MUTEE HEADS

Mutee Heads from our camp

Yum! I spent our first afternoon collecting oysters and managed to get a fair amount. It’s hard work though. They are not huge and you really have to look for them.  Not too good on the already dreadful back either. But well worth it – steak stuffed with oysters  - mmmm!  John was up bright and early on Thursday morning (how unusual!) to do a spot of fishing. Leo did the usual complaining. He thinks he should go all the time now that John has taken him out once in the tinny.  When he got back we took off over to the mouth of the Jardine River before the wind got up. Very interesting over there and lots of other boats. Looks like there should be fish everywhere and crabs as well. We only caught a couple of cod but at least we have some bait for the crab pots now. Will set some ghost crab traps on the beach tonight. I saw heaps of big ones down there last night while checking the boat and they are great bait for blueys.

Our camp

The view from our van

The beach with old jetty pylons just visible at top right

Kerry and Jeanette arrived just before lunch and set up camp then it was off down to the rocks to get some more oysters. Leo had a very bad limp by the afternoon so next morning when it was still bad we were in a quandary as to what to do. After establishing that the nearest vet is in Weipa we decided to ring our vet in Townsville. She was very helpful and we think that the swelling is from an injury to the leg joint and not due to an infection. Fortunately Jeanette had a thermometer so we monitored his temperature and strapped the leg according to the vet’s advice.  I also rubbed it with Rapidgel, a horse liniment that Kerry swears by, so we are hoping this and rest will help it mend. Otherwise it will be a visit to the vet when we get back.

Another fireside soiree

John and Kerry headed off to the Jardine again to put some crab pots in and do some fishing. They got back mid-afternoon with just one nice cod that Kerry caught and no crabs. They didn’t leave the pots in just in case we had to leave early due to Leo. Nobody seems to be getting crabs down there anyway. In the afternoon we took a drive up to the headland to see the old radar tower and gun emplacements which are relics of the American base which was here in WWII.

The remains of the WWII radar tower

View across to Prince of Wales & Thursday Island from the heads

We also had a look at the graves and monument on the hill behind our camp. These are graves of the original people who came to Mutee Head from Saibai Island when high tides swamped their island. They eventually moved to where Bamaga is now. Quite sad really as the chief had gone off to school, the army, and was a policeman for years then died at the age of 47 in the year he returned to Bamaga.

I noticed some beautiful native flora while at Mutee Head which I couldn’t help but photograph so I’ve included some shots below.

On Saturday morning we just fished off the head and around the jetty but again nothing much caught. It is certainly a lovely spot here though.  John and Kerry had more success on Sunday though when they went back down to the mouth of the Jardine. John had seen fish charter boats going just past the mouth and using the sounder, they located some good lumpy seabed and managed to bag a nice catch, although there should have been more. Apparently they were smashed up about 5 times so there must have been some big ones there.

Happy old fishers are we

We decided to head off on Monday morning even though Leo’s leg seemed to be on the mend. The swelling was going down but he was still limping so it was off back down the road to the gravel pit then on to Coen for a couple of nights before visiting Laura to see the quinkan rock art there and back to Townsville to get ready for the next leg of our trip. On the way to Coen we came across a real character, along the road with his trusty donkey. He was adamant we could only have one quick photo though as he said everyone was stopping him and at that rate he’d never make the Cape.

The man with the donkey