt for a power outlet they can reach! Yesterday, it was us.

I made soup, veggie and barley, and some salads. It is good to have salad materials again.

Tea was soup and salads, and I had some sliced ham and stras sausage; John had frankfurts.

After dark, a guy came across to ask us about the Defender. In talking, he turned out to be the man who used to run the Hamilton Swimming Pool, when I lived there. He recognized me, not the other way round. Then he went and fetched his wife and we talked for a while. They left Hamilton in 1980 and now live on the Sunshine Coast. They have been up to the Top and are now on their way back. They have a tinnie, and fish. They camped at Vrilya Point, but said the aborigines came and camped there and they were made uncomfortable and felt they really should not be there. We told them about Silver Plains.

SUNDAY 19 JULY     SILVER PLAINS CAMP

I made sage and cheese rolls for lunch, and extra for tomorrow’s lunch, as we have decided to leave then. We have had enough of the biteys. If it wasn’t for them, might stay longer.

Camp oven bread

D arrived as we were finishing lunch. His guests left a couple of days ago. He indicated that he was very happy that the kids had gone from the house!

D came to check that we were alright, as he hadn’t seen or heard from us for a couple of days. He said that the group with boats, who were camped by a more suitable creek for putting their boat in, had packed up and left earlier than they’d planned. Apparently, a couple of crocs had a big fight, in the night, near their camp! The women were not prepared to stay there any longer.

He bought a pile of women’s magazines for me to read – I don’t think he can fathom a woman who is happy pottering about in a bush camp! He was also surprised at how little rubbish we had – he was going to collect it and take it to his tip. I do wonder what type of campers he usually gets!

D was amused by John’s account of his fishing exploits, He had a cup of coffee with us and stayed for over an hour. He then went down to do some work on his boat.

Later, John left to go down to the boat area, but met D coming back, so came back for me and we drove up to the homestead for water.

I fed Louis, the pet bull, and took his photo. He looked like he was quite prepared to climb the steps onto D’s veranda, after bread.

Feeding Louis

D had some more bait fish for John, and lent him a big hook, Size 9  – actually, it seemed huge! Obviously, John does not really have the right gear for fishing in these parts.

John went fishing for the rest of the afternoon and didn’t get back until 7pm. It was a little spooky in the dark, at camp, without a vehicle, hoping he would come back. He’d strung a few more baitfish into the trees and lost the big hook!

Tonight’s barra was done in flour and oil again. I stewed some tomato and onion to go with it.

Silver Plains homestead area, the airstrip, McIlwraith Range

In our conversations today, D provided a lot more insight into the views of pastoralists like him, in these parts. He says the treatment of whites is inequitable, compared to aboriginals, on the Cape. He says the aboriginals were not required to hand in their guns, when the whites were. Only 18 people will get Silver Plains, and they already have been given Old Silver Plains/Port Stewart. The government, in effect, paid $2.2 million for “Merapah”, which had been on the market, on a walk-in, walk-out basis, for $1.2 million. Our taxes at work. Even where things are done through some sort of indigenous organization, it is still with money given by the government.

D reckons the aboriginals really do not want white tourists up here at all. He reiterated that the ultimate goal is a black state on the Cape. He told us that there have been acts of aggression against whites, including a “whitey hunt” at Kowanyama, not long ago, which terrified the Telstra repair crew that was hunted, and ensured that Telstra now refuses to send crews there. The unwillingness to force inspection of mango and pawpaw trees at places like Port Stewart is another inequity, as he sees it. He says petrol sniffing is really bad amongst the kids at Lockart River.

We could hear that motor again, all through the night. I’d forgotten to ask D about it.

SATURDAY 18 JULY     SILVER PLAINS CAMP

We are eating orange halves for breakfast, instead of grapefruit, which we ran out of in Lakefield. I was able to buy some oranges in Coen, but not grapefruit. We are taking longer on this southernmost portion of the Cape than we had anticipated, when shopping in Cooktown.

John drove off to the fishing area in the morning, to try to dibble for more bait. Then, he got tempted to try a little exploring. He followed a track that led to some bare, dry, mudflats, and ventured onto them, thinking he might find a way closer to the sea. After a very short way, fortunately, he thought it didn’t “feel” right, so reversed back off the flats. This turned out to be a wise decision as D told us later that those flats have already claimed a Hilux – it is still down there somewhere, under the deep mud below the seemingly dry crust.

Whilst he was away, I worked on a letter, and baked foccacia for lunch, in the camp oven.

Our camp at Silver Plains. The green trees mark the line of the small creek behind us

When we were doing things around camp, after John got back, found his bath soap on the ground – flattened in a tyre tread pattern, and with muck all over it. John has gotten into the habit, when he is showering, of putting his soap on the top of the nearest tyre. Handy shelf. But he obviously hadn’t put it away, afterwards.

John with his squished soap and the solar shower bag. We have a very handsome termite mound as a near neighbour too

In the afternoon, we went for a little walk, up the track from our camp to where it joins the main track between the homestead and the fishing area. Probably a 3km or so, walk. A big lizard saw us coming up the track, and stood on his hind legs to get a better look. I didn’t know they did that. Don’t think I’d like him running towards me!

Big reptile watching us approach

John carefully selected and cut two thin sapling lengths, that he wants to smooth and shape to make us a walking support stick each.

Relaxing in the shade at camp. The “tables” come with the site.

Tea was more barra – this time to the “Happiness Crocodile” recipe I have written in my travel cookbooks. It was good, too, despite the change of protein, from that specified in the recipe.

We are both extremely itchy from the sandfly bites.

Before we went to bed, realized that we could hear, quite clearly, a motor in the distance. It did not sound like the type of engine noise that would come from a car or a generator at one of the other camp spots – and it went on all night. We wondered if it was a fishing trawler, working close inshore? As we do not really know where the sea is, in relation to our camp, it was hard to be sure.

FRIDAY 17 JULY     SILVER PLAINS CAMP

We had the usual slow morning start. It takes a while to get the fire going and boil up the water for breakfast washup – and chores like that.

Late in the morning, when we judged the tide would be out, we went back to the fishing area. John crossed the river on the exposed muddy bed, and managed to retrieve the rod, which was tangled up in the thicket of roots. He thought the culprit might still be on the end of the line, but pulled in only its broken end. Fish, hook etc all gone.

The fishing rod is lodged in the root tangle

John ploughing through the muddy creek bed, using piece of tree as support

John retrieving the rod

Obviously, the big fish that took the rod had swum upstream and around the bend, towing the rod, which caught in the roots when the fish went round the corner.

We lingered on there, to watch the tide turn. It comes in quite quickly. It was after 3pm by the time we got back to camp for lunch. Measured it today – it is 5.5kms from camp to the fishing place on Breakfast Creek.

Low tide in Breakfast Creek

John cleaned up the rescued reel. Hopefully, it will work properly again, after its immersion in the salty water.

Tea was barra – coated with flour and oil. Was ok, but not my best method for cooking it.

Another solar shower for John. Bucket and flannel in the tent for me! We have been getting water from the nearby creek for washing and cleaning purposes – it is ok for that.

Another sound night’s sleep was had. We are definitely getting used to the night time noises here. Lots of insect noises and some birds.