Time to brush up on your crab knowledge:

• Crabs are crustaceans. Crustaceans are creatures that do not have an endoskeleton like most animals have, but they have an exoskeleton. The exoskeleton of the crab is like a shield on its body, known as a carapace.
• Male and female crabs can be identified externally. You have to look at their abdomens. The male crabs have narrow abdomens, while the female crabs have broader abdomens.
• Male and female crabs can be identified externally. You have to look at their abdomens. The male crabs have narrow abdomens, while the female crabs have broader abdomens.
• Every year, 1.5 million tons of crabs are eaten over the world by humans.
• Crabs make up for a fifth of all creatures that are caught from the water bodies of the world.
• Most crab meat is very high in vitamin B12 (cobalamin). It is said that just 2-3 ounces of the meat of a crab will provide you with the entire day’s supply of the vitamin.
• Crabs eat a lot of things; they are known to eat both plant as well as animal foods. In that way, crabs are omnivorous. Most vegetarian crabs subsist only on algae. But flesh-eating crabs can eat other crustaceans, worms and mollusks. Crabs can also eat a mix of both plant and animal matter.

Location: Hamilton Island

Weather: Mirror-like ocean to start off the day, increasing wind and sunshine all day! 28°c

My love of seafood and of all things fish-like is being well and truly satisfied here on the Queensland coast with an extravaganza of ocean delights to tantilize the palette on an almost daily basis.

When I wrote down my Jack-Rabbit dream of getting the job as the Island Caretaker one of the criteria was being able to eat fresh seafood and fruit every day. So far, so good but today was the day I’d actually go out there and hunt some down myself….I was off fishing and crabbing!!

Another early start as I met my guide and mentor for the day, Kevin from Fish D’Vine one of the local restaurants at Airlie beach on the mainland. He’s an avid fisherman who knows everything there is to know about how to harvest the bounty of the ocean on all levels…I needed him to share some of his knowledge with me so I could catch my dinner.

A perfect morning allowed us to cover the 50kms south to the estuary of the Proserpine River pretty quickly, the calm conditions gave the surrounding landscape an almost Scottish loch-like appearance with the hazy conditions adding to it….ok it was about 20c hotter!

In order to catch Barramundi, our ideal catch for the day, we needed to get hold of some livebait. The usual method of catching them is to secure a hook through the bait’s back and throw the live over board allowing the bait to swim free hopefully into the awaiting mouth of a massive Barra!

Kevin’s a dab hand at fishing and demonstrated how to throw a cast-net capturing a few mullet ready for our exploits later on in the day, they all went into the bait well on the boat.

Enroute to our chosen spot we called into see a real hardy legend of these parts, 65 year old Bobby and his wife Rosy who fish and crab everyday and have done so for years. Their house is an old prawn boat driven high up onto the mangrove roots and their lives are dedicated to harvesting the hard waters of the river supplying fish and crabs to the local restaurants…how on earth they do it I really don’t know!

We stopped for a while and helped them haul out a few pots, a this time of the year there are few prizes awaiting them but we were lucky enough to pull out a few mud crab specimens which were big enough to take home and cook.

Leaving them behind we arrived at the river mouth and made our way up to the promised land, loaded up our hooks and threw four lines in the water…optimistic we’d be catching our dinner and securing a prize fish to boast about later.

We waited, reloaded, waited some more, use more livebait, got a couple of takes, lost our bait, reloaded…..and then hooked something. I grabbed the rod as the line ripped out from the spool, adjusted the drag and started the long haul…this was excellent finally a fish! After a five minute battle trying to keep it out of the mangrove and roots the unwelcome sight of a hooked Lagoon ray came into view. This poor thing isn’t what we’re looking at catch and so once we land it back into the boat we remove the hook and send it back into the river where it belongs. Well at least I caught something!

A mini-success signalled our chance to move one, we’d already ticked two of the three boxes having caught a crab and now a fish, leaving only the job of seeing a saltwater crocodile in its natural environment. We headed inland passing more mangroves and exposed riverbanks…the perfect environment for our snappy friends.

Then suddenly there was one there, just sitting in the sunshine warming itself up in the midday heat. It was massive at around 4 metres long and only slipped into the water once we got really close…and I mean really close! I’d hate to be swimming in the water right now…in fact I’d be dead for sure!

A perfect end to the day, we packed our gear up and made for home knowing that our stomachs were empty and in need of refuelling! An hour and half later we were soaked to the bone and arriving back at Airlie Beach after a superb day of great achievement. No we hadn’t caught a barramundi but we’d got the crab we needed for the meal.

Fish D’Vine are situated on the beach front at Airlie Beach and specialise in fresh local fish and shellfish, you can choose the fillet you want and have it cooked there and then for dinner. Now was my time to prove myself as a chef!

The crab had their brain’s spiked to kill them quickly and painlessly, were then boiled until cooked through and left to cool. The famous recipe at the restaurant is Chilli Mud Crab which people visit from far and wide to have the chance to taste. Following Becky the chef’s instructions to the letter after half an hours toil everything was ready…the dish was ready to serve up.

There’s something about secret recipes that intrigues me…not knowing what makes it quite so good is part of the fun but boy I can tell you this is something special! I love my hot food but this meal also maintains a cracking unique flavour which doesn’t burn the hell out of your mouth…and I polished off the entire dish!

The culmination of a very successful day out! Marks out of 10….9! Just wish I got the Barra!

End of day location: Airlie Beach
Distance covered: 120kms