Arnhem Land Bound: Nhulunbuy

Here we are at the mighty Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula. It’s a bit of a long haul getting here with about 700km of dirt road. The road is really variable with some parts almost as good as tarmac but other sections are corrugated as hell and then that give way to bloody great potholes, then back to good again - that goes on for about 700km and so it required concentration the whole way. We were pretty happy to see the end of it.


Lunch at Katherine

Onto the the Arhnem Central Highway - Permits at the ready!

After passing through Katherine with a few stops for supplies we covered about 200km of the Central Arnhem highway and camped at a place called Mainoru Store which is part of a station along the way. What an unexpected piece of paradise Mainoru station is! There’s green grass, shade, a store and a river. With a river nearby I couldn’t help myself, so I grabbed a rod and lure and after getting some directions for the station caretaker the kids and I wandered off down the road to fish under the bridge. As it turns out we weren’t the only ones there. There was a family of aboriginals having a cook up on a fire under the bridge. There we a few kids with them and it didn’t take them long to cotton onto us and soon they approached us and showed us their catch which they’d caught just downstream from us. A couple of Saratoga! The kids were super friendly and hyper and soon they were playing in the sand with Jess and Matilda who though it was pretty funny that they were dragging the fish around in the sand and burying them and digging them back up again as part of their games. After a few casts with no fish biting I decided it was more fun to hand out with the kids (bloody hell they were a funny bunch!) We chatted for a while and as it was getting dark it was time to head back to camp with no fish but a photo of some gorgeous kids and a grin from ear to hear. The kids all yelled and waved goodbyes at each other for about 400m down the road. Funny buggers!

Mainoru Store Camp grounds

Looking for a fishing hole

Local kids with the Saratoga they'd caught

Next morning - only 470km of chewing dust to go

Next day was another 470km of Dirt. It went ON AND ON! We hit a snag when at about 10am we pulled up to check the trailers. Well the poor boat trailer was starting to rattle off the stone guards – especially on the right hand side. L After a bit of head scratching we pulled out a couple of ratchet straps and attached then to the stone guards, then around the boat, and strapped them up tight to try and stop then vibrating. It was with a sense of under-confidence that the stone guards would make it to Nhulunbuy that we set off again for the remaining 400km of horror road. We took it slow and stopped to check boat trailer every 50 km or so. Unexpectedly the ratchet solution worked an absolute treat and we limped into Nhulunbuy that evening with no further damage to the trailer (we are currently hunting down an aluminum welder to patch them up so we can get them home though).

Strapping the stone guards onto the boat to stop them rattling off

After making camp in the only caravan park in town (which is a pretty tight squeeze!) We did the minimum setup that night and spend the next day getting set up properly and cleaning the boat of the thick layer of red dust (again!). Despite being a bit cramped here there are good showers, a hose to wash the boat with, power, swimming pool and shops! Luxury! We did a bit of a reccie of boat ramps too and I was pretty happy to see actual protected, concrete boat ramps. No more beach launches and recoveries and having to deal with the surge. This is shaping up like the stuff dreams are made of!

Near the boat ramp at Gove Peninsula

Yesterday we launched the boat and familiarised ourselves with the close in waterways. Given that the South Easterly winds never seen to let up in this part of the world we got part way to Bremer Island before giving up and trying our luck in more protected waters. Basically we copied the locals bottom fishing for a while and did no good (a few sharks and a huge puffer fish is the best we could produce) Then, after a bit of a trolling session and watching the ships come and go at the mining dock for a while, we went back into the bay in search of the mouth of the Giddy River. It was bloody shallow there and the tide was running out so we didn’t hang around too long. In the end we holed up for lunch behind some really beautiful looking little islands (named “Granite Islets”) which have beautiful sandy beaches with huge granite boulders peppered around.

Eventually we gave it away and returned to camp (the boat ramp was magnificent!) so the kids could have a swim at the pool.

Today is Monday and it’s blowing its chops off, so we’re using it as a chance to get in touch with a welder to see about the boat trailer. If all goes well thought we might try the Giddy River at high tide tomorrow (apparently it’s good for Barra and Mangrove jack) and we would have to wait and see if the weather would give us a break to get to Bremer Island to do dome reef/ bottom fishing.

However the best laid plans can be changed. To kill a bit of time this arvo we went for a drive and checked out a few of the beached and isolated camp spots to the east. In doing so we discovered a great camp spot about 30km out of town. It’s right on a river and old mate there showed us an esky of reef fish that he caught out the front today. We’re gunna pack up tomorrow and try our luck there (we’ll have to work around the welder but that’s ok). Despite the fact that we’ll be back to beach launching and bush camping with no water on tap and power etc (and the kids are gunna kill us for taking away their pool) I am looking forward to getting out of the sardine can of Walkabout Lodge and getting to a place where we can get stuck into some fish without the damn wind rucking our action.