May 3, 2001 - Thursday - Fitzroy Island
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| Brendan operating the mars rover - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
The day started with rain, lots of it, and it was pouring down at times, even last night while I slept. I woke up and got ready for my day of work. Brendan arrived on the island a little after half 9, and he went up to the office to get some work done while I continued to worked on the journal. We loaded up the truck with trail repair equipment and material and headed down to Nudey Beach. One of the equipment was a material mover, but it looks more like the Mars Rover with tracks and such.
Brendon also used the blow torch to heat up tar for mixing with gravel and other mateial for repairing the trail. I found out in these short few days that trail maintenance and construction is very hard work. It made me appreciate even more of the amount of work a park rangers and workers have to perform.
We chatted in the car on the way down and while working and I told him about the dog yelping sound and the footsteps and Brendan dismissed the dog sound as probably birds.
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| A rare brown gekco crawling on the truck - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
He did however say that he also heard footsteps in the past and it was a bit unnerving when I heard that. We also talked about how more than a hundred years ago, when there was a gold rush, a boat of Chinese people came to Australia, but the Chinese were put on this island because there was a outbreak of smallpox and they were blamed for it.
The quarantine was more of a death sentence as hundreds, maybe thousands perished on the island. I summarized that the footsteps I heard might be of those restless souls who never got off the islands. It's a bit scary actually, but I'm not as afraid tonight as last night - probably because Brendan is in the ranger house now.
May 4, 2001 - Friday - Fitzroy Island
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| Me digging and repairing the trail - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
We continued to work on the trail today, but we finished up by noon. I ate a quick lunch and then went back out to help clean the equipment. I chatted with an Austrian hiker named Greg for a long while before Brandon and I headed back down to get some weed whacking done. I tried the weed whacker for the first time in my life and it was actually kinda fun. I kept on it until 3 and then retired and went for a swim.
I then headed to the resort area and found Greg and we went snorkeling together for an hour. I was surprised by the type of reef around the island. The critters were completely different than the ones I saw down at Whitsunday Islands. There were a lot of hard corals, some solitary. Different species of butterfly fish and I even saw my first lionfish.
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| Welcome Bay - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
He and Brandon left on the 5 o'clock ferry so I was left on my own again. I hiked over to Nudey Beach then hiked in the dusk/dark up the hill back up to the empty ranger station.
My logic was that I must over come this fear of ghosts and such and if there were such things, that means there's at least some possible meaning to life instead of just living as an organic carbon unit and die as the body deteriorates. I figure it's probably better for me to see a ghost than none. I didn't see one that night.
May 5, 2001 - Saturday - Cairns
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| The summit at Fitzroy Island - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
The day started with me climbing to the summit. The lookout wasn't as spectacular as I thought it would be. After chilling out a bit, I went to Nudey Beach to snorkel. There were 3 people naked, and they are the ones who shouldn't be naked. After being in the water for only 5 minutes, I saw a 4-foot shark swimming nearby and I panicked and almost swallowed some water. I quickly got out of the water and chatted with some locals about it.
He was telling me there are a lot of sharks around the island and some tiger and hammerheads too. The one I saw was probably a harmless reef shark though. After staying out for half hour, I went back in again and didn't see any sharks this time. I did, however, saw my first wild clown fish swimming by some anemones though.
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| Sunset over Welcome Bay - Fitzroy Island - Queensland, Australia |
I went back to the resort and finished the Amazon book before bidding farewell to Brendan and headed back to Cairns.
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