Sunday, 18 April 1948. Even under conditions such as these which might conceivably be considered as out of the ordinary, if not tinged with some touch of romance, one can get good and tired of a sea journey. Yesterday late afternoon was enlivened with our visit onto the reef at the place where the Darwin went aground. The copper sheathing was torn on the coral and a lump of the sharp, jagged formation had pierced right through her hull in one place. The reef itself was about twelve inches under water when we got out from the dinghy in which we paddled around the wreck and went fossicking around on our own account. I was interested in the giant clams though elsewhere they grow to much greater sizes than we found them here. The largest I saw was not more than ten inches across. What pleased me more was the finding of some cowrie shells, parasitic on the giant clams. The cowries have been in my shirt pocket for twenty hours now and it is time I took some measures to get the fish out of the shells. It will probably be well to list the various promontories passed during the time after leaving Cooktown. Between that point and Switzer's Reef, the branch of the Great Barrier on which Darwin ran aground, the salient features are Cape Bedford, Cape Flattery, Weary Bay being south of Cooktown and none of the other bays marked until we passed Cape Melville; we headed away from the mainland to reach Switzer's Reef and it was dark when we left that poing. We rounded Cape Melville shortly after midnight and passed north of Flinders Island, heading about northwest across Princess Charlotte Bay. Annie River and Annie River Landing, the point where we intend to emerge after our second, Portland Roads, camp has been finished, lies at the foot of Princess Charlotte Bay, as do the Normanby and North Kennedy Rivers. Port Stewart, once the port for Coen, no longer is active and we reached the main shore-line some distance of it anyway. We came close in to the mainland about at the mouth of Dinner Creek at somewhere around 10 A.M. The Great Dividing Range, at this point shown as the McIlwraith Range, could be seen some distance back from the shore line and on the further side of the range Attack Creek, Archer River and Peach River flow off the west side of the range. We passed the mouths of Scrubby Creek and Rocky River, then Nesbitt River, and now, at the time of writing, we are about forty miles south of Cape Direction, which forms the eastern side of Lloyd's Bay. The Lockhart River, having its source in the main range and flowing eastward, turns north and opens into Lloyd's Bay and is mentioned here because we have been advised to get blacks form the Lockhart River Mission for our work in the Portland Roads-Annie River stretch. Portland Roads itself is another seventeen to twenty miles NNW after we round Cape Direction and we shall not get there before dark, a fact that I regret because I wished to have a look at Restoration Island, where Capt. Bligh made his first landfall. Iron Range, another district of interest ot us, where we shall be camped for some time, is about twenty miles SW from Portland Roads and the Claudie River, of particular interest to me because Jetty Joe wrote that it teems with crocodiles, has its origin near Iron Range. My new 303 rifle should get some exercise about there and Gil Bates gave me nearly 300 rounds of ammunition for it before he left Cairns. I started this entry by saying that even a journey like this palls after a while. I find myself itching to get on with the work we have come here to do and it is so much of a holiday cruise that I am beginning to resent the slowness of the trip. Some time during the night or early morning we shall cross Weymouth and Temple Bays and leave the Map Sheet I am referring to now. Another two days must elapse before we can round the tip of the Cape and prepare for our disembarking at T.I.P. Our first camp after landing will be at Lockerbie Springs, as I have said somewhere, and we shall set up camps also at Matee Head, or in its vicinity, and somewhere near the mouth of Jacky Jacky Creek. If we can get things done in time to get the Alagna on May 21st remains to be seen. We shall try.