This is where Gove is

Episode 4

Off  to Gove Peninsula.  I was a bit worried about this sector. I had been trying to reach the man I was going to stay with, but couldn’t get him by phone,  and the one time I did get through , I left a message with a woman who didn’t speak much  English.  Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I took the flight from Cairns, in the afternoon, on a smallish plane,  and had a lovely scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef – the plane flew relatively low and I could see the reef very clearly, the sea was emerald green and smooth, and the reef was a darker blue. I was so lucky with the weather, as it had rained off and on in Cairns. Then we flew over Cape York Peninsula, which is pretty drab and barren and largely uninhabited. However, one interesting thing I saw was a large circle, with smaller circles inside it.  I don’t know what it was, but it looked like some sort of target for out-of-space reconnaissance.  The crew couldn’t enlighten me, either. Then we flew over the Gulf of Carpentaria, which I seem to remember is the Arafura Sea…what a lovely smooth, pale blue,  silken colour, the sky and sea merged to become one. It was very difficult, looking at it, to recognise where we were flying…in the sky or in the sea.  Then we flew over Gove Peninsula and the terrain was all drab green with great streaks of red earth.

The airport at Gove at least had a sealed all-weather landing strip, but the airport itself, at that time  was just like you would imagine ,very basic , and the luggage was tossed out  of the plane into a wire enclosure, with no roof.  So, if it rained , you can imagine the joy of your bags getting drenched by a tropical downpour.  By now, some 20 years later, the airport has been been upgraded.  None of the roads were sealed, but were very good, as the bauxite, which the aluminium is extracted from, is very smooth, and as the weather was  still unsettled, the dust hasn’t gotten bad yet……