Wednesday 5th - Horn and Thursday Island

Today was the trip out to the islands which is just an hours ride with Cape York Adventures, it was on a 8 meter Cat, our guide was Ben, a young guy who has lived up here for about 10 years driving boats. Setting this special place apart from any other is its unique cultural heritage and pivotal wartime role due to its strategic location.

On the way out we passed Possession Island where in 1770, Captain Cook claimed this as the northern most part of Australia in the name of the Queen, a monument is erected where he landed.

First off was Horn island where we visited a local museum which told the indigenous history of the islands and also the WW2 history. Horn island was the last line of defence from the Japanese with a garrison of 5000 stationed there. Horn island has an airstrip and has an active commercial wharf where goods arrive by sea and are then offload to smaller barges for distribution to the other islands. Horn island has a large dam which services both Horn and Thursday island, power on Horn is by diesel generator.

It's a short trip across to Thursday Island (TI) which is the administrative hub for the Torress Strait Islands, there are 150 island in the group with only 18 being inhabited.

The Torress Strait Island flag.

We here given a tour of the island by "Bob" the cabbie who has lived on TI for 30 years, TI has two wind generators which provide 22% of the island power, the remainder coming from the diesel power station, there are about 3000 people living on the island, it has a modern hospital and schools.

Lunch was provided at the Torress Strait Island hotel, which is the northern most pub in Australia. After lunch I contacted Crusader Caravans to try and determine what is going on with the 12v power in the van, they gave me some advice on what could be the issue so it will be trail and error when I get back.

The water is a crystal clear turquoise cloud. The tour took us to an old fort designed by the same guy that build Fort Scratchley in Newcastle, the views where incredible.

The bros decided to have some fun, they have been entertaining us for the whole trip.

After lunch we where able to have a look around town, normal collection of shops like any small country town, it also has a new modern cultural centre.

When leaving the island you have a quarantine inspection to make sure are not taking any meat or seed to the mainland.

It was a great day with rain on the way back which cleared by the time we made shore.

I picked up the new tyre and then back to the van to investigate the power issue, it turned out that one of the new batteries had died, not sure if the rough roads on the way up contributed to its demise, I transferred all the leads to the single battery and we where up and running again, I'll get the battery replaced under warranty when we get back.

We ended the day by having tea a the little restaurant in the park, tomorrow we commence the trip south.