After nearly 50km on the paddles yesterday, today was a much easier journey. It is about 18km from Newell to Snapper Island, or about 3 hours in our heavily laden boats. We pulled up at the campsite on Snapper at about 10:00 and collapsed into the happiness of knowing that we were having the rest of the day off,
We have unpacked, dried out and repacked our boats. Everything still feels like a new toy trying to fit into a cupboard full of favourites - there;s not enough room for everything but you can't fathom getting rid of any of it. I am already shortlisting items that might end up 'accidentally' left behind on a coral cay somewhere further north.
Consider the fact that we are staring straight into the Daintree River mouth across a narrow strait from where we sit yet I needed to fix a small puncture in my sleeping mat. As with a bicycle tube, the mat just needs to be submerged in water to find the trail of bubbles oozing from the leak. Nowhere in the instructions could I find what to do if the only water available is potentially teeming with crocodiles eager to add another tourist to their tally.
The solution was to wade nervously into the water with an overinflated sleeping mat and find the leak as rapidly as possible while my lovely wife stood guard with a machete. Goodness knows what somebody might have thought had they caught us in the act!!
Anyway, hands are blistered, we have lips like Angeline Jolie from sunburn and it is now time to rest these weary bones.
A rest day already! Great paddling though - and a terrific start.
ReplyDeleteJettisoning (heavy) non-essentials sounds like a good idea - so away with the beach cricket kit, the bongo drums and banjo, the portable solar powered expresso coffee machine and, sadly, the three room canvas palace you have tucked away in the bilges for your eventual sojourn in the Kuta beach caravan park!
Don't eject any of your dried and scrunched provisions (or the machete) as my reading of the map shows that there is virtually no settlement (and little else) along the hundreds of kilometers of the coast to be faced north of Cooktown.
So, more 30+ on those pouting lips and paddle onwards and upwards!
Stay safe - and have fun!
P.S. Your position posting system on the map works well (thanks Rob).