Sally and David's Austrip2

Home across the Nullarbor

2010-01-07T19:47:00.009+11:00

After leaving Kalgoorlie we headed south for Norseman and then east along the Eyre Hwy, across the Nullarbor Plain towards home. We have had some long days of driving but really enjoyed the variations of scenery. The petrol prices varied, too. From expensive to very expensive!

At Balladonia we saw the first of the truly outback golf holes. What a way to cross this great country of ours!

We thought we were driving along pretty straight roads until we came to this sign! Then we didn't have to move the steering wheel until we came to a roadside stop to rest for the night.

This is where we spent New Years Eve. It was hot. There were flies. And there were people we met to share a drink and a yarn for the evening. Oh! It's called the Baxter rest area, in case you were interested. Apart from the trees there are a few rubbish bins and a couple of picnic tables here...

and a beautiful full moon.

On the road again next morning and we saw another interesting sign...

and then had to watch out for aeroplanes! ...

And more animals. Wombats this time as well!

We stopped in Eucla for a couple of days. One would have been enough! The old township has been covered in sand by the moving dunes and it was a good 2 km walk to get to the beach where the water felt warm and there was an old jetty.

David is standing in the old Telegraph Station which will probably disappear completely one day. It provided a group of children with a wonderful place to play.

On we went along that straight road which eventually had to turn a little to reach the Head of the Bight. The Bunda cliffs are amazing. So sheer and so fragile. They form part of the longest line of cliffs on earth. This is a great place for the Southern Right whales to come and give birth between May and October every year. Tourists have been catered for in a marvellous way with long boardwalks and a well informed interpretive centre.

Between Nundroo and Yalata there is a grid in the road. This is part of the dog fence which is the world's longest fence. it was built during the 1880s to keep dingoes out and protect the sheep. The fence is 5614 km long and finishes up in Queensland. Back in May we crossed over the dog fence near Coober Pedy.

We finally reached Ceduna, then Streaky Bay where we stayed for a day so that David could enjoy a dozen oysters which he had to prise open with a screwdriver before he could eat them. He did it in style, though, with a glass of wine!

One more night on the road and we arrived in Mildura where we stayed for a couple of days doing a little shopping and cleaning up before heading for home. We have travelled over 30,000 km since going to Melbourne and Sydney in Easter 2009. It has been an amazing trip.

God Bless you all and thank you for sharing it with us. The blog will remain open as I intend to add Grandma photos and other things of interest every now and then.

Hot days in Kalgoorlie-Boulder

2009-12-30T20:44:00.006+11:00

We have spent a few days in Kalgoorlie-Boulder where it has been so hot we have been glad of an air conditioner in the caravan. It's an interesting exercise to try to imagine life here 100 years ago without water and all the mod-cons we have today!

Water is piped all the way from Mandaring near Perth to a reservoir in Kalgoorlie. The pipeline was first built in the early 1900s and much of it is still part of today's pipeline. The photo above was taken from the reservoir and shows the Super Pit in the background.

The arboretum at Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a really lovely place. We found a cool breeze here, lots of lovely trees and a picnic area.

We went on a tour of the Super Pit which is the Kalgoorlie open cut gold mine. This reminder of what happens when your ute gets in the way of a big truck is at the entrance to the mine.

The trucks are BIG! See the ladder you have to climb to get into the driver's seat! With a load of ore they weigh about 400 tonnes.

The Super Pit is massive - 3.5km long, 1.5km wide and 500 metres deep.

The trucks look like little toys!

This one is about to unload into the crusher. Our tour guide gave us so much information that I couldn't retain it all. For all the facts and figures you could check out the web site: http://www.superpit.com.au/

We set off across the Nullabor tomorrow, so blessings to you all and we will catch up again closer to eastern Australia.

Christmas in Esperance

2009-12-29T17:03:00.004+11:00

In Esperance we found delightful places to walk, ride and swim. We drove around the WA version of the Great Ocean Drive, avoided the wind farm (memories of flies from the last one), relaxed over Christmas, visited Cape Le Grand National Park and climbed a "mountain".

Twilight Bay was a great family swimming spot sheltered from much of the wind.

We enjoyed our Christmas lunch in the caravan with local crayfish.

A view of Frenchman Peak from Cape Le Grande Bay. I saw it and knew I had to climb it!

Well, we made it. The views from the top were amazing.

At Thistle Cove (still in Cape Le Grand NP) we enjoyed watching the water pound the rocks and afterwards walked all the way along the beach where the sand was squeaky white and the oyster catchers and gulls were taking their time feeding along the edge of the water.

Throughout Cape Le Grand NP we saw acres and acres of these beautiful trees in flower. Does anyone know what they are?

Blessings to you all from Kalgoorlie, the gold mining town of WA.

Albany

2009-12-21T20:50:00.008+11:00

We spent six days in Albany, riding our bikes along bike paths, marvelling at the local wildlife, delving into the whaling history of the place and enjoying the marvellous vistas of the bays. We paddled in the waters of pristine beaches, saw three new birds and watched, horrified as one boat manoeuvring in the marina crashed into another causing damage which made it take on water and cause some blokes around to say that “Fred” would snot him one. They rang him and told him what had happened waking him up in the process as he had gone home for a kip before heading out to sea.

We waited around to see if “Fred” was going to snot him and to see how far the boat would sink. “Fred” duly arrived, did not snot him one, and proceeded to deal with the inconvenient situation in what appeared initially to be a gentlemanly manner. His boat was loaded and ready to take off on a fishing trip for Christmas crabs. The next day we checked out the situation again and found the boat floating, but moored and all the stuff which was on the boat stacked on the pier. We wondered how he got that much stuff loaded to start with. And what would he do if all those pots were filled with crabs? And what about the crab population? And this wasn’t even a big boat! I think I’m glad that the boat got damaged. The boat belonging to the bloke who caused the damage was still sitting in the harbour and we can only hope he was still in one piece and his nose still unbroken.

Tiger snakes. The locals told us that’s what they were. I’ve seen two of them. One when we were riding our bikes. We had to stop and give way. Snakes always have right of way, especially when you don’t know what sort they are but you do know that Australia has LOTS of venomous ones and I wasn’t carrying my snake bite kit. The second one I encountered on the same path, much closer to our caravan park while I was wearing thongs and was coming in from a barefoot walk along the beach. My heart stopped as this black snake with a golden tummy (just like the other one) slithered slowly only a few metres in front of me. I waited patiently while it slithered into the dense undergrowth and its tail disappeared. I went home fairly quickly vowing to take the snake bite kit whenever I travelled near the dense undergrowth again. All subsequent bike rides and bird walks saw me carrying an as yet unused snake bandage. I always take my phone so I can ring someone up. I’m not paranoid though, just a little terrified of being bitten by something serious.

