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...