We left Horn Island for Thursday on Monday, if you see what I mean. Thursday Island's only a 15 minute ferry trip, and most of the time you're heading in the wrong direction to clear the sandbanks- not really far at all.
(I don't think I've mentioned there are 103 islands in the group, only 17 of which are occupied- some of the others are so low they are covered at high tide. If you saw the movie Mabo, it was about Murray Island, some miles further north.)
We were met at the wharf by our driver from yesterday, Liberty, who actually lives on Thursday, as do many of the people who work on Horn Island, though there is a small resident population on Horn. Thursday's a bigger island, with more shops etc, though it's still a fairly sleepy place. Again, not your typical tropical island, though the water is sparkling blue when the sun shines. It has more history than Horn Island, and has a mixed population. In the past, people came from Japan, China and Malaya for the pearling industry and the indigenous population left for the outer islands, later returning to resettle on Thursday for various reasons. I didn't realise that pearls were not the object, although probably they were welcome finds- the main target was mother of pearl, (nacre) which was used in buttons. The local oysters were enormous- they say an oyster needs to be cut in two before you can swallow it, and I believe that, having seen the shells. The industry died out when plastic buttons came in.
One unusual custom here is the covering of tombstones with plastic and having a ceremony for the unveiling, which marks the end of the mourning period.
The island is largely comprised of two big hills, and Liberty took us to an old fort on top of the smaller. Great views, and luckily the rain stopped for a while.
We could see the mainland from there.
Beautiful aqua waters around T.I seen from the fort, looking towards another island.
Like Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour and Fort Scratchley in Newcastle, the fort was built to repel the Russians back at the time of the Crimean war. It's been maintained as a museum.
We had free time to roam around the town's main street, but with showers threatening we chose to sit on the hotel veranda enjoying the view until it was time for the ferry to the mainland. By then it was raining steadily so everyone made a beeline to sit on the lower deck, rather than the open air top deck. The trip was quite comfortable, and took about 45 minutes.
At Seisia, the mainland ferry port, we met our driver/guide for the overland component of our trip and had our first taste of red mud. Peter drove us over bumpy roads to our accommodation at Punsand Bay, where we were booked into another "resort". We had individual ensuite cabins, which sounds nice, doesn't it? Not quite. Twin beds, ceiling fan, skimpy curtains which only just covered the glassless but screened windows, and not another stick of furniture, not so much as a hook to hang your clothes on- such luxury!
With rain still hanging around, we couldn't do much exploring before dinner in a covered open air room where we met our fellow travellers. Four other couples had travelled to Seisia on board the cargo ship Trinity Bay - we'd actually seen them on Horn Island the previous day, and watched the ship unload cargo for the outer islands.
So there were eight couples all told, which meant a full bus. Peter said that one of us would sit beside him each day, and that like the rest of the seats, this would be rotated. He announced that next day's breakfast would be at 5.30 am, much to our horror.
The temperature was quite comfortable despite having no glass in the windows, the food was good so it was quite pleasant staying there really, but I would have liked even a banana case to put my specs on overnight.
Punsand Bay in the rain
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