After the intermission back on Thursday Island, we restocked the boat, left Steve’s baby ducklings at home and made our way back to Prince of Wales. This time Mark and Rach joined us. As we docked on the beach, Steve spotted birds hunting bait fish on the surface about 300m away. Seeing this only meant one thing, bigger predators coming up to eat them! As we shot back out with our fishing gear, Steve threw a lure in. Within 2 seconds he had a fish on the line and reeled it up onto the boat. Catching a reasonably large queeny, lead to us repeating the process and chasing groups of birds. After sucessfully catching 5 big queen fish, Mark, Stu and Steve retired for dinner.
Dirk and Tanya had the three of us over for a meal that night where they put on a delicious spread. After enjoying marinated pork wrapped in lettuce for entree, the real unique dish was for mains. A tasty turtle soup was cooked by Dirk. We definitely didn’t let any of the suprisingly chewy sea creature go to waste.
As our cruisy lifestyle continued on P.o.W, we disappeared into the bush for a wood run taking the old island bomb of a car (both front seats weren’t bolted in). As usual, the hand reels were already in and were left in Steve’s more than capable hands. Only minutes prior to our return, he had pulled in a giant Cobia! This fish is rarely seen swimming around the shallows where we had caught it, it was definitely a treat! The next wood run we did, we generously hung his Cobia skeleton in a tree as a trophy for any others to gawk at as they pass by.
As the tide was at a perfect height, we had a crack at skurfing. After seeing a croc and catching deadly sharks in the same waters, we were slightly unsure. Reassured by watching both Steve and Mark (brother) standing up on the surfboard being towed by the boat, we gave it a go. Not being able to stand up after giving it a solid crack, our arms ached after some classic stacks. Mark making it to his knees was an accomplishment. We definitely felt like sitting ducks after coming off the board in the ocean. The boat seemed to take forever to swing back to pick us up.
One last boat fishing venture to catch more queenies lead to bundles of laughter. We had to traul with the rod as it was choppy with a big swell causing water to lap continuously in the boat. With every fish we pulled in, we gained more and more water. On our forth catch, we bled him out and could swear it was still swimming as the water level was so high. As Mark pulled in another, a dark shadow loomed around the fish and before we knew it, it jumped 2m into the air! A quick realisation was that this ominous figure was a shark chasing Mark’s fish, but managed to pull it in before the shark had a meal! Stu wasn’t so lucky as the shark returned and took his entire fish, lure and all! Having taken on too much water we had to return, still having a successful catch!
As the others had to return to Thursday Island, we continued our stay for more lazy days. That evening we kept getting baited on the hand reels. Mark using a smaller hook caught one of these buggers. Throwing him in whole as bait, it wasn’t long until the reel went off and Stu was pulling in another decent shark! Having tasted everything else from the ocean, we decided to fillet him. The next morning we had the most freshest beer battered flake that we had ever tasted. As we fried most fish from here, it was a little change from our previous numus feeds (queen fish in vinegar, onions, tomatos, soy sauce and chilli).
On our final day at Prince of Wales, we went to visit the old homestead and waterhole. Only a stones throw away from the house this was a great expedition. Stu got us onto Roothy’s 4×4 fire pie that we had to try! We opened up the frozen pie and filled it with onion, ham and cheese, wrapped it in foil and chucked this marvelous creation into the fire. Lets just say, it has become a camping tradition. Dirk came around to say goodbye and have one last hoorah as we sunk froffies around the fire on the beach. Steve greeted us the next morning with his boat, unfortunately at low tide. Feeling a little rusty, we had a small mission loading the car and carting our bags down the beach, out to his boat.
Back on T.I the Winds of Zenadth Cultural Festival were in full swing. Going for a stroll down mainstreet there were random dances happening through the town, anzac park and later in the evening on the footy oval – set up like a school fete. Exploring through a small display village with huts of various sizes made for a good look into their history. It seemed like the entire Island congregated together at the oval as night fell. With all the Islanders dressed up in their costumes, we were in for a treat as this festival only happens every second year! Even the Injinoo tribe from mainland came along with their fascinating dances. As this spectacular event was happening before us, we were entertained while Will was bopping everyone with his blow up bat.
Hearing Horn Island was enriched with WW2 events, we paid $65 for a tour over to this historical location. As the ferry slowly chugged over, we were met with disapointment. We had a ‘cafe’ lunch consisting of a basic take-away sandwich with a lamington and drink included in the price. After eating, we were dumped in the museum for an hour to be bombarded with a ridiculous level of small text. Skimming through here the tour guide then took us for an hour around the Island. Feeling we weren’t at points of interest for very long, he was keener to talk about how a Bendigo Bank was declined on Thursday Island than the war history. Pointing out some information along the way, it definitely would of been interesting to go into more depth. One fact we did learn was that barrels were rolled onto the airstrip in war times so enemy pilots couldn’t land without crashing. Good information but wasn’t $65 worth. Oh well, we wouldnt recommend this one.
After one last homemade meal by Jess, we had a final mission to jag some more mud crabs. As full moon was approaching, we went out at night during low tide. We waded around in the shallows (after doing a quick croc check), torches in hand and spear with the designated hunter. Out for a solid 3 hours we all had a crack at spearing with a bounty of 3 shovel head sharks and 5 crabs. Two crabs unfortunately escaped as we were trying to grab them by hand, learning next time just spear it! Cooking them up on our return, it wasn’t until 1:30am we were devouring an awesome mud crab feast.
The last full day on Thursday Island had came along too quick. Being traditionally late with ‘T.I time’, we watched a parade down mainstreet and model canoe races as the festival was wrapping up. We went for a final explore around the Island and then played cards after a cheap $10 lunch. One last pub meal with Jess, Steve and the boys, found us kicking on to watch the Doggies destroy Hawks in the semi finals. What a night we had to remember…
As all good things must come to an end, we packed our bags and said fairwell to our lovely hosts. They were very accomodating and we had an absolute blast during all of our moments shared with them on T.I and P.o.W. This was definitely a one of a kind experience.
Departing back on the Peddel’s Ferry we made it back to our faithful beasts left at Loyalty. Happy to see Big Red had been guarding them the whole time, they were untouched as we went to tick them over. Unfortunately Stu was getting no response from Woody. Being able to roll start him and make it to a camp spot, it seemed like we may be staying on the Cape for a little longer than planned…
10/09/2016 – 19/09/2016
