Mangoes and Mackerel

We've now landed just west of Cairns, and have been pretty busy doing a lot of important things.. like picking mangoes and going fishing.

Lecky's older brother Nik has wisely invested in a hardcore mango picker. It's basically an extendable pool cleaner handle, with a wire loop and mesh bag with a blade at the end, which cuts the mango stem when you pull on a string. Having scoped out several targets around town, we hit the trees in the arvo armed with a ute, three boxes, the mango picker and a tolerance for green ant bites. An hour or so later we had three boxes stacked full of prime bowen mangoes - roughly 5 standard trays worth - a lot more satisfying than paying $2 each in a shop!

We also did a trip out to the reef on Tuesday. Five minutes after dropping the anchor, one of the lines went off - first fish of the day (landed by Lecky's dad) was a lovely 85cm spanish mackerel (small one). We also managed to boat 2 Coral Trout, one of which was a nice size (65cm), and I also got a 45 cm one....for those who are interested Coral Trout is one of if not the most highly prized reef fish, selling for $49/kg at the moment!!! Lecky and his dad disappointingly hooked 2 good sized trout only to pull up the head and mangled carcas respectively as big sharks smashed them during the struggle...

Overall we threw back or lost more fish than we kept - including two more mackerel (snapped the line) and some small reef fish.

Following the fishing we landed on Green Island for lunch, setting up a picnic under a tree on the beach. Swimming was kept to a minimum due to Irukandji jellyfish and our lack of enthusiasm for hospitalisation. Swimming was performed either in a stinger suit (looks like a Cathy Freeman Sydney 2000 get-up) or in the resport pool only.