Deeral

The torture boarding gang with Rick and Yvette
Deeral is a small town just south of Cairns on the banks of the mulgrave river,we were heading up this way to meet Rick Terkelson who had offered us some work on a boat he was building. We met Rick through Kerry who we had met through Carol Curtis.

On our way up up to Deeral from Ingham we ran out of fuel and had to canvas all the local businesses in Tully for any help they could give us with fuel. We managed to get $20 worth of fuel donated and Mobil Tully donated a further $10, this was enough to get us to Deeral and after a quick swim at the boulders in Babinda we arrived in Deeral just in time for tea.

We were to wait a few days for a friend of Rick’s called Michael to arrive so after Rick had filled up our tank we headed to Walkamin for another job wwoofing. Our job with Rick would be to sand down the resin that Michael would be applying to the fibreglass hull. This process is known as torture boarding and it would soon become apparent to us why. A torture board is a long piece of plywood with handles on the back and sandpaper on the front. The board can be custom made to different lengths depending on the requirements of the job. We had a couple of smaller boards that could be operated solo and a longer 8ft board that needed two people. This longer board gives a more uniform finish and helps detect any imperfections or depressions in the finish. The moving of the different torture boards back and forth and round and round became a major part of our routine for the next week. Reflections in the crystal clear water
This process also created clouds of resin that managed to work its way into every orifice and cover every inch of bare skin. This had to be blown off as brushing or rubbing it would just form a paste with the sweat. To stop the dust getting in our eyes we would wear goggles and to stop it getting in our lungs we attempted to wear face masks. These however just made our goggles steam up so we had to do away with them and just hold our breaths. Using this method we torture boarded layer after layer of resin away in an attempt to create a smooth finish on both hulls of the catamaran.


Michael helps with bogging the boat
At night we were rewarded with fantastic food and as much wine as we could drink an offer that we all gratefully received, nobody more than Michael. Michael had been helping Rick on and off with his boat for a while now and made it up to Deeral whenever he had time. In his forties, Michael owns a nightclub back home in Germany and in his spare time enjoys prospecting for gold. He told us many a night of his plans to build his own boat and sail to Papua New Guinea to make his fortune in gold.
Phil eats fresh coconut from the garden
Anne had her first injury at Deeral with a flowering plant called Bouganvilea. The wildly sprouting soft looking branches arched over the overgrown grass surrounding the neighbour's property. Thinking it to be harmless enough, in an attempt to mow down the long grass under the branches, Anne drove the mower through the purple flowers. She explained to us, as she asked us to pick the deep thorns out of her arms, that in an instant her top had been ripped off her, the mower had driven into a drain and the sharp branches had clawed gashes through her boobs. Half a bottle of detol later she had manged to remove the evil flower from her skin and had regained composure after her embarrasing ordeal with one of Australia's flowers. Even the shubberies are deadly around here.
Our week in Deeral saw us earn a sizable donation to Book Aid as well as providing us with as much fuel as we could carry. Rick and Yvette had been wonderful people to stay with, and the opportunity to stay in one place for a week was very welcome, giving us the opportunity to experience the Tropics a little more closely.

With the Wet season soon approaching, little smatterings of rain had been falling and while never for very long, they nevertheless embolden the vegetation, encouraging it to grow, and this it does very quickly, giving a lush, multi-green hued vista. The sounds too, are incredible, especially at night, when everything wakes up and starts moving around. With their house beside the Mulgrave River, Rick and Yvette’s was a perfect location to acclimatise to Tropical life.
The gorgeous lush tropical lands of Northern Queensland
The synchronised croaking of the green tree frogs (every toilet bowl has one) is fascinating as first one, then another, then more, and before you know it many of them chime in and it the frog chorus. The cicadas can be deafening at times, their continual rhythmic drone all of a sudden erupting as if on command, and ending just as suddenly, leaving an audible hollow where all the noise used to be. The bird song is more intermittent but no less enchanting as they make a variety of whooping, cackling, popping, screeching calls, the butcher birds in particular sing all the time, their melody a duet as they call out to one another, answer, call again, and on they go. The flies, less welcome and always the herald of exclamatory cursing, buzz and land, buzz and land, the march flies being the worse of the lot; the possums fight and chase one another, a cacophonous racket on corrugated iron roof, the scrub turkeys burrow and roam about pretty absent mindedly rooting aound dead leaves. Crocodiles are heard around river banks at night, charging into the water after some unsuspecting creature (at least, that’s what we think, it may be a log falling, but, you never know. It’s the croc you don’t see that’ll kill ya, as people keep telling us). In the evenings we would even head down to Rick's pontoon for a spot of fishing on the Mulgrave River. Being full of Mangrove Jacks and Barramundi, we often ventured down with much hope of success but in the event caught nothing but tree branches and mooring ropes.
Gareth laughs with the small but handsome Rick
It was here that we first heard a banjo playing in the distance and Anne following the sweet tune up the road found an underpant wearing scouser called John picking away on his porch. Surrounded by cane toads and swarms of flies we learnt that a long time ago John had success in a UK band called The Cryin Shames and was briefly in the charts.
Phil talks to Rick as he sands down the resin

We stayed in Deeral for over a week and had a fantastic time. Thank you to Rick and Yvette for opening their home to us, for feeding us lots of fantastic tasting and healthy food and for all the wine. We miss you both and will never forget being woken up at 6.30 with enthusiam every morning to the sound of that awful music.