Have you ever had the experience where an unexpected adventure smashes your bucket list to pieces? That’s what turtle tagging did for us.
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| Approaching Dirk Hartog Island |
We were gifted this amazing opportunity by the head ranger Chris from Shark Bay to join the turtle tagging team on Dirk Hartog Island (DHI) and accepted the invitation in a hurry.
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| Firing engines |
This time we did not bring any bananas on board (see Banana boat blog) and the engines were roaring as we sailed with the wind through our hair to Dirk Hartog Island. We met the best turtle tagging team in the world on board and high levels of energy were almost touchable in the air. After a rapid off-load of the barge and upload of the Island’s troopy (a Japanese brand troop carrier) we bounced along on white, dirt tracks to Cape Inscription and our new head quarters for the next five days.
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| Loading troopy |
This Island was accidentally bumped into by de Eendracht with Dirk Hartog as captain on 25 October 1616 - the first European to set foot on Australian soil. Apparently the Dutchman misjudged his navigational tools by a couple of degrees on his voyage to the East Indies and, by fluke, landed here. He named the Island after himself, as you would, and put a plaque up on what became aptly known as Cape Inscription. The round plate with inscription of the date and mention of some of the crew, can now be found in the Rijksmuseum in The Netherlands. If you look at the date, it is nearly 400 years ago when the Amsterdammer made his faux pas and a special celebration is planned by the local authorities this October. Twenty six million Aussie dollars is set aside for this purpose, which includes a tour of the replica Duyfken to Denham. I hope you haven’t capsized of boredom with this thrilling history lesson.
This Island was accidentally bumped into by de Eendracht with Dirk Hartog as captain on 25 October 1616 - the first European to set foot on Australian soil. Apparently the Dutchman misjudged his navigational tools by a couple of degrees on his voyage to the East Indies and, by fluke, landed here. He named the Island after himself, as you would, and put a plaque up on what became aptly known as Cape Inscription. The round plate with inscription of the date and mention of some of the crew, can now be found in the Rijksmuseum in The Netherlands. If you look at the date, it is nearly 400 years ago when the Amsterdammer made his faux pas and a special celebration is planned by the local authorities this October. Twenty six million Aussie dollars is set aside for this purpose, which includes a tour of the replica Duyfken to Denham. I hope you haven’t capsized of boredom with this thrilling history lesson.
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| Historical Cape Inscription |
For this semi -Dutch nomad arriving here on this wild barren cape, where currently a crude fake plaque resides over Cape Inscription, has enhanced meaning. Standing there overlooking Turtle Bay, I felt that this is the point where the two countries, that mean so much to me, intersect. Cape Inscription, with its gathering of old and new history, is the place that symbolises my own journey. It is that same melting pot of the quirky twists of fate that enrich my life and in the end has brought me to this Island.
For this semi -Dutch nomad arriving here on this wild barren cape, where currently a crude fake plaque resides over Cape Inscription, has enhanced meaning. Standing there overlooking Turtle Bay, I felt that this is the point where the two countries, that mean so much to me, intersect. Cape Inscription, with its gathering of old and new history, is the place that symbolises my own journey. It is that same melting pot of the quirky twists of fate that enrich my life and in the end has brought me to this Island.
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| The road to Cape Inscription |
After we settled in at the homestead we were amazed about the co-inhabitants we were sharing the building with. An infestation of cute little grey mice were busily investigating every inch of mostly the kitchen. If you left any food in a bag in your room, holes would appear in your bag overnight and your food would be gone. We all slept under mosquito nets but I saw way more mice than the dreaded mozzies. One girl woke up screaming when a mouse crawled up on the inside of a net and dropped on her head in the middle of the night. Several bungarras lived under and around the homestead and were seen snacking on the rodents.
We enjoyed a team briefing by ranger Steve, the team leader we had affectionately baptised as Officer Locke. This nickname was due to an incident at Francois Peron National Park where we were in hot pursuit of two German tourists that failed to stop for a chat. If you follow that up by riding a quad bike with sunnies and a silver helmet around the island, you are the ‘Po’lice’ in anyone’s eyes.
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| Officer Locke ready to put on the sunnies |
Officer Locke gave us the lowdown on working hours, sleeping times and turtle tagging. Little did we know that other than his huge work ethic, this gentleman also possessed a great sense of humour, knowledge of the stars, animals, surviving in the wild, bush cooking and porta-loos. We all loved listening to his blue-grass tunes on the guitar to while away the afternoon on the verandah.
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| Cool breeze and great views on this verandah |
We organised ourselves for that night’s turtle tagging training session by packing snacks, checking batteries in our head torches and filling up our water bottles. When we all loaded into the troopy at 1900 we all felt the same thing. A hum of expectation came over us that night. We sat on the two bench seats in the back of the troopy, laughing and carrying on as if we were going to war.
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| Night Falls.... |
We are ready to tag some turtle!!!
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| Cape Inscription light house |
Turtle tagging on Dirk Hartog Island is done in January. I
hear it is difficult to get in if you are not invited or you don't know someone. Contact DPaW if you are keen to give turtle tagging a shot. Phone (08) 9948 2226 or click on the following links www.sharkbay.org, www.dpaw.wa.gov.au for more information.
If you want to send me an email about anything you have read or have any suggestions for me I would love to hear from you. Click on the link underneath.
If you want to send me an email about anything you have read or have any suggestions for me I would love to hear from you. Click on the link underneath.
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| Airing the boots out for the nightshift |
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