Why such a name? It goes back to the Bounty Mutiny. In April 1789, ship Bounty sailing to Philippines, stopped in Tahiti to replenish food supplies. Local climate and culture attracted sailors so much, that they refused to go any further. The crew decided to get rid of their captain and some too serious crew members. They sent them afloat in a small boat with no maps and very little food and water. Still captain Bligh managed to sail over 4,000 miles and reach Timor. On their way they stopped on The Great Barrier Reef ,on a small island, where they got a chance to recover a bit. They called this place Restoration Island. From there they sailed North, the next island they reached on Sunday, so they named it after the day. And so it went, for a whole week.
Before our landing, the ferry crew gave all passengers some labels identifying their operator for the rest of the tour. After experiences of previous days it was not surprise, that we remained not allocated to anybody. Luckily Peddels, the company running the ferry, sorted things out for us.
We had over 1 hour free time and then tour of Horn Island. We found a very friendly taxi driver, who familiarized us with the island. It is very small but densely populated. The only reason for it is, that it had a place good for a sea port. Before the port was established, all life was on Horn Island, which is much larger and very resourceful. In fact Thursday Island has no water, it is pumped from Horn Island. The main facility, which still remained on Horn Island is the airport. Thursday Island was simply too small.
Because of the port, Thursday Island became an administrative centre for Torres Strait inhabitants. There are boarding schools, TAFE College, few hospitals and many, many government offices.
The best view at the island and its surrounding is from the Battery Point. The guns were directed against Russians, who never came...
One and half hour passed quickly and we boarded a small ferry to Horn Island. Here we were finally in the hands of true professionals - Vanessa and Liberty Seekee. We started with a delicious lunch, then a visit to the Heritage Museum commemorating local war effort during II World War.
Horn Island was selected as a place for airbase already in September 1939, just few days after the war outbreak. Interesting fact is, that the Torres Strait Islanders volunteered in large numbers to Australian Army. Their participation rate was much higher, than this of mainland Australians.
Horn Island grew into a major military base in the Pacific hosting hundreds of American planes and initiating numerous air force operations. The island was few times bombarded by Japanese planes.
After visiting the museum we had a tour of the island exploring WW2 airstrip, old trenches, sites of guns batteries and underground command centre.
On the lighter note, Vanessa mentioned a smart way to cool beer in tropical climate - load bottles into a bomber plane and send it to circle on high altitude for half an hour.
There was also a puzzle. One Australian pilot run out of ammunition during a duel with Japanese plane. He attacked the enemy plane with his plane's wing. The attack was successful, but he lost half of the wing. Still he managed to reach the airstrip and land, but at the moment of touch down, his plane lost balance. The pilot jumped out and survived . What was first he did when he stood on his feet?
There were few interesting answers: he kissed the earth, he lit a cigarette. I posted same question on my Polish blog and I got a very good answer - he ran to the wreck of his plane and grabbed a bottle of beer.
All answers were wrong.
The correct answer is so down to earth, that I will skip it.
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