Wednesday
26th June
Lunchtime
We are having a beautiful Guliwinku day. The sea is calm and a magical shade
of turquoise, full of tiny blue fish; there is very little wind; Elcho Island
is gorgeous and the people are friendly.
It is very hot…
This morning Pete had a bit of a
struggle with the batteries on the boat.
To cut a long story short…they are probably, to put it bluntly,
buggered, and they are not holding their charge. He is about to remove them so we can lug them
ashore and take them to the shop to get them tested, just in case, then come
back with new ones. Hot heavy work…
At about 10 we went in to shore, hoping
that we wouldn’t get evicted and sent back to the boat because we don’t have
our permit to be on Aboriginal land. (We
have applied for it – we emailed it to the Northern Land Council about three
weeks ago - but it hasn’t been approved, as far as we can tell.) First thing, as you do, I took a photo of a
power pole – I know everyone will be bursting to know what Elcho Island poles
are like…
And Elcho Island dogs
They are everywhere, these dogs, and
they all look fat and happy. As far as
we can tell they lie, panting gently, in shady spots, looking quite
benign. However, we have been told that
when the day cools down a bit they get just a bit lively, and they chase anything
and anyone. Something to look forward
to, when we go in to the local motel tonight…
2XS looks so lovely, from the island,
bobbing about on the Arafura Sea.
We found our way to the village centre
and went straight to the Northern Land Council office to ask about our
permit. A tall, friendly Aboriginal man
smiled at us benignly and said, “Yes, I can sign it for you!” We had brought a copy of our application
form. He signed it and faxed it off
somewhere, and we were free to wander around.
It is school holidays, and there were
lots of activities organised for the local children, to the sound, of course,
of reggae music over a loudspeaker.
(Reggae is somehow the perfect music for a hot climate, and especially
for small tropical islands.) A small
group of children were very happily flinging themselves through a tunnel of
cool soapy water – I was a bit inclined to throw myself in there too, but I
managed to retain just a bit of dignity…
The local art gallery was on the hill
overlooking 2XS, along a lovely red dirt road.
We were, nor surprisingly, the only
people there. I don’t think many
tourists come to Elcho Island… It is very remote, although there seem to be
lots of small planes zinging in and out of the airport every day.
The gallery was cool, and lovely, with
art similar to that in the gallery in Yirrkala but a bit more colourful.
Lots of beautiful things
but…expensive…and 2XS is proving to be just a bit expensive at the moment, what
with the new generator, new batteries ($230 each…)
After the gallery we went to the Bottom
Shop
and bought some very delicious fresh
fruit. Unlikely but true!
Some of the houses in Elcho are
lovely.
They look cool, and just right for a
small tropical island.
Others are just a bit shabby and bleak,
with an obligatory wrecked 4WD vehicle in the front yard.
Late
afternoon
Pete is installing the new batteries as
we speak. The manager (Greg) at the
workshop very kindly lent us his ute to lug the old ones up there and the new
ones back. Thank goodness – they were
fearfully heavy and I couldn’t help Pete with them at all. While Pete and Greg discussed battery
terminals etc I sat, as is my wont, on a dusty pallet and chilled out – well
that is NOT the right word…it is VERY hot…
One of the young blokes in the workshop
came for a chat. He had noticed 2XS in
the bay – EVERYONE has noticed 2XS in the bay, and he spoke wistfully of his
longing to take off to sea…but his wife says NO. I agreed that it is a wonderful thing to do,
but said that it is actually very expensive – there is always something needing
to be fixed or replaced, on a boat. He
laughed and said that the last yacht which came in six weeks ago was in a very
bad state. The gearbox had broken down
completely and they had shredded their sails, so they could neither motor nor
sail. They had to send for very
expensive parts to be sent from Darwin.
On our way back down to the beach we saw
some children, happily splashing in a cool little freshwater pool, near the
broken down pier. They were having the
most lovely time.
I so longed to fling myself into the
little pool, or into the sparkling sea, but we had been told only a few hours
before, by a nice girl from Sydney who works in one of the government offices
here, and who lives in a house overlooking this very bay, that there is a VERY
big crocodile which spends a lot of time around the old pier… She had noticed
2XS (of course) and said, “That is exactly where he is often seen, swimming
around near where your boat is anchored.”
At about 7.00 we are going to the
Marthakal Motel for the State of Origin game and a pizza. It will be a beer-free occasion…the whole
island is dry.
Speaking of beer, Katy has suggested
that I get XXXX to sponsor this blog because APPARENTLY I mention XXXX Gold
quite a lot… So can I just point out, please that this particular beer, beloved
by Pete when he is in charge of the boat, is VERY light. Lite!! It is cold, wet and only slightly (litely)
alcoholic.
Tomorrow we are leaving again, at about
6am, so I suspect we will be out of range and relying on Katy and the email
system for doing this blog.
But…who knows??
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