King Cascade 31 Aug

Another beautiful sunrise - aahhh the serenity

After a magnificent sunrise an early morning fishing expedition resulted in one dropped barra – groan – and Stephen and I, at one stage, had duelling cods on the go. Ooops, sorry Tim, not allowed to use that word!! By now I have been given the title of the Cod Queen, of which I am exceptionally proud, but not in front of Tim. Lots of talking about poetry on the boat this morning. I wonder what eventuates from this conversation?





The now famous cod




We see a number of crocs along the way. I find them quite disturbing. One minute they are looking at you from the water with their beadie eyes, the next they are gone and leave you
wondering where they are going to turn up next.

Brekkie then a cruise up the Prince Regent River. A number of us were sitting on the front of the boat admiring the view when Trippy does a right hand turn into a little cove and King Cascade is in front of us, just like that. King Cascade is a spring fed waterfall and I might say very beautiful.













Unfortunately we are welcomed to the cove by a couple of our prehistoric friends. One parks himself just at the back of the boat where we get into the tinnys. His mate is over in the mangroves, which is where we are heading to climb the falls. At this point, I start freaking out. I gather my courage and make my way into the tinny furthest away from the croc. The tide is quite high and the branches of the mangroves low which makes me nervous about what is hiding amongst them.

We make it to the rocks but then the climb is quite steep which I am most unhappy about. I put the two facts together, steep climb means falling into the croc infested water. By this stage my heart is going at 100kph and I can feel the tears welling up. Thank goodness for sunglasses. As I am writing this blog I obviously did not fall into the jaws of a crocodile.

These are fantastic flowing falls which go on and on with lots of waterholes to swim in. We spend a good couple of hours swimming and standing under the gushing water. Definitely a shoes on place as the rocks are very hot, I’ll remember that next time!
















Disaster strikes when Laurence, aka Adrian, who is swimming in a very deep pool, yells out that he has lost his now famous arafat hat. This was a joke that backfires on him. He loses his hat from between his knees (where he was hiding it) and it drops to the bottom of the pool, never to be found. We are all devastated as we will no longer be able to put sh## on him anymore, well not for the hat anyway!!

The last sighting of the arafat hat




Back to the GE – this time I wasn’t so concerned about climbing down, don’t know why as those bloody critters were still hanging around – for a lunch of barra and salad in a glorious setting with the falls behind us.

Don't do it Ali, you'll be sorry!!



The afternoon is spent with a big shleep wherever you feel like as we cruise out of the cove and anchor down river for the night.

Most people sit in the sun here!





Steaks on the BBQ with dinner on the back deck. Performance night tonight with Stephen standing up in front of everyone with his little limerick about Team Tim.

There once was a large barramundi,
Who refused to be caught on a Sundee.
With Tim as our guide,
We tried and we tried,
Then gave up and came back on the Mondee.

Very impressed with Stephen as it is not his thing at all to get up in front of anyone and perform.

However Adrian stole the day with his Ode to the Cod Queen.

Wary, scared, hungry, still
Cruel, hunched up, ready to kill,
In shadow, in darkness, with quivering gill,
Luuuurked the barramundi.

Determined, patient, eager to try,
Her rod held up, tip to the sky,
Facing the snags with straining eye,
Stood Anne, the Cod Queen.

The fish burst out to chase it’s prey,
The lee-oo-ah came down: a plume of spray,
The last flick of a longer day,
And hooked the barramundi.

Jumping, pulling, twisting, fraught,
Flashes of white, it’s only thought
To break free again, to never be caught
Fought the barramundi.

Resolute strong, determined still,
The Cod Queen stood, with iron will,
And wound and wound the glistening reel,
Tiring the barramundi.

The garlands stream, much praise abounds,
To the Captain’s table an invite is found,
The fish is weighed, its forty pound,
The Cod Queen’s glory.

The Captain’s guest list long and wide,
There’s profiterole Dave and gulping Clive,
There’s Laurence and Steve to share the pride
With Anne, the Cod Queen.

The Suzanne twins, the Tassie Quads,
Barra Tim, Ali, Megs and others sods,
The green-eyed chef, Warren and Jen,
Eating the Barramundi.

Good one Adrian, obviously boarding school had some benefits. Let’s hope the prophecy comes true.