Day 12 - Thu 31/7: we had a sprinkle of rain overnight, but nothing that stopped us from moving onto Fruit Bat Falls for early morning swim around 9.30am. It was the highlight of the day, every one took a turn getting a massage under the falls and then chilling out in the top rock water holes. The best photos are on camera, so you will have to wait until we get home. The crowds were arriving as we were leaving after 11am heading to Eliot/Twin Falls (also known as Indian Head falls), for yet another swim after lunch, it was hard work getting there, having to negotiate the 2 river crossings for our little Pony (Navara), some minor trailer damage but all is good. We back tracked to Sam's Creek and camped for the night, we had some neighbours, something that we didn't have the last two nights camped along the telegraph track.
Day 13 - Fri 1/8: Leaving Sam's Creek we headed off the Old Telegraph track onto the Bamaga Development Road to catch the Jardine Ferry to arrive at Siesia, Loyalty Beach early afternoon, we had time to relax, Mike was pretty keen to get to the bar, only to find out that it opens at 4.30pm, we booked for dinner and had a lovely meal and the atmosphere in the open air dining along the beachfront was great, playing some of those golden oldies that we all can still remember.
Day 14 - Sat 2/8: up early to catch the ferry to Thursday Island departing 8am and arriving at TI at 9.15am, the crossing was smooth and very shallow, the maximum was around 19mt deep and down to 3.6mt. We passed a number of Islands, Zuna, Possession, Prince of Wales and Horn Island. It is a beautiful picturesque trip, the colours in the ocean varied from aqua to various shades of blue, due to the different depths along the Endeavour Strait. It is also lovely to be surrounded by a cluster of Islands and it gives you an understanding of why I the early days so many ships were lost/wrecked in this area. These days there are approx 4,000 ships that pass through the Prince of Wales Channel, all of which have to be piloted through the channel. The bus tour on TI provided points of history about WWII and the pearl industry. What was also interesting to learn is that the Torres Strait Islands have several different tribes. We visited Green Hill Fort, built in the 1890s when it was thought the Russians were going to invade Australia. The three cannons had a 5.2km range (6" shells) and one shot was only ever fired from one of the cannons towards an I identified ship entering the straight.