Days 41 – 43: Cass and Katherine

Well it has been a few days since we blogged – sorry – time kinda shuffles past when you are having fun! 

Monday we spent in Litchfield National Park – we dumped our van in a safe place and headed off for some four wheel driving.  We saw the ‘Lost City’ (gorgeous rock formations that did remind one of an ancient Aztec City), and then to a variety of waterfalls and lovely swimming holes.  It is school holidays here, so there is a fair amount of people pressure on these areas – but that doesn’t change the beauty of the scenery, it only emphasises the ugliness of too large a population.

 We spent two days in Darwin – both interesting and difficult – Darwin is not only hot but wet (humid) – literally you blink and you sweat.  The caravan parks are so full there so when you get a spot – we had booked - you are literally cheek-by-jowl – too close really for our comfort.  Also, booking blind as we did has its downsides – we were in the airport’s flight path and planes here fly in and out right through the night! Just imagine a 747’s roar at 3 am – the whole place shakes.

Rich and I did have a lovely dinner on the Wharf on Monday night, having lovely fresh seafood, right on the edge of the water, watching the boats go by, studying the massive navy carrier that had called in to port to refuel.  We counted 18 helicopters of different sizes, a number of jets and a troop carrier with its wings off on the deck!  The (ugly) power of man!

We picked up Cass at 2 am on Tuesday morning (one of those flights in the middle of the night) and as a result were all somewhat bleary that day – which we spent in Darwin exploring.  The water front area has been beautifully revamped with lovely walk ways, shade, a wave pool, a kind of little beach area (complete with a life guard!) and of course lots of shops and eateries.  Very nice, especially that you can have a dip anytime you get hot.  We did have a great amount of fun watching all the sailors enjoying some R & R – there were actually two ships in town, one American and one Aussie – I imagine there were some interesting fisty-cuffs that night when they all had some liquor in them!  Cass just enjoyed the eye candy! J (can’t miss the soldiers as they have these shaved back and sides with a little mop on top), Sundowners on Mindil Beach followed – no market on that night, but the sun still went down in spectacular style. We also discovered that Mindil bach car park was also where all the ‘alternative – hippies – free campers’ free-load with their free love. In this case dreads are mandatory as well as a sweet smelling blue haze. I guess they are enjoying life – hope they can hang onto their brain cells long enough to make sense of their future, as Darwin also seems to have the highest number of 2^nd generation hippies.  

When we were packing up in Darwin we realised we had a problem with the van and the pop-top roof – won’t go into details, but it needed to be fixed – it is a sinking feeling because we know from past experience that while the van is under warranty, the practicalities of getting something fixed RIGHT NOW is virtually impossible.  A quick SOS skywards, and we were redirected by the Jayco Dealers (who were too busy) to another place, where they literally squeezed us in and fixed us up on an hour!  Thanks God – so we were on our way, out of sticky Darwin to Katherine Gorge by 11 am.

The difference in Katherine is quite marked – still extremely hot (33 degrees) – but not humid and sticky.  Still a caravan park, but lots of space, birds, wallaroos etc.  Still campers, but a different breed – these ones want to walk and explore, canoe and hike, swim and discover (not like many of the grey nomads we meet who just sit outside their vans and wait to be joined by another grey nomad couple to chat and reminisce).  Did we tell you our theory about the grey nomads – there seems to be a high proportion that are Vietnam veterans who managed to get post-traumatic stress pensions. These restless men then hit the road to travel Australia as they did not need the income. Over time I think this has created a culture of the grey nomads that others have joined post-retirement. We have started noticing the ex-veteran meetings and gardens of remembrance etc in the various caravan parks.  Interesting how a war can create a culture that seems unconnected.

Today we hope to canoe in the Katherine Gorge – which is horrendously expensive but we think will be worth it.

Cass – well it is lovely having her with us.  It does take a little longer to set up and break up camp because of her tent (which is fairly large) but it is worth it for her company, to see things fresh again through her eyes and to hear her wry comments about the little routines and habits that we have acquired over one short month.

Highlights:

Cassie:             Army boys (eye candy only) and pearl earrings from a market

Rich:                 Getting out of Darwin back to the bush

Kim:                 Dinner on the Wharf in Darwin (very romantic) and picking up Cass from the airport

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Day 40: Edith Falls and Mount Bundy Station

