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Jan 20, 2010

Arriving On Thursday Island

After a short 15 minute boat ride over the beautiful blue waters of the Torres Strait we arrived at the wharf on Thursday Island.  From the wharf we walked (and carried our luggage) to the Jardine Hotel where we would spend the next two nights.
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Thursday Island wasn’t quite what I had  imagined it would be.  The Jardine Hotel was luxurious with all amenities and some of the best food I have ever tasted.  Mud crabs, oysters, lobsters and fish were prepared  and presented to us for our first evening meal and it was very well received by everyone there.
Some of our group spent the evening in the hotel pool but my friend and I went for a walk along the waterfront.  Thursday island  is not a bustling tourist resort as we had expected, instead it is a relaxed tropical island with practically no traffic, very few shops, a couple of churches and two very old hotels besides the Jardine where we stayed.
Visiting this beautiful northern paradise which has  remained almost untouched by progress it is hard to imagine that the Thursday Islanders had been cannibals who ate their enemies, believing that by doing so they would take on the strength of their enemies.  This practice  ended with the arrival of the missionaries on the Island  and the introduction of Christianity.
Thursday Island has it’s social problems, mainly alcohol and the problems that accompany it, but it is a beautiful place, culture and people and they are working together to solve the problems in their small, close knit, society.
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The view from our room at the Jardine Hotel.
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