New friend Ajay Parmanand sits on the shores of Baffle Creek, Queensland's last pristine river.

Journal and photos by Nancy Olson

Ajay and I had grand plans to do some early morning fishing, but nobody was awake and ready early in the morning. Instead, we went down to the river at around 0900 and tried our luck. It was too late to catch the good ones, but Ajay got a catfish on about his second or third cast. We let him go, though.

After more than a half hour of waiting, my attention was distracted by what I thought must be a silver-dollar-sized turtle swimming near the bank. I put my pole down to investigate, but I ended up stirring up a lot of mud with my feet and clouding the waters too much to see. I was unable to locate the mysterious "turtle." I went back to my pole and began reeling it in. Just then (and isn't this always the way?), I felt a tug on my line. I valiantly fought a six-inch brim and pulled him into shore. I ran over to where Ajay was fishing and had him take my photo and then remove the hook (Ajay also put the stinky chicken bits on my hook for me, because I am a GIRL, and girls don't have to touch the bait or the fish!). Unfortunately for the little brim, he had swallowed the hook. It was too far down in his throat to remove without injury, and Ajay had to practically rip his guts out to remove the hook. I would have let him go, but he was a goner. I promised the little fishie we'd enjoy every bite of him so his death would not be in vain. As Ajay was cleaning him, an big aquatic roach-like bug came out of his mouth and tried to swim back in. Apparently many fish are the host to such parasites, who feed off of what the fish eats! He was a disgusting little sucker!

So, we brought the prize fishy up to the house and put him in the fridge for later. Meanwhile, Gabbi and Ajay and I decided to head to nearby Agnes Water to see the beach and to have lunch at a Thai restaurant in town. Next to Agnes Water is the Town of 1770, where Captain James Cook arrived on the shores of Australia when he discovered the continent in that year. It's a beautiful place.

While waiting for our Tom Ka Gai soup (my absolute favorite meal in the universe), I got online to check my e-mail. I'd been in dire need to do that for several days, but the last few places had problems accessing my mail server.

In my mailbox were several old and looming taskers from Nick, including some hate mail urging me to get my rear in gear and get some work done, (because Drive Around the World comes before bike riding and being a bar maid). Ugh! Because we were all just in Central and South America, where there is a great Internet cafe on every corner, nobody quite understands that this First World country (or Queensland, at any rate) has very few internet access points and very slow and unreliable connections. That's why I end up spending a day or two in the towns that have good Internet. Anyway...

My failure to perform my duties put me into a funk, and Gabbi told me to go for a swim to get over it. That was excellent advice. I went into the waves and body surfed with Ajay until both of us were exhausted and water-logged. It was awesome! Tomorrow, I want to come back and rent a surf board.

After a couple of hours, we called it a day and headed back to the farm on Baffle Creek.

Gabbi cooked up a dinner of yummy chicken curry, and we ate teh sad little perch as an apetizer. Boy, was he gooooood! Mmmm! His excellent flavor allowed me to get over the guilt I felt over having killed him before his time, and we planned to fish for some more of those tasty brim tomorrow morning, before I have to leave.

Life is GOOD!

Mileage: 0
Weather: Brilliant
Final Location: Baffle Creek

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four Certified Pre-Owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking here. 100% of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.