So the caravan park we stayed in last night was a bit of a revelation as to how other people live – it is easy to think that everyone is like us, but actually, the sad truth is that they are not.  The park we stayed in was a ‘by accident’ occurrence and not necessarily serendipitous but definitely revelationary – as I said in my attempt at poetry yesterday, we had an ‘interesting’ day on the road – after traveling over 10 000 km we had the first encounter with flying stones hitting our windscreen, kindly doled out by a passing road train, and it wasn’t just one chip that it delivered, but three, the chips of which went right through – this unfortunate event precipitated a series of difficulties (which I won’t go into) that revolved around trying to get the chips sealed with a special sealant before they turned into cracks – bottom line is that we lost a lot of time on the road, and ended up coming into Katherine quite late, which mean no nice spots at reputable caravan parks, hence us staying in a less than reputable one.  In the end staying in a less than savoury place is not a catastrophe because we can close the door of our van on the world and be safe inside our own environment, but nonetheless it was an eye opener.  It seems there are quite a few people who permanently live in caravan parks – which was a bit of a revelation to me.  Whole families with young children live in old buses, single men and women live in vans that they fix up sometimes successfully, sometimes not with gazebos, pot plants, fenced areas, vicious dogs on chains etc.  When I re-read the previous sentence it sounds like it is an idyllic existence – but the truth of the matter is that these places are usually run down, sad, messy and hopeless. Often the occupants seem to just sit in a chair under a covering and stare into space – one can’t help wondering what their story is, where are their loved ones and why they are living at the back of a caravan park?  It is a bit of a wakeup call for me – my happy and secure middle class existence is not really the norm at all!

Wasn’t the moon eclipse lovely – we got to see it really clearly given that there were no city lights where we were camped – what a privilege!

 The moon eclipse

So this morning we hightailed it out of ‘Camp Sad’ and were very blessed to find a Coffee Club in Katherine and we enjoyed the first decent coffee for over a week!  It was bliss!  We also were able to get some reasonably priced diesel for the first time in a long time – have I mentioned our highest price so far is $1.80?  From there it was on to Edith Falls for another injection of beauty – and heat – I was not joking when I said 33 degrees – any movement more than the occasional eye blink brings on a perspiration bath!  Edith Falls is a series of waterfalls into huge deep pools just outside of Katherine.  Rich donned his wetsuit and snorkeling gear and pottered around one of the big pools, seeing turtles, barramundi, archer fish, black bream, catfish and a variety of other fish.  I lay on the grass and read a book!  (What a life this LSL!)  Then he and I headed for the ‘short’ 1.6 km walk to the upper pool – but forgot to factor in the fact that the walk was at the UPPER pool, which meant serious hill climbing at midday – well, needless to say I didn’t cope very well at all, and was feeling positively nauseous by the time we got there – 1.6 km has never felt so far – I often wonder on those nightmarish kinds of walks if they were first measured and set out by fit and strong young male ranger types.  The kind who would think it a huge joke to pretend the trail was easy and short, but in reality deliberately made it long and hard.  It is as if they knew that the old, fat and unfit are going to be walking the trails and this is some kind of sick joke to make us pay for our sins and so they deliberately have the signs printed to say that the walk is easy and is only 1.6 km when ACTUALLY THE TRAIL IS SIXTEEN KILOMETERS with vertical hill climbs with massive boulders that you have to slither over on your stomach on the way up, and slide down on your bum on the way down.

 The upper pool at Edith falls 

Having said all that, it WAS worth the walk (well Rich might not agree having to put up with my whingeing the whole way) – and the upper pool was just lovely, and yes, I swam and it was wonderful – it certainly made the walk back a lot easier!  I now have another thing to add to Rich’s list of ‘favourite must dos’ at EVERY opportunity – in addition to checking out big trees and walking on long jetties, we must now add, get under waterfalls – note …. UNDER them! 

 Rich's been swimming AGAIN! 

From there it was back into our boiling hot car for the drive towards Darwin.  We were going to stop overnight in a National Park, but decided instead for a cheaper option, Mount Bundy Station and wow, are we glad we did.  It is a working station so there are plenty of horses, water Buffalo and Brahman cows around.  The campsite is on the banks of the Adelaide River, beautiful shady trees, relaxed approach to everything, and cheap as chips!  It is just lovely.  I got to pat a baby Brahman which I have been hoping to do for quite some time – they have a frill of flesh down their front (I think it is for cooling purposes) and a big hump on their back – I am happy to report that the hump is squishy and the frill is, well, frilly! 

 Crossing the Edith river

The only confronting thing tonight was the caretaker stomping around the grounds – when you looked closer you saw he was actually stomping cane toads!  They need stomping, I agree – it is all just a bit violent in this otherwise serene and pastoral setting! 

 Our camp under a Curtain Fig tree

Tomorrow we head to Darwin where will pick up Cassie for 2.5 weeks!  Looking forward to it!

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Day 39: Kununurra to Katherine

So early in the morning Rich and Kim said goodbye

To lovely Kununurra that had been their home for five

Lovely days of exploring, fishing, swimming and drives

They had visited bridges, dams, boats and a bird hide.

 Rich's fishing trip on the lower Ord river

Rich had been on an expensive fishing safari

He had fun but couldn’t land the barramundi

He did meet Killer the massive salty

And desperately hoped the boat wasn’t faulty.

