An Island Adventure

I am on Thursday Island for five weeks ... one of those places that you hear about through the grapevine and want to experience for yourself. My thoughts are how hot is it really going to be. On a tropical Island in the middle of the wet season in the Torres Strait. Whilst I have been travelling and working in new locations for 18 months - it is daunting to consider arriving "on Island". Two flights a ferry and bus to the accommodation - find where I am to be accommodated and then a courier takes you there with your bags.

Thursday Island - the central governmental hub for the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area. Covering Islands as far north as Saibai which lies just 4km off the coast of Papua New Guinea. I have been talking to others that have been before and of course done some reading courtesy of the www.

First impressions as I cross the strait from Horn Island to Thursday Island on a small ferry operated by MacDonald Charters - impressed, excited, some trepidation - looking for sharks, crocodiles and turtles. 

People are sitting out on the roof of the ferry - locals and visitors alike with our luggage stowed around us. The language is different here. Some Creole and the languages of the Islands. I am yet to find out more. I listen and absorb it. Meantime, the colour of the water is spectacular, an azure blue that changes to a milky green as the light changes with storm clouds approaching. 

Local transport in contrast with the Sea Swift Barge

There are large leafed trees lining the foreshore and I later learn these are the native almonds which are edible when dry and the cockatoos love them. 

Sulphur Crested Cockatoos enjoying the native almond

Lunch time

There is a finer leafed tree also -  the 'Wongai' where the seeds are made into local jewellery and -  'if you eat the fruit you will always come back" 

I am staying 1km from work and walking to and from the hospital each shift, I get to experience the changing moods of the island. As the sun rises, and the tide ebbs and flows, the storms come through - short, sharp, torrential down pours, followed by brilliant sunshine.

Thursday Island from Victoria Parade looking to wards Hospital Point.

The camera is going to get a work out again I see. The views are spectacular with the Hospital situated right on the edge of the Island. The maternity department is mere meters from the high tide mark. What a view as you spend time with women in labour - soothing, distracting, awe-inspiring.