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10/10/2006: "MAORI WRASSE ....... The last day"
Snowie speared his maori wrasse, over 120 pounds, late on the last afternoon at Broomfield Reef.
The fish was kept on ice, photographed in better light the next morning, on the way home at Keppel Island.
1st September Today was our day off from fishing. It was spent in beautiful sunny weather under a cloudless blue sky. Went for a bit of a hobble with Snowie the morning looking for a couple of chooks to shoot.
We didn’t see any cats until the sun went down. There are dozens of wild domestic cats as well as hundreds of chickens that live high in the tree's and fly like eagles (....sort of) to avoid the cats.
I spent nearly all day laying down on my stretcher with this lousy knee of mine. Hope it gets better soon.
Ron, Val and Snow went looking for sea shells. I think Ron is going to make a B&W movie on shell collecting.
The two old shell collectors who are in the hut are nice people. They have been here for three months. I read a bit of a book called The Coast of Coral and got a bit of a laugh at the bits on spear fishing. It was published in 1956.
2 September (No entry, too sick)
3 September (No entry, still too sick)
4 September Wally Muller arrived here again this morning. He analyzed my knee as a touch of coral poisoning.
Luckily he had on this, his return trip, brought along some LEDERKYN SULPHER tablets.
Wal radioed a doctor back on shore and received instructions from him.
I have to drink plenty of water and take a pill every eight hours (on the dot).
Looks as though they intend staying here at N W fishing for another three days.
Boy will I be glad to get out of this bed. I’ve been laying here ever since Saturday.
Footnotes: Valerie took my camera for the next three days and got a few pictures for me.
I was in a bad way with an injured leg. Unable to stand upright due to pain, I had to crawl along the beach to “go to the toilet”, for six days.
The nearby grave of someone buried on the beach years ago was not very comforting when you feel like dying.
I can think myself “lucky” Wally Muller arrived back at the island after three days. When he left he said he’d back back in either three days or maybe 10 days.
Not a chance in the world of my lasting that additional week without treatment. No phone or radio. No help.
I was a bit delirious with cold shivers, in a sleeping bag in the sun. A lump in my groin about the size of a hen's egg was the lymph gland blocking poison from travelling further.
It seems to have been caused by neglecting to treat the numerous injuries received from handling fish, and by coral cuts and scratches - all becoming infected after hours in the tropical water each day. I was under a false illusion that sea water healed or treated injuries. Not with coral. It gets worse.
Imagine the fate of people in shipwrecks years ago on these reefs. Even a small cut can be fatal when untreatable.
Next day at the hospital in Yeppoon they suggested they'd lance my still swollen leg. The sulpher tablets were working and every day now seemed easier.
(A few blow flies within the hospital turned me off spending any time in bed there. No air con in those days)!
I don’t remember additional details. I must have caught a flight back home in Sydney.
Perhaps the sulpher tablets worked without other treatment? This was still a few years before anti biotics were easily available.
A little side-effect of the sulpher treatment is potential kidney damage.
