8 May 2013 – Thursday Island

Seeing as though Josh has been sleeping well in the hammock, I gave it a try last night.  It was really good except that I got cold with the breeze underneath me.  However, it also allowed me to be up early to get ready for our adventure to Thursday Island today.  The Peddells boat left around 8am and took about an hour to get to.  The seas were not too rough, the water was a gorgeous blue and the coffee and company on board the boat was great.  Upon arriving at TI, as it’s affectionately called, we jumped on board our minibus tour and set out, first stop was the bakery where we tried the crayfish pie and it didn’t disappoint at all.  Next stop was Green Hill Fort which was built in 1891 and located at the western end of TI.  There are still three guns or cannons located here which were used during WWII and the concrete building where ammunition was stored has now been turned into a bit of a museum.  The remaining time of our tour included a drive around the island, I think I heard that the road around the island is 4.9kms long – maybe we should have walked instead?  We were shown some of the highlights of the island such as the schools, the cemetery and of course the pubs!  After departing our tour we did actually go for a walk around town including to the park for the kids to have a run around and then in hope that Cedar might fall asleep but that wasn’t to be.  So – we headed for Australia’s most northern pub, the Torres Hotel.  We had time to kill so sat there for a few hours for lunch and a few drinks before heading back to catch the boat to the mainland.  Back at camp, we showered with our resident green frog and massive sized green ants before tucking into a lovely farewell dinner with Ben and Jenna.  They were staying longer to enjoy the beautiful tip of our wonderful country, whereas we were going to make tracks tomorrow to head for the comfort of our van.  The sunset tonight was again magical….