 The saltwater croc called Killer (takes cattle for fun)

Kim spent her time shopping, reading and updated her tan

She must admit to thinking about aircon in the van

Thirty three the temperature here in the shade

Enough to make even stalwart Richard fade!

The spillway below Lake Kununurra 

The trip today was over 500 kilometers long

We left late, arrived late because everything went wrong

From stones in the windscreen to heat in car

Expensive petrol, dead battery and that endless strip of tar!

Tonight we are camped just out of Katherine town

Edith Falls and Litchfield Park tomorrow we’ll trek around

We’re watching the lunar eclipse as I speak

What a beautiful end to a wonderful week!

 Tawny Frogmouth above our van

Tomorrow will no doubt bring more beauty and loveliness

How right that on Sunday we’ll see more God amazingness!

How blessed we are in stunning ‘stralia land to be

Couldn’t think of anywhere better, Richard and me!

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Day 37: Gorgeous gorges in El Questro

Well once again today we had another truly glorious experience – we were up early, and in the car to El Questro – about 80 kms from Kununarra.  This is a beautiful place in the East Kimberlies that is owned by a couple (she from Melbourne and he from the UK) who moved there in the 1990’s and lived in a tent for few years while they developed the property which essentially is a ranch, but during this time they have turned their 75 000 hectares into a tourist destination of note – you can only get there by four wheel drive, (only four wheel drive caravans too – which is why we didn’t actually stay there) on a fairly rough road, but it is so worth it.  This is where parts of the movie Australia were filmed and with all the natural beauty on display it is not at all surprising to see why. 

By 9 am we were basking in some beautiful hot springs called Zebedee Springs – the water of which literally comes out of the wall of a gorge at about 32 degrees Celsius.  It comes down into a whole series of pools, in which you can bask – and we did, for a good 45 minutes.  (Rich spent some time with mask and snorkel checking out strange fish).

From there we headed to El Questro Gorge, another absolutely stunning place so full of natural beauty it is almost overwhelming.  You walk two kilometres up into this deep chasm of a gorge and it is an absolute tropical rainforest wonderland.  It is a fascinating thing the transformation that takes place over a few hundred meters.  You go from the very dusty road with scrub vegetation into a dry and dusty car park where you actively look for shade in which to park.  As your walk progresses up into a gorge, often with red walls rising on either side to a height of around 65 meters, things start to cool down and become magical.  A little river potters between boulders, pooling at various stages and in various depths, beckoning you in to cool off.  The vegetation dramatically changes to that of a rain forest with beautiful palms and ferns taking over from the dust and scrub.  Water tumbles over rocks and pebbles, a cool breeze blows down the gorge and really, it couldn’t be nicer walking – the only complaint is that the path is usually in the river bed – i.e. boulder hopping all the way, so you have to concentrate on your feet and have to physically stop every now and then to take in the view – you can’t … okay I can’t walk and look at the same time!  J  At the end of the El Questro gorge was a lovely swimming hole – as I waded into it, I noticed a school of about fifteen fish, all around the size of a person’s hand, gathered around me, making very expectant eye contact – they were close enough to touch!  It dawned on me, they were waiting to be fed!  Obviously this is what happens with the various tourists who come and they now expect it as their due – which we duly did and they literally took bits of bread from our hands!!  As is expected, Rich tried to catch them, but I think the reason they are still there is because they know all about the ways of tourists!

From there it was on to the official El Questro station which consists of the caravan park, amenities, restaurant, shop, a resident artist (who was born in Warragul), a helipad and airport, office etc.  We had a lovely picnic lunch under the trees and eventually headed off for some more exploring in this vast place. The afternoon consisted of lots of river crossings, four wheel driving over rocks and up steep hills and through river crossings halfway up the doors, visiting lookouts, camp spots, enduring endless bone shaking corrugations on dirt roads and clouds and clouds of dust – but great fun was had by all.

Once again, we are in awe of our maker’s creativity, His ability to make such incredible contrasting beauty and His graciousness at allowing us to see it all! 

Highlights of the day:

Rich:   

• Seeing a snake on the road, and skidding to halt amidst clouds of dust – and during the time it took the dust to settle enough to see, the snake had made a quick exit so there was no opportunity to pick it up! 
• El Questro in general

Kim:   

• Floating on my back in the warm springs looking up at the green palms against the blue sky, framed by the orange cliffs of the gorge (with Rich attacking from beneath).
• Watching Richard loving four wheel driving! 

Wake up call of the day: 

Driving past a smashed-up ute, next to which lay a dead scrub bull!

Surprise of the day:

A redhead female at the top – wow!  Whaddaya think Pete Smith?! 

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Day 35, 36: How much beauty B4 we pop?

