Kapowar to Cooktown

And so it was. The final day of our sojourn to Cape York. We planned an early getaway as the annual Barramundi Fishing Comp was on the coming weekend, and already Fourbies towing boats had started crossing the causeway to parts unknown the day before. It was 25 degrees at 7am and pushing 30 an hour later. We were in a hurry!

Now ostensibly, our only stop was going to be back at Old Lara Station, to see if the mangoes were any riper. The road was in good condition and we had gone almost 50klms before the first cloud of dust in the distance, the start of a conga line of cars with boats. We had decided to maybe explore a couple of lagoons on the way out, but all the access roads were blocked. Then Ken spotted a sign, Kennedy Bend, through the trees and suggested we pull over to take a quick look.

Now, I should have paid more attention to the memorial plaque nailed to a nearby tree, but we had seen lagoons before and I assumed we’d be back on the road in a couple of minutes. However Ken’s eyes lit up at all the ‘activity’ in the water. This could be his last chance to catch a ‘barra’, and he rushed back to the car to grab a rod and his rucksack, which had (almost) everything – but more about that in a minute.

The first lure ended up in a tree. He only had one left, and was far more cautious with the throw. Now, I had seen a small croc at the far end of the billabong when we first arrived and it merely registered as a causal observation. It was ‘way’ over there and we were down here. Anyway, as they say, a pictures worth a thousand words, so check this out.

Now, you’d think that’s a happy ending, right. But noooo, Ken the ex- fisheries inspector, had to make sure it was big enough to keep….exactly sure (and no surprise to anyone who knows him). This is where the unseen terror commences. Now, for a reason that even to this day defies logic, he did not carry a tape measure in the fishing rucksack, which, packed to the gunnels, had absolutely everything else. “It’s somewhere back up at the van”, he said. “I’ll be back in a minute”, he said. So, I was delegated to hold the rod and keep my foot on the fish’s head till his return. Now, I was left standing there with my back to the water. Unbeknowns to me, under a rocky overhang, literally underneath my feet, lurked a 4 metre croc, who upon hearing all this movement and conversation had emerged to see what was for breakfast.

In the meantime, the fish had escaped from the hook and there was a flurry of movement to get my foot back on him, still oblivious to the danger a few feet behind me. Ken was gone for a long time. He saw the croc on his way back down, it’s head in my direction just a couple of feet from the bank. Luckily, in the croc’s mind, two against one was not a fair fight. By the time I swung around, so to had the croc, and he slunk away to the middle of the lagoon and slipped silently underneath the surface. All the ‘activity’ had ceased, the water was still, just silence.

Now, I will admit we’ve had our moments on this expedition, but I’m almost sure this wasn’t some ‘tragic accident’ that hadn’t quite worked out for Ken as planned (lol). With the arrival of some locals a few minutes later, our nervous laughter turned to consternation as the grim details of Big Kev’s demise were retold in graphic detail. We drove away from Kennedy Bend and an uneasy feeling came and went like nausea. As they say, timing is everything. Oh, by the way, the fish was 6mm undersize and was unceremoniously dropped back into the water, NOT where we had just been standing.

By comparison, everything after THAT was completely uneventful, and we finally staggered back into Endeavour Falls Caravan Park two hours later. Funnily enough we had been recommending this caravan park to all and sundry on our way to the cape and the owners reported with some mirth that people had arrived over the last four weeks saying “John and Ken recommended you.” I had booked in for a week. Some down time was in order and man, had I missed my bed!!

What a great spot to wind down after such an epic adventure. Well, there’s just one more post to go this year. We traverse rainforest and an abandoned sugar mill. before ending up poolside in Cairns.