What is this??

We awoke this morning to a strange sight – something was blocking our view of the sun! And what’s more, there were little drops falling from the sky! And we were having to put on extra layers of clothing. Yes, we are still in WA, and are camped at – make that was camped at – Dongara.
The gentle rocking of the van during the night and the pounding of waves at the shore next to us heralded the arrival of heavy rain! So heavy that I feared that the gentle rocking of the van was due to us having floated away during the night!
Clouds and rain are things we haven’t seen for nearly two months. But I’m not abandoning shorts just yet!

Some Australian History

What year was Australia discovered? If you had the same education as I did, you instinctively think of 1770 and Captain Cook, right? (And you can do it without using Google!) Funnily enough, the Westernmost tip of Australian mainland (Steep Point) bears a plate marking the arrival of Dutch Explorers in the 1600s, along with the names these explorers gave to land formations. Red Bluff in Kalbarri was named by de Vlamingh in the 1690s, 80 years before Cook – and de Vlamingh arrived some 70 years after Dirk Hartog. This history is commonly known in WA, but not the East. Something about the place we sit affecting what we see?

Kalbarri

Until six years ago, Kalbarri was accessible only via unsealed road, now it is becoming a highway for people seeking a sea change. Although still quite some distance from Perth, housing commands prices well in excess of $300000, and commonly over half a million! Although a beautiful situated town, it has a “Stepford Wives” feel to it.
The beautiful National Park on its doorstep is carved by the Murchison River, with a picturesque feature known as “Nature’s Window”. We chose this day to explore the river loop for which the Window is the entrance point. Unfortunately this also proved to be the hottest afternoon of the trip, with the temperatures in the shade pushing to 37 degrees – and there was not much shade! We were a third of the way through the 8 km trek when discretion became the better part, and we turned back. This decision was aided by a German couple who were also returning from a little further down the track. They were in such bad shape that we needed to share some of our water with them, as well as some of our snacks, as we nursed them back to the car park.

Wildflowers!

A slow and subtle transformation loomed across the landscape as we made our way south of Karratha – the emergence of wildflowers. This time of year is ideal to experience the rich colours of the Australian wildflowers. The first to catch our attention is the bold and vivacious Sturt’s Desert Pea. As we neared Kalbarri, there were more subtle hues emerging: mauves, hints of yellow and dusky pinks. Unfortunately the dry season has meant a delay in the full blooming of colours, which we might hopefully see as we cross the Nullarbor.
Trivia Question:
What is the native wildflower of WA? If you answered Sturt’s Desert Pea, you’d be wrong – that’s South Australia’s native! It’s the Kangaroo Paw!






Bonus points if you can name Victoria’s!

Slower than watching grass grow

There is one experience available which is slower than watching grass grow – watching Stromatalites grow. What are stromatolites, you ask? Stromatolites are layered limestone rock built by single-cell cyanobacteria which trap and bind sediments. In lay terms – they are rocks which are living and growing. The cells are postulated to be similar to the first forms of life on earth. If you hang around long enough, you’ll actually see these things grow in size!

Kalbarri

It was about 10 km th of the Kalbarri turn-off that the most peculiar sight took us by surprise – a cultivated field! It has been nearly two months since we saw such a level block of land, it looked totally unnatural!

Monkey Mia

Oh yeh... we also visited Monkey Mia this morning. Have you ever wondered about this experience from the Dolphins’ perspective? “Hey kids, make sure you get your bags packed – we’re going out to see some humans this morning! They line up in freezing cold water and occasionally throw us some fish – I wonder if they know how good they are to eat? You see all different shapes and sizes, and colours too. I’m not sure what makes them undertake this ritual – could be part of their mating rites, or maybe a family ritual.”
I have to say that standing ankle deep in sea water for half an hour in order to see a handful of dolphins fed some fish is not one of my “must-see” experiences. Having seen dolphins in the wild, this seems so artificial – as well as foot-numbing. The setting, however, was spectacular, along with much of the western coastline.

