Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Unlikely source for a keyboard

If there is a place where I did not expect to find a keyboard, it would
be Bamaga at the very end of the road to the Cape York Peninsular, in a
small shop selling postcards, hats and bras. But this is where I found
it, and at a very good price too considering its journey from the place
it was manufactured, as I paid less than 50 australian dollars.
But before all that, we anchored in SEISIA (in upper case as the name is
made up of the initials of the six brothers who founded the settlement)
and went ashore to visit. We found a small supermarket, a gas station,
and a camp/resort site with a restaurant, a tourism office and an
internet cafe. Unfortunately, we were told that we had to use their
computer and that they could not provide us with a connection for our
laptops. I do prefer to use my laptop, so that I can keep the mail I
read on my hard drive. Also, my Mac is where I keep all my pictures and
financial transactions, so I would rather wait until we reach Thursday
Island. We also found the plate erected in memory of the crew member who
got eaten by a croc in 1982. A sober reminder not to go swimming.
Having completed our shopping and filled up the jerrican with diesel, we
got back to the boat to store the foodstuff and went straight back
ashore to go and visit the big town, Bamaga, which lies 5 miles away. We
had to hitch a ride as there is no public transportation. In fact, for a
big town, it is hardly bigger than SEISIA, and apart from administration
services, like police, government offices and health care offices, there
is no much than in SEISIA. Just a little bit. To start with, the small
shop where I found the keyboard. Then, in addition to the supermarket, a
bakery and, a must in Australia, a liquor store, which doubles as a
bar/tavern. So we had a beer there, took pictures of the rules of
conduct for the customers, and went back to SEISIA, again, hitching a
ride back.
Tonight, we will go back to the camping/resort site for a shower, dinner
and then back to the boat for a quiet night before heading tomorrow for
Horn Island, where we anchored, and then Thursday Island that we will
visit via the ferry between Horn and Thursday.

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