Speaking of being bitten. Did you know that flies bite? I hate them. They are a jolly nuisance and interfere with one’s pleasant exploration of the countryside. March flies are the worst. We went to see the wind farm which supplies the electricity needs of Albany. A very interesting place up a hill you have to climb dotted in many places along the paths with interesting interpretive signs telling the visitor about the Aboriginal understanding of the seasons and the building of this fantastic source of energy. It was built with a 20 year life span in mind and I think that is probably OK in this age of such development. The wind turbines are massive things and the nose cones were carried out here on a convoy of trucks. Only one fitted on the back of each massive truck. That must have been quite a sight! Back to the flies. Out here we encountered march flies like I never have before and they tried to attack our legs constantly. In order to read all this very interesting information you had to mark time, stamping your feet up and down constantly. You couldn’t stop or the flies would land and bite. I became very distressed, hence this trip saw me doing lots of up and down hill exercise very quickly and the photos were taken with not nearly so much thought put into their makeup. We got back to the car park, leapt into the car and just sat, recovering from the attack of the flies. David was much more tolerant and less stressed than I was but then he’s got hairy legs!

We went shopping at a place called Albany Dog Rock and wondered at the strange name, thinking of modern music or something like that. Coming home we saw a rock that looked like a dog’s head. It even had natural colouring where the eye should be. It was a massive rock, not quite Uluru size but taller than a house and we now understood the name of this suburb of Albany. The area has lots of rocky areas and often they are incorporated into the buildings like natural decorations. Mostly they are what makes up all the islands in the harbours and bays of the coastline around King George Sound.

We went for an historic walk around town one day. We looked at all the old buildings which made up the original settlement and were struck by the way in which the community has looked after its history.

The entrance to Princess Royal Harbour

A phone photo of the bandicoot we saw. This is the bike path we rode along every day and where we saw the snakes.

This part of the coastline is called "the gap".

The wind farm. You can't see the flies in the photo!

I like this Aboriginal saying.

The brig Amity which brought the first settlers to Albany in 1826.

In the stocks

Blessings to you all and we'll catch up again in Esperance for Christmas.

More of the south west of WA

2009-12-17T22:41:00.006+11:00

So far in December we have:

joined in the excitement of the Busselton Ironman competition
enjoyed the Cherry and Harmony festival of Manjimup
been dwarfed, enchanted and overwhelmed by the majestic forest areas of the sw of WA
taken a trip back to the whaling days of Albany

And today we encountered a snake and two goannas on our bike ride and walk to the beach.

The Ironman competition took over the town of Busselton. We watched as a competition tent village was built. It was a real thrill to be amongst so many elite athletes. We did our own little bit of bike riding each day and I ran most mornings along the bike/walk path. But nothing of ours compared with the 3.8 km swim, 180 km bike ride and 42.2 km run all in one day!

Sometimes the bike transition was smooth. Sometimes it wasn't.

Eight hours and thirteen minutes after they dived into the sea, there was a winner. Most people took a great deal longer.

We met up with some friends in Manjimup and joined in the fun of the festival. The cherry pip spitting competition was lots of fun even though we didn’t join in. We had our own competition later with the cherries we had bought. David won!

These photos are an attempt to share a little of the majesty of the forests here in WA.

A big karri tree

Look at the beautiful white-breasted robin which sat still for me with my new camera.

If you are brave you can climb this tree. There are pegs in a spiral formation all the way up to the top of the tree. There is a platform half way up the tree and another at the top. Trees like this were used as fire spotting trees. Neither of us climbed to the top!

A majestic old red tingle tree.

A fire in the Walpole area caused the smoke haze which made the air a reddish colour.

We wandered through many of the tourist walks of the tingle and kari forests and walked 40 metres above the forest floor to get a bird’s eye view.

This was an amazing experience so we did it again without getting the camera out.

The old whaling ship the "Cheynes IV" which has been restored and is part of the fantastic whaling exhibition in Albany.

Melbourne to Perth and the south-west of WA

2009-11-30T17:54:00.006+11:00

It has taken a while to get to writing this next chapter. Excuse? Well I have been reading a travel diary of Bill Bryson. He writes is such an engaging manner that I thought I should emulate his style. He tells a story, writes history, gives a travel account and keeps you amused all at the same time. Sometimes he is a bit lax with accuracy, but aaah why let that get in the way of a good read? Well, I’ve decided that I can’t write like he does because that’s not me so I’ll do it my way. You may not get the history from my blog but you all have the internet so you can use that if you would like to find out more about the fascinating places we are visiting. If you choose to remain ignorant then I can’t help that! And if you don’t want to read anything at all then you can either close your browser or scroll to the bottom of this chapter to look at the pics.

Melbourne

Since my last blog when Mitchell was born I spent a delightful month in Melbourne learning how to be a Grandma and annoying my offspring by doing bits of housework for them. You can’t stay at someone’s place and not do stuff! What a delight it was to be there all that time, getting to know my daughter in an altogether different way and watching Mitchell grow up, reading stories, singing nursery rhymes, teaching him how to say “Grandma” and remembering how to change nappies, put a pram in the boot and take babies for a walk. I tell you prams just aren’t what they used to be. This one only has three wheels and goes every which way but in a straight line.

I loved the weekends when I could go and watch my boys play cricket. I did think later that probably not too many 30 yr olds have their Mum come and watch them play. I loved it especially when some poor fellow went out, bowled Paul, caught Matthew.

And then the wedding. Well we all know how gorgeous Hayley is in her track pants so you can imagine how absolutely fantastic she looked in her wedding dress. What a delightful couple. We had a very happy wedding in a beautiful setting with lovely sunny weather and lots of wonderful family and friends. There was much laughter, dancing, good food and excellent wine. Now Paul and Hayley are honeymooning in Thailand.

Bindoon

We flew back to Perth after an 18^th, a 50^th and a couple of hours spent trying to cram too much stuff into too few bags. One big bag is left in Melbourne and the rest took me another couple of hours to fit back into the caravan. I am glad we are on a caravanning holiday. The only redeeming feature of aeroplanes is that they get you a long way in a short time. I’m only a small person and even I felt cramped and squashed. We unfolded ourselves when we got to Perth and were collected by some wonderful friends who spirited us away to Bindoon, a lovely little hamlet about 70km north of the capital. Over the next couple of days we were treated to tourism visits to Toodyay and New Norcia. You can use your internet to find out about these places but I will let you know that New Norcia is a beautiful monastic town in WA which is still owned and run by Benedictine monks. You can check the place out yourself if you wish on: newnorcia.wa.edu.au. The introduction to their well maintained website reads: “New Norcia has been home to a community of Benedictine Monks since the first Spanish missionaries established the town in 1847.” Why would anyone want to come to the WA and start a mission in the middle of nowhere? We visited the monastery, the chapel, the old schools and the pub which still operates and serves an excellent lunch.

Perth

We spent a week in Perth after leaving Bindoon and thought to start our exploration of this western city on our pushbikes. Not a good idea as we found ourselves either freewheeling down steep hills or climbing up them. After just 4 km we found the beach and decided to ride along the bike path. Well we got lost and it took us another 16 km to find the caravan park again.

One thing Perth does have is a good public transport system. We found our way into town via bus and train and then got on and off lots of free buses which took us around the CBD. The weather was wet and windy for most of our stay here so we saw two films, visited the Bell Tower and went on a wet and windy walk through a small part of Kings Park. The whole park is over 400 hectares so you could spend ages here.

Mandurah

Mandurah is a holiday by the beach just south of Perth. We stayed for a few days to thaw out, walk along the beach and stroll with our mouths open along the canals lined with multi-million dollar houses, apartments and hotels, not to mention the boats that were parked at their private jetties. Of course some boats were too big and had to be stored at the ocean marina.

David discovered an excellent bakery so we indulged ourselves with locally made pies and cakes for lunch one day.

