Thursday, September 15, 2011
Pavement Art in Cairns
Wednesday and Thursday, Jas, Tyler and I took part in a two day pavement art workshop with Ulla Taylor. Here are some pics of what we created during both days. We had a great time! And even earnt some busking money!!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Cairns Milkfish
Lee is most upset that i have taken the time to update the blog with amazing pics of crocs, but at the expense of taking the time to update our milkfish expedition. Milkfish are a fish that can grow up to 1.7m and live in mangroves, estuaries or swamps. Our quest to catch one focussed on a brackish swamp, at its deepest the water wouldn't be over my head ( to the chest of the average person). We walked out to the middle of the swamp where there is a snag to put the camera bag and keep the bread used for burley and bait..
The first day we went to attempt catching one we could see them tailing in various spots around the swamp, this means they are either swimming or feeding and their large and powerful forked tail breaks the surface, looking a lot like a shark cruising in the shallows.
We threw quite a lot of bread for burley and this got them feeding less then a few metres from our feet. They were clearly visible in the clean water and we could tell most of the school were of a decent size of 4 to 5 kilo.
After about an hour of burleying with bread I could feel the subtle take of the bait and the distinctive sign of the brad slowly trailing off. The slow lift of the road was all that was needed set the hook, it screamed off line for about 10 seconds before 'pop' the line broke. This scenario was quickly repeated by Tyler and Lee. Prognosis, leader to light and drag too high, these fish really have a lot of power and strength of the raped turns is just to much for light leader and braid with no stretch, the answer step up the leader by 2 pound, longer leader to accomadate for some some give and less drag pressure. The answer( I hope) stay hooked and fight time just went out to at least half hour may be more.
Armed with new hooks, heavier leader and drag adjusted we returned to try and conquer the milk fish again.Game on, 3 nil there way.
We started to burley and for a long time weren't seeing any sign of fish, which was really frustrating because we knew they were there. I was starting to get a little bored and ready to give up, slowly winding in my bread to check that it was still on and i got an almighty hit, for the next 3 or 4 minutes and all i could do was hold on while the fish tore out 70 yrds of line and took off across the swamp. Yay, finally hooked and line holding i was pretty excited. Everytime i would get a chance to wind some line back in he would take off, screaming out line again. This went on for about 20 mins, then i started to try and off balance the fish as i wound so i could tire him out a bit; everytime you unbalance him he has to right himself again and it makes them tired. This seemed to be helping a little and i was starting to gain some line, the fish was just in front of me , the large tail leving large boils on the surface and the leader clearly visiable. I was getting pretty confident of landing this fish when zzzzzzzzzz out tore 20 yrds of line again, just when I thought i had him beat and he couldnt possibly take another run, these fish have awesome stamina. I weaved him and walked him around the snags so he wouldnt cut me off. That was successful until he took another mighty 50 yd run right across the swamp, around the only other possible snag being a small sand island, and POP!!! NO!!!!!! I couldn't believe it, i wanted to spit the dummy and throw the rod in the drink! I had played him out for over half an hour, how could i lose him when he must have been getting tired enough for me to finally land. Views of the tail indicate that he could have easily been 80cm long.
As luck would have it, while i was busy lamenting, zzzzzzzzzzzzz went Lee's line, he had hooked up. He was determined not to lose his fish and straight away started working it pretty hard to tire it out, throwing it off balance and winding in line pretty hard. This didnt affect the fish, it still kept making a run for it and pulling out line as it darted all over the swamp. Heading repeatedly towards the snags Lee had to coerce him back into safe open water. Lee fought a fight of will power and strength for half an hour, finally getting the fish withn metres of our feet. Still not ready to give in the milkie started doing laps of us, I had to keep ducking under the line as we where in knee deep water he swam circle after circle around us. He would have done 8 or 9 laps as Lee slowly got in more and more line making the circle tighter and tighter. The fish was now within arms reach and swimming, clearly visible at our feet. Twice Lee attempted to grab its tail, yet before he could do that it once again tried to take off, tearing out all that retrieved line. It was hard to believe just how exciting it could be catching a fish in such a relatively small and shallow body of water. As far as exciting fishing goes, its up there with playing out a big mackeral.
After this run, Lee really stuck it to it and got all the line back in, after a few more desperate laps around our feet he managed to grab him by the tail and get him out of the water for a good look. He was about 90cms long and would have weighed a solid 5 kg. They are such a streamlined fish, built like a torpedo, made for speed. Unfortunately they are not a good eating fish, apparently full of bones and very strong flavoured. Asians don't mind eating them but their flesh is too strong in flavour for the average palette.
