Fisherwoman

Yesterday one of the people that we are doing environmental work with, Jason, took Michaela and I out fishing. We went out on the Endeavor River on his small boat with his 2 year old daughter Indy. Indy stands for India, not Indiana Jones, I asked. We went out around 7:30 in the morning hoping to catch a glimpse of some crocodiles sunning on the banks but we were disappointed. Then we realized that many of the crocs in this river have been caught and transported to Cairns for x-ray because this is the same river where Arthur Booker was taken by a croc a few weeks ago (see my entry on that), meaning there aren't many crocs to be seen at the moment.

So we settled down for a couple hours of fishing on a shady part of the river. We weren't expecting to catch anything, we just wanted to have some fun, but instead we caught four fish of three different species! I pulled in the first fish of the day, it was an Estuary Cod (I believe we call them Grouper?) and then Jason pulled in three more. Two were Mangrove Jack and I didn't catch the name of the last one. I have now caught my first Australian fish! Jason took them all home to cook up but promised next time we would gut and cut them up on the boat so Michaela and I can try some as well. I wasn't real keen on gutting and de-scaling the fish here at Christina's house as I've never done it on my own before. All in all a very fun morning!

And if you were wondering what Indy was doing while we were fishing, wonder no longer. She was running around the boat popping the eyes in the fish we used as bait. It was a little disconcerting to see an adorable little girl poking the eyes out of fish but we soon warmed to it. The eyes make a satisfying squish when popped and squirt out black goo. It's kinda fun.

The Final Seven

While it would have been more dramatic to say “the final five”, I couldn’t actually bring myself to narrow it down that much. So here it is, my final seven choices for law school. And by final I don’t actually mean final. It really all depends on what my lsat score is. But this is as final as I can be at this moment in time. I’m happy with my selection. I think there’s a little something for everyone. We’ve got East and West. North and South. Rain and Sun. Urban and Rural. And they’re all damn good schools and I’ll be happy to join any one of them. So without further ado:

Washington U. St Louis

U Washington Seattle

U Colorado Boulder

Cornell

American U

Georgetown

U Texas Austin

Let me know what you think...

Aussie Books

I am now officially the proud owner of a Cooktown library member card! This card allows me access to the finest literature on offer here in Cooktown. I spent a happy twenty minutes browsing the shelves (it's a small library). About two minutes in, I realized that at some point in time, a generous donor must have bestowed upon the library his entire collection of Aussie western novels. Everywhere I turned there was a book titled "The Outback Odyssey of Wild Will" or "Cassidy's Killer Crocodiles".
There was also a (relatively) extensive section on local Cooktown history that I'll be sure to hit up at some point. Surprisingly, there isn't all that much on Captain Cook. I say surprisingly because in this town of 2,000 people and one main road there are no less than four monuments to Mr. Cook himself. And every year there is a full-on "Captain Cook meets the natives" re-enactment down at the, where else, Captain Cook memorial park.
In any event, I'm happy to have another connection to this little town. Here's to many good Aussie westerns in my future!

Cooktown Croc Attack

A man was taken by a crocodile last week at the Endeavor River just outside Cooktown where I'm living. It happened the day before Michaela and I left for Brisbane. I was caught up with studying so I didn't pay much attention at the time but it's been all over the news and it's all anyone is talking about up here. The following is an excerpt from an article about the tragic attack.

The family of a man who is believed to have been taken by a crocodile in far north Queensland say they are devastated but hoping for a miracle.

Arthur Booker, 62, from Logan, south of Brisbane, has not been seen since he went to check a crab pot at the Endeavour River Escape campsite near Cooktown, north of Cairns, about 8.30am (AEST) Tuesday.

...

Cairns Police District Inspector Ian Swan told AAP Wednesday's search found a second sandal belonging to Mr Booker 400 metres upstream.

Mr Booker's wristwatch was also found earlier.

The only other clues to his disappearance were a camera on the bank, the track marks of a crocodile and a snapped crab pot line.

"There are 15 people searching and the searching is in boats," Insp Swan said.

The Endeavour River Escape campsite's Terry Rayner identified a six-metre crocodile named Charlie as the key suspect.

"He lives there. That's his territory. He's the alpha male there," Mr Rayner said.

But Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service regional manager James Newman told ABC Radio two other large crocodiles were spotted in the area and search crews were exercising caution.

The University of Queensland's crocodile expert Professor Craig Franklin said crocodiles were ambush predators on the lookout for repeated patterns of activity from potential prey.

"They don't target humans. They're opportunistic feeders," Prof Franklin told AAP.

The owner of Cooktown's The Lure Shop, Russell Bowman, said Mr Booker had made the fatal mistake of returning to the same location twice, having set his crab pot and returning to retrieve it.

"It's one of the basic rules you apply, don't form habits," Mr Bowman said.

Here is a link to the entire story: http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5050723/hopes-fade-suspected-croc-victim/

At the end of this article there is a reference to a croc attack in 2005 where a man was pulled out of his canoe. This happened on a part of the river where we camped in Lakefield national park. And while it is obviously tragic when someone is taken by a croc the man was also not being very smart. He and his wife were in canoes on the river (a very, very bad idea) where they were hoping to film some crocodiles. The story goes that in order to lure the crocodiles out so they could be filmed the couple was throwing chum into the water around their canoes. This, according to the locals, is unspeakably idiotic. It's just a step above tying rotting meat around your waist and going for a swim. In order to placate the family, park rangers were required to kill the crocodile that ate the man. Only they got the wrong crocodile. You want to know how they know this? A few days later a different crocodile pooped out his wrist watch.

In any case I have learned that crocodiles do not mess around and are not to be messed around with. It's safe to say I'll be staying out of the water.