Arrived in Milingimbi

We feel we are here! It's the wet season in the NT and today we had our first near miss with the weather. It's the first trip for 2009 and we had to unpack the plane really quick to beat a huge storm. Not easy with 200kg of luggage. Here Paul is helping Ben unpack the big pelican cases which should keep our computers and network dry in transit.

Ben watching the storm as we approach Milingimbi.

We have arrived in Milingimbi just avoiding a big storm. We managed to get the gear into dry places before the storm hit. Ben the pilot did a great job of getting to Milingimbi around the showers in good time. The flight over was astounding - the Arnhem lands from the air is pretty amazing. We have settled into a flat, rather than a room. Troy helped us move our 200Kg a few times and soon saw we needed space. Because we were not expected, we had to do a bit of cleaning, but we have settled in well for the next 5 days. We are both pretty tired after organising and packing. Paul particularly. Now we are here, the pressure is off and we can just start work.


Milingimbi looks amazing. It is on an island separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. The rivers near the coast are incredibly large. I did not expect to see so many large river systems. I imagined lots of water but more as small rivers and wetlands - there was that but also with large rivers separating out the regions.


The green of the wetlands is striking. It would be wonderful to visit. We can't wait for the weekends while visiting these communities of the north.


Milingimbi is a small community by town standards but quite large in terms of those we are visiting - about a 1000 people when everyone is in. It is "on the beach" and we had a nice cool breeze when we went down town. We just have to find the locals' fishing spots now.

The training venue

We have a good venue, with the ever helpful Joe helping us get ready. We have lots of interest and expect a sucessful day.

The shop and main street.

We got our supplies for the weekend. We flew some stuff in but bought bulky items here today. prices were quite reasonable for many things and just strange for others. Its stocked okay just now and we got all we needed. We flew in some supplies and now we are set till Monday.

We'll add more to our blogg when we enjoy our Australia day weekend in Milingimbi fishing.