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. :-)
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