Bamaga Bamaga Bamaga

Bamanga-3rd time now.
James and I went up to do this job,Starting to get the hang of this. Just popping down the road to do some work, 1,000km away. My home range is massive.

Lunch time swim to wash the sweat & red dust off. Umm, hoping there's nothing else in the water. 

found a heap of the tools and things i left in the shipping container up here, I been looking for these, going I'm sure I had that the other day now it's gone. They were all up here. Went through the stuff I left before Christmas, looking at everything going ahaa, aha aha, here they all are, was so funny, lots of Christmas presents

Must be spring up here, Mare and foal doing well.

Wet season, just enough rain for Good times, Lots of grass and foals the mare look a lot happier than last time. 

We are Installing heat exchanger's in the roof, yes back in the same roofs I was in back in December, utilising the old existing duct work from the big old package Air con, cutting big hole to lift the giant 200 kg units up.  Went to see my mate at the shipping yard, he has the heat exchangers there, made a great deal with him for a  couple of cartons of beer, which the boss sent up on the boat, to drop them off, lift them into roof and remove old giant package Air con, using another new friend who owns a big Manitu fork lift. The building contractor was worried about the machines ripping up his freshly made lawn and path, this Manitu stood on the other side of the section with it's outriggers down, and reached out over 10m to pluck the heavy old unit out, was very cool to watch and didnt even drive on the bloody lawn..

The heat exchanger unit takes cool stale air form the rooms, runs it past fresh air from out side, reclaiming some of the cold, cooling the fresh air, and delivering it to the rooms using the existing duct, and expels the stale air. Great idea, hard work for us to install, but here we are at the tip of Australia and getting paid to be here. I love it.

Just when me and James had the job figured out the 2ic came up to check out our progress and make sure we knew how to do it, he brought another helper with him, Pierce who I worked on Thursday Island with, and told me I'm going to Cairns tomorrow, Friday, and Weipa on Monday to put 90aircons into a new mining camp, all Donga buildimgs ( accommodation blocks ) just like ATCO days. The factory I worked at in Brisbane for 3 years doing Air con's in Donga buildings for the mines, now I'm going to be at the mine.

So leaving James with it, I think he knows more than he lets on. He's happy because he'll be there to share the beer coming up on Mondays boat, and I missed out, damm.

Flying in -Rainforest mountain ranges north of Cairns, Daintree I think. 

Dry bushlands north of cooktown, the cape. 

I reckon this one looks like Varillia point, where we stayed for a week last season. 

Works finished for the day, time to cool off. Woooo!

Seisha jetty, looking towards Torris Strait, Thursday Island. 

Better do some work. Job #1 - In Umajico 

Look Dad, we made a hole! 

A rare sight in oz, the big Palm Cockatoo, only in the north. 

Job #2- In  Injonoo 

A majestic painting at the local takeaway/restaurant. 

Umajico beach. 

Quick stop for lunch, 2min from Umajico job. 

Umajico 'a magic place'

Just 20mins from Injinoo job. Finished early on a Sunday and went for a swim @ the cypress (Jacky Jacky creek, fresh water & no crocs. ) 

Actually managed a day off, so went for a drive to explore some of the long red roads. 

Mutee Heads beach. 

Another swim @ Mutee Heads beach, never mind the croc warning signs. 

Job #3 new Mapoon. Saved the hardest one till last.

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Back to Cairns, back to school.

Cairns -I am working here at a local school, Woree Primary, -Back at Jame's place, the real estate had the coconut palm cut down, sad because I would of eatin the coconuts, but I guess it was a hazard. James saved me a few and a section from the heart of the coconut palm, taste OK, not much flavor, very crisp, like cabbage texture.

Fejoa's, very rare in oz but this is north Queensland.  took a bag to all the kiwis at Matt's baby shower.
 

I went and saw my friends at Rusty's Market food is so good. New season mangoes, avocados, this stuff seems to be new season all year round. You can get a free lunch at Rusty's just from trying all the samples, and you can ask for a sample if there are none on offer.

Up at dawn on Anzac day 25/April 2016 and herd the bugle playing in the distance. Was a very nice quiet morning. Went down to the esplanade to catch the parade later on. Brings back memories of going to Anzac Day in New Zealand with my Family and grandparents.   My Poppa went to WW11.