The Denham Experience

We arrived back from the morning experience at Monkey Mia to a caravan park decked out in balloons, prompting one of the kids to suggest that there was a party happening – until, that is, we cottoned on to the colours: purple and green on some sites, blue and yellow on others. Yes, that’s right – they were getting ready for what is locally known as “the derby” (that’s “–er-by” not “–ar-by” according to local lore – the biennial Frockers vs Weagles game) You have to experience one of these in WA to really understand. The papers have been deluged for a week – the first ten pages of the sports section, special lift-outs, and often front-page photo ops! It was the talk of the van park for the day, not to mention the blaring radios keeping all and sundry up-to-date with the progress of the match, and even in the laundry and showers the next day. (“How much do you reckon Worsfold was paid for that?” etc.) While these two teams carry one of the best home-ground advantages in the AFL, they also carry the weight of a lot of expectations.

Two days in Carnarvon later...

They have a wonderful jetty in Carnarvon called “one mile jetty”, and it really is one mile long. Caleb and I decided to fish off the jetty, carrying all of our equipment out to this wonderfully alluring fishing spot. I certainly needed physio on my shoulder by the time we reached the end. Fortunately it came in the form of casting and catching. One only had to throw the line off the edge and the fish would jump onto the hook. We pulled in so many yellow fin bream that it didn’t seem fair. The guy behind us landed a one-metre shark of the same variety we had landed on Eighty Mile Beach, and he wasn’t keen on eating it. Guess who scored it – and later shared it with the rest of the van park? We had some wonderful company on the end of this jetty, including a loggerhead turtle and a dugong. The bream were lovely eating, although we had to make sure that the shark was eaten first. As we prepare to leave this morning, there is a strong wind blowing from the south, making for a difficult trip towing the van into a howling gale.

Stay Tuned

Apologies for the delay in updating the blog - we have been without running water and electricity for five days, let alone anything resembling modern communications (including telephone!) We will update the details in the next few days, including photos, and will backdate into the gap, so you will need to scroll down.
We'll let you know when we have updated!

Communications...

Caleb, excited after catching a fish, as we were driving along the road (in the midde of almost nowhere), calls out, "Can I talk to Nanna and Papa?" Ev sarcastically replies from the driver's seat, "darling, what do you want: smoke signals, carrier pigeon, or should we just open the window for you to yell?!?!"

Oh, No!!!!!

This means we are leaving the tropical area. Sob. Sob.

Ningaloo Reef

This is so tough – no electricity, no running water, no phones – all we can do is snorkel and swim all day! We go to bed when the sun sets and get up when it rises and we have never been so content and happy. The toughest decisions are how long to stay in the water and what to eat next. The pale aquamarine sparkling water allows incredible visibility of the splendid array of marine life all on our own white sandy beach that stretches as far as the eye can see. Our van actually looks out onto this picture postcard beach that looks like it belongs on ‘lifestyles of the rich and famous’. How much? $14 a night for all five of us. There is a maximum of 28 day stay and we heard about it from people further north who had booked in for three nights and stayed the full 28. We thought it was worth a look and it has turned out to be a definite highlight of the trip. We got to the stage of not knowing what day it was and when I said to Rachel at one stage ‘I wonder what time it is’ her reply of ‘who cares’ summed it up. This is really living. Already I am trying to work out how many paintings I’d have to sell to fly back to Exmouth and stay the full 28 days on the reef! Yes folks – we even used the bush shower that I reluctantly packed.

It was like being shipwrecked on a deserted island but with loads of food and great company.

The Most Expensive Place in Australia

The award goes to the Nanutarra Roadhouse where the price of petrol was over 25 cents a litre more than we had seen anywhere in WA, and the price of a bag of hot chips was $8.95! Needless to say we didn’t get either.

Caleb types again... Special Fishing Edition

OK.

So far we have been 2

Adelaide

Wilpena Pound

*Coober Pedy

Crossed border into NT

Yulara (Uluru)

Watarrka (Kings Canyon)

Alice Springs

Tilmouth Well

*Yuendumu

Devils Marbles

Mataranka

Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge)

*Darwin

Kakadu

Victoria River

Crossed border into WA

*Wyndham

Halls Creek

Derby

Broome

*80 Mile Beach

And now we have stopped at Point Samson.

