Cape Arnhem

Boxing Day a fantastic day spent at Cape Arnhem, Gove. The Rue's, Petrofes' and Aguirre's left Nhulunbuy at 9:30 AM and after 2 hours arrived at the location. The distance as the crow flyies is only 15 miles however it is a winding trip thorugh the bush only accessible via 4x4 or by boat. The trip in 3 Land cruisers was not uneventful. Steve was the first one to get bugged, followed by Gus. It took a bit of shoveling sand and the strength of the 2 youngsters, Audi and Mathew, and also Charles and Peggy to help push the land cruisers out of the sand. Once you arrive to Cape Arnhem I realized that the trip is worth it every bit. The scenery is fantastic, the water, the beach, the igneous rock, the vegetation growing in this sandy, rocky place is breath taking. The nature is virgin. Charles took us to a "lagoon" which is a small bay where we swam and snorkeled, jumped of the cliff and prayed for no croc's or stingers. Fortunately did not have any of that. Charles also tought us how to find oysters and found some. We ate them out of the shell. Abigail played with the clams and gathered all kinds of shells. At 4PM it waas time to return and unfortunately there is no other way out but the one that we came in. SO there we went, Steve got us lost first, Charles took the lead but also got us lost and bugged down. Then Charles took the lead followed by Gus who was watching in the rear view mirror for Steve. Gus slowed down to see if Steve was coming without realizing that Steve had to slow down because Gus was in front and as result Steve got bugged down. All in all we got out of the place. The driving is half od the fun. This is definitely the place to have a 4x4. It is used to its potential.

The End

Several weeks ago, Gus was told that his contract would end early on January 31. They are sending all the expatriates in his department home. We were not totally surprised since the global economy is affecting everyone. We’ve evaluated our options. Gus has a job offer in Texas (more of this later on). We’re excited to be closer to all our family. We’re sad to leave friends and jobs unfinished. Australia has been a wonderful experience, one we will treasure for the rest of our lives. What a great year and a half this has been. Our ears will always perk up for every Australian accent we come across and we’ll have to ask, “what part of Australia do you come from?”.

Peggy is somewhat sad to be leaving her job. She had just figured out how to do it efficiently and made out the travel schedule for next year. The hardest part is knowing that, unlike in populated developed areas, they will probably not be able to recruit an audiologist for East Arnhemland and the patients will go unserved.

So, now on to the next chapter. We have lots of sorting, packing, unpacking, rearranging to do. Peggy doesn’t have a job yet, but has begun to look. Taking the dogs back will be a breeze compared to bringing them. Christine will care for them for a couple of weeks during the actual move. We will leave Australia and visit New Zealand on the way home.