Another day we went on the Captain Fawcett Commemorative 4X4 track. This track supposedly goes through some of Australia’s best Jarrah forests but we didn’t have time to see much other than the excuse for a track we were driving along. As we scratched the side of our car on the foliage which squashed us onto the track I did wonder why we were doing this, so every now and then we stopped the car to marvel at the beautiful forests, the old trestle bridges and the massive conveyor belt which still carries bauxite from a mine to somewhere else.

Busselton

We are now in Busselton and so I am finally getting up to date with my blog. Most people enjoy this area of WA because of the wineries or the world class surf beaches so what do you do if you are not too fussed about wine and would rather surf little waves? Well we found a chocolate factory! Once inside the door we stopped dead, such was the sight of so much chocolate so beautifully presented. We wandered around for as long as we were allowed. It was just as well that we got there nearly at closing time or we might have spent even more too much.

We have been to visit two lighthouses, Cape Naturaliste in the north and Cape Leeuwin in the south-west corner of Australia where we marvelled at the engineering and hard work of the people who lived here over 100 years ago and were once again awed by the sight of majestic hump back whales.

This is a wonderful place to walk and ride. There are bike/walk paths everywhere and none too hilly. This is the site of the iron man competition next weekend so we will be here until then. As soon as I have appended the photos to this blog we are off to walk down the beach again.

God Bless you all and I’ll see you again much sooner than last time.

The delightful little grandson.

Out...

Bindoon

In the chapel of New Norcia

Kings Park, Perth

Perth's Bell Tower

Canal Rocks at Cape Naturaliste

Near Cape Leeuwin lighthouse - the sign says it all.

Baby Jarvie

2009-10-05T17:39:00.005+11:00

After a long day Lisa and Dale have a beautiful baby boy.

Mitchell Graeme Jarvie was born just 8 minutes before midnight on the 4th October. He weighed 4.130kg (9lb 2oz).

All the Grandparents are new at this delightful job. Well done and thank you to everyone who has helped along the way.

Kalbarri ~ 1st to 4th September

2009-09-05T22:30:00.004+10:00

We left our interesting shell grit caravan park in Shark Bay and drove along the North West Coastal Highway which threaded its way through carpets of yellow, white and pink wildflowers and bushes of flowers that were mauve, red, yellow, gold, orange, white and blue. We found ourselves in a beautiful little town and took our bikes and rode up to one of the lookouts along the coast where you can see the Murchison River entering the sea.

I have done a couple of long walks here, one along the coastal cliffs where, once again, I watched Humpback whales performing in the ocean.

The other was along the river gorges which we reached via another 4WD track further inland. This was a "challenging" walk because of all the climbing although it was well worth the effort.

The scent of the wildflowers accompanied me on both walks and the scenery was stunning.

We are off to spend a couple of days with friends in Bindoon now before I fly to Melbourne to spend time with family while David continues his WA travel probably at a quieter pace.

Blessings to you all. The next blog will be from Melbourne.

Carnarvon to Shark Bay August 26th to September 1st

2009-09-02T23:58:00.005+10:00

Carnarvon is a fresh food lover’s paradise. I had a ball! We bought and I ate lots and lots of fresh fruit and vegies and then went to the growers’ market on Saturday morning before travelling around the coast to Shark Bay.

See how they grow the table grapes under cover so the birds can’t get any!

We visited a museum where we found just the right cot for Lisa and Dale’s baby!

Shark Bay is an amazing place. From the stromatolites of Hamelin Pool to the marine life off Cape Peron we were entranced and educated wherever we went.

Stromatolites are an example of the earliest form of life on earth and continue to thrive in Hamelin Pool due to the extreme salinity of the water there. We also saw a beach literally made of little cockle shells. In some places the shells are estimated to be 10m deep.

We spent a day at Monkey Mia and enjoyed the experience with the dolphins as well as the vast amount of informative material at the Visitor Centre.

Our trip to Cape Peron via the high clearance 4WD track through the Francois Peron National Park was the highlight of our time here.

We watched a small pod of dolphins only a couple of metres from shore, saw Eagle Rays feeding in the shallows, watched Terns catching fish and feeding their young, watched hundreds of Cormorants fishing in the ocean where the confluence of two major currents attracts an amazing number of fish and walked along the cliff tops amongst the colourful and delightfully scented wild flowers. The scenery here is stunning. The cliffs are red, the sand dunes white and the sea is aqua blue.

Blessings to you all. We are currently enjoying the wonders of Kalbarri which I will tell you about next time.

The Humpback Highway at Exmouth

2009-08-26T22:05:00.004+10:00

Yesterday we went on a fantastic whale watching tour on the boat Aliikai which is a 20m vessel. We saw so many Humpback whales we lost count and a couple came to within 15m of the boat, obviously making contact with us, putting on a bit of a show, moving from one side of the boat to the other.

I was so busy enjoying the whole whale experience that this is my best still photo which shows only part of the animal's back.

This little video taken with my very ordinary digital still camera is my attempt to catch a glimpse of what it was like to be there.

These massive mammals spend their summer in Antarctica filling up on krill and then head to the waters off the Kimberley coast to breed and calve. They snort as they come above the water. We saw them breech, give the pectoral wave and tail slap as well as just move their humps above the water.

Today we moved south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Blessings to you all and I will post my highlights of Carnarvon next week.

Millstream Chichester NP to Ningaloo Reef

2009-08-24T16:44:00.006+10:00

Since the last blog there have been several highlights on our journey south along the west coast of Australia.

From Karratha we took a one-day trip into Millstream-Chichester NP where I walked the “camel trail”. This was a trail set up by cameleers in the 19^th century to get from one watering hole to another. I walked an 8km section between Mt Herbert and Python pool. It was a walk amongst the Spinifex topped Chichester ranges where often I could see forever. It was a wonderful experience to be out there on my own walking along rugged tracks and imagining what it must have been like for people who didn’t know there was a car park 8km away with someone who had a picnic lunch ready to eat!

While we were in Karratha we spent a considerable time trying to digest the enormity of the North West Shelf Gas Venture. The enormity of the project is mind-boggling.

We are currently in Exmouth home of the Ningaloo reef which is a place I have been waiting to see. I had hoped to see the massive whale sharks but they left at the end of July. The marine life here is so diverse and prolific that one can’t really be disappointed. You can see the Humpback whales frolicking in the ocean with or without binoculars. Tomorrow we are going on a whale watching cruise so I will update this page if I get my very own close up photos.

Yesterday we went on a reef cruise and snorkelling tour. The boat was a glass bottom boat so we were treated to some wonderful viewing of the coral and fish even before we got in the water. Before we had moved away from the beach we saw a ray swimming around in the shallows.

Being under water with the coral and the fish was a remarkable and spiritual experience for me. There were schools of pretty fish just swimming around doing what fish do best. They didn’t bother about the people swimming above them. Everything was so quiet, peaceful and beautiful. I swam away from the boat a little and around some enormous coral “bombies”. These were alive with fish, some as small as a 1-2cm in length.

These photos were taken in parts of the Ningaloo reef by Aleksander Nowak. (alekandgina@hotmail.com)

As we head south towards Perth and my flight to Melbourne on the 8^th September we will be visiting Carnarvon, Monkey Mia and Kalbarri before meeting up with friends not far out of Perth. Blessings to everyone.

