Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Checked out the window at about 6.20am for the cloud phenomenon known as the ‘Morning Glory’. This is a spectacular cloud that forms out over the gulf in the mornings between September and November. BUT… not this morning. Of course the atmospheric conditions have to be exactly right for the cloud bank to form. I read something about needing a northerly wind and dew on the ground. We suspect that there was not enough moisture in the air last night to give rise to the cloud this morning?
Anyhoo, there wasn’t much point planning to sleep in. I forgot to mention yesterday that our absolute beachfront rooms are looking out onto the sea but, unfortunately, they are currently working on the foreshore footpath behind the End of the Road Motel so what we have is a view of the ocean interrupted by orange barrier tape and temporary fencing. Oh well, we are officially into the off-season and I guess they have to do the work sometime. I don’t know exactly what time they started work, with the front end loader, laser leveler going beep, beep, beep, the concrete mixer delivering concrete and, of course, the tradies’ choice in music playing on their boom box BUT it was before 8.00am!
I also forgot to record yesterday that we are now at our furthest point north and we are 2,890 kilometres from home. We have actually travelled a little further than that – 3,816 kilometres – because we have taken a few Matilda Biways. With most of those being out and back trips that has added around 900 kilometres to our journey. The truck has served us well with not a single hiccup so far.
There’s not much to do in Karumba at the moment. There are two companies that offer boat tours, but both have already closed for the season. We noted when we were researching ‘Things to do in Karumba’ that one is for sale and wonder if they have not sold will they be back again next season or have they shut down their tours for good? The one thing we could book to do was a ‘Behind the Scenes Tour’ at the Barramundi Discovery Centre and Hatchery … but that wasn’t until 11.30am.
That left us with a couple of hours to fill in so we went to explore the foreshore a bit. I was slightly nervous about this because there are signs warning about Salties. We headed north to start with, past the tavern next door and onto the shore with the tide much further in than it was last night. Hmmn, that means that the crocs could be lurking closer to where we were walking?? We walked a couple of hundred metres in that direction and only saw birdlife. Even here by the ocean the black kites are everywhere, they seem as common as seagulls. We have also seen some actual seagulls (boring!) brolgas, pelicans and eastern great egrets.
It was, in fact, one of the ubiquitous black kites that caused the disagreement when I was driving yesterday. There was a carcass in the left hand lane with a couple of kites feeding on it so I started to slow down. One kite took off, flying across the right-hand lane. Go around says Bernie, go around. Yes, that was my plan BUT what if the second kite takes off in the same direction as it’s mate? That will be black kite splatted on the bull bar which I DEFINITELY wanted to avoid. Having slowed substantially from 110/kph I started edging into the right hand lane to avoid the carcass. Finally the second kite took off flying left, of course! Still I would much rather err on the side of caution than hit one of these birds. But they always fly away says Bernie. Hmmn, except the ones that don’t – we have seen a couple of kite carcasses near roo road kill because not all of them fly away quickly enough.
Anyway, we walked back past the motel and tried to find an access point for the walking track from Karumba Point to Karumba Town. This wasn’t easy with the work that is currently being done to upgrade the path. We had to walk along the road past the Karumba Point Sunset Caravan Park to the boat ramp where a boardwalk started. Woo hoo we thought that looks promising. After about one hundred metres the boardwalk finished and we were left with no clear idea of where to go. The path headed away from the water along the back (side?) of the caravan park which was very boring. The only thing that made this walk in 29°C heat worthwhile was spying a small and brightly coloured kingfisher. Although, on returning to our room and consulting our Australian bird field guide we have have discovered that it was actually a Rainbow Bee-eater … which the guide says is often confused with kingfishers! Have to say the other positive to come from our walk was that we have achieved our Exercise goal for the first time since the 3rd of October! It has simply been too hot to be overly concerned about pushing ourselves to achieve Move and Exercise Goals.