*My favourite places

Have enjoyed practically every place so far but have enjoyed 80 Mile Beach 4 a specific reason (see fishing report)

If u don’t see me with a basketball in my hand in a day, there’s something wrong...

Now, THERES SOMETHING WRONG!!!

I would KILL to play basketball just about now...

Priorities in killing are:

• Moth flying around my head - done
• Entire Mosquito population – work in progress
• Sam’s voice box
• Other moth flying around my head
• Anything else that would allow me to play bball

A highlight has been that the MIGHTY TIGERS BEAT THE LIONS BY 83PTS!!!

Sport Scores:

none. *sob*

Fishing Report:

Wyndham:

Off a little creek near the pool at Parry’s Creek Farm where we were staying I caught a massive 1.5m barramundi... I WISH!!! Ok. Dad started our fishing diary with a decent 42cm Barramundi using squidgies live bait, its was quite tasty. I followed by catching 2 30 odd cm barra. Three 1sts in this: 1^st barra, 1^st lure-caught fish and 1^st fish caught with my telescopic rod (got as b’day pressie).

80 Mile Beach:

Day 1:

Dad once again started the catching with a 40 odd cm Bluefin salmon, I quickly followed with another pilchard-caught 33 odd cm Bluefin Salmon. TASTY

Day 2:

Started fishing at 1pm but didn’t get a fish until I caught a tiny Salmon. We were amused to see a shark leap out of the water. Now comes the trail of events:

1. Reeled in small Bluefin Salmon, Dad goes to get the camera
2. Dad gets BIG tug just as he is about to get camera and starts reeling in
3. See a large fish jump out of water, shark fin slowly rising out of water
4. Hook snaps off, shark spawns (the baby was about 2” or 3” long and see-through)
5. Dad runs and swings shark out of reach of the water, doing it twice to make sure

Therefore landing a beautiful 65cm black-tip shark. Just b4 we left I caught a 21cm Threadfin Salmon, but let it go too. Later, when filleting the shark, we opened up its stomach to find two whole pieces of our pilchard bait that the little (not really little) bugger was eating. We also retrieved, with great difficulty, the hook from its mouth. A beautiful eating fish and we will eventually try the delicacy of ‘shark fin soup’.

I have realised that I catch the quantity and dad catches the size and quality.

Dad:

42cm barra eaten

40cm Bluefin Salmon eaten pilchards

65cm Black-tip shark eaten squid tentacles

Me:

30cm barra

30cm barra

33cm Bluefin Salmon eaten pillies

Tiny Bluefin Salmon peeled prawns

Small Bluefin Salmon peeled prawns

21cm Threadfin Salmon peeled prawns

I hope you have enjoyed the report and the blog.

I hope to record more caught fish in the future

Cya!

Highlights of Broome

The Broome history has certainly been a colourful one with all the danger, mixed cultures, incredible wealth that the pearling industry created The huge amount of lives lost – mostly young men – as a result of our lust for the illusive treasures of the sea. And so we too were bewitched – being allowed to hold an $100,000 perfect pearl in the palms of our hands, the perfection of the shape and lustre, the wonder of how it was created and the sheer panic that Sam was going to drop it on the concrete floor when it was his turn!! After being dragged out of what Gary described as ‘the millionth pearl shop’ I again sighed and wondered how I came to be married to a Baptist Minister!

We did the Broome ‘tourist thing’ and booked ourselves on a camel ride on Cabel Beach at sunset. Our camels were fitted with brand new saddles after an intentionally lit fire burnt out all of the owners equipment. Murder and skulduggery are not just relegated to the history of the pearling industry – it’s alive and well in 2006 – and extends to the camel trade. It seems this company wasn’t wanted back on the beach and a lot of money was gained and lost as a result of the fire.

We were saddled up and raised a long way up in the air for my liking. For years I had been looking forward to the romantic notion of the sunset camel ride on the beach but the reality with the three kids a tad different! Sam went with Caleb, I went with Rachel and Gary went with another woman!

