No idea what day it is anymore
Another perfect day in this WA paradise. We take the tinny out to Big Lagoon via the 4WD track - with all the recent rain the land is vivid red soil, beautiful shades of green, dotted with wildflowers. Not a breath of wind, sea like glass, warm sunshine. Stingrays everywhere, and at the head of the estuary two bottlenose dolphins come over and swim right under the nose of the boat, turning on their sides to look at me as I splash the water and call out to them. They're so close I could pat them.
We drift fish the channels; I catch a flathead, then lure a squid close enough for Duncan to snag it. It sprays ink everywhere in enormous jets. My policy is not to let anything sit in the catch bucket suffering, so it's my job to knock the brains out of anything we keep ("Eww! Oh god I'm sorry! Oh, GROSS!"). Duncan catches a small shark and we deftly land it with expert fishing aplomb ("What do we do now?!" "I don't know! Get up on the bow darling, it's got teeth, where's the gaff?" "What's a gaff? Is this a gaff?" "Don't grab it like that it'll bite ya!" "Aaagh!")
Ignoring Duncan's chivalrous attempts to prevent me getting bitten, I grab it by the tail as it flails its way under a seat towards his toes ("Eeegh!"). It's about three feet long and going berserk, but I hold on while Duncan stabs it in the brain, then cuts its head off. So now we have a shark head snapping horribly around on the floor and me wrestling with a ghastly wriggling headless shark torso which is spurting blood wildly in every direction ("Gaaahhh!"). Two minutes later we have stopped screaming and are licking our chops as we discuss how we're going to cook it. It's all very visceral and horrid but I remind myself it's a lot more humane than the things our food goes through before we buy it in nice plastic packages at the supermarket.
2.5 marriage proposals later we're back at camp with a feast of shark & flathead (garlic, lime, chilli); there's enough for Honey & Smokey, who now worship Duncan & follow him around drooling.
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| Track to Big Lagoon in Cape Peron National Park, Shark Bay |
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| The shark |
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| Lunch |
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