Day 24 - Cooktown. To the left is the Railway Hotel at Ravenswood. Joe coughed into his crumpled handkerchief yet again, his mesothelioma was giving him trouble. He had trouble sleeping last night and it was looking like he was in for another bad night. Mesothelioma is dreadful disease of the lungs that is mostly caused by exposure to airborne asbestos fibres in the workplace. So far it has claimed around 10,000 lives in Australia and is expected to claim another 25,000 lives over the next forty years. I met Joe at a campsite when he asked me to have a beer with him; it was best idea I had heard all day.

Over a couple of beers he explained to me that he had been a carpenter and that he had done a lot of work using cement board which is partially made from asbestos fibres. The work involved cutting, shaping cement sheet for new buildings, so he had a lot of exposure. He explained that most of the people he worked with as a carpenter were now dead from mesothelioma. Although it is going to kill him at some stage he remains in good spirits and expects to live a few more years yet. Apart from his health problems he was a very interesting bloke and I very much enjoyed his company and conversation.

I am getting little behind with my posts, next week I will try and catch up with everything.