Unfortunately Rachel and I were in the middle of the camel train and the only unsaddled camel directly behind us. He must have felt left out or lonely as he kept coming level with us and nuzzling his enormous head into my hip. These animals look incredibly cute until they open their mouths. Their teeth are yellow and grotesque and a few sessions with Peter Tolliday (orthodonist) wouldn’t go astray to improve their public image. I don’t think the two lots of people behind us even looked at the sunset as they were so hysterical with laughter watching me and “odi” the amorous camel. What a nightmare!

Our camel had black thick eyelashes four inches long and looked like she had bucket loads of mascara on. It made exceptionally rude noises from every orifice for the whole trip – then I found out she was a he – Buster (this then made perfect sense)! Buster looked like he was dressed in drag. Why do males always get the longer darker eyelashes? Another of life’s little injustices.

At the conclusion of the ride instead of gently sinking to the ground like all his mates Buster crashed Rachel and I to the ground with an almighty crash. This ‘Ship of the Desert’ slumped into dry dock without a lot of grace concluding nicely the spectacle that we had been all along for those behind us. Still being attacked by Odi we noticed Gary dismantling smoothly after a most enjoyable ride with the mystery woman!

A $100,000 pearl!!

Halls Creek

Halls Creek doesn’t look much on the map – it seems to be a little corner which turns the vehicle from travelling south to the west coast. It sits at the junction of a number of major highways. In addition to the Great Northern Highway, it also is the starting point of the Buntine Highway, which takes you into Northern Territory and the community of Wave Hill, the first Native Title settlement in Australia. To the South East, the Tanami Road unfolds, heading directly to Alice Springs. About 15 km to the East lies the original Halls Creek settlement – or at least its remains. This settlement was largely bulldozed by the local council because – in the words of the lovable rough diamond who runs the homestead, “too many people were living in the buildings without paying rates!” He fought them to keep some parts, miniscule though they may be, and runs a caravan park and homestead. Halls Creek was started largely in the search for gold – for which the Tanami track was formed. And it carries a history of bushrangers. To walk through the cemetery of the old town is to encounter the struggles of early settlers, both with the landscape and the terrain. The site continues to produce gold, and remains hard work! The owner, for all his rough exterior, also cares for birds in an aviary, caring for the injured and vulnerable ones.
A little further along the road is Palm Springs, an active waterhole teeming with small fish, and running with crystal clear water. The kids went for a swim, Caleb a little unexpectedly as he overbalanced while trying to cross by walking on the rocks! In the middle of desert surrounds it was a true oasis.
A further hundred or so metres along the road we turned off to Sawpit Gorge, part of the same water system, and providing shade and fishing. Caleb – ever the keen fisherman – dropped a line in at both spots, but only caught a bit of a suntan!
One of the more intriguing discoveries was the China Wall, much nearer to Halls Creek. This bold quartz wall runs intermittently through the landscape for kilometres. Original thoughts were that it might have been man-made, but a closer encounter dispelled that myth!
We were privileged to see the work of the students at the Warlawurru Catholic School in Halls Creek. Lead by a very creative and caring staff, these students are producing work of a par with that I have seen in Melbourne! Not bad considering their native language and culture at home is not English.
On our last night at Halls Creek, we climbed the hill behind the school to watch the sun set and the full moon rise, while having a 360-degree panoramic view of the area. It was nothing short of spectacular. Our only regret was to leave behind a good friend Leonie and to miss the forthcoming Croc Fest.

Wyndham

What is the furthest point one can travel from home without leaving Australia? I’ll give you a hint – it is a town named after the son of Lord and Lady Broome!
Well, we probably COULD get further away from home and still stay on mainland, but that would require a 4WD, and we don’t have one – although we have done our best with the vehicle we have!
Wyndham is the beginning of the massive tidal shifts which mark the coast this far north, varying over 9 metres! We were tempted to fish off the pontoon in Wyndham, but demurred when informed that there was a local resident who trawled the water in this region. Having already seen enough crocs on the trip, we preferred to drown our lures in the lagoon at Parry Creek, which proved to be successful! We enjoyed the first barra meal of the trip. Nice tucker!
However, with a name like Wyndham, I’d have asked my folks to name a town that is quite a distance away from me so that the locals can’t repay me for lending them such a moniker.