Hi all again – sorry about the day or so’s silence – not that we haven’t been busy in the far north.  We finished up in the Bungles with the best walk that I have ever done in my life – it was only about four kilometres long, and it was into Cathedral Gorge in the Bungles – do you remember the most recent Qantas ad, with all the kids in this gorgeous cavern with a natural pool and lovely white sand – that is where we were – and it wasn’t only the destination that was stunning, but the walk into the gorge was just beautiful – we were there very early – around 7.30 am – and there was a lovely breeze blowing to start with (a big plus in this hot place) and we walked in through the orange and grey striped beehive formations, down a mostly dry river bed, winding our way slowly up the gorge, with little pools of water all along the way, each one alive with fish and dragonflies and of course a huge array of birds.  There were a few ladders to climb, and a long slow incline with evidence of lots of water erosion on the soaring walls of the gorge as we went – it must be an amazing place in the wet season. 

The destination was Cathedral Gorge – and it is no surprise that it is a special place to the aboriginal people – whatever God you worship, you sure can feel Him there!   I must say I get a bit offended with tourists who yell and shout and throw rocks in the water in special places like this – I know it sounds a bit ‘fuddy-duddy’ but I really feel that when you are in such a beautiful and special place, that is obviously very meaningful to the locals, you need to be quiet and respectful - just one of my internal rules that obviously don’t occur to other people!  I can quite understand the motivation behind the sign we read that said that aboriginal belief was that if you picked up a stone in this sacred place you could get sick, and if you took the stone, you could die!  Not likely I know, but I was kinda hoping for a bolt of lightning for some irritating foreign tourists who were talking at the top of their voices in that lovely spot.

 There was quite a bit of wildlife along the way – we saw a beautiful dingo – who was quite interested to see if we would feed him, which we didn’t.  We saw a goanna (which of course Rich tried to catch) and several birds that got Rich very animated – lifers I believe – personally I love the plentiful bee-eaters with their bright shiny blues, greens and oranges. (White Plumed Rock Pigeon – only found here)

From there we headed back to our van along the torturously rough road – dust, dust and more dust, several river crossings (I am sure that Rich will include the obligatory photos to show we really did do it) and finally to our van (which I was SO delighted to see).  Onwards ever onwards through some of the MOST spectacular country and scenery I think I have ever seen in Aussie, finally pulling into Kununurra.  Of course it is school holidays in WA (which we had not factored in) so we struggled to find a powered campsite in any of the four caravan parks – but it was serendipitous really, because we have ended up in a lovely little unpowered site, right down on a lake shore, once again with plentiful birds, space and lovely shade.  We are quite alright without power because we have a deep cycle battery (which we paid a small fortune for, so it is nice to see it actually being used) and Rich charges it during the day with some solar panels. We have discovered that the powered sites are all ‘cheek by jowl’ in regimented lines, but the unpowered sites are usually on the grass, in the shade and wherever you can find a spot – just up our street really! And with all the younger back-packing campers, who are a little less up-tight about their vans and 4x4s.

This morning we had a regroup time – catching up on emails, phone calls, washing and cleaning the rather dusty car, getting our laundry up to date, sorting ourselves after the camping – then into town for the first coffee in a few days and then off to see the Ord River Dam (aka Lake Argyle).  Once again, a truly magnificent wonder – I said to Rich today, I wonder how much beauty we can absorb before we pop!!  We had a picnic lunch at a shady and grassed picnic site overlooking the Ord River below the dam wall and were completely inundated by a mob of Greater Bower Birds – Rich fed one a bit of bread (big no no) and before we knew where we were they were all around us.  We even got a picture of one of the males displaying his electric pink crown …… just lovely (we thought of you Breadens and took some photos specially for you!) 

From there we decided to take a sunset cruise on Lake Argyle (largest man-made lake in Australia; 22 Sydney harbour equivalents; a simply massive body of water with no development allowed on the shores, so the wildlife abounds {not quite Africa but close} – everything about Lake Argyle reminds us of lake Kariba in Africa – the size, the fish, the bush is similar), which initially I fought the idea of - generally I don’t like to do the touristy thing, but I must say, it was well worth it.  Again we saw numerous fascinating wildlife (a nesting Jabiru stork, rock wallabies, wallaroos, various sized crocs and lots of different birds) – and from the very knowledgeable tour guide chappie, we got all the low down info on both the wildlife and the construction of the dam itself.  I will let the photos speak for themselves – but if you are ever here …. Do the tour!

