I had been waiting for a sign to help us decide where to go this winter so when I heard friends’ positive comments about Arnhem Land, I felt that was my sign. A new place, not that well known, remote and rugged and we could do it in a group. We joined a 20 day, 4WD tagalong tour of Arnhem Land, with Great Divide Tours.
Arnhem Land is known as one of the last pristine areas in the world and we feel quite privileged that we got to go there. It is 91,000 square kilometers of unspoilt wilderness in the middle of Australia’s north coast, bordered by Kakadu National Park, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Arnhem Land is the dark green area on this map. Its roughly the size of Iceland and bigger than Hungary, Portugal or Austria. The population is approximately 16,000, with 12,000 being Aboriginal, Yolngu people, the traditional owners of the land.
Our tour started with a gathering in Jabiru, the town in Kakadu NP, where we had a 40 minute briefing from our guide, Neill, and got to meet our fellow travellers (or our new friends). There were 18 of us travelling in our own 8 vehicles. My conclusion that night was “it seems a nice group of people and a good guide”. As it turns out – it was a fabulous group of people and BEST GUIDE EVER!!!
We all had dinner together and started the process of getting to know each other.
Our first convoy experience started at 8am (5:15 alarm for us) and we were ‘Charlie’, the last in the line. That meant that we had to respond to all CB calls acknowledging that we’d heard every call throughout the day and we had to advise when someone came up behind us and wanted to pass.
I was quite worried about crossing the infamous Cahills Crossing, as stories abound of people regularly getting taken by crocs there, or dozens of vehicles being swept off the crossing into the croc-infested waters annually.
It could have looked like this….. photo from an ABC news report 18 Sept 2019
But instead it looked like this. Its all about judging the tide and crossing on low tide, and maybe being lucky!
This was us driving across – we saw a croc and a jabiru (bird) in the water.
This jabiru didn’t seem to be worried about taking his chances with the crocs on the crossing.
Once we settled in we both felt excited like two kids on a school excursion! Things were going well – morning tea stops, ‘Sturt stops’ (named after the Sturt Desert Pea, with pee being the operative word) where we all strategically stop far enough away as to not see the other cars, and a lunch stop as we made our way up the Cobourg Peninsula and entered the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park.
Our first morning tea stop along the road. Generally there was no other traffic around.Happy smiles on our first day of the trip. This is the Northern Territory’s first flora and fauna protection reserve.This was our guide, Neill, giving us a briefing as we entered the park. The words on the sign about safari hunting and personal safety are interesting!The wood gathering stop in preparation for getting to our campspot. At this stop someone noticed water leaking out under our van.When Dick was fixing the water leak he needed help to hold something in place, so I was conscripted. A group of the guys stood around watching and someone wondered if we were trying out a new ‘position’!
Our private camp was near Smiths Point, right on the water with amazing sunsets every night. After we cooked our own dinners, we had a self-intro session around the fire.
This is the group watching the first sunset of our trip.And this is the first of many amazing sunsets we enjoyed on our own private bit of the coast.
The region is reputed to offer some of the best fishing in the world, so we signed up for a half day afternoon fishing charter. The morning group got great fish which we all ate bbq’d for dinner but our afternoon outing was postponed due to rough seas (very lucky call for me as I was a bit worried about seasickness). Instead we did a scenic coastal drive and visited a wetlands, which wasn’t so wet due to the dry conditions. The Cobourg Peninsula does have the world’s first wetland of international importance.
Beautiful deserted beaches aboundViewing a historic navigational day beacon at Smiths Point.This sign was for real! We did not go closer than 2 meters from the water, but this sign suggests they could be anywhere.Enjoying a beautiful, sunny coastline.Not enjoying having to get out and check if we can fit under the overhanging branches. The track was too narrow for us, we were slow and at one stage we had to turn around, so we held people up a bit.
Another day’s excursion took us to the museum and cultural centre where we learned about the Aboriginal, Macassan and European histories of the area. The desolute ruins of Britain’s third attempt to settle the north, Victoria Settlement (1838-1849), can still be seen on this Peninsula. Interesting that the Macassans, from Indonesia, first came a century (or more) before the British and were regular visitors until 1906. They collected sea slugs (trepang) and turtle shells for Asian markets and traded pottery, fabrics, steel blades, and foodstuffs etc. with the Aboriginal people.
Had a nice beach walk along from our private campspot, always keeping one eye on the sea.Finished up the day with more free bbq’d fish and another stunning sunset. The two guys fishing here didn’t do so well along the shore.
Then it was our turn to FISH! Six of us were 8-10 kms out in a 6.5 m boat in the Arafura Sea. In the first five minutes our friends Jan and Paul each caught a large jewfish.
Jan with her catch. She is an experienced fisher and was very helpful to a novice like me.
With lots of assistance and guidance from Jan and Paul I did manage to catch about six fish, which all got thrown back. Needless to say we had fish again for dinner, third night in a row and more fish than I had ever eaten in a 3 day period.
Here’s my first fish ever caught. I hadn’t realized that it was quite hard work reeling it in.I also caught a little shark which had very rough skin. I was happy as I caught fish and survived the boat trip without getting seasick!
We had an evening talk from Ranger Allan who has been there since 1985. Getting insight from local people was a great benefit of being on the tour. Our first stop in the Cobourg Peninsula was a great introduction to Arnhem Land and to our group.
3 thoughts on “Arnhem Land Adventure – Cobourg Peninsula/West Arnhem Land”
Wacko! I love the little shark you caught Pat.
It all sounds fantastic and it’s lucky everyone gets along so well.
Just so you know, Ive returned from my god son’s wedding in Broome now. I was away for just a week and mum went to a nursing home. My hopes that she’d decided it wasn’t so bad have been dashed by the food. Groan.
But I had a ball in Broome and the wedding was beautiful.
Continue to have a great time.
L
F
Wacko! I love the little shark you caught Pat.
It all sounds fantastic and it’s lucky everyone gets along so well.
Just so you know, Ive returned from my god son’s wedding in Broome now. I was away for just a week and mum went to a nursing home. My hopes that she’d decided it wasn’t so bad have been dashed by the food. Groan.
But I had a ball in Broome and the wedding was beautiful.
Continue to have a great time.
L
F
Cobourg Peninsula is beautiful.
Cheers
Geoff
This would have to be “the icing on the cake” surely !!!. Never pictured you as a fisherwoman Pat…Congratulations.
Jeanette