You know you've been off-road a bit when...

...the comment comes from the back seat: "What's bitumen?"

Hides and Leather

Some time ago the government in its infinite wisdom allowed the water buffalo in the NT to be culled thus almost rendering them extinct. I had become rather fond of these huge lumbering creatures during my time working in South Thailand in the 70’s. I loved riding through the jungle on the back of a motorbike seeing them look up curiously just metres away. So it was disappointing to learn that outside of a zoo type enclosure we were very unlikely to see them in the wild. Read on…!!!!!
After pulling up at the Victoria River Roadhouse we chose to park at a safe distance from the river (still huge salties around) but a huge distance from the other two campers which has become my preference. I’ve grown used to sleeping at the open window with just the fine mesh between me and the annoying mosquitoes. I was even starting to regret not packing a swag (Gary keeps asking ‘who are you and what did you do with Ev?’). It’s magnificent going to sleep watching many more bright stars than I’m used to seeing in the city.
I awoke around 4am to a snorting and shuffling near my window – thinking it was the local croc out for a stroll I mentally thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t followed the swag idea and sat up to receive one of the biggest frights of my life. There snorting in my face – with only the fine mesh between us – was a huge, moon-illuminated water buffalo! I shrieked; he - or she - snorted in return (I wasn’t a picture at 4am either) and with a disgruntled curious snort in my face again it shuffled away down to the river. The next couple of hours my fragile mind pictured the front page of The Age had I of been in a swag “Stupid Melbourne Woman Trampled to Death by remaining NT Water Buffalo”.
My next close up and personal contact with leather clad objects was behind the window in the BP Service station in Wyndham. My beloved had been a tad panic stricken realising that the winder for the van was somewhere on the roadside after we were stopped at the border to relinquish all of our fruit and vegies. (These were of course freshly purchased in Katherine the day before to see us through ten days in decidedly non-fresh fruit and vegie territory! For public record it was not me who left it attached to the van after being stripped of every vitamin.) Whilst Gary was negotiating a solution with the petrol attendant about 20 leather clad bikies roared in to the station. They all dismounted and as they were removing their helmets my eye caught the look of the old man in the middle of them (I later worked out he was my age!) He looked positively ill and was getting greyer by the minute. Then the penny dropped. I left Gary and the kids without a word and waltzed into the middle of them to prop this guy up. He had fallen of his bike at 100 km/h and they were trying to work out how to get him to the local hospital. Not much in the way of taxis and ambulances out in Wyndham so we persuaded them to let us bundle him in the front seat of the car (literally – Gary had to lift his legs into the car!) and, leaving Gary and the kids standing there, I headed off – complete with van – with a huge bike escort. Poor Eddie (the injured motorcyclist) was in agony and was very fearful of the hours to come. Half way there I suddenly remembered all the horrible stories of the Coffin Cheaters (based in WA) and tentatively asked my new friend if ‘they had a particular name that they rode under’. He chuckled and said they all got together every little while for a week away riding and camping in the bush. They ranged in age from 19 up to Eddie’s age and were all from Katherine. I stared ahead at the road not wanting to read what was on his sleeves! He went on to explain that most white top enders have come away from something bad somewhere else. The ensuing conversation was an amazing insight into why a lot of people rough it in the outback. It’s still not as rough as the journeys they have already been on. After getting Eddie to the hospital, we checked back in the next day to discover that he had been transferred out with possible internal injuries but expected to make a full recovery. What did hit me at the hospital was the amazing community spirit that these bikies had – they genuinely cared about each other’s welfare and their passion for motorbikes was the glue that held them together. Churches could learn a lot from this bunch……!
Note for mother: It was you that said not to judge a book by its cover – just remember that before we talk on the phone next!