Karijini National Park ~ 11th-13th August

2009-08-16T15:21:00.009+10:00

On the way from Tom Price to Karijini NP we stopped to take a photo of the mountain I climbed. (Well nearly all the way up! I am at last finding the uphill muscles which never seem to get a workout in Koondrook.) This is Mt Bruce.

So here we are in Karijini National Park. We have discovered a fantastic place where mountains and gorges fill the landscape. We set up camp in Dales Campground and headed straight for the gorge.

The first view from the lookout really took our breath away. The cliffs are beautiful and the gorges really deep and scary. A lot of the rock is layered like slate and we walked down to Circular Pool where some people were swimming in the very cold water.

We walked and clambered on up the gorge a few kms, marvelling all the way at the beauty of our world and loving just being here, past lots of Snappy Gums and Paperbark trees, to Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool where more people were swimming in equally cold water.

Back up on top we looked down again at where we'd been. Here you can see Fortescue Falls.

The next day was the day for the challenges of the gorges in the Weano Recreation area.

Once again we marvelled at the view from the lookouts and then made attempts to walk into some of the gorges.

They get wet, slippery and dangerous as this shakily taken photo shows. It is a view of the handrail to help you get into “Handrail Pool” in Weano Gorge. If you want to go any further you have to swim through the pool of very, very, very cold water and enter territory where you need skills that I don’t have!

Hancock Gorge was another beautiful place. To go all the way down this gorge one needs to get wet, too.

The sides of the gorge are truly stunning and are sometimes reflected in the water which flows down the gorge.

During our third day at Karijini NP we explored the lovely relaxing gorge called Kalamina.

We walked for about 3kms enjoying the flat rocks which made for easy walking and the beautiful pools which accompanied us on our journey.

This dragon lizard took up an interesting stance near our campsite. Cute little thing isn't it?

Blessings to you all and we will be in the Pilbara for a little while yet.

Mining in the Pilbara ~ early August

2009-08-11T08:46:00.005+10:00

Everything in mining in the Pilbara is massive – the companies (Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton), the trains, the trucks, the machines which work the mines, the piles of iron ore and salt, the ships and the monthly payroll. It is easy enough to find out information about mining here so I have not tried to go into any detail; rather I offer you my simple photos of massive things.

A ship being loaded with iron ore at Port Hedland.

The salt has been washed and is poured out into large stockpiles for drying at Port Hedland.

A machine for putting putting a pile of iron ore onto a conveyor belt at Tom Price mine.

We went on a tour of the Tom Price mine. David got into a disused "bucket".

I am standing next to a small front end loader. See the ladder which come down to enable the driver to get into the driver's seat.

The three locomotives of a train coming from the Marandoo mine near Tom Price, heading for Dampier.

We are now off to explore the ranges and gorges of Karrijini National Park, still in the Pilbara, so take care and I can assure you all, my loyal followers, I think of you often and will always remember my friends and family. Blessings to you all and we will see you again on the west coast.

Barn Hill 17th July ~ 3rd August

2009-07-29T12:45:00.003+10:00

Our Beach Holiday

Walking, swimming, bird watching, beautiful sunsets, interesting rock formations, Sunday night roasts and entertainment. We are thoroughly enjoying being here and have extended our stay twice.

Wildlife

I love to watch the Brown Boobies each morning on the beach as they dive to catch their fish in the shallows. There are Pied Oyster Catchers with their striking red beaks and lots of Terns and Sea Gulls. White-bellied Sea Eagles use this place for their hunting ground, too. I have also seen a pair of Lesser Frigatebirds on a few occasions flying across the water.

It has been really exciting to watch Bottle-nosed dolphins and whales (I don't know what sort) frolicking in the sea.

Blessings to you all and we will be off to Port Headland next week.

Kimberley 3 ~ 30th June to 17th July

2009-07-18T00:16:00.014+10:00

We are currently at Barn Hill on the west coast where the Indian Ocean is our swimming hole and a working cattle station is our caravan park. Before we arrived here we spent a wonderful 9 days in Derby with a 2 day excursion to Windjana Gorge followed by a week in Broome.

Derby

Our first few days in Derby were rest days after which we explored the town, indulged our penchant for bird watching at the waste-water wetlands and discovered the phenomenon of the massive tides of Derby and King Sound, attended several events of the Boab Festival and watched people tossing their pots over the Derby pier in the hope of catching a sizeable Mud Crab. Several times at the pier I saw a beautiful Brahminy Kite.

One of my highlights in Derby was a concert “Telling Stories Through Music” featuring the Aboriginal opera singer Deborah Cheetham and artists from the West Australian Opera. Deborah gained fame by singing at the opening of the Sydney 2000 Olympics. She has written an opera about the birth of the civil rights movement for Indigenous Australians in 1939 which will be debuted in Melbourne in October 2010.

During our stay in Derby we went to the Mowanjum aboriginal community for a corroboree they stage each year for visitors. This community is made up of 3 separate language groups from the area who share the spirituality of the Wandjina. They have a website which can help understand a great deal about their art, history, culture, spirituality and organisation.

http://www.mowanjumarts.com/aboutus.html

We were treated to a variety of corroborees telling stories about their spirituality. There was also a guest performance by a Torres Strait Islander group which has settled in Derby. I felt really honoured to be there. For the final corroboree dance everyone in the audience was invited to join in and so a large circle of black and white people danced and were joined together in happiness and joyous celebration. They have an arts centre at their community which was opened tonight and houses some amazing art work for sale. I bought a book on Mowanjum spirituality and have been struck by some similarities with Christianity. The Mowanjum people have a living and developing spirituality and a life which embraces much of modern technology. They provide a wonderful place for their children to grow and develop. The children were involved in the corroborees and were as excited as any children would be who are getting dressed up and about to give a concert.

Windjana Gorge

For our visit to Windjana Gorge we packed the caravan tightly and headed off along the notorious Gibb River Road. It was mostly bitumen along the stretch we covered.

After we turned off the GRR the corrugations began and it took us over an hour to do the next 22kms. We were concerned for the caravan but continued anyway looking for the best bits of road and driving slowly to avoid the damage of corrugations.

We set ourselves up in the fantastic camping ground of Windjana Gorge NP, fixed the loose parts of the caravan, cleaned out the red dust and had lunch.

I found a Great Bowerbird and his bower in the middle of the camping ground. It was so neat and clean.

I went for a walk later and made my way into the gorge. What a magic place! I persuaded David to come with me later as the day cooled into evening. We took some photos of the sunset changing the colour of the Napier Range. It turns a beautiful red/brown, rather like Uluru and other ranges we have seen. The colours are vivid at sunset and sunrise, very special times of the day.

On day two I set off early in the morning with the binoculars and the camera and went into the gorge again. The sun was making the place beautiful again. It was cool in the shade and as I arrived at Bandigan rock the sun covered much of the sand and warmed the whole place up.

Later after breakfast we both set out to walk the length of the Gorge walk a distance of 7km return. It was a 5 hour walk for us as we stopped often to look at birds, take photos and marvel at the beauty of the place. We clambered over rocks, trudged through deep sand and scratched our way through prickle bushes. The Lennard River runs through the gorge but there isn’t a real flow of water during the wet season, just some large residual pools joined by a slight flow.

