At the time of writing its pouring with rain. Well it is the Wet Season but we have really had very little rain. Recently we had our second cyclone warning (the first being on Christmas Day). We had to batten down the hatches and prepare a cyclone emergency pack. At the same time our friends in Dunsborough in Western Australia had to evacuate because of a bushfire; friends in the east of the country were battling floods. As it turned out, once again the cyclone moved away and we were spared. We had one day of good rain and that was it. I haven’t gone through a Wet Season before but I’m liking it. It’s hot and humid but not unbearably so. I love the rolling thunder that comes with the storm clouds which often don’t produce much rain.

The weather isn’t affecting how much we are enjoying ourselves here. The two caravan parks are closed, so are some of the beaches and bush camps. The tracks get muddy and impassable. Now that covid has arrived in Nhulunbuy and the surrounding Indigenous communities are exclusion zones, some of the cafes and the amazing Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre in Yirkala are closed. But there is plenty to keep us occupied. John, Tayler and I have been swimming laps at the pool, we enjoy taking Tommy and Skylar to the beach, we visit the library and toy library often, and have the odd dinner at the Boat Club. And John continues to play golf.

Tayler, who came to visit for Christmas, is still here, unable to get home. As the covid numbers have increased in the Northern Territory, so the Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, has tightened the border making it almost impossible for WA residents to return home. The initial plan to open the WA border on 5th February was cancelled. However, soon there is going to be a slight broadening of compassionate reasons for residents to get home and Tayler hopes to get an exemption to return to Perth on 8th February. Fingers crossed for her. Every cloud has a silver lining and ours has been spending all this extra time with her, and for her, having all this extra time with her nephews, Tommy and Joey.

As luck would have it, Tayler was offered her own house sit for a couple of weeks. She jumped at the chance mainly because there was a very cute dog to take care of as well as some baby chicks. The house was lovely and had its own pool. Tommy, in particular, loved spending time there with her. She even had use of a car.

We had another visitor. John’s sister, Maureen, came to stay for a week from Darwin. Despite some businesses being closed, she had a good time and enjoyed being with family. Kyran took us out to Macassan Beach (Garanhan) about 40kms of dirt track from Nhulunbuy township. With the recent rains, the track was very muddy but fun to navigate. As we approached Macassan, Tommy rode his quad bike the rest of the way. He loved the puddles!

Despite being cloudy, it was lovely and we enjoyed fossicking in the rockpools there. We were surprised to see coral, sea urchins and fish in some of the larger pools.

Macassan Beach was named after the annual visits by the Macassan traders from Sulawesi in Indonesia who traded sea cucumbers (trepang) and turtle shells hundreds of years before European settlement. Maureen and I wandered around and found some Aboriginal Rock Art in the form of stone pictures telling the story of the Macassan traders. The arrangements are believed to have been made in the 19th century by the Yolngu elders to teach future generations about the visiting traders. It is amazing to see something like this just there with no fences to protect it. This is one of the things I love most about East Arnhem Land.

We spent a couple of hours looking around before detouring to look at Turtle Beach on the drive home.

So things are changing again. Maureen has gone back home, Tayler has finished at her housesit and has moved in with Kyran and Vanessa, and we have moved back into the caravan. We have three more housesits lined up ending on 5 March. It will depend on the state of the Central Arnhem Road whether we leave Nhulunbuy then or stay longer. I have been asked to go back to the high school to do some relief teaching when school returns next week. Things have worked out really well for us. We are looking forward to what the next few weeks brings.