My friend Tom was due to arrive in Cairns from Melbourne the next day so I hunted around for a place to stay, and settled on a converted 'Queenslander' near the Cairns foreshore. I spent the arvo wandering around Cairns getting 'supplies' (basically bar snacks and a couple of bottles of Bundy) and a few essentials for a 'Mexican's (Qld term for southerners) visit to the far north. the first couple of days were spent relaxing- we had a couple of good steak dinners in the hotel courtyard by the pool, and did a bit of fishing around Cairns. We went fishing off the pier at Palm Cove, floating live baits hoping for a nice Barra or Mackerel. I caught a 10kg catfish, easily the largest fish I have ever landed- we were excited about it until a local turned his nose up and told us it was 'just' a catfish, you can't eat them, they have poisonous spines and they secrete an oily slime that stinks! I also caught a small hammerhead shark, for the record. One unfortunate thing happened- my beloved Oztent got knocked off one night, they just cut the ropes on the roofrack and away they went, bastards. May Allah remove more than simply their hands from their anatomies. It sent the pair of us on a strange journey into the Cairns 'Underbelly'- where bicycles are stolen at an amazing rate. Of course I reported it to the Police, who were concerned enough to fill out a small incident card and send me on my way with feeble assurances they would call me if anything turned up. Wasn't holding my breath for that call! Next stop was a pwanbroker, actually a 'gold only' dealer who was hilarious, he and his son ranted for about half an hour and gave us the lowdown on the workings of petty crime in Cairns. It's impossible to relate but Tom and I didn't stop laughing for one second. He showed us the Police stolen list that gets mailed weekly- there were about 500 things on that list- including about 75 bicycles- and one little Oztent got listed too. Probably the last my tent will ever be heard or seen of again... From there we went to BCF to buy a new tent- a $25 dome tent. Bit of a step down form the Oztent but it does the job...
From Cairns we headed for Lake Tinaroo, with a hired canoe on the roof. Lake Tinaroo is a big lake up on the Atherton Tablelands, a pretty beautiful spot really and perfect for a canoe. I had caught a 3 inch Barramundi that attacked a 3 and 1/2 inch lure the one night I had stayed there previously so we had high hopes for the fishing. We went via Yungaburra to visit an awesome book shop I had found and discovered the town full of Police and serious looking young guys in black suits with medals on- the funeral for one of the commando's killed in Afghanistan had taken place that afternoon. Apparently everyone important had been there that day. After getting supplies (wine) we headed for the lake. Actually, we have the honour of being the first customers at the new Yungaburra bottle shop- we even had our photo taken with our prized cask of Morris Dry Red...
The Lake was great but a little drizzly. Good excuse to sit around the fire, listen to music and consume the supplies. We got the canoe going one afternoon, and having loaded up with lunch, rods and tackle we set out to conquer the mighty barramundi.
We paddled around casting lures indiscriminately until we spotted a few good looking snags on the other side of the lake. Once over there we found some nice weed beds to cast around and in no time I had a good strike and landed a Sooty Grunter. Tom also had a good strike but that was the one that got away. Here's the Grunter:
From lake Tinaroo we headed back to Cairns to drop off the canoe and were on our way to Cape Tribulation. The canoe guy had given us a tip about barra fishing in the Bloomfield River so were headed that way- not before we stopped off at a caravan park at Cape Trib, where I enjoyed my first bed since leaving Mackay. I was so impressed with the luxury of it all I took a photo.
We had an awesome steak dinner at the restaurant there as well, and then a remarkable game of Trivial pursuit in which Tom clinched victory at the last gasp by answering some obscure question about Dame Edna Everage's favourite flower- at least I have the dignity of knowing I had been consuming supplies and Tom hadn't!
The next day we saw 'Boris' the croc being fed before we left for the Bloomfield River, which we reached after about 35km's of 4wd track.
We were lucky enough to get a free camp by the river on some private land owned by the local store owners- we were pretty paranoid about crocs, and actually spotted our first one with the spotlight one night- just a pair of orangy/pink eyes floating along in the water.
The next two days we hired a boat and gave the fishing a good crack.
We had a ball cruising around on the river, spotting crocs,
and eventually a a local Aborigine called Mario kindly gave us some live bait and we had our first fishing success with it, this Trevally I caught in a little offshoot to the river.
I also pioneered a new method of fishing to help people cope with the stress of Queensland:
The second day we managed to get our own live bait with a cast net, a seminal moment for us as we'd been struggling to catch some for a while. The locals make everything look easy, but on about cast 345 up came the net full of potty mullet. That was about as exciting as the fish we later caught with it, another Trevally for me and Tom got a nice Mackerel.
From there it was back to Cairns, where Tom flew home and I am planning my next move. I'm off to Port Douglas to visit Benny Watson, an old cricket mate, and then I'm off to Cape York. Hope everyone is well!
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