John and I went to visit the Split Rock aboriginal art galleries just outside Laura and had a fantastic day. The art consists of animal and human and spirit figures painted on the open cave walls painted in natural dies. It was a real highlight of the trip. Then we drove on to meet the others who were in a pub a Coen having lunch.
We then continued on to the incredible Chilli Beach. On the north part of Lloyd bay, Chilli is within the Lockhart river community area in the Iron Range National park. We self registered for a campsite, and set up in a shaded and sheltered space 20m away from the beach. The beach, which is often very windy, was calm and clear and beautiful. We were able to walk extensively at low tide, and enjoyed a day of fossicking on the island that appears at low tide. I have never eaten oysters fresh off the rock before, and these were fresh huge black lipped oysters, slightly salty from the seawater. Yum!
Vance also managed a good haul of fish spearfishing around the large granite boulders that make up the island, and we feasted on fresh fish barbecued in the coals of our own fire. This, accompanied by fresh coconut milk and coconut completed the tropical island fantasy. Such a paradise! SJC
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Where when...
Ok, let me think, where was I... When last I updated I think we had just returned to Cooktown after Carsten had a flat tyre and we had a flat battery at Elim Beach. Elim is a beach run by an incredible aboriginal man called Eddie, who, at 85 was fitter than any of us. He told us the story of how he got rid of a nuisance 18 foot croc that had started to use the sandbank just off his beach himself, first with a .303 and then a chainsaw and a big fire to dispose of the body parts. Some people might a exaggerate a story like that, but I believe every word of Eddie's story. He also told us how he had personally filled in the swamp with sand to make the beach. Lovely guy. He and Vance also worked he knew some of Vance's telos. Nice.
The intention of a blog is generally to keep a regular, ideally, daily record of things that occur. I sit now in Weipa on the Gulf of Carpentaria, enjoying my first reliable access to Internet since Cooktown and ponder not only how can I reasonably update this blog adequately, expressing my amazement at some of the things I've seen and done, but also the profound remoteness of this place. Telstra 3G is the only network that covers this part of the world, and even then only intermittently. In many ways I've experienced the lack of ability to communicate with the outside world as a major aspect of this trip. What sheer lovely relaxation to be out of contact! No phones to answer, things to worry about, unaware of what day of the week it is, what doom and gloom is in the headlines. To me this is a real holiday.
SJC
SJC
Friday, June 17, 2011
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