The freshwater crocodiles take advantage of this beautiful place. They sun themselves and swim in the river. They have the north and western part of the gorge to themselves as humans aren’t allowed on that side of the river. It is really a good place to be able to watch the crocodiles in their natural habitat. They are not dangerous unless you interfere with them.

After lunch, when I had recovered from our gorge walk, I took off on the Savannah walk which is a short walk through the savannah grasslands and along the south eastern wall of the ranges. The interpretative signs tell about some of the plants and animals which live around here. I was looking for the Lillimilura Homestead track so that I could visit the ruins of the old police outpost from the 19^th century. I walked around all the campgrounds to no avail until I realised that the walk has been closed for some reason. The walk was not in vain though, as just on sunset, yes beautiful again, I saw something moving in the grass at the side of the campground road. There were 6 or so quail feeding and I was able to get a reasonable look at them but I am still not sure what sort they were.

It is truly a lovely place to be.

Broome

We set off very early in the morning to see if we could find a spot to stay in a caravan park in the fabled Broome, the focus of many people’s holidays. We arrived at 8:40am and booked into the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park, finding a place for our new friends here as well. So much for all the stories about not being able to get a place to stay in Broome in July!

On the first night we took our chairs out to the grass along the front of the caravan park which overlooks Roebuck Bay to view the phenomenon known as “Stairway to the moon”. As the full moon rises it reflects on the exposed tidal mud flats at low tide and creates an impression of a stairway to the moon.

For our stay in Broome we wanted to see and do lots of the things which make it a famous place, to find out why it is that some people come here year after year and spend 3 to 6 months.

We have found:

Markets – multi-cultural and exciting

The famous Cable Beach – 22km of beautiful, clear sandy beach which only sometimes is closed due to crocodiles and where thousands of people come to the beach to view the sunset every day. People take camel rides along the beach at sunset and have photos taken with the magic colours of the sunset sky in the background.

An historical exhibition of the Sisters of St John of God beautifully presented and detailing their work here since the early 20^th century.
A strong pearling history and lots of pearls to buy – from $20 to over $20,000.
The working Willie Creek pearl farm.
The Broome Bird Observatory which we visited at the wrong time of the year to see the thousands of migratory birds which use the rich mudflats to fatten up for the long flight to a variety of destinations north of Australia, some as far away as 10,000kms.
China Town, the main shopping centre of Broome.
The deep water port from where live cattle is exported.

And the Lighthouse where the ospreys have taken over one platform of the tank-like structure for their nest and where some young over-testosteroned young men found rocks from which they jumped into the swirling and dangerous surf.

Some people come to Broome every year just to enjoy the warm winter here.

Barn Hill

From Broome we have decided (although all decisions are subject to change without notice!) to follow the Warlu Way to Coral Bay.

http://www.warluway.com.au/

Our first stop is a relaxing beach holiday here at Barn Hill. This farm-stay spot, on a working cattle station, is more than a caravan park. It has its own little recreation area where you can sit with friends or enjoy a little “something” from their very homely shop. Often they have something “on” for tea. Tonight it was a sausage sizzle, Sunday it will be a roast dinner and on Wednesdays they light the BBQ for people to bring their own meat and cook and spend time together. Today they also had a bowls tournament (bare feet essential) on their very own bowling green. This lasted all afternoon and judging by the standard of competition there are many bowlers on holiday.

I expect to spend much time on the beach here before we leave on the 24^th July.

Blessings to you all and we will meet again somewhere along the Warlu Way.

Kimberley 2 ~ June 22-28

2009-06-28T23:14:00.010+10:00

Halls Creek

In Halls Creek we booked into the only caravan park in the town and set up in one of the few shady spots before going out to explore the China Wall.

Not having read up on this local phenomenon we stared at the strange white wall standing up in the middle of the limestone ranges discussing whether it might be natural or constructed by humans. Then we turned around and saw another one. It’s got to be natural we decided and learned later that it was a vein of white quartz, naturally occurring in this limestone formation. It looks like a deliberately constructed wall which makes its way up and over the hills, giving it the appearance of the Wall of China. (Not that I’ve ever seen the original!)

We travelled on out to the site of the old Halls Creek township which started life in the 19^th century as a gold mining town. Remains of the old Post Office still exist; it was made of a mud mix of spinifex and ant bed, protected now by a cover and walls which allow one to look without touching.

We encountered some Road Trains along the Duncan Hwy between Halls Creek and Old Halls Creek. Big, dust creating trucks. We used the UHF and looked along the road for their tell-tale dust plumes so that we wouldn’t be trapped at the edge of the road. There isn’t enough room on the road for both of us. They travel down the centre of the road at such a rate of knots you have no choice but to get off, close all windows, doors and vents and wait for the dust to settle. Now we know why the first 20 metres of vegetation along the edge of the road is so dirty. (By the way, if you click on the photo of the big truck you should see the movie.)

Wolfe Creek Crater

The next day we got up early and, with a packed lunch, made our way out to look at the Wolfe Creek Crater which you get to via the Tanami Road. We are getting used to letting down the tyres to reduce the damage caused by corrugated and otherwise crappy roads. The Tanami itself wasn’t too bad but then we turned off on the Wolfe Creek Crater road! It was AWFUL. The corrugations must have been six inches deep in some places and it took us over an hour to do this last 20 kms. Just as well we enjoy the actual drive and the scenery.

Wolfe Creek Crater itself was interesting but really just a big hole in the ground with vegetation in the middle of it. Having come all this way, I was determined to do everything possible while we were here, so I climbed down into the crater, heeding the warnings to take care as the track was very slippery, steep and rocky. I took only what I needed – water, binoculars and camera in my bum-bag so that I could hold onto rocks if I needed. 20 metres almost straight down and then a walk along the base of the crater, dodging the spinifex, where I was not rewarded by seeing any of the Major Mitchells they say are around. It is amazing to visualise the impact over 300,000 years ago of a meteorite crashing into the earth and making this big hole, splattering fragments of rock which have been found over 4km away. Imagine the thud!

It was a long way home, too. The corrugations put me to sleep at one point!!

Fitzroy Crossing

Fitzroy River Lodge, the caravan park we found in the little town of Fitzroy Crossing is like an oasis in the sparsely populated but beautiful land of the Kimberley. The distances here are vast and the land is harsh. The extremes of wet and dry govern the land. All the structures in the caravan park are built either on hills or stilts, so you have to climb a hill to use the ablution block, climb a hill to go to the reception or the restaurant and even the swimming pool. In the wet season everything floods except for these buildings which are beyond the reach of the high water mark.

The seasonally diminished Fitzroy River is close by so I took off one morning to see what birds were to be found. I didn’t see much to start with but then I thought I saw something move. Probably only a bit of rubbish blowing in the wind, I thought. Instinctively the binoculars went up anyway and I was rewarded for the effort. A Black Fronted Dotterel with a bright red beak and eyes was feeding along the bank. Can you see it in this photo? There were some interesting tracks on this sandy part of the river and I kept a watchful eye out for the Freshwater Crocodiles which live here. My other delight on this beautiful morning was seeing the Striated Pardalotes flying in and out of their nesting burrows in the river bank.

