24th June Trip To TI

Wednesday 24th June Trip to Thursday Island
Leaving Seisia on the “Strait Magic”
We set the phone for a 6am alarm. (Much too early in hindsight as it was still dark) we didn’t want to miss the boarding time for our trip.
The ‘Strait Magic’ departed at 8.30 am for TI. On board were other nomads and tourists, the rest being were the workers or residents returning home from the main land. We travelled through the Islands of the Torres Strait and you can only admire how great those navigators were such as, Torres in 1606, Cook in 1770, Mathew Flinders and Captain Bligh not long after that. The Torres Strait covers some 40,000 sq Kms and contains over 100 islands. Fifteen of which are inhabit ted with between 50 to 2000 people. Thursday Island has 3500 and is the main centre. It is the administrative centre of the Torres Strait for Australia and Queensland. TI is approx 30 Km NW of the tip of OZ and only 130 Kms south of the Papua New Guinea mainland. It was once the hub of the pearling industry when mother-of-pearl shell attracted fortune seekers from all over the world from 1868. During the pearling heyday many of the local young men from Wakayama Prefecture in Japan lost their lives diving for shell. A memorial dedicated to the 700 men lost stands beside their graves at the local cemetery.
We chatted on the trip over to Keith and Bridgette who are sailing around the world on their 43 ft yacht. They left Ramsgate (UK) in mid 2007 and have travelled through the Panama Canal to NZ and the east coast of OZ and are staying over at the Cape for a few days before moving on to Darwin and then across to the Med where they will be in 2011 and will then probably stay for some time. Of course they have stopped off at all the great spots and have many more planned. What a great life! They learnt their navigation skills at their yacht club!
The trip took us about an hour and 10 mins and on arrival we joined a tour bus so we could get around the island. (See www.peddellsferry.com.au)we learnt all about the pearling industry, the ship wrecks, the missionaries and the Prince of Wales Channel which is used by about 4000 ships a year and employs about 80 pilots to navigate them safely through the straits as it’s a short cut to Asia.
We then visited the Gab Titui Cultural Centre of the Torres Strait to look at the local area history and some of their art. We walked up and down the main street and ended up in the pub for a cool beer. (See www.federalhotelti.com.au)
We reboarded the “Strait Magic” at 2.15 and left the wharf at 2.30. Many additional passengers onboard making their way back to the mainland. A third of the population consists are expatriates who work for the government for about a year and then move on.
We arrived back at the wharf after a run of an hour and ten minutes during which time we had to shelter from the wind and sea spray that the boat was throwing up as it sped along at 25 knots.
We had decided to watch the State of Origin at the Fishermans club which was not far from where we were staying. All that was on offer for dinner were hamburgers or a sausage wrapped in a piece of bread and to think I had used the bribe of a meal out to Beatrice so she would join me! Anyhow we ate up and found a seat in front of the big drop down screen they had erected. I didn’t like the result of NSW losing but the atmosphere was great. Many of the local children sat up at the front, or should I say ran around the place bare foot shouting and whopping it up whenever Queensland were on the attack and when they scored the noise was deafening. When we shouted “go the blues” that got them really excited and they showed us how they felt about the NSW team with lots of boos and hisses amongst all the laughter.
We returned back to the camp and walked over to the beach to see if we could spot any red eyes glowing in the torch beam which we shone up and down the beach. We had heard that the crocodiles had been there the night before and one was even sunning itself during the afternoon. It just confirmed why we should take notice of the warning signs all over the place about crocs in the area.