About 11.00am we headed off to the Les Wilson Barramundi Discovery Centre. And I have to record that the person driving us into town didn’t just slow down but stopped while a bush turkey crossed the road!! Arriving at the centre we were able to make our way through part of the self-guided interpretative centre before our guided tour started. At 11.30am our guide, Tanya, met us at the end of the deck and took us through to the hatchery. Tanya took us into a small theatre to introduce us to the mighty Barramundi before we went through to the hatchery … after washing our hands and having them sprayed with metho!
In the hatchery Tanya explained that they are just gearing up for this year’s breeding cycle so there were no hatchlings or fingerlings to show us only the tanks that they will go into once the spawning takes place in the tank with the great big Love Shack sign hanging over it. Ha, ha, a bit cheesy for the tourists I suppose? With a combination of video and verbal explanation Tanya took us through the complexities of the barra breeding cycle and how they go about replicating it and maximizing the success of the breeding in captivity so that they can release hundreds of thousands of fingerlings into the local rivers each year. It’s impressive that this breeding centre was set up in the 90s BEFORE there was a problem with the barra being fished out due to the foresight of commercial fishermen in the region.
When we left the hatchery we had to have our hands sprayed with methylated spirits again before going to the big tank for the highlight of the tour – some barramundi feeding. Tanya had a couple of small buckets of pilchards and everyone in the group was given the opportunity to feed the fish. The fish in the tank are the BIG ONES (the biggest is 120cm), females who have been used for breeding and are now retired living the life, being hand fed for the entertainment of tourists. Fish are collected from the wild each breeding season to ensure genetic diversity and avoid inbreeding. The terms of the collection permit state that the fish they collect cannot be released back into the wild so they live a life of luxury being used to educate tourists about the hatchery’s work.
We had to dangle our fish a few inches out of the water and then the barramundi would surge out of the water to snatch the fish from our fingers. Barra don’t have teeth so this is a pretty safe fish feeding activity. However, they do not differentiate between fish and fingers and I got bitten on the end of my index finger. All I can say is I am very glad that they don’t have teeth because even the hard plate thingy they have in the bottom jaw hurts when it snaps closed on your finger! No blood drawn though.
After the excitement of the fish feeding we made our way back into the centre and wandered through the rest of the interpretative displays. One of the boards mentioned that the savanna country between Normanton and Karumba consists of grasslands and woodlands of eucalypts, melaleuca and acacia. That would seem to mean that the bottlebrush flowered bushes we were seeing yesterday were melaleucas.
After finishing at the Barramundi Discovery Centre we went in search of lunch. We decided to try Mick’s Café next to the Spar Supermarket before resorting to packaged sandwiches at Cam’s Corner Store. Although it was getting latish for lunch Mick’s Café was still open. I was excited that they had a chicken, cheese and avocado toastie option as that is my favourite toasted sandwich. Bugger, no avocado so it was yet another ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. On the plus side it was freshly made and toasted rather than being a packaged ‘fresh’ sandwich.
We returned to the motel for a lazy afternoon apart from doing another small load of washing so that just about every item of clothing that we have with us is clean. Another refreshing dip in the motel’s delightful swimming pool followed by another gorgeous sunset. It really has been very relaxing here at the End of The Road Motel.
Tonight we went next door to the Sunset Tavern for dinner. Obviously in barra country we ordered the barramundi, chips and coleslaw for dinner, well Cathy and I went for that. Steve couldn’t decide between the local barramundi or the king salmon so solved the problem with the Local Seafood Basket that had a selection of the local seafood in it. Bernie had spotted patrons last night with the Seafood Marinara Linguine so he opted for that with the chilli garlic oil. Bernie declared his marina one of the best he’s ever had. Unfortunately I have to say that my barra fillets were very disappointingly overcooked. A little bit too long in the deep fryer I think. Maybe I should have chosen the pan-fried option or the marinara because Bernie’s pasta did look delicious. A little bit of food envy tonight!
Steps: 9,803 (6.72km)
