We are on count down less than 2 weeks to go til we go on a one way ticket out of the Tiwi Islands, since we have no boat anymore we spend our days taking drives to different places. Last Sunday 10th July, we drove to Pirlangimpi, the other community on Melville Island, as we were driving around the community we found Connie, she used to work at the club in Milikapiti but now lives in Pirlie. She took us to ‘her country’, a 30 minute drive from town – WOW! what a beautiful spot, she has a 3 bedroom holiday house that overlooks the water(Timor Sea), lotx of fish & crocodiles but still a very beautiful area. There are 3 houses here with generated & solar power, water & septic – bit sad that no one lives here permanently but they do get utilised at times. When we got back to Connie’s place her pet pig ‘Christmas’ was playing with the dogs, Christmas should have a long life, they not going to eat him.
The next day we drove to the south eastern side of Melville, it was an interesting drive, the first part of the drive was easy as the road had been graded recently, the last part was much more fun. We saw quite a few buffalo but once they saw & heard our vehicle they took off, lotz of people hunt in this area so I imagine the buffalo are learning. Getting closer to the beach we came across another critter, a goanna was sunbaking on part of the track, there was lotz of buffalo tracks especially noticeable in the low tide sections also their trade mark – their tower like poop….
The beach was amazing, so very beautiful, the tide was low but on the rise. We went for a walk up the beach & found quite a few turtle tracks, even saw a few holes they dug up to lay their eggs. Lotz of soldier crabs running around as well as the hermit crabs. Walking on the rocks I saw quite a few bait fish & several crabs in the rock pools, the mangrove forests are very interesting especially at low tide, their roots are a majestic maze.
Just before we got back to Milikapiti we came across a group of horses, it was ‘old sway back’s’ mob – I am not sure how to describe her.
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