Weipa 14th May
Weipa is a mining and fishing town. If you are interested in these its not the place for you because there is nothing else. Bauxite mining is what its about and as you approach the town as we did their is a giants road crossing for giant vehicles hauling mined bauxite.
The campsite was grassy with shade facing out over the sand flats to the sea. As i fished one morning i met a bloke who looked a bit rattled . He had towed his trailer , his mates nissan patrol and his trailer 160k to weipa. His mate had been hit by a tankful of dirty diesel .This is a risk presented by some of the outback service stations and his whole fuel system was having to be flushed out.
The following day the same guy and his son were out on the mud flats coming back in on the rising tide with a little lure rod. I joined him to do the same. The tide came in super fast and you had to fish on the move so as not to be stranded in the last of the days light in croc country. He scooted off and I stayed for a bit more. Sunset brings everyone from the campsite to the shore to watch the sun drop quickly given we are so near the equator.I caught a little catfish and put my foot on its back to help take the hook out.Big mistake , i thought i had been bitten but later found out that catfish have venomous fins and i had basically been stung by one. I did a highland fling in pain , it was bloody sore. After traversing the last croc hurdle i was give instructions by a woman to face this was and that way as she was taking pictures. Turns out she was a professional photographer and she reckoned that the amazing sunset with a podgy fisho in the middle ground was the best she had taken this year. Her work was mainly for calendars and the like and she stated it would almost definitely be in a calendar next year. She took my email address and promised to send me the photos as they were too big to text. As of end of May no photos !
As i limped up the beach dragging my venom filled foot behind me my fisho friend came up and said that his wife had taken a picture of me in the sunset and would i like a copy . I said definitely and told him about the catfish , he laughingly said that they had captured the moment that had happened but they actually had and here it is !
We crossed paths at Weipa with Ross and Adam two fine young gents from melbourne who were on a road trip . They are both fishing mad . We hooked up together and fished the Mighty Mission river from underneath the bridge . I caught two big catfish and another fish i haven’t managed to name. Kate caught up with her book caught some rays and mothered the two boys with some lunchtime fishing rolls. The four of us took advantage of the pool at the caravan park and did the travellers thing of sharing where we were planning to go next .
The boys were heading up to Seisha at the tip we were heading up to Cullen Point some 100k up the west coast from Weipa. Once the boys heard the fishing reports from Cullen Point a plan was hatched to join forces for this part of the journey.
Looking for a progress report on the foot🙂
Foots good !