Mutee Heads - South

0730hrs on the road – Chook and Teresa still packing. Arrived Mutee 0840hrs track off in parts. Went past Mutee Heads and ended up at a magic spot around the corner. Couple in with a camper roof tent unit drying out and departing on an hour or so. Went back to Mutee Heads – no way are we going to get in there, plus buried in amongst the trees. Back to 1^st camp site Mutee Heads 'SOUTH' – magic spot, room for two vans at a push.

Within an hour of arrival – a bloke with kid’s looking for a shady camp and fishing location, not impressed with Mutee Heads = sorry 1st in get's the best location.

Chook and Teresa arrived 1200hrs. Found 4 chairs in the bush all in good nick, set up our shade patio with table from Banyan Daly River - see later.

All set up 1400hrs.

Our camp site and beach, with deep water 
anchorage for our tinnie/s.
 
The only bridge into Mutee Heads - fast flowing water below

 Mutee Heads main camp area, substantial trees. 
Grave site and memorial lower right.
 

As can be seen, we are only 2.6k's from the Jardine River mouth. The Jardine River was (is) a disappointment= mud flats. You can only access the river mouth for 500mtrs at high tide, and then you need to watch you don't end up on the flat's waiting for the next high tide.

 Mutee Heads camp ground = crowded and shady, 
with some serious washouts. 

 

 Approach to our camp site.

 Oh! no, found another chair. 

How ever this is no ordinary chair it's a 'THRONE!

Chook and Teresa arriving

Our SHADY PATIO!

Lunch - me a sanga, and Sue noodles

Light refreshments with lunch!! 

Chook and Teresa now redundant and on HOLIDAY'S!

Our camp site!

A real sun downer, every one's got a glow

There she is!!

Early morning fish off the rock's - Queenies!

Mid morning and we are on the WATER, 

fish busting up 1 - 1.5k's offshore earlier

Happy to be on the water and on Holidays, until later when______Shark attack on Chook and Teresas' fish and tinnie – Tawny Shark

Chasing splashes until we head to Jardine River mouth, very shallow – land GT – 2kg on fly. Sue had a Tuna on for awhile – line cut = shark! Wind getting up and took 45 minutes to get back to camp in the slop.

Impressive - no one sighted to have a yak.

Making up some more weighted flies. 

How's the view from my work bench?

Calm!

Camp site - for two!

On the water 0830hrs – Sue had  a hook up with Tuna – lost it.

Check it out - mid photo = Shark shape, another TAWNY!

Chook landed 2 Queenies and cooked up 

one for tea with bread crumbs and cajun spice. 

Now how's that for a sun set!!

Wolf Herring - very bony, but excellent BAIT!

Cooked breakfast – on the water 0840hrs – tuna action. Sue hooked up again – lost with another shark on the scene.

Jardine River mouth dry = low tide. Troll – Wolf Herring, Baracuda, Golden Trevelly and a small Queenie.

Chook land 2 Wolf Herring, and both Chook and Teresa both had Tuna on.

Camp 1230hrs – made up new flies,

yellow and white clousers, red and white.

You can eat only so much FISH. 

It's Chook roast – oven bag style.

This fellow decided to make camp in our camp table.

Another magic day with the heating element gone for the day!

Missed the Turtle during the night.

Our camp site, shade patio over to the right

View from our shade patio

Now how calm do your need it?

On the water 0730hrs – calm as! Again chasing SPLASHES!! 

No tuna hook ups.

Chook and Teresa had hook up’s but the sharks

 got the better of them and the FISH!!

Cruise down to the mouth of the Jardine, anchored up and bait fish – within 10 minutes the GT’s moved in. Out with a fly and we are on!! Then the fun began, a shark moved in, let the fish run then cranked in quick just got it into the net, shark had a go along side the tinnie. Then dunked the bleeding fish with a croc, having ago. The croc lay under the tinnie for 10 minutes or so.  Sue hooked into a GT and the shark gave it a hurry up. Sue thought the shark was hooked up. Took over and started to winch the GT back, once along side it was quickly netted!!

1020hrs back to camp, the wind got up and bouncy around the sand spit, took 25 minutes.

Chook busy packing – hooked Troopy onto his tinnie and dragged it up off the beach to load.

