Day 11

Once again, the wind and showers kept up all night. We have a couple of Papuan Frogmouths in the trees here that make a racket all night long.  They are probably complaining about the weather as well. All the locals we speak to can’t believe it either. Someone said they are surprised that Thursday Island harbour is still open, due to the wind. All the boats have been sheltering wherever they can. It seems incredible that we have had 10 continuous days over 30knts, with more to come it seems. I have never seen so many strong wind warnings as I have seen in the last two weeks. Our usual perfect timing!

We decided to head into Bamaga and get something to eat and check out Sesia as well. We rattled and bounced our way into town. The mobile reception is very selective, it works in the main st of Bamaga, but drive 1km towards Sesia and it drops out completely. There isn’t a huge amount to see at Sesia, but it’s always nice to just poke about, going exploring.

This evening we got organised and went back to the tip for another sunset, taking Ted with us. We walked along the beach rather than up and over, as the tide was well out. Trace and Tania organised everything so we could have dinner before we went back to camp. Dinner was at the Château de Nissan X-trail a la carpark, and lemon chicken was the only main and melted Bavarian was the only dessert. A memorable meal in a memorable place. We watched the tide come in along the beach as the light went from the sky and generally soaked up the atmosphere of being about as far north as it’s possible to be in Australia without going for a swim.

 We have re-jigged the schedule to stay an extra night here, to give the wind another day to die off. We will head back to Heathlands on Saturday and try and fly from there Sunday morning. The weather forecast hasn’t changed really, 25-30knts SE, isolated showers….

Bob & Tracey

On the wharf at Sesia