Days 9 & 10, 30-31 May— Cobourg Peninsula

On getting up this morning we found a wallaby- others had been seen but they seem more rare than in southern climes (although in Darwin we were told that an aggressive culling program had been employed in one urban area to reduce numbers from 2500 to 600.

Our travel to Seven Spirit Bay was through the Garig Gunak Barlu National Park near Port Essington. The lunch stop at the Park ranger base included some displays:

• Local shells, many of which I remember also being able to find in childhood days in East Ballina but long since disappeared from there. At least in East Ballina one only shares the water with sharks and the beach is OK for shore paddling without crocodile harassment.

• The Park ranger base also has a collection of dolls dressed in clothing of the type used in the Victoria Settlement at Port Essington, which lasted just 11 years-1838-1849. (If this was the dress code then small wonder.

Below is the impression of Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1839.  I have extracted it from Wikipedia as I enjoyed the recent biography of this polymath explorer :

Only a few outline brick ruins now exist. This was the third attempt to set up an outpost to trade with Asia and at its height comprised 24 houses and a hospital. It was visited by Ludwig Leichhardt in 1845.
Essington Lewis, born in South Australia in 1881, was named for the district as his father had a cattle station there.

After lunch our journey to Seven Spirit Wilderness Lodge was by boat — a 10 km trip-— as it has not proved economic (and perhaps also to comply with other conditions required by the aboriginal owners' corporation)  to construct a road track. Economics is a big issue with the resort, which has failed commercially several times since opening in 1990. Outback Spirit seems however to have feasible long term plan,  and its reconstruction completed in 2016 boasting a cost of $3.5 million is splendid.

A gallery of very good photos of the accommodation can be found at http://www.sevenspiritbay.com.au/ 

The web photo gallery shows why the Lodge is the culmination of an Arnhem land tour for softies like us.
We were content to spend our one and half days around the Lodge and in the pool, foregoing a trip to the ruins of Victoria Settlement (one hour each way on the boat) and even an excursion to view nipa palms and a bower bird nest. The water was bit too choppy to offer some of our keener fisher folk a ocean trip.