A Gove beach 

Episode 6

The next day I went over to the Art centre and bought some bark paintings, which were quite expensive. I also bought some other artefacts, but as everything was expensive, I couldn’t buy as much as I would have liked.  Then Andrew suggested that we take a trip out to one of the aboriginal outstations, as he had to deliver some bark to one of the painters.  This was for a commission he was having done for an American gallery.  This sounded like a great idea to me , but as he gathered up his aboriginal offsider, he was checking off a list……..have we got the winch ----have we got the ropes ----have  we got 20 litres of water----have we got spare diesel ?  At this point I started to get a bit nervous, after all, this was only going to be a day trip into the bush, wasn’t it?

Once again, I climbed hand-over-hand into the Toyota and off we went.  As I said, the roads are all Bauxite ( the stuff they are  mining to make aluminium and the reason Gove exists at all ) and drove for some considerable distance …the land is all flat and the trees look all the same , with a few little palms and bushes. Andrew asked his offsider “Now, where do we turn off?”   The man replied that we had to look out for Pandanus palms and the tall ant-hill.  “There it is!” shouted Andrew.  Great excitement allround , and I kept looking for a road off this landmark, but all I could see were a couple of wheel ruts and a lot of bush.  However, that didn’t deter the Toyota,  so off we drove into the practically unmarked wilderness.  The first creek we came to was a decided challenge. “Isn’t this the creek that Wills got stuck in last week?” asked Andrew.  We took to the bank at high speed, as the other side was so steep and slippery, that if you weren’t travelling fast, you could forget it. The Toyota just surfed through the creek, with the water lapping at the top of the bonnet.  Luckily for us, we came through with flying colours on the other side. Whew!!