Weipa Town, Queensland, AustraliaThursday June 1. Thursday Island
What other day would you go to TI?!!
The ferry took an hour and half to skim over
perfectly flat water under a cloudless sky.
Everyone had eyes peeled for wildlife, but the
only sighting was a shark making a big splash!
We'd arranged a local guide to show us around.
Such a small island it didn't take long! Relations between all the
various ethnic groups seemed to be good and infrastructure surpassing other
towns of a similar size.
We learnt lots and were very fortunate to be
there when a cultural festival was on. We saw some great dancing accompanied by
fabulous singing and drumming.
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We retired to the most northerly pub in
Australia for lunch. Service was insanely slow and eventually they told Rick
they'd run out of squid !#$_&&_#$_&*!_# More waiting, they gave him
scallops instead!! Mid afternoon we returned by ferry on a much
tougher sea!.
We decided it was time to head south, so we did
a bit of packing and not much else!
Friday June 2 Umagico to Weipa
We were rudely awaken just
before 4am by incredibly loud music and some accompanying cars revving. We thought they were right next to us, but
no, others had it worse. It was a group
of locals who decided to have a party at one end of the campground where sites
were empty. Not sure how long it went on
for, we eventually slept again! With no destination in
mind, but a couple of waterfalls on the itinerary, we headed south. We were excited to go to
the bakery we didn’t know about previously, only to find a “Sorry closed today”
sign. Bummer.
We thought we had the timing pretty good,
arriving at the Jardine river ferry at 8am when it was supposed to start. No.
We were 8th in line parked beside a “Don’t take mangoes past
this point.
We’d harvested a few green
mangoes on TI and didn’t want to lose
them. We figured by peeling and slicing
them they’d go through us first so were safe to take!! That entertained us for a few minutes. The ferry operators arrived 20mins late but
squeezed lots of vehicles on the ferry, so we were on our way really quite
quickly.
To access the first falls we experienced a
bit of what the old Telegraph Track had to offer. Elliot and Twin falls were about 6km off the
main road on the old track. Lots of wash
outs, ruts, a couple of deep creek crossings and a few sections of nasty
corrugations. We took it slowly and the
BT did a beautiful job.
At Twin Falls there was a
mob of squealing children. Wendy almost
didn’t get in, but after doing a bit of an explore on foot, she returned to
find the families had all gone off on a trail and miraculously she had the
falls to herself. Beautiful temperature
and a fantastic massage. We also
visited the nearby Elliot Falls, but too dangerous for swimming.
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Returning to the main road
we took another side jaunt to Fruit Bat falls.
No bats on view, but another great set of falls for an immersion and we
found lots of beautiful pitcher plants.
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Returning to the road we
wandered on, finding a good spot for lunch and then had a long debate about
where to stop. Wendy found a dam site,
but Rick wasn’t impressed, Wendy didn’t want to stay in the same place as we
did on the way up, so we just kept driving!!
We eventually pulled into a site recommended by Wikicamps only to find
it was impossible to drive a peg in the ground, so at almost 5pm we ended up in
Weipa! Now there was no choice about
where to stay – the far too suburban caravan park. We did have grass and a tree and pleasant
neighbours, so it’s not all bad.
Thanks to our wonderful
Omnia Oven we had stunning roast veggies, including Wy Yung parsnips. Still travelling well!
Saturday 3 June Weipa
We’d book an ecotour for
the morning…but, when we went to leave the car wouldn’t start. Totally flat battery. No idea why.
Those great neighbours jumped into instant action and had us away in
about 5 minutes. It was only about 3km
to the boat so we weren’t at all sure what would happen when we returned from
the tour.
The tour was really
professional. We learnt lots about
Weipa, the mining industry and the local wildlife. We were fortunate to see 4 different
crocodiles all sorts of birds and a “mud skipper”. Very strange animal. Google says it’s an amphibious fish. That seems contradictory!
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The car started with no
problem…phew…so we did a bit of a drive around town. In the afternoon Rick went fishing and Wendy took
to the streets, trails, tracks and hard sand beaches of Weipa on her bike. Just when she found Rick along the way he
hooked something…it was a sea snake.
That was a first. No, we didn't eat it!
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Playing a few tunes before
dinner attracted our lovely neighbours and their small children. They all enjoyed a strum of the harp and
singing along with Rick. After dinner we
were visited by a couple of women from a next door tour group. One of them originally from Gippsland who
confessed to currently learning the tin whistle, so we played a bit of that as
well!
Chris Morrish
2023-06-03
Thanks Wendy it brings back happymemorys
Denise
2023-06-03
Hey Wendy and Rick.,love reading your adventures! Great pics. Thanks. Bill and I having fun at the bottom of Oz...
Murry
2023-06-03
Looks just beautiful. Safe travels.
Lyn and Ken
2023-06-04
My Dad was born on TI as his father was in the Mounted Infantry. Lived there till he was in his teens. His name was Torres! My grandparents' Melbourne home was named 'Quetta' after a boat which sank off Thursday Island.
Rod
2023-06-05
Magnificent colours at that TI FESTIVAL. What luck. Congrats on getting to the tip! BT 50 triumphs again. Lovely blue skies. Rain. Cold. Grey down here. Keep travelling safely.
Maureen Hickling
2023-06-06
How lucky to chance upon a cultural festival on the island!