Spear Fishing at Port Douglas

Port Douglas more than made up for the trouble taken in getting there.

We met up with an Aboriginal guide who took us spear fishing through a mangrove swamp and out along the shore as the tide went out. We started off with some spear throwing practice which demonstrated that anything smaller than a barn door was perfectly safe. As we walked into the mangroves we spotted a "Beware of the crocodiles" sign. Our native guide just laughed it off saying that the water was too warm for crocs. We carefully followed in his footsteps keeping our eyes peeled for these beedy little eyes.

Our main prey was to be Muddy Crabs. These are large edible crabs which hide in holes in the sand previously made by skates. Every depression in the seabed was firmly stabbed with the point of a spear. Suddenly there was a darting motion in the sand just in front of me. A crab was coming straight for my feet with its claws raised in attack. I stabbed at it with the point of my spear but it was moving so quickly that it was difficult to squewer.

I stopped its attack by flipping it over onto its back and then delivered the death blow. I was triumphant with my prize hoisted aloft when another little b***** launched a counter attack on my flank. I employed the same tactics that had worked previously. First flip then stab. In an instant I had 2 crabs on the end of my spear. Lunch was on me.

When they had been cooked they looked a lot smaller than they had when they were attacking me with their claws up.

It was Australia day and Stuart laid on a traditional Australian barbeque. We had sausages,burgers, lamb chops, kangaroo and a little bit of salad. All this washed down with some fine Australian wine. We toasted our cousins on their special day and noted how well they had done for themselves.

After dinner we walked into town in search of some cane toad racing. I felt sure I could beat a toad. It turned out that the toads raced each other. Unfortunately, I was at the bar when the race started and it was all over in 30 seconds. We went elsewhere in search of WiFi and caught the end of the Australian open.