Day 16 Monday 6th June


Thursday Island 

We caught the Peddells ferry over to TI today, along with a huge crowd of people from the Variety Bash. We couldn't believe how many people there were at the Seisia Jetty. It's about 1hr journey on the Ferry.
On arrival we hopped onto our tour bus with guide Liberty. He was great entertainment and born and bred local with lots of great stories. We took in the sight of the island and learnt the history of the pearling, military and Islander culture. Lots of graves from Japenese pearlers who dies from The Bends. 
We then had 3 hours to explore the town and have lunch at the pub.  
It's a really nice island, with friendly people and a lot cleaner than Cape York towns. Its also cheaper and has more variety. We saw some Cape York locals come over for the day (they jumped aboard without buying a ticket) and went shopping. There are also a lot of freebies for the TI locals, they had a government sausage sizzle lunch while we were there and free condoms in the pub. Obviously sexualising health is a problem area. Our tour guide explained diabetes is the main health issue, with locals "forced" to move to Cairns in order to get dialysis as they don't have enough in the hospital.  
The kids are been fighting for Daddy's attention. He doesn't usually sit down long so they all want cuddles when he does! 

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