Sitting back speeding across the dark predawn sea, I suddenly feel invigorated. Five am wakeups are a killer for me but now I am ready. We wade through the water to the beach onto Goodes Island. A steep scramble through the bush takes us up to some WW2 huts and the remnants of a gun placement constructed in 1942 to protect the Torres strait from Japanese invasion by the sea. The bush has reclaimed much of the remnants.
Our final destination was Horn Island the site of the “airport” originally built as a gravel airstrip in WW2. We joined a tour guided by Vanessa Seekee who married into the most influential family on the island and who has devoted her life to researching the WW2 history of Horn Island and excavating and restoring as much as possible. Suffice it to say she is passionate and articulate and like all great guides brings it all to life. We spend a fascinating afternoon visiting trenches, antiaircraft guns and plane wrecks. This is a very forgotten theatre of war right at the advanced edge of our northern frontier.
