Probably about halfway up the West Coast now, we've had all those dramas
with the tinny and everything's
settled down and we're cruisin', and we're heading for a little Aboriginal
town, Kowanyama.
And pretty excited to go
and do something a bit different and get off the boat for a while.
The thing with the west coast of Cape York,
fuel is very scarce.
There's not a service station where you just pull up and fuel your boat up.
So we've organised it with the guys, the community called Kowanyama.
Now lockdown has lifted...
because we actually had to wait at the river mouth for a few days.
Oh, yeah, perfect. Look at that.
The boys come down with the ute.
They've got a couple of 44s in the back.
That'll give us about four, roughly 400 liters of unleaded.
So we'll get that into the boat.
One litre, 2 litres.
About one wind a litre, isn't it?
200 winds, 200 litres.
A couple of minutes, you get sick with that arm and then use the other one
and then you get sick of that and give it to your mate to have a crack.
So you boys have been isolated a little bit.
Yeah, we were. - Yeah. The rain.
Is it been good wet?
It's been... well, we had a lot of water. - Yeah, excellent.
Better than last year, isn't it?
Better than last year.
Yep. Yeah, yeah.
It was. Good wet always bring some good, good
country then, hey? - Yeah.
This is going to take ages to fuel up like this with this little crank handle.
Local guys are catching mudcrabs whilst we're fuelling up.
You got him?
Yeah. - Oh, that's a good fellow, that one.
He is a stoinker.
The problem with a remote location is fuel,
and you really got to be on to that.
So the calculations
that I've got in my head, this fuel should get us further north.
Anyway, we have a chat to these boys and look their local boys.
They know what's going on.
I've never been to Kowanyama before,
and I'd really like to go and explore this place.
Pretty fishing for the last couple of weeks.
I got a metre jew just down there down there.
Now that we fuelled up the boat, we can go set up camp at the river mouth,
because this time of the year, at this time of the year,
on the west coast of Cape York, it's not only stifling hot,
but there's also bugs from hell.
So the river mouth seems to be the best spot.
Nice location. Sun's going down.
It's time for a cold beer. There's no doubt about that.
Just hold it there.
I'm going to push the boat out a little bit, hey?
We're going to catch up locals tomorrow, so pretty excited to see what goes on around here.
Bloody beautiful. Have a look at that.
The monster from the deep.
Cheers, mate. - Cheers, buddy.
How you goin', guys?
Good, thanks, how are you?
That's the go. No, we're good.
Oh, it's not tied off.
Lucky the other end is.
He untied it. How you going? Jase.
Good. Monty Gilbert.
Monty. How you goin', mate? Fitzroy.
How you goin', buddy? Pleased to meet you. Yeah.
Hey. We're here.
We finally made it.
Good. Everyone was waiting to see you.
Yeah, well Fitzroy was helping us yesterday with the refuelling and stuff.
And we got that sorted.
Oh, that's good. Yeah.
What I'd like to do is I'd like to welcome you guys here at Kowanyama
on behalf of the four traditional clan group,
the Kokoberra, the Kokomenjen, the Kunjen and the Yir Yoront people.
So we welcome you to Kowanyama and invite you to visit the community too.
Yeah, everyone was excited to see youse all come up here and all the kids.
Yeah, because everyone watches your show every year. Awesome.
We're excited too. This is our first time to Kowanyama.
And we're excited to meet you guys.
That's awesome. - Well, I'd like to do a bit of a welcome.
Customary, like wet your head, bless your head.
What happens when we go to these remote indigenous communities,
they're really keen to welcome us to their Country.
And a lot of the time we use what's called a smoke ceremony.
And it's the smoke ceremony that is very common.
These guys are what's classed as the Saltwater People.
So what better way to use water rather than smoke to welcome us to Country?
So you use the water? - Yeah, we use the water.
Well, that's a first for us.
Yeah, we just get a bit of water from the creek.
‘Kowanyama’ in indigenous terms is ‘place of many waters’.
So it's pretty fitting that we're going to be welcomed to Country with some water.
It's good, because it's a bit warm this morning.
Yeah. If you'd just take your hat off.
And I'll just over a bit of water on your head and blow your head there.
Welcome to Country. - Thank you.
Welcome to Country.
Thank you. - Thank you.
Sweet. What do you reckon? Let's go have a look at this town of yours.
We got the quad bike.
Is it all right if we take the quad bike in town as well? And we'll follow you?
Yeah, follow us. Yeah, no worries.
Let's go into town. - There's a stingray there!