The Wiligi Wrap up

The Day after Victoria Settlement we had a bit of a cleanup day. We’ve sustained some damage to the boat trailer on the corrugated roads and the stone guards have cracks in the welds are a bit wobbly, not to mention the state of the boat (it’s FULL of red Dust!) So we launched the boat and mum and I went to town on it with the salt water deck hose while the boys stayed back at camp and bolted on some additional steel struts onto the trailer to help with the longevity of the stone guards (hopefully! Since we still have 200km of dirt to go to get back to Jibiru and 700km each way of dirt to get to and from Nhulunbuy).

Bush trailer repairs - bolting on an extra strut

More trailer repairs

 We had a few more days fishing around Wiligi. We kept an eye on the weather hoping for a break in the relentless 20 knots of South-Easterly winds but luck wasn’t to be on our side. We were hoping to get out to some of the islands further out (Grant Is, New Years etc) but the wind just made it too rough. On one day we made it as far as Coward Island, but true to it’s name we tucked our tails between our legs and headed back inshore because it was too rough. Instead our favorite haunt became playing with the big tuna at that 30 metre bait ball.

Daz with a Northern Bluefin Tuna

Daph with her second tuna

Nat finally bags a tuna

Nat the treva boss

Most afternoons after we get home the kids like to sit up on the beach - Jess like making stuff out of coral lumps and Matilda has set up a hermit crab hostel for a whole bunch of hermit crabs, who strangely all have the same name "Lofty". I've also discovered some of the amazing rock formations out the front of Wiligi and the way the light up at sun set is incredible.

Jess unearths a bit of history

Matilda with the hermit crab hostel for Lofty..sand Lofty...and Lofty

Sunset at Wiligi

ahhhhh Wiligi

Is it possible to take a bad photo in this place?

More Wiligi magic

Black Coral

Another stunning Wiligi sunset

Wiligi

On one of the days a local bloke told us there was good oysters on the northern tip of Copeland Island. You can’t land a boat on the norther tip due to the shallow rocks so Daz dropped Jess and I off on the Southern tip and we walked around the Island. We found some oysters there (enough for a modest meal but nothing like the big Pacifics that I’ve seen in other places) so came home with a modest meal and richer from the experience of walking around the base of the magnificent red cliffs of the island where they meet the ocean. What a stunning place this is. Later on the same day we caught a nice fresh Tuna and that evening we had a beautiful sunset meal of oysters, Sashimi, “NamAAS” (fresh fish pickled for 1 hour – bloody delicious recipe that a local bloke showed mum) and home grown passion fruit that I bought with me. Oh the spoils of nature!

Crab in rock pool on Copeland Island

Jess at Copeland Island

Northern tip of Copeland Island

Mangrove tree on Copeland Island

Entree

On our final day we went out to Cape Cobourg and trolled around the point. We caught Mackeral and a lot of barracuda on what was a pretty quiet fishing day. Once again Bruce lifted the mood by jagging a Coral Trout (Literally! – the hook was in the middle of it’s back!) making Bruce carry on like he’d caught a stonka. A stonka it was not…but it was respectable and on one was going to argue with quality. 

Coral Trout!

Finally we had to turn our heads back to the sheltered waters of Wiligi for the last time, for the next day was a pack up day before heading back to Jabiru. Pack up day was stinking hot and full of the usual shit jobs. 

Next morning was 200km of dirt road back to Cahils Crossing which was pretty uneventful except that we actually got to see the landscape to the north of Cahills Crossing this time (it was dark when we drove in) Wow! What spectacular scenery we had missed out on. There a plains of bright green wetlands punctuated by grandiose rocky escarpments. I feel privileged to have seen it.

Scenery North of Cahills Crossing

Scenery North of Cahills Crossing

Cahills Crossing was low tide and easy to cross again. The only difference again was that we could see. There were heaps of tourists there just watching the spectacle of people crossing it, one idiot fishing off the rocks, and disturbingly, an upturned 4WD in the middle of the river just downstream from the crossing. Maybe they leave it there as a warning to people to treat the tides here with respect.

Anyhow, we’re back on the tarmac again for a while and camped up in Jabiru Tourist Park. The Boat trailer Stone guards held up pretty well (the welding cracks on the stone guards a are a little bigger but still ok) and for whatever it’s worth the washing is done. I’ve gone on a cooking strike so Daz and I are heading off to the bistro by the pool to have dinner cooked for us. Tomorrow we’re heading back through Katherine and onto the Central Arnhem Highway on the way to Nhulunbuy