Teresa landed a GT whilst I kept the shark busy. Chook landed a Golden Trevelly – fresh fish for tea.

Chooks tinnie getting ready to load

Fish and roast veggies

Look how calm it is and they are departing. Off to visit Hannah in Port Douglas, and pick-up their stuff.

Chook up early to finish off packing 

Coffee and Monte’s all round, map out and info on travels and KAB. On the road 0930hrs.

Day off fishing from the tinnie – we had 12 vehicles drop into our camp site.

On the road!

Back to soaking bait for several more hours – no takers

Bloke from Mutee Heads walked down to the Jardine and returned 1200hrs with GT and Golden Trevelly – released several.

Dessicated flying fish in our tinnie,

fly previously tied a dead ringer

Bush Turkey also reckoned our patio shade was pretty good

Bush fire somewhere out back of us

2100hrs she's back to check out some more!

On the water 0740hrs – oyster rocks – been picked over – shells as big as saucers = Bugger!!

The oyster rocks at low tide

Lot’s of fish activity across the flats – river mouth dead, Sue landed a pilot fish. 1030hrs wind up, troll back nothing.

Checked out the spot where the hire boat parking every day, 20mtrs hole. Later talking to some locals it used to be a good hole for Jewies, but has been hammered over the years.

Another project - make up some velco roll down tabs for the annexe roll down sun shade. Works well!

Turtle tracks if you come across 

these on your next beach walk

They don't make 44's to last a long as these any more

Mutee Heads - RADAR STATION - WW11

No 52 Radar Station moved from Mascot in New South Wales to Townsville in north Queensland and finally to Muttee Head on Cape York in far north Queensland. Muttee Head is at Latitude/Longitude: 10 54.00 S, 142 15.00 E . No. 52 Radar Station was based at Muttee Head from 29 March 1943 until 29 September 1945.

The Injinoo people in the Muttee Head area actively assisted with the war effort. They helped with the construction of facilities and in the water transport unit to New Guinea. 

This may well have been a gun placement?

Brass will last!!

Several visitors during the day – one cheeky fellow wanted to park up behind us, deadly soft sand and the mossies will carry you off!   He buggered off!!

3 blokes in a boat pulled in – gave them the tourist spewl, soft sand, rough track to the Jardine, bogged vehicle's at the mouth.

It's getting HOT!! Annexe temps – under roof rafters against canvas – 52.7, insulation under wire 37.3, hard under 43.9 – definite benefits to use insulation material under annexe canvas in the tropics.

 

On the water 0845hrs – calm as with a falling tide, Q at the rocks, into the Jardine River as far as we dared go with a falling tide. Trolled back out, and Sue had a STRIKE, then it hooked up on my fly – GT 2kg landed.

Wind up, bouncy and wet around the sand spit. Some hit’s on the troll to camp near the oyster rocks. Rocks at camp = small GT for Sue and Q for me.

Tour boat pulled into our beach and Black guys, probing the Turtle nest for eggs, not sure what he was going to do with them – told Sue take them home to count??

Beach combing - Emergency Drink Water from a life raft
 - Mfg - Indonesia

Yep! This is can of unopened Pepsi from Thailand, 
how it got here is any ones guess

FOOT PRINT's

CROC PRINT's

More turtle tracks up to lay eggs

Net floats ideal for our red claw pots

More Queenies and Golden Trevelly off the 
rocks with my daggy_____

______weighted fly

Chook left us some 'BAIT' what do you mean it's food grade!

New weighted flies

Talking of flies - turkey poo soon colonised by these guy's

Calm as!

A big dog!

More Queenies off the rocks, these to be smoked when we get a fire going at Lake Katherine

The turtles have 100's of metre's of beach and he knock over my chair, good navigating

It's calm and clear water - see the leather coffin's coming

On the water 0845hrs – calm as with a falling tide, Q at the rocks, into the Jardine River as far as we dared go with a falling tide.

Wind up, bouncy and wet around the sand spit. Some hit’s on the troll to camp near the oyster rocks. Rocks at camp = small GT for Sue and Q for me.

Trolled back out, and Sue had a STRIKE, then it hooked up on my fly – GT 2kg landed.

