Macca's Meanderings

 Hi This will probably be the last blog post before Christmas. I am flying out of Croker Island to Darwin on Wednesday and onto Brisbane on Thursday. Jayson will accompany me on the flight to Brisbane. We are having Christmas at Yarraman. Laura will also join us (Josh unfortunately will be still at his FIFO work. Dean, Kristy and Noah are hoping to join us in January. Recently a good friend Kent (a keen gardener) requested some photos of the Minjilang community and our garden.  I rose early this morning, set up my drone to catch the sun rise. Unfortunately an early show of rain prevented me seeing the sunrise. Once the rain had cleared I took the following photos.  Firstly, looking east over Mission Bay towards the east. In some of my past blog posts I have mentioned the Outer Islands. They are out in the distance of this drone photo however they can only be seen when there is really good visibility. Spinning the drone around towards the west the photo below shows the com...

Hi again In the last post I mentioned an 86 year old yachtie who dropped into Croker Island with engine trouble.  Last weekend I invited him ashore for a meal (and a chat). What an interesting person!  As a 15 year old he left Norway and went to sea. He jumped ship in Melbourne as a young man. With a cheeky smile he said, ' you could do that in those days without getting locked up'. He headed off to inland Australia with a dream of being a ringer, which included working at Panda Pandi station near Birdsville. After some years of working in dry and dusty places he realise the he 'had the sea in his blood' so he moved back to the coast. After building a yacht in a back yard in Fremantle, WA,  he worked at many remote mining sites around the coast. Somewhere in there he circumnavigated the globe in his yacht which included wintering in northern Norway, crossing the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Before Covid came upon us he was planning another circumnavigation which...

Hi again Last week received some good falls of rain however this week the rain has left us for the time being - which has 'steamed' things up considerably.  Nancy departed Croker earlier this week. She spent a couple of nights in Darwin and then flew down to Brisbane. She was able to visit her mother, with her three sisters which was very special. The aged care facility was in lock down due to Covid cases however some special arrangementsents were made to allow the visit.  I will follow her to Yarraman just before Christmas.  This time of the year here we get some of the lowest tides of the year - and they are occurring during the day. For any lovers of fresh oysters, that means feasting time! Nancy, being one of the afore mentioned, was keen to tried some black lipped oysters that are easily accessed during the low tides.  They don't come any fresher than this!  PK always enjoys an outing. Below she is checking out a little crab - thankfully she didn't get a ni...

Hi again In the previous blog we headed east from Croker Island to Grant Island. Today we headed west along the northern coast of the Cobourg Peninsula. To save some time we launched off the beach near the Croker Island airport on the west side of the island to avoid having to boat half way around Croker Island. After carefully threading our way through some reef we were out into the Bowens Straits. The photo below is looking back toward the rising morning sun. The Bowen Straits can be very rough if the wind and tide are not favourable. The nearby point on Cobourg Peninsula is named Danger Point for this reason. This morning however the seas were kind. We met the Cobourg rangers and the CDU scientists near Sandy Island off Danger Point. As the conditions were favourable they were keen to check out Sandy Island - a known nesting site for Olive Ridley Turtles. No nests were found.  We were being watched by a pair of Sea Eagles guarding their nest. Many seagulls also use Sandy Island ...

Hi again for another week. The Garngi Rangers have had a busy week with quite a few hours on the water. For two days we worked with the Northern Territory Government National Park rangers from the Coburg Peninsula and some scientists. The name of the park is Garig Gunak Barlu. 'Garig' is the language that was once spoken there however sadly there are now no surviving speakers. 'Gunak' means country - both land and sea. And 'Barlu' means wide open blue waters. Some scientist from the Charles Darwin Uni (CDU) are seeking to gain a better understanding of marine animals like turtlers, dugong, manta rays, dolphins and false killers whales - that really are a type of dolphin. We met them near Croker Island and headed out to Grant Island to the east of Croker Island, where there are lots of turtles. Below is their vessel - 'Meander 2'.  Before we were able to start our turtle survey work we had to do some 'compliance work'. As we approached Grant Islan...

Hello from Croker Island Garngi Rangers use motion sensing cameras in our work. The camera below was set up to monitor this remote creek for illegal activity. Most of the photos from these cameras are nothing special as the camera has been activated by something like a piece of grass moving in the wind or a wave breaking. Below are a few of the more interesting photos. A sea eagle flies passed looking for a meal.  Below, probably the same sea eagle flies passed again some days later. It seems sea eagles are also into selfies! Look just to the left of the sea eagle near the end of the little sand spit - a 2.5 metre croc enjoying the morning sun. And again the sea eagle flies passed. This time a bit closer. That's a better selfie! And then a jabiru drops in. At this time of the year the low tides happen during the middle of the day so we have been taking the opportunity to access some remote beaches looking for ghost nets and marine litter. Below is a large section of ghost net - par...