Geikie Gorge

Geikie Gorge is one of the main places of interest close to Fitzroy Crossing and you cannot see much of it without going in a boat. The DEC runs boat cruises at a reasonable cost so we got up very early one morning to get on the first cruise. (I like to see the wildlife early in the morning.) Geikie Gorge is the result of the Fitzroy River carving a 30 metre deep gorge into the remains of an ancient limestone barrier reef that existed here in the Devonian period. In the wet season the water of the Fitzroy River rises 16m through the gorge and covers the whole of the National Park. The water constantly rising and falling has caused the bleaching of the gorge walls as you can see in this photo.

We saw lots of freshwater crocodiles on our trip and I was treated to my first sighting of an Osprey. The crocs were sunning themselves on the sandy banks and the Osprey was soaring and diving, probably looking for food.

After the boat tour we went for a couple of short walks around the area and were able to see more of the Devonian Reef formations … and more birds.

Tunnel Creek

While in Fitzroy Crossing we took a day trip out to see the natural phenomenon of the Tunnel Creek. This is a long tunnel carved out of the limestone of the Napier Range by flowing water. During the dry season it is possible to walk the length of the tunnel which we did, getting wet feet, climbing over large boulders and carrying our torch. There are bats which live in the caves although we didn’t see any and there are some pretty cave formations - stalactites and shawls. We didn’t see any crocodiles (freshwater) but we did see lots of small fish in the water. We waded up to our knees through some of the pools and came out the other end to see a beautiful creek, some rock art and kangaroos which came down to the creek to drink. The only way out is back through the creek cave. Not nearly as eerie the second time! We read the sad story of Jandamarra the Aboriginal who was killed at Tunnel Creek. Here is an internet link if you want to read it, too.

http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/hotproperty/property/national-parks/tunnel-creek-national-park.html

Still in Fitzroy Crossing on Saturday and the footy oval was the place to be. The playground here was filled with young children playing on the equipment. Family groups sat on rugs around the perimeter of the oval watching the game cheering or just chatting. The first thing we noticed about this footy match was that footwear was optional. Over the loud speaker came a request for someone from the Magpies’ team to help with the stretcher. The game resumed and it really didn’t matter about boots. The kicking was just as long and hard. Another announcement, “Would the drink boys please put on their green shirts … properly!” Then, “Would all the guys please wear their uniform. Mr Waters, please put your uniform back on.” One of the umpires put his uniform back on. Shirts are obviously compulsory even if socks and boots are not!

Blessings to you all and I’ll see you next time on the west coast.

Kimberley 1

2009-06-27T22:29:00.012+10:00

Our tour of the Kimberley started in Kununurra and will eventually take us to Broome mostly along the Great Northern Hwy. We won’t be “doing” the Gibb River Road as a whole, just travelling along a small section of it. The Kimberley is a vast area of Australia and we have travelled lots of kms over excuses for roads variously called highways, roads or tracks.

18/6 – Keep River National Park

While in Kununurra we drove back east over the WA/NT border to spend a day in Keep River National Park where we went on a much longer walk than we intended due to poor signage or making a mistake but there were no complaints as we identified 52 different kinds of birds, 4 of them new for me.

20/6 – Parry Lagoons

While in Kununurra we took a trip out to Parry Lagoons where we saw 3 brolgas even before we got out of the car! This was a magic place, overwhelmingly beautiful, peaceful though not quiet.

Here are my notes. WARNING – they are very birdy!

What a magic place we have visited today! We parked the car and right in front of us were some brolgas feeding under a tree.

We turned our heads and saw Jabirus. It took a while to walk to the bird hide, not because it was a long way, but because there was so much to see. It was such fun to watch the Pelicans feeding in their large groups, swimming in unison, then heads down and tails up, again in unison.

2 Jabirus arguing. The one which won flew off with the fish hanging out each side of its bill.

A Glossy Ibis flew by. Was it really? I haven’t seen one before. But yes. I was right. I saw it again later on.

Lots of Straw-necked Ibis, Purple Swamphens and Green Pygmy Geese. A little Restless Flycatcher in the tree near the lagoon. Lots of Willie Wagtails and the beautiful Rainbow Bee-eaters having their fill of insects.

Beautiful White Rajah Shelducks and a multitude of Magpie Geese. Cormorants hanging in trees looked like bats.

There were Black Cormorants, Pied Cormorants and Darters. We watched a darter catch a fish; so snakelike their necks.

One bird was different. We saw just the one. It was a Red-kneed Dotterel.

So many Egrets, Great and Intermediate. So graceful in flight.

Some ducks even swam and looked for food underneath the grating of the bird hide.

The whiskered Terns flew without tiring over the lagoon looking for food. Australasian Grebes and Black and Hardhead Ducks swam peacefully on the lagoon.

The Cormorants on the bank moved generously out of the way as a 3.5m Estuarine Crocodile swam slowly to take its position on the bank to sun itself.

Just then a tour bus arrived so we retreated outside the bird hide for a while, saw a goanna near our car and spent more time watching the juvenile Nankeen Night Heron feeding at the edge of the lagoon.

Later, after a feast of birds, we drove into Wyndham where we went to the lookout to see the view of the 5 rivers wending their way into the Cambridge Gulf.

On the way home we took a trip on one of those excuses for a road and visited the prison boab tree. It is alive and hollow. They say about 1500 years old and was used as an overnight prison cell for police travelling with prisoners. I stepped 17m around the base of the trunk but was a bit out from the edge so maybe it is 15m in circumference.

21/6 – Purnululu National Park

Today’s was a massive drive, not in kilometres but in time. We had driven from Kununurra to Warmun and then out to the track into Purnululu. The 52km from the highway into Purnululu Visitor centre is a 4WD track, an exciting drive of corrugations (That’s not the exciting bit!), rocky track, water crossings and absolutely stunning country. We were later than we wanted to be and in retrospect it would have been fantastic to camp overnight, experiencing the sunset and sunrise of a very beautiful place. Having been here in 2007 and already seen the Beehive Domes and Cathedral Gorge, we had planned to visit Echidna Chasm and the Mini Palms Gorge. The roads within the park are as bad as the one coming in so the 20 km to get to Echidna Chasm took another hour, meaning that the Mini Palms Gorge was out of the question. Time was short as we wanted to get through the worst of the 4WD track out before dark. Enough about the time we didn’t have due to lack of foresight and on to the beauty of the trip we did have.

The country is wild and vast. There is so much of it and it is forever changing. There are acres of spinifex, beautiful sandy creek beds, ranges of sandstone, more acres of trees – palms, red gums, boabs and plenty I don’t know – even more acres of paddocks of rocky ground, red dirt and amongst it all someone has found and allowed us to visit this amazing chasm.

We walked along a dry rocky creek bed lined with palm trees into a chasm with 200m high walls where the palms suddenly got very tall. The walls of the chasm are made of a conglomerate rock. It looks like a whole lot of little round rocks cemented together. I’m sure a geologist would explain it better. And the colour is red, pink, orange, brown, ever changing with the way the sun shines on it … beautiful. The walls of the chasm narrowed as we walked into it. It began to get a bit scary. One of the signs warned against climbing any of the walls or remaining underneath the sheer walls of the chasm! What did that mean? Memories of the collapse of London Bridge on Victoria’s southern coastline (I jumped up and down on it proclaiming its permanency.) came flooding back and all of a sudden I was no longer feeling comfortable or safe. I took lots of photos and didn’t linger too long in this majestic, skinny chasm.