Back to work Tuesday. Back to school  LOL. We are putting all new Air cons at Woree School. Going good so far, and looks like a big job. Was weird 'first day back at school'.

Found two native bee hives in the wall where we were working, they found a crack and moved into the cavity. Pity it's a block wall, can't get the honey out.

The market grower must of picked the veges in the dark this morning, got the colour wrong, orange beetroot & purple carrots.

Got 5 litres of ginger beer brewing using fresh ingredients, and avocado honey, apparently you squeeze the Avos real hard then put it in a centrifuge, just kidding, they just chuck the hives in the Avocado orchard. Nice honey.

Advocardo chocolate is awesome.
2avos
1/4 c cacao
1/4 c honey
Half cup cream.
Forgot the vanilla

Very chocolaty and a bit sweet.

Down to Townsville for Matt's boys baby shower and birthday party, Aaron  coming up from Melbourne ,will be there too. Was a good weekend, haven't seen much of these guys since I left school. That's a while back now. 

Back to work at the school, another classroom. Now the boss rings and wants James to come and  help us, and Jame's and I are off to Bamaga in a week, go finish the job I started in December. Another plane flight and working holiday. and paid for doing it. And I've got my fishing mate James, should be a good trip. 

Heart of coconut palm. Quite nice. 

View from front of Jame's place 

Watching the moonrise from my hammock. 

The old Bhole river camp. 

Nice and green not brown and dusty like wen we where here last year. 

The magnificent tamarind tree I camped under for a month or so. Makes a good cuppa tea. 

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It's always Thursday on Thursday Island

Back to Thursday Island on Thursday.

Left tools up on Thursday Island  when I was last there,so went to markets and health shop on weekend and made a banana box full of awesome food. The food up there is very plain and a bit expensive.

SPANISH MACKEREL!

Tried Jame's trick for carry on bag, you just gota make it look light which is easy for him being 6'4", but it must of worked cause my 12kg bag got through unnoticed.

Bait fish are on Horn Island  because of a change in wind direction, so it is now  easier to go fishing, buy a few hooks today. And try catch some. Two Queen fish first trip, 1 Travelly second trip, Barracuda third trip, lots of fish to eat. lots of hook ups too, but it's hard to land them on a hand line from a wharf, until this Mackerel came along, must if been what was snapping our lines, hard work but dragged it around to the rocks to get it in. Yum!


Yeah its not all exploring and fishing, I do some work sometimes.

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Back in Cairns, 3weeks off.

Back in Cairns-Staying at work mate Pierce's house for a week while I help  mate James find a house for his family, they are on there way up from Brisbane this week. 

Found a new local fruit & veges market called Rusty's Market, apparently it's been here for ages, right in the middle of Cairns. Crazy market, very cheap, huge variety and a lot of stalls, every weekend for 3days & all locally grown, such awesome food why would anyone go to the shops when this is here. 

Walking to my truck after leaving the markets I wasn't looking where I was walking, and it's a concrete foot path they are normally hard and flat, but this one was different, I managed to step perfectly into a post hole size pit of mud, up to my knee, I felt my jandal pop as it came off my foot in the bottom so I left it there. Conveniently there was a tap on the building right there to wash mud off. So I walked just down the road to 2nd hand shop to see if they had any jandals, they did, but all right foot ones, and I was missing a left, and who the hell sells odd single jandals anyway. 

The next day I saw a council worker at the hole, he was planting a tree, that's what the hole was for, the other tree must of died and the automatic sprinkler just made a mud hole. 

Got a lot of awesome fresh produce from Rusty's Market  and made some fresh ginger beer 

Ingredients:

Honey

Ginger 

Turmeric 

Himalayan salt 

Lemon 

Water

Kifir culture

Grate and boil ginger & turmeric, add more water & allow to cool to room temp, add honey& kifir, bottle, brew until most the honey has bin eatin by the kifir, more honey and longer brew time makes it slightly alcoholic, taste great on these hot days. 

