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The landscape on the Saddle Road



My Latest 8 diary entries:

Pete's Churchill Odyssey 2005

14th Nov 2005
Giant clams and Naked Fish

Monday, 14th November, 2005
This morning we were determined to tackle breakfast a little differently and pitched up at the dining room at about 8.20 and outlined a few clear preferences when asked … all went smoothly; yoghurt and muesli arrived without hitch, the coffee equally – regular and decaf – the only slightly irritating thing was the sequence of plate clearing and then the few minutes that passed while you sat there eagerly anticipating carrying on with breakfast only to have the waiter pass closely by, who then asked whether it was OK to bring the next course !! Having urged him to ‘get the whole lot out here as quickly as he could carry it’, breakfast progressed at a more normal pace.
We decided to take it fairly easy … a few things to catch up on … a bit of a browse through the shop and a check of the e-mail. Mid morning Anne went and sussed out the possibility of being taken along to the giant clam colony and managed to arrange that we were taken down there ceremoniously, in the resort barge. We swam for about an hour drifting over the clams ... I started to count them at one stage as I swam over them but gave up when I got to 67.
They’re amazing animals … over a metre long, with siphons wide enough to be able to stick your arm in and they just sit there for forty, fifty, sixty years in the same place basking in the sun and living predominantly off the algae that inhabit their outer flesh.
We went back along to the resort and the seaplane came to collect some of our fellow visitors on its way up to Cairns and then whooshed off out of the bay. We packed our bags in order to release us for a leisurely beer and lunch. Delicious cold soup.
All too soon it was our turn to take the barge out to the seaplane dock and at about 2.30 we were clambering on board and then taxiing out of the bay (look left and right as you gout passed the headland … check on the radio … turn it around and then scud across the waves).
We stopped off in Townsville on the way through and then made our way out to Ian and Frances’. Chateau Gordon is quite a crowded digs tonight; we have the room (with the fan) up stairs and outside on the day bed and the hammock are Frances’ cousin and son.
The four of us went down into town to Naked Fish for a ‘signature supper’, which consisted of barramundi on a bed of bananas and didn’t perhaps slip down quite as well as anticipated. Frances has a half past three appointment at the airport tomorrow morning to deliver a couple of viszla pups as air freight for transfer to Melbourne.

Next: Out of Townsville
Previous: Yanks Harbour


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