Reward after writing yet another report

It is Sunday night and all is well. We have had quite a journey since we last wrote. Some bunch of people who will remain nameless, but know who they are, make us write all these reports after each community visit. I have usually run out of puff by the time I finish each report to blogg. But I finished early today.

Groote beaches

We have arrived on Groote Eyeland, after travelling to Galiwin'ku and Yirrkala. On Groote, we are staying in a very nice resort beside ET's fishing business. It has been lovely to have luxury digs, good resturant and a wonderful new venue for our workshop at the art gallery. Tonight as we had a beer (first in weeks), eating a steak and salad (also first in weeks), watching the sun set over the water, we had a croc swim past. It has been a wonderful weekend walking the beaches of Groote. Many are closed because of Sorry business (funeral tomorrow) and because it is too wet to drive to them. It sure rained on Saturday but we managed to get all the gear under cover before it started.

Wonderful wildlife, especially the birds, though I did get fascinated by butterflies this afternoon. We can't believe we get to visit these wonderful communities and places. It's a pretty good retirement we are having.

We had the most beautiful flight coming here from Nhulunbuy (20k from Yirkala). It was fine when we left Nhulunbuy and clear. We flew down the coast and the blue waters and beaches kept us clicking the cameras the whole way down. People here were envious of our luck to get such a good morning in the wet season. We could see the storm building as we landed and it pelted down soon after we arrived. It was a pretty good way to spend our anniversary.

Manganese mines

We knew there were two major Indigenous communities here and a resort, but had no idea about the size or location of the mining community and the little town. That's how much I bothered to look up... So we have strong next G access and three places to go out to eat. There is even a bakery where we got real bread. Because we are staying in a resort, we can have a beer on site or at the clubs. We have not been able to have any beer since Darwin. Big surprise. Can you believe I had everything organised for our visit, except to find out where the town was or even that there was a town. We had to ask about 4 people before we found it and that was mainly cause I was not looking for a town.

Flying over the Indigenous community Angurrkwa, which is not Alyangkwula where we actually ended up.

We had some treats in Nhulunbuy. It was the first time since we had seen a Woolworths, (another mining town). We even had a Cappuccino. We also got another washing machine to use. Its the little things really that count. We actually did not look around Nhulunbuy much. I think we are getting tired. By the time we went to the community and solved our promotion and plane problems, the travel day was over. The travel problem was a plane size problem. The charter company we decided to use on this side of Arnhem land could not fit our gear into their plane, so I had to ring around and get another group to take us at no notice. Lucky!!!

The airvan we got at the last minute fits in our three 36Kg cases and 20K printer plus 4 bags and 2 bckpacks and my food bag. In all this I have a 10 Kg clothes bag allowance.....

The community we were working in was called Yirkala. It was 20 K out of Nhulunbuy set in amongst some really nice beaches and wetland forests. Thus the art gallery there was into poles, carvings and bark. It was a very vibrant art centre but it was incredibly more expensive than any other we have seen, so it is well and truely out of our league. The people there are terrific and we had a terrific workshop, even though the three contacts we had had all left the community in the last week and omotted to tell anyone we were coming. First time that has happened and usually avoided by having three contacts in a community.

Just in case you wonder if we do any work, some evidence from the Yirkala workshop. I worked with the girls and Paul worked with the boys here (and two women).

The team at Yirrkala.

Before that we had been in Galiwin'ku, a community on an island in the north. It was a pretty large community with many outstations. Some nice places - makes you realise why folks like to live out on their homelands. We were pretty shocked to find out about thefires. We did not know of course, without good Tv, but a facebook friend talked about it and we turned on the tv to be pretty shocked. The digs at Galiwin'ku were "interesting", and had to be shared with about 8 others. Downstairs was non existant, and upstairs had several condemable features, including the state of the floorboards and steps. It was a good pennance for the next two luxury towns such as they are. At least they were towns.

The Yirkala beaches

We are actually at the end of the first circuit of the first 8 communities. So later this week we head back to Darwin to restock the supplies, rearrange the shed and do a few days meeting people to organise the next round of the communities and write yet another report.

It will be terrific to visit communities for the second time. At least we know where they are and which one we need sheets for and which ones we have to bring crockery for. Also we know the folks we are going back to work with and looking forward to that bit. We love the second visits. Hopefully we will also catch more fish......

Looking forward to staying with Marg and John again and having the curry nights.