Helped James find a house for his family, and filled it with second hand bargains off gumtree and 2nd hand shop, and Op shop- plates a bargin .20cents each, His Mrs and twin boys were happy when they arrived after a marathon drive up from Brisbane

Woah I'm sleeping on ground and a few coconuts just hit the ground out side my window, wouldn't want do be laying under neath it. My niece Isabella was in Rarotonga  with her family last year and she learnt not to sleep under coconut palm as if one falls from the tree and hits  you, you could get seriously injured. 

Babinda Boulders

Took James, Jeddah & the twin boys for a swim at Babinda Boulders, only 40mins drive away, this really is a beautiful part of the world, they didn't want to leave, wanted to camp the night there. Maybe next time. 

Swimming hole at Babinda. 

Perfect temperature water. 

Back to Rusty's Market on the weekend to make a supply box to take up to Thursday Island, at least I had a bit of warning for this trip so can buy some supplies and pack better  

Sunset from Pierce's house 

No luck fishing at Machans Beach, got a few coconuts though. 

Found this mad original star wars t-shirt. 

Sun set view from front of Jame's house. 

The view of the mountain  in White rock and my ute . 

Sunset at James new place. 

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Video: Installing snorkel on my truck.

Installing a snorkel on my Mitsubishi Challenger

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Fly to Thursday Island on Monday.

Thursday Island:

Sunrise On Thursday Island

Mission Beach to Cairns, Cairns to Thursday Island. Woo-Hoo another job, she's gana be a hot one that close to equator.

Packed up our camp at Mission Beach, and drove to Cairns, did a bit of shopping for some more tools to add to my 40kg tool bag, hopefully this new bag can hack it. Up to Simon's to drop James & his stuff off, then back down to the office to park the truck. Boss dropped Pierce & myself at airport, and take-off to Thursday Island all expenses paid again- a working holiday.

Up at sunrise to catch the plane to Thursday Island, caught this sunrise reflection in my Ute 

.

 The Qantas  flight was direct to Horn Island, which  is the Island next to Thursday Island, and big enough to fit a airport.  We are staying at a demountable style house/flat in the workers camp called Gateway, with other work mates.  Catch a 10min ferry to work every day to Thursday Island and watch awesome sunrises and sunsets.

First view of Thursday Island

Just got here and already at the police station, trying to work out whats going on. Our work mates are already here working on the cop shops air cons.

Bloody hot. Feels like I'm in a roof in cairns and I'm outside doing nothing.

Saw giant Grouper  fish being fed crayfish head at  the jetty. The size of Zuis Simon giant mastiff dog, Around 80kg, that's what I weigh.

Giant Grouper fish. 

Have to walk to dinner at the main hotel 500m away at 6:30pm. Nice walking home into the sunset if u can out walk the mossies.

Sunset on the way home from dinner.

Sneaked a wicked portable fan onto the bosses account along with a hand full of other essential tools I needed. Runs off my drill batteries. It helps but still very hot.

A local T.I fella at the pub said it will rain for four days on the high tide, king tide, from last quarter of the moon to the first quarter, and that's exactly what it did. Still managed to work between the rain, But when it rains man it pours.  Lots of rain., yeah I mean lots of rain

I think that's rain coming.

Kindly asked the cook at dinner for some jars to make mayo and smoothies in, she reluctantly gave me two new ones, I just wanted empty sauce jars that were destined for the bin but These will work great thanks. Also asked how much are the new umbrellas as I need one to get to and from the ferry, and dinner because we stay about 500m down the road from both, and she lent me one, I was ready to buy one and still give it back when I left but free, even better.

Big basil bush and chili bush at job today.  Going to freeze the Basil, Be enough for a few months. Should of dried it but already pulled it off the branch, and planted the branch.

Finally got a day off after 12days straight, went for a fish down the wharf at high tide, got nothing but sunburn.  Work shirts make great fishing shirts, if u remember to roll the sleeves down.

Fishing with my mate the seagull. 

Saw the local kids swimming at the beach so must be safe, had a good swim, the water was cooler than I thought, probably because it's deep, hard to relax in the water when your thinking about crocodiles, sharks, and jellyfish.

Should be alright to swim, I hope.

Had an early day got a chance to check out the shops on Thursday Island. Some nice pearl shell necklace here, Carved into turtle, frangipani flower, butterflies, I think I'll get one for my niece's birthday next month.  In a different shop I found a coconut peeler like a big spear thing and coconut grater from the islands I suppose. 