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Day 33 and 34: Bungles in the Bungle Bungles

So I am not going to belabour this point more than ONE paragraph – be warned it will be a long one -  but I do want to say that ..... I HATE ROUGH CAMPING!  Everyone who knows me knows I hate it and once again I have proved to myself why I hate it.  Let me list the whys ....... it is dirty – everything gets dirty all the time.  You have to bend over constantly to get stuff out, put stuff away, get into bed, get out of bed, wash dishes, dry dishes (even though the husband, desperate to help her like it, is compensating by doing all the cooking and washing).  You have to do lots of domestic jobs like cooking dinner in the dark (Rich did this), which means catastrophies like cutting your finger when you are doing the salad (Rich offered the head torch but it was turned down), spraying fly spray into the pan instead of oil spray (yes, that really happened – and Rich did not do this – again no headlamp torch so the fly spray looked like the cooking spray).  You have to wear an unattractive contraption on your head that has a torch attached to it and in my case it makes your ears stick out further than they already do (Now we know why she chooses not to wear it – vanity!).  You have to sleep on a blow up mattress that inevitably goes down in the night (in our case Rich only packed one single bed blow up mattress so he got to sleep on the tarp but that is probably not such a bad thing because I am sure that by the morning I will be sleeping on a mattress with no air in! Oh yea of little faith, what about Rich paying for his sins for leaving the extra camp bed behind and sleeping on the hard floor – don’t worry, I am tough)  You have to go to the toilet in stinky drop dunnies ...with frogs in them  or ... and there IS a choice, sneak around to find a tree – and I will not go into gory details of the hazards that THAT entails (except this is where blokes do have an advantage).  There are no showers so you have to do it the Mexican way – and again, to protect sensibilities, I will not go into those gory details (Rich rigged up a camp shower with warm water, hanging from a tree and had a great shower after dark {so the other campers could not see}).  You get to store your cold food in a cool box (eski) in ice, which seems like a great idea until it melts and your yogurt ends up with a two centimetre deep layer of ice water with bits of lettuce floating in it.  And I haven’t even got to the lack of hairdryer yet, but I did say I would not belabour the point, so what I will go on to tell you about is the beautiful Bungles (and I don’t mean forgetting the pegs for the tent (which was easily worked out by cutting wooden ones from local trees), the extra blow up mattress (ok that was hard) or the fly spray fiasco (that was seriously funny but I had no one to share the joke)) but the stunning rock formations that we saw today. So all in all you get the picture – Kim hates camping and nothing will fix that, while Rich simply loves camping and the rougher the better. Here we sit under a clear, warm, bright moonlit and starry night, sitting outside our tent, with a warm breeze blowing, no mozzies.... Ah such is life!

So we left Fitzroy Crossing and drove for quite a while – watching the countryside turn ever more lovely – the Kimberleys are greener than I expected with lots of rocky outcrops to start with, that gave way eventually to huge ridges of red rock.  People always talk about the stunning colours of the Kimberleys, the blue sky, red rock and sand and green vegetation – well they are all true – really the colours are probably the best thing about it all.  We free camped overnight at a lovely little river and then early this morning, got up and headed fifty kms past the Bungle Bungles turnoff to a place called Turkey Creek where we left our van in a locked compound (and paid $1.81 for diesel).  Back to the turnoff, and down the road into the Bungle Bungles which is too rough for a single axel van like ours, so it is rough camping all the way – and I ... oh yes, I have had my say already about that! 

 The road in was rough – fifty kilometres of it that took us an hour and a half, but of course Rich was in his element, loving every minute of it – there were even a few river crossings – nothing too deep, but enough for a little tingle down the spine and water up the doors.  The scenery grew steadily more enchanting – more and more magnificence in terms of the ridges and cliffs.  We finally got into the national park and found our camp ground and set up our tent (minus the tent pegs and discovering only one mattress) and quickly set off for the first walk of the day ... the Echidna Chasm – wow!  It was mind blowing.  See the photos – almost worth the hateful rough camping (take your choice girl – you can’t have both).  From there it was on to another walk, the Mini Palms Gorge, which Rich did on his own, and whilst not quite as awesome (and I use this word in the true sense – not the teenybopper sense) was still really lovely.

We watched the sun go down backwards (us – not the sun) because the way to do it in the Bungle Bungles is to go to the Lookout (on a high ridge) facing the beautiful walls of the Bungle Bungle Range and with your back to the sun, and then as it goes down, witness the gorgeous array of colours on the Bungle Bungle Walls.  It was just as stunning as promised and rather novel way of ‘watching the sun go down’.

Rich’s highlight:    The flyspray instead of the oil spray fiasco (Not really)

 My highlight:    The Echidna Chasm and meeting in it some neighbours from Warragul, Carol and Russel Monson – literally, they live 500 meters down the road from us in Warragul and we bump into them on a walking track in the far north of Australia!  Go figure.

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Day 32: Then sings my soul …..

