Mooroonga for ANZAC weekend.

Mooroongga (or Murrunga... depending on who you ask)

I got lucky and scored an invite to join a group of friends on an overnight boat trip to Mooroonga Island.

Red line is the boat route from the Ramingining boat ramp/barge landing to Mooroongga Island.

Blue line is the drive from town to the boat ramp. It was somewhere just over and hour or so in the boat.

The view on the top left is the entire community. Just a few houses and some really impressive tarps!

This is the whole Top End just to give an idea of where the island is.

Red is where we caught the fish.

Green is where we beached to boat and the community.

Orange is where we got oysters off the reef.

Yellow is where we walked along the beach.

A fully loaded boat for the trip!

Anyone for turtle? Looks like lamb, tastes like fish...

I opted out when offered 'turtle fat' from the shell. I'm not really a meat-fat eater anyway, so I figured why start now... and it looked pretty slimy!

My new 1 person tent is DEFINITELY a ONE PERSON tent. What a weird tall and skinny shape it turned out to be! We camped on the deck of the little school on the island. No pegs or tie-downs necessary. Beautiful weather all weekend :-) 

Why wouldn't you keep your community freezer under the tree?!

There are only about 4 houses here and Wesley (the local teacher and our 'guide' says that there are about 45 living on the island - on and off as they some and go from Ramo and other local areas.)

My first NT fish! a 6kg, 95cm 'Queenie'

Sue reels in a big one!

Our Skipper, Will, did a great job of driving us right over the schools of fish, and also did an amazing job of driving a completely overloaded back to the mainland in pretty rough conditions with probably not quite enough fuel for the load... the poor stressed bloke!

(8 people, fishing gear, camping gear, cooler full of fish, 2 turtles - was a HUGE load!)

Wesley, the local island teacher. He doesn't need a net or pliers like us. Got the fish to the boat and just pulled it in by hand!

Anyone for turtle eggs?

Tropical island holiday for the weekend was pretty nice.

Will was pretty stoked with collecting oysters off the reef. Although he may have regretted it the next morning when his 'tummy felt a bit funny'. I reckon he mustve eaten about 30! (they are only small though...)

Daisy and Helen show us how to find oysters.

A sea cucumber. This one was really moving along at quite a rate of knots. Apparently this is what the Makassans came for. http://austhrutime.com/macassan_traders.htm

Some cool brain coral. It's hard to see the flouro yellow inside the holes, but look closely or zoom in. It's beautiful.

A bit of creative photography on my part ;-P

Gorgeous sunsets out here on the island. Can't complain about this life!

Looking east while the sun sets in the west.

Will looks after his boat so we can get home safely in the morning. :-)

Litchfield for a day...

Over the Semester 1 break I went into Darwin for the week and between running a ridiculous amount of errands, I managed to find time to hit up Litchfield National Park for a day.

Giant ant hills. They're tall and skiiny and they face east/west so that the sun doesnt shine on the broad face and heat up the hill. Clever little ants!

Florence Falls.

Went for a swim wish the fishes in the pool at the bottom.

Very refreshing.

I met this massive Golden Orb spider on the trail.

And met this guy on the walk bridge up a little further. He (she?) wasn't bothered by me at all.

Below are some more of the beautiful places I walked. A nice day out and about with some spectacular views.

No swimming here at Wangi Falls in the wet season... too many crocs!

 Another selfie up at the top of the Wangi Falls hike.

Flying back in to Ramo the views are pretty damn nice. This is my favourite river. I don't know which one it is exactly, but I like its bends.

GO RAMINGINING HAWKS!

These girls are a hoot, not to mention pretty bloody good at footy too! They are super welcoming and help me out by translating when the coach talks (aka: coach talks for 5 minutes, the girls say to me "stay on your man" or "meet the ball" or "running more".. doesn't seem like 5 minutes worth of talk, but it seems to work. haha)

Tonight we presented the footies that Dad donated to the girls competition. Two Sherrin Women's size 4.5 footies. Bright pink. The girls LOVE them. It was great to play with a proper women's size footy, and the added bonus is that the pink is pretty 'glow-in-the-dark' kind of bright, so when the light is grey or when it starts to get dark before the end of the game, we can still see the ball. It's fantastic!

THANKS HEAPS DAD!

Why do I look so fat in this photo??? Hmmm...I think it's my shorts!

PHOTOS AT LAST!

I have finally made it back out to Darwin for a week of school holidays and have picked up a cord for my camera. So here we go... some catching up. I hope you enjoy!

The plane from Darwin to Ramingining isn't all that large... but it was surprisingly smooth :-)

 The view is pretty nice on the way out too. Bye bye Darwin.

 Coming in to land at the Ramingining air strip.

 First weekend in Ramo - a picnic at the Blyth River. Making new friends with two legs and four! Everyone had a fantastic time and nobody got eaten!

 Table Tennis at school on a Sunday afternoon is a regular recreation activity here. Lots of fun until Julene (my neighbour, the PE/Music teacher) gets her game face on. hahaha. ;-p 

 This little guy was so bright green, I just had to take his picture. It took me about 20 shots to get him because he kept going around and around the flower stem trying to hide from me. (See Peppa's pool and couch in the background)

 A lazy Easter Saturday fishing at the Barge Landing. 

 Driving out to the swimming hole with a crew of locals. It's like sardines! These people are better than clowns... they can fit about 15 people in a sedan (not an exaggeration!)

 Flippin' off the log at the water hole.

 The kids were super excited when they learned my camera was waterproof! I love these next couple of shots. I must've taken a hundred of these. They couldn't get enough of it!

 The water is beautiful and cool and fresh. It's very clear, the bottom is a bit rocky - I need sandals on, the locals don't.

 The kids painted our faces with clay. Mostly they just smeared it in my mouth and then laughed and gave me the thumbs up.

 The Cascades...Another beautiful little river that feeds into the Bylth. It's super shallow, so no crocs here. What a georgeous place to hang out and have a bbq with new friends.

Pffft... wet day timetable??? hahaha.

Actually it's only been this wet about two days all Term 1. Apparently this is the driest wet season in years. It has barely rained at all so far.

The colours riding out to the barge landing in the mornings are mind blowing. Such stunning contrasts.

 The swamp/lake on the way out to the barge landing. The water lilies are just beautiful and the morning light coming through the trees is mesmerising.

 That's me! Riding my bike! :-)

 The end (or halfway point, depending on how you look at it) is worth the effort. This is where I eat my banana on Sunday mornings.

 After some early mechanicals, Fat Amy is on the road again and riding smooth. :-)