Went up to Green Hill lookout, a WW2 fort can see the whole island from here, perfect spot for a fort. Dug into the top of the hill with concrete & dirt walls, there's buildings and tunnels underneath and a couple big cannons. 

View from Green Hill fort.

Green Hill fort 

Sunrise from Green Hill, waiting for clients to wake up. 

The days getting a bit repetitive, morning commute: walk to wharf, wait for ferry, catch ferry under an amazing sunrise to Thursday Island, jump in van go to job. Work: put in 2-5 Air con installs, then to the pub to wait for the ferry, ferry back to Horn Island, walk back to room under a magnificent sunset, shower, walk to dinner, back to room. And do it again the next day. But what a beautiful place to do it.

Sunrise, waiting for ferry at Horn Island. 

Man it's hot up here, sweat so much at work it looks like I went for a swim in work clothes. Doesn't drip off it runs off in streams everywhere. Hotter than the roof was in Bamanga. Cools off OK at night which is something I guess. Wish we could go swimming more.

Dinner, I didn't catch it. But I ate it. 

The boss keeps sending more Air cons, started out with a container of 40, then he sent 6 more, now another 12 showed up. How many more! 

I used to clean the Air con at my place in Brisbane. No one cleans them here. There disgusting, the Air con can't breathe, and until today I thought 'dust bunnies' where a urban legend, but they do exist, soft, grey, fluffy, and hide under beds and cupboards, especially in corners, all huddled together. And I get in trouble for not clean my dust and wire trimmings properly when I'm done. 

Got a local T.I Fella to help us, Lamico, he's very strong and works hard, picking up the job quickly which is good, always nice to have an extra hand, plus he knows other locals so we might get to go fishing on a boat, or hunting, the next island, prince of whales island has a large population of wild deer. 

Given some tropical painted crayfish for dinner, need a boat so we can go get our own.

Sunrise

Went to the Wongai pub near the flat, normally it's very quiet but tonight its packed as, I think it was someones birthday, and Pearce's birthday on Monday too. The had live DJ and music so loud we could hear it in the flat, which is only across the road. LOL Might as well go to the pub, not gana gt much sleep. I'm surprised how busy it is especially given that a XXXX gold can sets you back $6.50, & prices go up from there. Anyway it was a good night, funny watching the locals & workers getting drunk and dancing.

Sunset 

Managed to get a sleep in Sunday morning now doing an Air con at the helicopter base, behind the Wongai pub, had to bring everything including big Air con, tools etc, over on the ferry on the way home from work Saturday, hoping he will take us fishing on his boat, but no such luck. 

After being up here for a month the new Air cons in the container were starting to run out, and the jobs starting to dry up, so the boss flew us home, well back to Cairns where my truck is, that's my home.
 With only 24hrs notice we had to tidy up everything, pack up tools, put van in storage, but somehow still found time to get a box of crays to take home, for free of course, yummmo. 

Back to Cairns with a box of painted tropical rock lobsters. Hopefully the boss has more work up here cause I left all my tools behind to fit the crays in, haha 

Heading back to Horn Island, looking at Thursday Island. 

New split system inverter Air con. 

Here we have a buoy Mango tree, not very common, but when you look closely you can see it's balls, dangling, also known as a male mango tree. 

Another Air con. 

The boat we catch twice a day. 

A gecko shorted out this Air con, and himself. 

Nice spot for lunch in front of the pie shop

Everybody love US up here, it's Bloody hot and we give them a cold breeze in every room of the house. 

. 

Sunrise, this seems to happen every day, beautiful. 

Sunrise at T.I jetty. 

And another. What an amazing place. 

Sunset on the way home from work. 

Pirate map of Torreis Straight., LOL

Clouds of bait fish at the wharf. 

Sunset on the walk home. 

Sunset, that's our camp. 

Workers camp, under another spectacular sunset. 

Beat the sun this morning, here's a Moon set. 

Horn Island jetty. 

Sunset 

Ahh, not another sunset. 

And sunrise. 

Sunrise. 

Sunrise on my morning commute, beats looking at tail lights. 

The Black Spot. 

Back in Cairns: crayfish dinner. 

Mmmmmmmmmm

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