Oh our souls sang today – those words were in my head all day today as we witnessed once again the amazing wonders of God’s creation.  We started with his creatures very early in the morning actually, around 2.30 am – we woke up to this flap, flap, flap, flap ……. Flap, flap, flap, flap …. I eventually decided to get up and see what it was and in the tree, right above our caravan, there was a bat clan, huge fruit bats, having a party.  The tree is blossoming and the bats were absolutely loving it – I stood there in the starlight for quite some time, watching them – they would hang upside down on a branch and guzzle the flowers, and then let go and swoop down and around (the flap, flap noise) and back around the tree to find another bunch of flowers to guzzle down.  Some of them had wingspans of about two meters and there would have been about a dozen of them feasting.  It was just beautiful.  Then, while we were having breakfast, the birds took over from the bats with the feasting – and the tree above us was absolutely alive with activity – Rich discovered a Greater Bower bird amongst them – he is a medium sized, greeny olive kind of bird but has this lovely pink ruff around his neck which he displays from time to time.  Then we realized, clever bird that he is, he has built his bower on the roof of a shed that we are parked next to – I imagine that it has a multi-purpose – one it is safe from people perched on the roof, and two, he has a built in babysitter for the eggs - it would be an automatic incubating system with how warm it must get there!!  Who could resist such a gorgeous and innovative male!?  Anyway, will get a photo of his nest on the roof for you all tomorrow – it will entail Rich climbing a Coolabah tree for the shot and knowing how accident prone he is ………..

So the program for the day was Geikie Gorge for a boat tour and a walk.  Even though our boat tour was at 8 am it was still jolly hot – but SO enjoyable.  On the tour and then subsequent walk – we saw numerous crocs (all freshies so quite safe – for the overseas people, Aussie has two kinds of crocs – salties – they are the bad boys, and freshies – they are the okay ones), the gem of the gorge, (the Azure Kingfisher which is a tiny little bird that is a brilliant electric blue), numerous other birds, several different kinds of wallabies, amazing rock formations, cute little caterpillars, and my personal favourite, dragon flies with bright red bodies and shimmery wings.  It was a naturalist feast!!   Rich, never content to stay on the designated path, took several ‘side trips’ and got some amazing views of the various rock formations.

We returned to our spot in the lovely caravan park and had lunch and then I,… well now that I am actually on holiday at last … had a sleep … not that I needed it with all the sleep I have been getting, but it was the principle of the fact that I COULD!  Rich disappeared off for some further exploration (that man should have been born a couple hundred years ago so he could find something no one else has found with all his exploration) and fishing – no luck with the elusive barramundi, but lots to see and do.  I on the other hand, just flopped around in the shade at the van and read a book – again, something I have not really allowed myself to do for the last month.  It was bliss!

Things we learnt today:

·         Barramundi change sex during the course of their lives – wow … that must be a bit confronting for the creationists, and difficult to explain for the evolutionist, supremely confusing from a sociology point of view and from a psychology aspect so complex it isn’t worth thinking about – don’t you just love our ‘up-side-down’ God!

·         The sex of crocodiles is determined by the temperature of the sand in which their eggs incubate - hmmm.

·         Geiki Gorge is named after some old fart geologist from the 1800’s who thinks he discovered it – what an insult to the aboriginal people, who have been around the gorge for thousands of years, and who have sacred places in it – but thankfully the name of the Gorge is going to be changed in a year or so to an aboriginal name – that sociology that I am studying must be having a greater impact on my thinking than first thought but I was positively outraged by the knowledge that once again westerners have just moved in, taken over and assumed that everything should revolve around them! Worse still, our guide was a local aboriginal woman who had to tell us that the gorge was named after this outsider, when her family have lived in this area for at least a thousand years.

 Anyway, enough pontificating for now ….. tomorrow we head to Halls Creek (apparently not the nicest place to be) and then on to Turkey Creek, (who does dream up these names!) where we will spend the night and then leave our van there so we can camp in the Bungle Bungles.  Yay!!  Rough Camping!!  Can’t wait!!  (liar).

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Day 31: Bye bye Broome

So Friday finally rolled around – the last exam – the hardest exam (Psychology) – the exam that has consumed all my waking thoughts and time for the last few weeks – what can I say, it is over, and I am a free agent!!  Yay!  I have NO idea how it went – I think I passed, but it was one of those where the questions were so complex and the answers so similar that I really don’t know – will have to wait for results – and in the meantime – I will just enjoy some well deserved holiday!

 We were on the road out of lovely Broome by 11.00 am with ‘slave-driver’ Rich back in the driving seat – it was nice not to be juggling books, computer, power cords and pencil cases in the back seat for a change and to just enjoy the country side.  The big ranches around here don’t seem to have fences to keep their cattle in – so one has to be fairly careful with cattle always on the road.  The cows here seem mainly Brahman – the kind that come from India, big animals with huge humps and floppy ears – they look so cuddly, but Rich tells me they can be fierce and equally hardy – obviously not very clever either because there are lots of dead ones along the road.  We also saw a small group of brumbies which is always nice especially when they are in reasonable condition.  The other welcome sight were the numerous boab trees (in Africa we say Baobab) – it was quite nostalgic seeing them, as they are common in southern Zimbabwe – very funny trees – they look like they are upside down with their roots in the air. 

