Sun, 4th Aug, 2024 Manyimi Campground, Gove Boat Club, Nhulunbuy, NT

Checked the forecast and it will be 21 min and 28 max all week with 20-25km winds in the later morning and cloudy so hopefully we will be able to get some fishing in each morning.

Packed up the camper. Helped Mike take his boat off and put it on the trailer that he had put together this morning.

Drove out to the wash bay and gave it a wash off, then it started to rain!

Ron and Jenny are on one side of Mike and Anne and we are on the other. They could move into their site, we had to wait for the people to move out. They moved out by 10 so we moved in and dropped the camper off and put some awnings out. Front row so water views, well that is till Steve parked the truck in the road. The sites are narrow so no room for the truck if we have an awning out. 

I made him turn it around so we could enjoy the view when we sat under the awning. Our view if I walk up to the fence!

Steve got out the rods and set them up while I prepared lunch.

After lunch we went for a drive along the Melville Bay Road. Big piles of bauxite next to the conveyor belt.

Past the Rio Tinto Gove operations office area and other buildings then the Sea Swift yard to the boat ramp. There is another jetty ahead of us with tug boats.

Big rolls of conveyor belt and the water coming out of the channel from the mine workings.

View around and then I zoomed in on an island.

Found a plaque about a ship during the war that was sunk in battle.

A charter boat came in and the chaps were cleaning their catch - 4 very small Nannegai and some other little fish! No size limits here except for barra and mangrove jack. There are quantity limits.

Chatted with a chap that works a crane here for Rio Tinto and he said they only have about 4 years left and they are putting bandaids on bandaids with the maintenance to just get it through. Lots of piles of scrap metal from buildings etc that have been demolishing already. He said you can get barra out from the water channel but it is still too cool for them yet. The water needs to warm up a few degrees. We might give it ago tonight any case.

Walked down towards the channel and found an interesting creature in the sand.

A lot of water coming out.

Continued on to the end - very pot holed dirt road - to the Customs building. Further over is another structure where the conveyor belt with all the bauxite continues past and out to the wharf where two ships are waiting to be loaded.

There is a jetty going out the other side with two tug boats moored on it.

You can see back to our campground area - the big fig tree stands out.

We parked then walked down to the sand and along the beach then under the jetty. There were some people fishing off the bank.

We headed over the sand dune and met a few aborigines wandering around with spears and fishing rods. I asked if they were having any luck - answer was no, then he called out the a chap in a uniform asking if they can stop at Woolies.

From here you can see the conveyor belt going out to the ships.

We walked along to the point. View back to the conveyor belt. Nice spot for a swim - the water is so clear I reckon we could spot a croc but we won’t take the chance.

Around the point looking back to the tug jetty.

Did my bit cleaning up Australia by picking up this mess.

Found a couple of shells.

Along to where the people were fishing. The local chap said at low tide you can cast into a deep channel and get some good fish like mackerel and cobia so we will keep that in mind if the boat fishing isn’t too good. He asked if we saw the chaps in yellow shirts - we did. They are from prison. He said they have ankle bracelets. If they behave they get to come fishing.

Back under the jetty - view over the Rio Tinto operations area.

Back to the truck and as we headed off a snake wiggled across the road.

A car was coming the other way and went straight over it but it curled itself up and the car missed it. The snake zoomed across into the grass.

Back to the Boat Club but we continued along the Drummie Head Road for a look. Narrow neck here with the bay on one side and another area of water on the other and mine operations further over.

There is a wrecked boat leaning up again the rocky wall on the bay side.

Continued on past a saw mill then we saw a school sign saying woodwork etc. This is another community area called Gunyangara.

Drove to the end where there was a fenced area and big boat but no info so we turned around and headed back home.

The others headed over to the Boat Club for dinner as they love pork belly and apparently that is a speciality here. We had already taken out steak so Steve cooked that on the BBQ in the camp kitchen. Perfect tender porterhouse too. The others were coming back from their dinner as we were starting ours. There is a lady singing - no too bad.

We then drove back to the boat ramp and flicked our lures around the water outlet area but no Barra or anything else.

Back home - quiet evening. Set the TV up and the chrome caster so we can use some of our extra data watching a few shows rather than the movies we have on the hard drive.