The outback and beyond

Absolutely lucky to have the opportunity to visit an aboriginal community in Arnhem Land on the weekend. You have to have a permit to enter Arnhem Land and a reason to be there. After waiting for the water in the Alligator River to drop low enough to get in, we drove in on Saturday Morning, leaving Darwin at around 445am. These are some pics from the trip…..Like a holiday album but something completely different. Thanks to Rob and Mim for making this possible as it was interesting and something so different. The town we visited was Gunbalanya which has a population of 1200 and is a major Aboriginal town in Arnhem Land and has a school (prep to 12) and police station, two stores, fuel, and arts centre and so much more like views that are fantastic!….Oh and crocs!

For More info in Gunbalanya try information about Gunbalanya

This was my Kakadu sunrise, through the windscreen on the way out

From Jabiru (In Kakadu), Gunbalanya is around60km and the road was a bit messy

Cahills crossing is all tide related, the other water crossings were rain related, but this one is only on low tide at this time of year

Scenery was stunning

Once we got there it was time for a tour, we were there with a teacher so first stop was the school. This was one side of the road and the other side was much newer

This is a local shed where people can hang out (kind of like a mens shed I guess)

The Art Gallery and it had some great stuff. Canvases, and loads of baskets and just beautiful things

This is Rozie and she is making a big fish net, I showed her this pic and she laughed.

The supermarket

Inside the supermarket

The service station and store

Inside the service station.The supermarket was much the same.

On the Sunday our trip to Jabiru for a day trip ended up being turn around and go home, every waterhole was much bigger and the mud was getting deeper (and no I wasn't driving!)

More scenery…….while they were digging out the 4WD

We went fishing near here and apparently a croc lives in the water (so we found out after we got home)

Rob with a Barramundi, this one was 7cm too small so it went back in the water (maybe to feed the croc)

Mim and the growing crowd of fishermen

Gunbalanya is a dry community

Our group (and the bear)

Every night we saw a ton of frogs, from the little guys like this to big cane toads

A view of the streets and some locals

This is how most streets look

Some of the houses were a bit older

The medical centre

This was our accommodation, trades and teachers stayed here or in ATCO huts

The cane toads came in each night and I spent the night chasing them around the yard…...

The waterhole was great for a dip

Houses and streetscape in the shadow of a hill

The DeMed CommunityResource Cenrtre

Although a dry community this bar is open four nights a week for three hours at a time and sells light and mid-strength beer and there are pool tables and music, it was a great place to sit and watch the footy on the big screen

Unfortuntely we couldn't drive out as the water was rising so it was this plane to get out 

Gunbalanya airport

Gunbalanya from the air

Water weaving its way 

The river and the hills, it looked fantastic from the air

So many rocks in Arnhem Land

Jabiru from the air

You can see the Ranger Mine over to the Left and the hills of Kakadu to the right

From the plane, the things you see

The obligatory bear flying the plane shot

We all went there (and even brought the bear home)

Crocodiles in Darwin

Took my camera to the Jumping Crocs Tour in Darwin which is about 70km out of Darwin on the way to Kakadu, but it was an adventure for the whole day. Firstly we went on the boat and saw about 5 crocs and a few others that didn't come over for a feed and we saw them feed the Kites, and when word got out that food was around, the number of kites kept growing.

As far as the photography went as the tour was late afternoon with a ton of dark stormy cloud, I just kept upping the ISO and the shutter speed.

Highlights of the day:-
- The big older croc who was HUGE (named Michael)
- The sound of the crocs jaws slamming shut on a piece of buffalo……Seriously LOUD
- Getting to hold a python
- Getting caught in torrential rain (This is THE TERRITORY), on the way home……in a car people had loaned us……I wasn't driving but it was scary.

Here are my favourite croc pics from the day

ME and the python

Ready for my closeup

Cant reach

Just playing with my food

Jumping Crocs

Nice Teeth!

Side of the river and you can see where the crocs live

Jewels from the hard drive - Port Adelaide

Jewels from the hard drive - hardly romantic. But as I am planning a trip to Darwin, one of those trips where you have a billion things to do and only 5 weeks to do it and in 4 of those weeks I am working / doing placement at the Royal Darwin Hospital. I was looking at space on my hard drive and I found some pics I hadn't really looked at much taken in Port Adelaide in january. I love Port Adelaide as it is so interesting. Personally I love old architecture and by old I mean interesting. Houses falling down, rusty rooftops and lots of bricks. We had a night prowling the adelaide roads at Port Adelaide, my friend Di and some of her friends and right now their names escape me but it was a great night and I look forward to some more Photo prowling next Jan.

These were some of my faves…..some were long exposure and you can tell by the clouds that the exposures were LOOOOOONNNG….

The images all came up great in black and white although the red boat and the blue sky were a fantastic contrast and just increased the saturation a bit to get a strong image. The final image is a 30 send exposure. It was a bit windy so I had to stand where the camera would not move from the wind, form a wind break effectively……the clouds move so much more with the longer exposures.