We went over numerous rivers – some with water and some not.  All the bridges around here seem to be single vehicle width – not sure why.  We stopped at one because in addition to walking on every pier and looking at every big tree, we also have to walk to the end of bridges.  There was a plaque there that gave the details of the bridge – it had been built in 1968 and cost $695.00 (wow, there has been a significant amount of inflation in my life time!)

We finally pulled into Fitzroy Crossing just before sundown after a very hot trip – it was 33 degrees for most of the day – there is NO WAY I am ever coming here in summer.  We have got our ‘van unpack’ down to about ten minutes and are in the most lovely caravan park on the banks of the Fitzroy River.  All day we have been commenting on the similarity of the area to Zimbabwe – where we used to go for our holidays when we lived in Africa – and once we had set up we went down to the river to explore and were half expecting hippo grunts and lion roars – it was so reminiscent of our holidays there – there are crocodiles I suppose! J  Dinner was another one of the fish that Rich caught whilst we were in Broome – very nice I must say, even as a ‘non-fish’ eater.

We finished off the day with another catch up with Rich’s work friends (Danny and Lucy, whom met up with in Broome with the cute little red headed children). They are now a bit ahead of us and had got to Fitzroy Crossing a day before us – fortunately for us because they directed us to this lovely caravan park.

Funnies of the day:

A sign in the toilets at the caravan park in Fitzroy Crossing:  ‘Please keep the toilet lids down to prevent frogs and insects filling up the bowl!’   (Note to self about midnight toilet visit – only use the toilets with the lids down!)

As we have said before, our van is fairly small, and so far we haven’t had any mishaps – except tonight when we were getting changed to meet the friends and Rich burnt his bum on the kettle!  J  That man is so accident prone – whatever next!

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Day 30: Two down in a Kayak

Wednesday arrived (as we knew it would) – big day with two exams in it.  I am happy to report that all went well – I have no idea how I will actually do – merely to say that I think I will pass!  It is such a relief to know that two are down and only one to go.  I rewarded myself with a little bit of shopping therapy! 

In the mean time, Rich did some bird watching, washed the car, seeing as he has had it on the beach so much, and went on a kayak fishing tour. 

Rich’s words, typed by Kim (called mutualism, not parasitism):  Met this delightful tour guide who offered this very practical option.  Basically he combines sea kayaking with game fishing.  We met at the boat ramp and there were two other guys who came along.   The tour guide is a primary school teacher for two days a week and the rest of his time is spent doing these tours – what a life.  We were all rigged with a life jacket, a kayak and a fishing rod and simply paddled out beyond the waves to wherever we could see birds diving or sharks feeding (there was a large Thresher Shark thrashing through the water about 100 meters from me (the idea was to paddle towards the shark because you want to catch what it is eating!)  We paddled under the wharf (see pic) – I didn’t catch any fish, but it didn’t matter because it was exercise, sightseeing and a wonderful experience even without a fish to show for it.

The morning was spent birdwatching first thing in the morning around the poo ponds (because that is where the action is) – water birds, bush birds, kites, harriers and eagles.  There were quite a few lifers including the Little Friar Bird.

The only drama of the day was the van’s electrical system that fused. No matter what we plugged and unplugged it still blew the trip switch. There was initially the usual tirade of #%&@W#% (not really), followed by “this is going to take a few days before we can get a warranty repair from the delaers, who are obviously fully booked in Broome” and “we may not get to Darwin on time to pick up Cassie”. After all the histrionics, Rich was seen calming down and contemplating (the scientist brain started clicking). Out with the tool kit and before long the electrical system of the van was starting to emerge from the panelling, the microwave was on the floor and Rich’s head deeply buried in the wall space with the hairdryer in hand (conclusion was that steam from the microwave had got into the trip-switch assembly) – and before long Rich was wet with sweat but the electrics were all fixed and working. Back in action – back on track (don’t tell Jayco otherwise that would void the warranty).  One question should strike you – how did the hairdryer work when the electric system was fusing – simple – connect an extension lead direct to the power pole in the van park.

So tomorrow is the very last study day (for a couple of weeks anyway) and Friday morning I write the Psych exam – and Rich packs up, and then off to Fitzroy Crossing.

We will be sad to say goodbye to Broome, but we have promised ourselves we will be back!