Outside again and we climbed to the lookout at the top of the Osmand Ranges. Yet again I had an overwhelming feeling of awe and wonder at the majesty of our earth and the forces of nature which shape such places.

It was getting late so we jumped in the car and drove back along the excuse for a road to take a look at the surrounds from the Kungkalanayi Lookout which affords a 360^o degree panoramic view of the Purnululu National Park. This is where those who are camping the night will bring their evening cockatails to enjoy the sunset. We’ve seen it in other places, the magical and visible change of colour of the rocks in the ranges. Sunset happens quickly in the north. It’s as though someone has a fast motion dimmer switch on the earth and rather than linger through the half light it just goes out. Darkness.

Half of our drive back through the park necessarily was done in the dark but we had the creek crossings done before it turned black and fortunately we came accross the bulldust at a very slow speed. You can’t see the rocks underneath the soft sand and have to be particularly watchful.

Another spectacular day.

Blessings to you all and I will post my notes from Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing very soon.

Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks

2009-06-12T17:13:00.008+10:00

1st - 10th June

As I sit here in a Caravan Park in Katherine writing my blog the beautiful song of a Butcherbird fills the air while some Apostlebirds screech and scratch around under the trees.

We had a wonderful 9 days in the National Parks of the north – Litchfield and Kakadu.

The creeks, falls and rock pools of Litchfield delighted, awed and relaxed us for four days. An extract from my journal makes an effort to express some of the magic of a small part of this place:

Tuesday: From Buley Rockhole we walked along a beautiful track sometimes following the Florence Creek, sometimes walking through the woodland, all the way to Florence Falls.

What a fantastic view of the falls we had from way up high. We walked down 135 stairs which someone had kindly constructed for us to go for a swim in the plunge pool. On the way down we saw a Short-eared Rock Wallaby which everyone including myself had to photograph. We were very hot and wet before we got into the pool. Some big rocks in the middle of the pool enabled us to stand up but most of it was quite deep. We swam all the way across the pool to where the water plunges down the cliff. I loved the scary noise and feel of the water pounding down even though it was quite disorientating.

Later we had our lunch by Florence creek feeding the little fish tiny crumbs from our sandwiches. It was fascinating to watch them all grab at it, fighting for any tiny crumb they could find. They did the same if a leaf fell from a tree. Perhaps there are insects on the leaves. By the time we had returned to the cascading pools of the Buley Rockhole we were hot and wet again so we sat in one of the pools there until our skin was wrinkled.

Kakadu has been a wonderful place to be in. We didn’t intend to stay this long but after 5 days we have become familiar with being in the midst of this beauty, the rainforests, the sandstone rock formations, the monsoonal wetlands and the grassy billabongs. One very hot afternoon we spent at the Jabiru swimming pool, the only place to swim in Kakadu apart from Jim Jim.

I have seen and managed to photograph a crocodile swimming down the East Alligator river but far more exciting were the iridescent colours of a Rainbow Pitta bird I saw and snapped in the dark basement of the rainforest Manngarre walk. It is the wildlife of Kakadu which enchants and astounds and the scenery which takes one’s breath away again and again.

We learned a little of Aboriginal culture at the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural centre and from our presence in this very Aboriginal part of our country we are starting to appreciate the depth and complexity of their society and way of life and the respect they have always had for the country we live in. Theirs is a history we cannot learn in an afternoon.

Jim Jim Falls was another 4WD trip. (I love 4WD trips!) We left our Mardugal campground and some distance down the Kakadu Hwy we turned off and drove 60km mostly along a gravel, lightly corrugated, dusty road before hitting the sand, the rocks and the water which made the drive as exciting as the scenery along the escarpment was beautiful. At the first water crossing I balked and handed the steering wheel to David. Of course this gave me an opportunity to photograph the exercise. Jim Jim creek itself is a wonder to behold. The palms around the pools of water make it a very pretty place. It was a difficult climb/walk across boulders along the gorge to the beach and plunge pools and we certainly noticed some new muscles in our thighs.

The water doesn’t fall over the cliffs later in the dry season but there was still a little for us to see pounding over and down these spectacular 150m high cliffs. Some tiny frogs were jumping over the rocks near the plunge pool where we dangled our feet in the cold water. I drove back through ALL the water crossings!

The photo below shows our van in the Mardugal Campground, Kakadu.

Still as I sit and write the birds are all around. Some Grey-crowned Babblers have joined us. The Butcherbird is still singing and has been interrupted a few times by a Blue-faced Honeyeater. A pair of Great Bowerbirds is sitting in the tree and the White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes are flitting around the trees.

Blessings to you all and we will see you next time in WA.

Darwin ~ Fogg Dam and the Wave Pool

2009-05-29T23:20:00.005+10:00

What a beautiful place Fogg Dam is. As soon as we drove into this wetland area (just off the road to Kakadu) the sound of thousands of birds filled the air. It’s crocodile country, too, so not straying off the road is an excellent idea. We drove to the bird hide and looked out over a body of water. You can see in the photo below the saltwater crocodile and the Jabiru not too far from one another. I don’t know if you can see the pair of Bush-stone curlews or the group of Wandering Plumed ducks. In the background there are lots of Magpie Geese which formed the largest group of birds. Intermediate egrets, pied herons, Pacific herons, ibis, darters, cormorants and Rajah shelducks were also there in numbers large enough for amateur bird watchers to see. We were delighted to see what looked like a Swamp Harrier looking for tucker and even a Crimson finch which came to sit in one of the palm trees and show us his beautiful colours.

We watched for ages, discussing many things with a German couple we met taking photos with a camera which had a lens as long as your arm. They had some amazing close up photos. Then slowly the crocodile’s tail moved a little, then it slid. We watched and waited. And then without a ripple it was in the pond and hidden from view. Some time later an island appeared in the water. An island with eyes ... and then it disappeared.

Today was the day to pick Abby up from school and go to the Darwin wave pool. All the Koondy kids will know Abby from her time at our school. If you look very closely at this photo you just might see what fun she is having in this wonderful place. All you can see of Abby is her head and a little bit of her pink board. There are no waves in the oceans around Darwin so it is a good idea to have a wave pool. We got dumped many times but we also caught lots of waves and went surfing into the shallows.

Blessings to you all and we will see you next time in Litchfield National Park.

Devils Marbles

2009-05-23T16:22:00.003+10:00

We spent Wednesday afternoon and evening at the Devils Marbles campground meeting up with some people we had got to know in Alice Springs. I climbed all over the rocks and took lots of photos. The top one shows just one of the rock formations which are formed by the wearing away of the softer rock. I love the colour of the tree which somehow managed to grow through a crack in the rocky ground.

This bottom photo shows just half of the caravans set to stay for the night. If you enlarge the picture you can see ours!! We are in the back row, 6th from the right. The most beautiful time to see the rock formations is at sunrise or sunset which is why people come to stay the night. The rocks light up with a golden hue when the sun is low in the sky. In the morning it feels like a magic place as I wait for the sunrise, listening to the music of the birds. Too peaceful to take photos at this time of day. (Actually I forgot to collect my camera before I went climbing!)

We are in Katherine now enjoying the lazy, balmy swimming weather.

Blessings to you all and we will probably see you next in Darwin.

