Photo: Nuhulumbuy Celebration...

We dragged the dingy up the beach, clear of the rising tide and mindful of the warning sign informing us that crocodiles were a danger to anyone landing here. Making our way through the shuttered 'club' grounds to the dusty road to Nuhulumbuy 12 kilometers away, we had to find a way of getting there to buy supplies. There was no bus or anything like that. Nothing much else happening either...

We came to the road just as the dust cloud came towards us. It was a decrepit four wheeler heading in the right direction so I stuck my thumb out half heartedly and without much feeling. The four wheeler screeched to a halt and reversed back towards us. Inside were three beaming aboriginals, two men and a young angelic looking girl. "Where you heading?" said the driver with a broad Aussie accent. "Nuhulumbuy" said Marie and they told us to hop in the back. We were off...

"I'm Dave" I said, introducing myself. "Well. I'm Dave too", the mean looking one in the passenger seat offered. "And I'm Dave as well", laughed the driver in his mirror. We all laughed together striking instant friendships and Marie introduced herself to the little girl Hollie. This was good. We had a fine time hurtling down the gravel road towards Nuhulumbuy...

And in the middle of this wilderness land we discovered that Dave and Dave, two of the toughest aboriginal males you could wish to come across, used to be the lead singer and lead dancer in the ethnic Nuhulumbuy Aboriginal Touring Band. And they had toured the world. They visited England, to Nottingham in fact, our home town, to Scotland and the Isle of Sky. Pretty much everywhere it turned out. They were very proud and we were genuinely impressed. I looked out of the rear window into the dust cloud and wandered how it was we could all meet in a wild place like this...

Dave and Dave took us to the small outback settlement of Nuhulmbuy and showed us around. We got our fresh supplies and found a lift back to Gove Bay. We stayed on anchor a couple more days waiting for the storm wind to die down and then left to cross the Gulf of Carpentaria, towards the infamous Torres Straights...
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