Day 29: Number-knots and nautical knots

Well another day in beautiful Broome and I love my wonderful husband more than ever before – he has literally saved me tonight!  I spent the day studying and finally got around to the difficult question of …. ‘describe how you can use graphs, tables and numbers to illustrate a single set of values and a double set of values.’ This is what I have to answer tomorrow, and well anyone who knows me, knows that I have … and this is the official term for it …. ‘maths anxiety’.  You may think (as Rich does) that graphs and tables are not maths, but I just have to look at them and I see numbers and numbers mean maths and I am immediately anxious.  So I decided that surely it was simply a matter of just reading the notes and then working it out …. Well when I read the notes I got more and more anxious until I was bordering on hysterical.  So the last resort was to ask for help – why the heck didn’t I do that earlier – he after all a doctor/professor.  He is absolutely brilliant – and the brilliance is in bringing the understanding to my rather basic level so I can actually grasp it and hopefully tomorrow regurgitate it  …. He used the example of our family, our ages, our incomes and our designations (fancy name for roles) and now I actually know how to do bar graphs, tables, pie charts for both single and DOUBLE sets of numbers! Oh I do love him!! 

Anyway, whilst I have been sitting in the caravan park getting myself into a knot over numbers, he was out on a boat on the deep blue sea catching a variety of rather large fish! 

Here are his words: Went out deep sea fishing this morning and initially it looked a little bleak as the first spot where we stopped there was not much happening.  After trying a few spots, the captain of the boat decided to go much further out – about an hour off short.  The captain was a pearl diver before and he had dived this area and so knew where the reefs where and what was down there.  Sure enough the second reef we went to, within minutes we (about ten of us on the boat) were hooked on giant and golden trevalli, Spanish mackerel, cobia, red roman and snapper.  I only brought three fish back because we don’t really have anywhere to keep large amounts of fish and it was very satisfying to eat one of them on the beach tonight.  See the photos as proof!!

Back to Kim …..Quite by chance, yesterday we met up with two colleagues of Rich’s.  Dannie Donaghy and his lovely wife Lucy Birkett (both Agricultural Researchers in Tasmania) with their three gorgeous kidlets (all with bright red hair) are also traveling around Australia and we bumped into them in Broome – as you do.  We invited them to join us on the beach tonight (yes you guessed it – in our cars) for sundowners and a BBQ.  It was a perfectly lovely evening with Rich showing the kids how to catch crabs and time spent star watching looking for space junk, satellites and shooting stars – not to forget the gorgeous sunset and camel trains on the beach – as a quirky little aside, the camels were wearing fairy lights – as camels do!!  I had a little glimpse into the future watching Rich bent over a crab with the two little red heads close to his as they peered into his cupped hands at the little critter there – I suspect we will have red head grandchildren and it was rather cute to see an echo of things to come – no rush Kirst and Josh – no rush at all!  J  It was a revelation how busy small children make things – Rich and I have become quite self contained and some might say ‘old’ in our childless long service leave, and I have absolute admiration for this young couple traveling around Australia with three children under five!! 

Another lovely day in Broome, but tomorrow is the big day – pray for me – two exams in one day.  So far, so calm! J

Day 28: Study and sea snakes

What does study and sea snakes have to do with each other – absolutely nothing - but both were part of our day today. Unfortunately, Kim had to spend the entire day at the van studying again today, while I (Rich) went out exploring. And yes I did find a sea snake (called a Banded Krait) and no, I was not silly enough to try catch it as they are rather dangerous.

 I decided I had to once again see the parts of Broome that the average tourists don’t get to see. Once again Google Maps showed that there was the Broome Bird Observatory on some obscure sand road on the other side of the wetlands south of Broome. This time I had to let down the tyres as the sand was rather deep. I found the Bird Observatory, set up to study migratory shore birds that migrate from Siberia to the wetlands of Broome (not that I saw many birds).

Well not to be deterred, I then found a mangrove estuary nearby and set about fishing on the incoming tide – complete with saltwater crocodiles (tracks everywhere, so I stayed out the water). Well I did catch a large catfish and the crocs did not appear.

 After a quick lunch (and smoothie in town) with Kim, it was off fishing again, this time on the Broome wharf. As with nearly every town, Broome has a long wharf, but this one has a special walkway for pedestrians to walk and fish along. This is where I saw the sea snake and a number of green turtles in the sea. Oh and by the way, caught 5 fish and was the only one out of about 10 people fishing to catch anything (the guys next to me caught a fish about 5 cm long). So it was Trevally for tea! What I had not appreciated was the strong presence of Customs Services here in Broome. With Broome being so close to Indonesia there is apparently a drug trade crossing into Australia through small boats and planes. This is really hard to monitor as there are private luxury boats plying these waters all the time and meeting up mid-ocean is really easy (and apparently happens quite frequently). Thus it was strange to initially see a very strong security and customs presence on the Broome Wharf, but not once you understand the reasons. 

Tomorrow I am off on the deep sea fishing charter (and I usually get badly sea sick – sucker!). Here is hoping that the Kwells tablets actually work and I neither get sick nor fall asleep on deck from the medication.

 By the time I got home, Kim was at the end of study, so we took ourselves off to the beach for sundowners – becoming a bit of a tradition! And it is a particularly good way to end every day – we do love Broome!