So after a few photos and a close look at him, Lee showed him the way home and gently let him go as he swam off to fight another day.
The first day we went to attempt catching one we could see them tailing in various spots around the swamp, this means they are either swimming or feeding and their large and powerful forked tail breaks the surface, looking a lot like a shark cruising in the shallows.
We threw quite a lot of bread for burley and this got them feeding less then a few metres from our feet. They were clearly visible in the clean water and we could tell most of the school were of a decent size of 4 to 5 kilo.
After about an hour of burleying with bread I could feel the subtle take of the bait and the distinctive sign of the brad slowly trailing off. The slow lift of the road was all that was needed set the hook, it screamed off line for about 10 seconds before 'pop' the line broke. This scenario was quickly repeated by Tyler and Lee. Prognosis, leader to light and drag too high, these fish really have a lot of power and strength of the raped turns is just to much for light leader and braid with no stretch, the answer step up the leader by 2 pound, longer leader to accomadate for some some give and less drag pressure. The answer( I hope) stay hooked and fight time just went out to at least half hour may be more.
Armed with new hooks, heavier leader and drag adjusted we returned to try and conquer the milk fish again.Game on, 3 nil there way.
We started to burley and for a long time weren't seeing any sign of fish, which was really frustrating because we knew they were there. I was starting to get a little bored and ready to give up, slowly winding in my bread to check that it was still on and i got an almighty hit, for the next 3 or 4 minutes and all i could do was hold on while the fish tore out 70 yrds of line and took off across the swamp. Yay, finally hooked and line holding i was pretty excited. Everytime i would get a chance to wind some line back in he would take off, screaming out line again. This went on for about 20 mins, then i started to try and off balance the fish as i wound so i could tire him out a bit; everytime you unbalance him he has to right himself again and it makes them tired. This seemed to be helping a little and i was starting to gain some line, the fish was just in front of me , the large tail leving large boils on the surface and the leader clearly visiable. I was getting pretty confident of landing this fish when zzzzzzzzzz out tore 20 yrds of line again, just when I thought i had him beat and he couldnt possibly take another run, these fish have awesome stamina. I weaved him and walked him around the snags so he wouldnt cut me off. That was successful until he took another mighty 50 yd run right across the swamp, around the only other possible snag being a small sand island, and POP!!! NO!!!!!! I couldn't believe it, i wanted to spit the dummy and throw the rod in the drink! I had played him out for over half an hour, how could i lose him when he must have been getting tired enough for me to finally land. Views of the tail indicate that he could have easily been 80cm long.
As luck would have it, while i was busy lamenting, zzzzzzzzzzzzz went Lee's line, he had hooked up. He was determined not to lose his fish and straight away started working it pretty hard to tire it out, throwing it off balance and winding in line pretty hard. This didnt affect the fish, it still kept making a run for it and pulling out line as it darted all over the swamp. Heading repeatedly towards the snags Lee had to coerce him back into safe open water. Lee fought a fight of will power and strength for half an hour, finally getting the fish withn metres of our feet. Still not ready to give in the milkie started doing laps of us, I had to keep ducking under the line as we where in knee deep water he swam circle after circle around us. He would have done 8 or 9 laps as Lee slowly got in more and more line making the circle tighter and tighter. The fish was now within arms reach and swimming, clearly visible at our feet. Twice Lee attempted to grab its tail, yet before he could do that it once again tried to take off, tearing out all that retrieved line. It was hard to believe just how exciting it could be catching a fish in such a relatively small and shallow body of water. As far as exciting fishing goes, its up there with playing out a big mackeral.
After this run, Lee really stuck it to it and got all the line back in, after a few more desperate laps around our feet he managed to grab him by the tail and get him out of the water for a good look. He was about 90cms long and would have weighed a solid 5 kg. They are such a streamlined fish, built like a torpedo, made for speed. Unfortunately they are not a good eating fish, apparently full of bones and very strong flavoured. Asians don't mind eating them but their flesh is too strong in flavour for the average palette.
So after a few photos and a close look at him, Lee showed him the way home and gently let him go as he swam off to fight another day.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest
Cape Tribulation and The Daintree Rainforest
Cape Tribulation was named by British navigator Lieutenant James Cook on 10 June 1770 (log date) after his ship hit a reef as it passed over it, north east of the cape, at 6pm. This made Cook pull away from the coast, looking for deeper water. At 10.30pm, the Endeavour hit a reef almost sinking Cook's ship, on what is now named Endeavour Reef. Cook recorded "...the north point [was named] Cape Tribulation because here began all our troubles".[4]
In the 1930's some European settlers started arriving in Cape Tribulation, but they found the rainforest environment a difficult place to get established. Various ventures such as fruit and vegetable farming, fishing, cattle, and timber cutting were started and abandoned over the years, and having weekly barges as only transport in and out was another handicap. In the 1960's a rough track was bulldozed and the first vehicle access created, although the road remained a four wheel drive track until the early 1990's. In 2002, the road was finally sealed all the way to Cape Tribulation and in early 2011 the last bridge was built creating year round all weather access to Cape Tribulation for the first time.
