Arnhem Land Trip - NT

This trip was a small group escorted tour with Outback Spirit. We first fly to Cairns to meet, then fly to Gove where we are picked up for a 2 night stay at the Walk About Lodge in Nhulunbuy. From here we start our trip in a small 4wd Mercedes bus designed for this type of trip. We choose to booked an escorted tour as this company has the only permit to travel these lands. The area is not open to the general public. The only way to enter is if you are employed by a business, and then you still have to apply for a travel permit from the NLC (National Lands Council) for a permit.

From Nhulunbuy we travelled to Murwangi Safari Camp. Here we toured the land with an Aboriginal guide around the swamp and marsh lands. A small boat was used to look at the various wildlife, birds, crocs, buffalo, pigs etc. From this camp we then travelled to the Arnhem Land Barra Lodge. From here we were able to go barra fishing, (one member caught a metre + barra), and visit a culture museum and art centre. The aboriginal women showed us how they weaved baskets, make the various dies form natural ingriedients, and spoke about the bush foods. The men showed us some of the paintings, as well as how they made canoes from the stringy bark tree. (hope I got the right tree). Our next stop was Davidson's Arnhem Land Safari Camp. Here we viewed much rock art, some of which was only discovered in August of this year. Again we had a small boat to tour the swamp and see many species of birds and crocs. Late afternoon drinks and nibbles were had taking the opportunity of photographing Mt Booradaile as the sun was setting. The last leg of the trip was to Seven Spirit Lodge on the Cobourg Peninsula. We were able to walk around an old settlement that was built in 1835 and abanonded in 1845. On touring some of the tracks, we were told and showed the various bush foods, and their uses. Fishing was also the main draw card. You cannnot swim in any of the waters due to crocs and sharks. On the small floating jetties we saw many lemon sharks just swimming around. Unfortunately this was nearly the end of our trip. we flew back to Darwin for a final farewell dinner crusing the harbour of Darwin, and taking in all the various pionts of interest. Judy and I flew home back to Victoria the next day, as we had already spent several days in Darwin earlier. This trip was a golden opportunity to see how some of the Aboriginal's live in their homelands, and their cultural way of life. I would say they would be some of the happiest people around, living very simple lives. Community spirit is high,helping each other. This was one eye opener of a trip that I shall forever cherish.

Our trip was logged for the whole distance. The main part to view on the logged map is from Nhulunbuy to the Cobourg Peninsula.