Cairns II
Posted 4 months ago at 8:55 pm. 3 comments
I’m currently in the Torres Strait, on Horn Island at the “Wongai Beach Resort”. “Resort”, if you understand me.
We left from Cairns just after 9 yesterday morning and flew to Horn Island, which seems to be the transport hub of the Torres Islands. After leaving Brisbane in fairly normal weather, to surprisingly mild Cairns weather.. to tropical island humidity? Oh my. The Islands are Hot. Stinking Hot. STICKY. STINKING. HOT.
I don’t work so well in the humidity 
After arriving on Horn Island yesterday, taking in the tiny little airport and adjusting to the humidity, we were herded onto a 10 seater light plane and took off to Badu Island - a 20 minute flight from Horn.
The water was almost beautiful enough to take my mind off the slightly bumpy flight - I took plenty of photos from the plane. It’s this light greeny blue, and with the clouds underneath the plane on top of the water, it’s particularly nice.
We attended court in Badu and tested our wares to great success. There was this really cute little kid there, with these huge brown eyes - very cute. I couldn’t get a photo though. I was a little taken aback by the lack of amenities and all the stray dogs running about the place.
When we returned to Horn Island to our hotel, I realised that the stray dog problem wasn’t isolated to Badu - and later learned that the families are paid $20 a week, per dog, to feed and house them. Crazy stuff.
The “resort” is scary-ish. I’d really call it more of a pub with some little rooms out the back, but it’s really not all that bad. The staff are nice and it’s reasonably clean aside from a few ants in my tea (no tea for me :(), i’m fairly happy with it. Last night we walked to the hotel down the road for dinner - a $25 buffet that I wasn’t at all impressed with - but the company was great. We ate and had a few drinks with the Chief Magistrate and one of the Cairns Magistrates, as well as a police prosecutor and a Deps Clerk. They’re full of some pretty good stories, and we had a decent laugh. I was a bit nervous about walking home on the Island, particularly after reading some of the horror stories, so the magistrate and the policeman walked us back to our hotel! Very nice of them.
The lady at the airport informed us today that it’s probably not a good idea to walk around on the island as there have been a spate of bashings in recent times.
Charming. If only she’d told us earlier!
Today came with a visit to Saibai Island.
Saibai is gorgeous. It’s ~4km from PNG and the flight is lovely. The roads are unsealed and the water is beautiful! The amenities at the courthouse were troubling - filthy toilets and no toilet paper left me holding the water i’d been drinking for hours.. lucky the island is so pretty!
I returned back to my hotel and had a quick look around - I’ve avoided the bar as much as possible - there’s a lot of drunk locals and visitors - all men! We had a quick dinner in the restaurant and now I’m doing a bit of work and catching up with some emails.
I’ll get some pictures up as soon as possible! I really do miss all of you lots and I can’t wait to get back!
Wow, I can’t get my eyes off the maps. Such pretty water. It sounds like if not a fantastic time, you’re having a good educational dabble into global lavatory culture, and a well-earned break to boot.
The fact that you’re posting actual blog posts hints at the fact that you might have a fair bit of extra time on your hands outside of work. Good time to catch up on misc?
Don’t get me wrong, it has been a lot of hard work - but it is nice to be doing something a little bit different than the norm. I’d love to do this but have all you kids around!
Jess,
Cam was on Thursday Island for her education prac last semester. She’s on another one now, this time in Pormpuraaw :o. On T.I. she stayed in the “guest” “resort” so I totally understand what you mean.
Did you get to meet the Council’s CEO or get out to Friday Island to see the pearl farm?