Wiligi Outstation - First Impressions

Here we are at Wiligi Outstation. Wow what a beautiful part of the world! As planned we left Jabiru yesterday morning at “Sparras Fart”. “Sparras Fart” was *Supposed* to be 0400 but as it turns out Daph had forgotten to change her phone to NT time so according to everyone else it was 0330 :-( Oh well! Since we were all up we hit the road anyway. With me in the lead car and very thankful for the big LED bar lights we head off up the Arnhem highway in the dark with Matilda assigned to the task of chief roo spotter. Soon afterwards those big lights paid for themselves (Sadly Matilda’s roo spotting skills failed) when a bloody great buffalo trundled out onto the road in front of my car. Thankfully I’d seen him on the side of the road and had plenty of time to slow down. Matilda (when she eventually noticed it!) was absolutely delighted to see it trotting along the road right in front of the Dmax before getting a bit agitated and it started bucking around and kicking before finally crossing the road and disappearing into the darkness again. Wow! What a treat! Matilda spent the rest of the car trip switching between sleeping and asking me if we could get a baby buffalo. 

Soon afterwards we arrived at Cahills Crossing. It was still dark and there was no one around, so we pulled out the torches and carefully approached the water’s edge to check it out. Since we were a little early the tide was still running out at a pretty brisk pace, but the water only looked to be about 6-10 inches deep. Since I was at the front and already on the road that leads into the crossing (It’s a bit of a corral with walls and trees making the lead into the water almost like a tunnel) there was nothing else for it but to give it a crack. Ok,4WD, High range, seatbelts off, windows down about 6 inches (just in case we have to make a quick exit) and Matilda and drove easily across into Arnhem Land. Easy Peasy!

Daz followed with the boat, then the oldies. No probs. From here on it was dirt for the 150Km to Wiligi. I’d like to say that the Arnhem Land landscape bedazzled us with its natural beauty, but since it was still pitch black I have no Idea. Really all I could see was a pretty average dirt road in the light beams ahead. It was pretty patchy, alternating between good dirt road, then washouts, then some patches of corrugations as bad as I’ve seen anywhere, then back to good again etc. So we had to stay alert and give Daz enough info to mollycoddle the boat through the worst bits. After an hour I was wondering where the hell the sun was as it was still dark as hell outside we were having to da a few little river crossings in the dark again. It seemed to take forever before the sun finally woke up. By 7am it was light enough to stop and have some breakky on the side of the road near one of the river crossings. We tried flicking a few lures around in the river in the hope of snagging a stray Barra but it was no good, so we pushed on until we finally arrived at Willigi at about 10am.

One of the many little river crossings at oh dark hundred

It's all a bit too much for Tilds

The convoy stopping for breakfast

Wiligi was a welcome site with beautiful green water, a camp ground with a bit of beach and a view out to that green ocean looking straight out to a little island called Copeland Island. But how’s the temperature? Pretty damn hot!! Too bad we can’t swim at the beach unless we want to play Russian roulette with the local Croc “Midnight” and the marine stingers. Oh well. There’s a few cold water showers around but mostly the water only trickles out of them so best to take a bucket when showering so we can tip it over ourselves. Not to worry – we spent the rest of the day getting set up and unpacking the boat which made the trip pretty unscathed (a few minor rub makes here and there is all). We also checked out the “Boat ramp” – it’s actually just a bit of sandy beach. We were a little worried about that since a 6.5m boat is no small thing to get up and down a sandy beach. The next day would tell.

Relaxing at Wiligi after setting up camp

Today dawned bright and clear – after all it is Jessica’s Birthday and we were about to launch the boat in Arnhem Land for the first time! Hopefully it wasn’t about to become a royal shitfight!! After breakky we prepped the boat and loaded all the people in it (except Daz who, as caption of the Launch and Retrieval was towing the boat full of people behind the Dmax). He Backed us down onto the nice hard packed sand and gave me the nod. “Righto Nat back ‘er off!”. Ok. Engine started first go – good. Put her in reverse. Nothing. Put her more in reverse. Still no good. Gun it in reverse. Still no go. Rev the living Christ out of it in reverse. Nope.

So Daz decided to give it a shunt in the direction of backwards while I’m still reversing the hell out of it. Still no. Daz goes forward a bit to get a run up for another reverse shunt but then the Dmax started digging itself a hole. Oh shit. We all stopped and started to assess the situation as Daz pulled the max tracks off the roof and stuck them under the Dmax wheels. While he was doing that we noticed that the surge of the waves was lifting the boat a little. So I decided to give the reverse off another go. And this time SHE MOVES!! Very slowly, as if un-gluing itself for about 3600km of being glued to the trailer Skull Drag’n is afloat in the Arafura Sea! Everyone gave a cheer and even the Dmax was so happy it drove up the sandy beach without any more bogging incidents.

Beach launching the boat

So we headed out in the boat and found ourselves a bit of reef to troll around. After a few hook-ups Jess caught the fish of the day with a 5kg GT. Happy Birthday Jessie! We made it an early day because we have to do Cake for Jessie and we were all a bit worried about how we would fare getting the boat out.

Jess pulls in the fish of the day for her birthday - 4.5kg GT

Back at the “ramp” and Daz and Bruce decided that they were not going to wait to get bogged. Instead they would do a “double pull” – meaning Daz Backs the trailer down the ram with the Dmax, and Bruce backs the Patrol down in front of the Dmax. The back of the Patrol has a snatch strap connecting it to the front of the Dmax. Nat Drives the boat onto the trailer, and the 2 vehicles pull up the beach in unison. Sounds good in theory right? Well apart from the boys forgetting the Patrol keys the only complication seems to be that it’s a bit dicey driving the boat onto the trailer in a cross wind and surging beach. It took me 3 goes to get it lined up right but eventually I did good and got it on the trailer. The bit with the 2 vehicles pulling up the beach worked an absolute treat! They didn’t even dig up the sand. So apart from me needing some driving practice it looks like we’re in business. Time to get some serious fishing happening!

The Patrol snatching out the Dmax towing out the boat which Nat drives onto the trailer - The "Double Pull"