Tour boat pulled into our beach and Black guys, probing the Turtle nest for eggs, not sure what he was going to do with them – told Sue take them home to count?? If you believe that you believe anything

Soaking a bait - chewed off again = crabs!

Have to rough it in the bush - your own pedicure's

Wow! did this go RED!

Even this guys swallowed my weighted fly off the rocks, released to grow BIGGER.

Still not enough chairs - drag the 
lounge down to the shade patio

Threatening, but no rain out of this lot

Same dog, a big fellow

This fellows even BIGGER, crept up on him behind the sand ridge, he was in the water in a hurry when I jumped up.

Early morning to the Jardine – 3.2k’s and 6 minutes to the sand spit, plenty of water to cross the sand spit/bar, up into the South arm, fly and weighted fly into the mangroves and gutters – small GT’s. Wind up early back across the sand bar, troll back to camp several touches, Sue had one hook up.

Tour vessel anchored - Jardine River, there is a Ranger Station up in the trees to the left. Very basic camp, have several quad bikes to patrol the beach

Just to show my flies work - released

Beach bowling ball

Our view from the annex with the sun roll down 
shade for the late afternoon

Make the velcro tabs for the annexe shade roll down

Walk around to Mutee Heads yak to the campers there, found this in the scrub on our way back to camp thru the bush tracks - Octagon shape, shelter for Radar Station crew

Wind was up early so a day off fishing from the tinnie and just settling in for a quite day – finishing off the velcro annexe shade tapes

Sound of a vehicle departing then smelt the smoke and heard the crackling – walk up the track, sure enough as fire was heading straight for us, with a brisk wind behind it. Battened down the hatches, moved the Troopy, water hose ready, made up hessian bag fire wacker and Sue got some buckets of sea water. Walked up the track and put out the fire on our side of the track, wind variable, and dropped off as the fire came over the ridge. 
ALL GOOD

Iron sheeting stood up to deflect the fire if it came our way, the wind started to drop which sure helped the situation

Sue's ready, well sort off! Already loaded the computer and our passports into the Troopy to get out of here!

Managed to keep the fire on our side of the track under control. My childhood fire control, read out of control fire's during burn off's around the poultry farm, all came in handy DON'T PANIC!!

Letting it burn on the other side of the track - ended up going back thru the bush to the Jardine River when the wind changed, with four vehicles visiting our camp site as they had to turn abandon their trip to the Jardine River as the fire was running down in that direction

The island was formed by alluvial deposits from Papua New Guinean rivers. After Saibai Island was devastated by abnormally high tides wave after WW2, a group of Saibai Islanders, led by Bamaga Ginau, accepted Government assistance to resettle on Cape York. The village of Saibai was totally flooded by ten centimeters of water. Erosion and a lack of freshwater were concerns. Once a site was chosen inland of Red Island, the new town was named Bamaga. Later some moved to a new settlement at Red Island Point on the coast and named it Seisia.

After the FIRE!

Possibly some WW11 relics found in the burnt grass

Pitty did not find the tea pot lid

One more attempt to land a TUNA! On the water 0830 hrs – 0840hrs only 500 metres offshorehooked up on a tuna and landed in 10 minutes or there abouts, Sue doing a great job with the net just going around in circles 10 – 12 times before we finally managed to get the net under and into the tinnie quick before the sharks.

Sure enough within minutes we had a shark circling and he pinched my next fish on our troll back to the beach.

Sue happy, landed a TUNA.

No more Sharks and we did not run out of FUEL!! Still shaking an hour later after netting the TUNA!

Okay one more photo of the TUNA - all the way from Port Lincoln the Tuna capital of Australia to land a Northern or Skip Jack TUNA

Dragged the tinnie up ready to load

Packing

Yet another magic evening and Sunset

Yeah! I know some one's got to wash the smalls. 
I am packing!!

Locals heading home flat out!

Low tide

Traffic jam in the turning bay next to our camp - sorry folks another day or two and you have the camp site!

Morning of our departure - foggy calm!

Loaded and ready to relocate to cooler climes

All good to go! A magic 18 days,
 with a camp location hard to beat

Yep! we are heading south, notice no one can agree on the Muttee Head spelling.  

Back tracking to Normanton, via Dunbar, then down to Mt Isa thru to Lake Katherine and Alderley Station