Palm Valley, Finke Gorge National Park

2009-05-17T21:04:00.007+10:00

Friday was a magic day. We drove the 136km out of Alice Springs towards Hermannsburg through the MacDonnell Ranges which are just amazing in their colour and formation. We turned off towards the Finke Gorge National Park and Palm Valley. We love the MacDonnell Ranges and as most of the country near Alice Springs is dry it was quite a surprise to find a lush valley of ancient palms.

The track to get there was an experience in itself with rocky climbs and large sandy patches to traverse. David did a fantastic job driving the "road" which claims plenty of vehicle casualties. It is marked as "4WD high clearance required" and they weren't joking! We drove to the valley along the rocky and sandy Finke river bed.

Blessings to all and see you next time wherever the van stops.

Alice Springs

2009-05-11T21:48:00.006+10:00

We took a picnic out to the Rainbow Valley Conservation Park, south of Alice Springs. Once again the scenery was astoundingly beautiful. The flies were thick and we were again very grateful for our fly nets. The picnic happened in the car under the shade of a lonely desert oak which we found on the way out of the park.

Here is my photo of the Todd River which runs through Alice Springs. I love the colour of the sand and the way the trees grow so straight and strong in the dry river bed.

We went to Simpsons Gap and discovered a pool of water stops you from walking through. I hope Simpson (no one knows who he was) knew how to swim. On our short walk to the gap itself we saw a Peregrine Falcon nesting high in the rocky sides of the gap and a Black-footed Rock Wallaby grazing amongst the rocks. Its tail is very long and it stayed still long enough for me to take a photo of it. You may be able to see it somewhere in the middle of this photo.

Blessings to you all and we'll see you next time in Alice Springs again.

Kings Canyon

2009-05-09T10:14:00.007+10:00

What an incredible place. We loved walking around the rim of Kings Canyon for the second time. The scenery is stark and beautiful. The cliffs so sheer and red-brown. The trees a beautiful contrasting green. You have to stop to look at the scenery as while you are walking your eyes need to be on the rocky ground to make sure you don’t trip. It is a steep climb to get to the rim and then an up and down walk to go all the way around. Markers keep you on the “track”. If they were not there one would surely get lost. Many thanks to the powers that be who have added the odd wooden bridge and some staircases to make it possible to get around without falling down some deep ravine. At the bottom of the canyon lies the Garden of Eden, another truly beautiful place to spend time. Here we had our morning tea along with lots of other walkers. There are 2 pools of water and lots of ancient cicads. You are right in the canyon itself and know there is still a big climb to get back to the rim and then along to where you have to climb down to the car park.

The photo below shows a place along the rim which has been nicknamed Lilliput!

Each night in the Kings Canyon campground we have been entertained by dingoes howling. We were advised to keep our gear inside as apparently they have a penchant for shoes at the moment.

Blessing to all and see you next time in Alice Springs.

Uluru

2009-05-02T23:01:00.005+10:00

A photo of Uluru cannot express the awesome majesty of this rock. In deference to the Aboriginal people we chose to walk around the base of the rock rather than to climb it. We probably thought it would be easier, too, but 2 hours and 50 minutes later we were definitely ready for a rest. It is 9.4 km around the base.

At sunset it takes only a matter of minutes for the rock to go from this bright red to nearly black.

Blessings to you all and see you next time.

William Creek and Oodnadatta

2009-05-02T22:09:00.011+10:00

From Coober Pedy we drove out to WIlliam Creek. This grid is part of the Dog Fence which extends from Qld to SA and goes for 5900 km. It keeps dingoes out of the sheep country. I love the remoteness of this country. It is amazing how anything can survive out here. So much of it is barren. But then you come across a creek crossing and see beauty like this...

There were lots of birds here - galahs, zebra finches, little doves and many others I could only hear. The flies were thick.

From William Creek we flew over Lake Eyre in a small plane. The views were amazing. The sky is reflected in the lake which was on average only 1/2 a metre deep and moves as the wind blows. We flew over an island where the pelicans were nesting. How did they know to come all the way out here where the fish would be there for the taking?

William Creek is not known for its first class accommodation and you can see David here talking to some friends outside the old freight containers which had been turned into bedrooms for those who want to stay the night. The town is, however, renowned for its hospitality and friendliness and it is a place where everyone shares their stories.

For those who are sick of birds being in my blog, bad luck!! Just look at these magnificent birds of prey. Nothing is wasted in the desert and we saw a dozen Wedge-tailed Eagles feasting on this carcass.

Blessings to all and see you next time.

Port Augusta

2009-04-26T16:17:00.012+10:00

Today we visited the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens in Port Augusta and got a few ideas for a “Desert Garden” in our front yard back in Koondrook. It is a marvellous place overlooking Spencer Gulf and the Flinders Ranges. It includes 12km of walking tracks, lookouts, bird hides, a plant nursery and a research area. One of the garden areas contains many rare and endangered plants. Others are regional plantings dedicated to plants of different desert regions.

Because of all the native plants in relative close proximity we were able to see some interesting birds including one new one for our list, the Chirruping Wedgebill. The White-winged Fairy-wrens were brilliant in their plumage. We also saw a Brown Goshawk hunting near the cliff top. I’m glad we visited in the morning as the afternoon was again wet and windy.

Blessings to you all and see you next time.

The Little Desert

2009-04-23T16:37:00.016+10:00

We spent 2 days in the Little Desert. Our first day was at the Kiata Campground where we went for a 10km bike ride and 2 km walk, then rested in the beautiful campground where we saw a pair of Hooded Robins. The bike ride was partly a walk, pushing our bikes along the sandiest parts of the track and being shaken to bits on the corrugations and rocky sections of the track which made up 90% of it. Our very sandy walk took us to a lookout. See the view in the picture.

The second day we spent at the Little Desert Nature Lodge where we were treated to a fascinating tour to the Malleefowl breeding aviary. If you want to learn more about this fascinating mound builder you could visit their website - http://www.littledesertlodge.com.au/

We also walked around the nature trails provided for visitors and came across a female Scarlet Robin.

On the road to Mannum today we were treated to a delightful view of a pair of Black-shouldered kites hovering over a paddock.

It's raining in Mannum so we are taking the time to read, knit, blog and relax.

Blessings to you all and see you next time.

Melbourne and Sydney

2009-04-19T22:16:00.005+10:00

We loved visiting our friends and family in Melbourne and Sydney. Thanks to everyone for being so welcoming. Easter was wonderful and David and I never thought pounding the pavements of Sydney would be so enjoyable.

Getting Ready To Leave

2009-04-09T08:09:00.003+10:00

Currently we are saying our goodbyes to family and friends in Melbourne and Sydney. We look forward to hitching up the van on 21st April.

Hot Summer Days

2009-02-26T20:04:00.004+11:00

Still in Koondrook for the summer. We have had some incredibly hot days as have many other Victorians. These photos were taken on Thursday 29th January with the temperature soaring beyond 40.
Some birds dropped in to find some relief from the heat. First some kookaburras who spent about an hour just sitting and sipping, then some pied butcher birds who sat for a long time too.

Pre-trip plans

2008-12-15T21:21:00.000+11:00

At this stage the plan is to back the caravan out of the driveway and head for warmer places. We will enjoy the southern summer and take off in April.

Looking for birds will be a special activity.