We spent the last two days exploring the Daintree and Cape Tribulation, two days was not enough. We drove straight into the Daintree Village and grabbed lunch, Lee and the kids were pretty boring, but I thought I would be adventurous and get into the feel of the environment a little, so i had a crocodile burger! It was really nice, quite flaky meat and quite sweet.
We took a one hour cruise on the Daintree River which proved to be unbelievably exciting, we got a croc show that was a once in a lifetime experience.
After spotting a few on the banks we rounded the corner and saw a huge 3.2m croc sitting in the water with his head near the bank, it was clear even from a distance that there was something in his mouth. As we got closer we could see that it was a calves hoof hanging out of its mouth. The guide said he had spoken to the nearby cow farmer that morning and he had said he may have lost a calf the night before as their was a cow calling for it in the morning.
As we sat in the boat only a few metres away he brought half his body out of the water and thrashed his head around, a huge spray of water went up around him showing the amount of force in his head, he thrashed again, snapping the leg off and throwing the remainder onto the bank. He slowly sank beneath the water to swallow that then lumbered up the bank to grasp the remainder of the calf in his huge jaws and then back back down into the water. The boat guide drove us further up the river then and spotted some really small crocs, about 18months old. When we went back past the diner, he was sitting at the bank and all that remained was the calves head. The guide said he may have had his full but would sit like that holding on to what was left because he wouldn't want another croc to take it, he may even shove it under a log for a few days then come back and finish it. If he has had enough he will hide it but wont feed again for two weeks.
After this excitement we drove to Cape Tribulation and set up camp at the camp grounds 100 metres from the beach. We headed down to the beach for a quick look but it was time for dinner so any exploring had to wait till morning.
Back at camp we cooked dinner while the kids flew the kite, then sat around the fire toasting marshmallows. There were a couple of local aboriginal guys staying at the camp ground while they work on the roads, they were telling us some chilling stories about crocs and croc attacks and agreed that what we had seen that day was pretty amazing stuff to witness, even after their entire lives around crocs, they had not witnessed anything like that. They told us a story of a group of people related to the farmer whose calf we saw demolished, who on New Years Eve about 11 years ago were stupid enough to go down to the river in that exact spot. Two of the men were swimming in the river and two women standing in 18 inches of water on the bank. One woman turned to talk to the other and she was gone, all she saw was a ripple on the water, she didn't even have time to scream. Gone! After watching the power of this big lizard demolish the calf, we all have a whole new respect for the croc!
In the morning we got up and packed up camp, after a yummy breakfast we headed down to the beach. It was low tide and we were able to walk out among the exposed coral and explore the pools of water left behind. We spotted some beautiful bright blue fish, a couple of octopus, brittle sea stars and a pristine cowry shell.
We then walked up the beach and climbed up to the tip of Cape Tribulation. What a view looking down the beach, the rainforest covered mountains reach all the way to the palm tree fringed beach, it really is where the rainforest meets the reef. Mount Sorrow which looks down on Cape Trib recieves 10 metres of rain each year!
After a look around and a few pics we headed back down the beach to a path that leads over the cape to Cape Tribulation beach, this is a sheltered cove, perfect for a cooling swim before walking back. When we did get back we were all saying our legs were a little sore and we had perhaps done alot more walking then we realised, this was true as a look at the time shocked us to realise it was almost 3pm.
Next stop for a late picnic lunch was Mason's Shop, at the back of the shop is access to a beautiful crystal clear swimming hole, complete with rope swing. We had a nice swim among the jungle perch and turtles. What a great way to finish our exciting trip. Definately recommend a drive up here, try and allow 2 full days to explore at least! The scenery is spectacular, walking along the reef edge looking up the beach at palm trees and rainforest was truly beautiful, we could have been stranded on a tropical island!
Click on the link to check out all the pics!! Not suited for vegetarians.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Tinarro Atherton Tablelands FNQ pics
Click on the link here to see the rest of the pics from our trip to Tinaroo in the Atherton Tablelands.
The second link has updated photos of Palm Cove and Port Douglas.
https://picasaweb.google.com/100249554386212106658/PalmCoveTropicalNorthQLD?authkey=Gv1sRgCJrew8DnusiJdg
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