Kakadu and Arnhem Land

There’s a breath within creation
That’s as old as time itself
Which can’t be heard in words or signs

The difference between two tourist experiences:

‘There’s a crocodile... there’s a Jabiru nest... and a sea eagle... an azure kingfisher...’ (you get the drift) Oh, and ‘crocodiles generally don’t eat birds ... there is a croc eating a bird!; and..

‘The paperbark is one of the most important plants for the local people, they use it for making boats, like alfoil in cooking, for carrying water, getting a drink if there is no water around (from the knot in the tree), making lights, toilet paper, for boats, and bed mats (which repel insects) and also the wood for some of their work tools. There are distinct roles and cultures for men and women, and neither desires to interfere with the other. Each gender has power in its own right – women discipline women and men discipline men. A family member can be administered the punishment if the perpetrator runs away (so that the family member will remember to follow up!) Aboriginals have a sensitive relationship with the land which requires that they also think of those who will follow after them. Thus when digging up a yam, the aboriginal women will cut a piece off and bury it in the hole for future growth.’

One only grows in deep respect for the Indigenous Peoples of our land – for their instincts in caring for the land, for their complete lack of waste (leftover foods are eaten by animals), and for their sense of place in life. To walk among some of the ancient sites in Kakadu is to find oneself breathing ancient air, deeply aware of an enduring story and presence, sometimes revealed in art and artefacts, but more often in much more subtle ways.
In many tourist places, one finds two stories: the aboriginal dreamtime and that of science. The former have much more life and meaning than the latter. Both seem to make sense of the creation around, with the Indigenous stories offering a sense of connection and place, which science eschews, yet often exhibits a deep flaw in credibility.
We spent a half day in Arnhem Land. This place is magnificent! Even though we only touched a small corner, we were privileged to gain some insight into its uniqueness. Lying across the bank of a river from Kakadu, it is an entirely different place, with different topography and colour.
To watch the sunset over Ubirr, knowing that it has done so much the same way since time began, is to be filled with awe and wonder – and humility. Kakadu breathes a life so fresh and vital, it has to be experienced to be really understood.
One a side note, one of the evaluation forms we filled out from a caravan park offered as one of the reasons for coming as “to escape from reality”. I commented to Ev that it should better read “To get in touch with reality.”

Of Caterpillars and other things

Aboriginal Dreamtime stories of the Arrernte tribes around Alice Springs feature the caterpillar ancestors of Mpartnwe (the indigenous name for the area) who crawled across the landscape from Emily Gap (Anthwerrke) in the East MacDonnell Ranges. These creative ancestral beings – the Yeperenye, Ntyarlke and Utnerrengatye caterpillars – formed all the geographical features of the area.
It would be no surprise, then, for keen readers of this blog to recognise that my once-(and briefly-)shaven upper lip vanished under a new caterpillar during our time in Alice. If you are really keen to know what my face looks like without said growth, I have placed a photo in the appropriate entry earlier in the blog. (You wouldn’t expect me to make it easy, would you????)

Scandal at the Camel Cup

It can now be revealed that there was skulduggery associated with the running of the Alice Springs Camel Cup this year, all undertaken by the hand of one Samuel Heard. While we were enjoying the festivities of the Cup, we wandered upon the camel pens, where all contestants were being stabled when not racing. Out of the kindness of his heart, Samuel fed one of the camels some grass, only to (eventually) earn the stiff rebuke of an official. When Samuel watched the same camel cross the line first in the feature race of the day he was ecstatic (even as the rider was falling off the side!) We quickly whisked him away before his secret could be revealed and a stewards’ inquiry established. Thus, only a select few know the real cause of the stunning upset in the 2006 Camel Cup!

Timber Creek

We are sitting in an open park in Timber Creek - an open wireless network is found!!!

We have greatly appreciated reading all the comments, but don't get the time and space to reply to them, as we have often posted new blogs since... Thanks everyone1

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Kakadu and Arnhem Land. We will post something more detailed in the days to come. In the next few hours we will leave the beautiful Northern Territory and head into Western Australia, spending tonight at Wyndham.

Ev has a good water buffalo story to tell from last night at Victoria River.