Lake Argyle

It was a lovely drive today, through lots of stunning scenery.  As soon as we left the campsite at Gregory National Park, we were surrounded by enormous, red, rocky cliffs, with thick seams running through them or along the top of them.  They were amazing.  We stopped for a photo, but it really doesn’t look as impressive as the real thing!

We stopped at Timber Creek Roadhouse.  The gas was the most expensive yet, at $1.47per litre.  Grant was horrified, but we needed a bit more so we would make it to Kununurra.  We discovered we had internet access there, so we posted some blogs and then ate some more fruit and veg and honey sandwiches until I ran out of bread.

After Timber Creek Roadhouse, we began to see Boab trees beside the road.  These are fat looking trees, with bare branches reaching up to the sky, like weird people raising their hands.  Cooper kept spotting them and calling out “there’s another one!”  Some were enormous.  Very strange looking.  We pulled over to take a photo of the biggest one, and met a man who was walking along the road in the really hot sun.  We gave him the last of our cold watermelon and half a jar of Gordon’s honey.

Along the road a bit further we passed some people with their caravan off the side of the road.  The wheel had come right off and they were stuck, 174km east of Kununurra, in the middle of nowhere, with no phone signal or anything.  We said we’d phone the RACQ (they were from Queensland as well) as soon as we had a phone signal.  That took another 100kms! 

As we pulled into the quarantine checkpoint for Western Australia, there were signs asking us not to bring any plants, fruit, veg and honey into the state, and to avoid the spread of cane toads.  The road curved and the left lane led past the quarantine point, under a big awning, and two men stepped out into the road and signaled us to stop.  It was quite an operation.  The standard questions, “do you have any fresh fruit or veg, or honey?”  “Yes, I have an unopened bottle of honey from coles” I’d had it for ages and thought that because it was unopened and bought from coles, would be ok.  But no.  I had to hand that in and they would burn it with other confiscated items on their property!  Apparently there is some honey fungus that was introduced into Australia about 25 years ago from America, and Western Australia is the only state that doesn’t have it.  The honey they sell in Coles and Woolworths is NOT the same honey as we get in Queensland.  Theirs is boiled for 24 hours longer.  They like their bees here in WA.  They pollinate the crops.  The quarantine officer said they crush say, a rockmelon, every few metres along the rows and the bees come and pollinate the vines, then return to their hives at the end of each row.

We opened up the caravan and he went inside and opened the fridge and looked in most of the cupboards.  Everything was fine, except he took the two mango boxes I had shoes in and the fruit box from the boot Grant had all his maps and travel guides in.  I cleared all the shoes out of the mango boxes so I could hand them over, and found a very live baby cane toad in the bottom of one!  It must have jumped in one night while the boxes sat outside on the ground.  I was horrified.  Here I had carefully cleared our van of all fresh fruit and veg, and dumped the peels and seeds up the road in bins at Timber Creek, and I would have brought a live cane toad across quarantine.  But the Quarantine Officer said the cane toads have already reached WA, and he wasn’t too worried.  It went into their deep freezer with the other cane toads they’d confiscated!

The other thing they took were all the samples of grass and leaves Katie has been taping into her journal over the past few weeks.  She was NOT happy.  Kept telling us how useless the whole quarantine thing was, and that anyone could bring stuff in if they were really keen. We got a bit cross with her, and then when we pulled up for the night and began unloading our stuff, I discovered a whole grass stalk Joseph has been saving, as well as a giant seed pod Oskar picked up in Katherine Gorge.  Oh dear.  Not sure what to do about that.

It was only a short way across the border to the turn off to Lake Argyle, where we are staying for the night.  The red, rolling hills and cliffs were amazing to see as we drove the 30 odd kms into the caravan park.  I don’t think the Grand Canyon puts on a better show.  The similar layer of rock ran through all the hills, as it did back at Gregory National Park.  Back there it had reminded us of the Great Wall of China.  Here, the hills must have been pushed up with movements in the earth after the flood, because the rock layers run at an angle to the ground.  Just amazing. 

The boys love this caravan park.  The toilet block is made up of ensuite style cubicles.  Each room has one toilet, one basin and one shower.  So you can lock yourself in there for a little peace!  Interesting what you miss when you are away from home.

 Cooper and I in the infinity pool

Oh, and it has a swimming pool with an infinity edge, so you can swim and have an uninterrupted view of Lake Argyle.  This Lake is apparently the  largest water reservoir in Australia.  Eightly times bigger than Sydney Harbor.  It reminds me a little of Lake Como in Northern Italy, where the hills slope right down to the water.  The manager of the caravan park said there are plans to turn this into THE wedding destination for couples who what something a bit different.  They are going to build a 4 million dollar reception building overlooking the lake, with a boat that can take you out into the middle of the lake for the actual wedding.  They have already started on a couple of 4 bedroom villas overlooking the lake to house guests to these large functions.  People could fly in to Kununurra and be bused the 70 kms out to Lake Argyle.  A bit sad, really, as it is so lovely now, without huge buildings going up around this man made lake.

Gregory National Park

Surrounded by bugs to write my blog once again.  They just love that computer screen when we are in the middle of nowhere.

We are camped in Gregory National Park for the night, at Sullivan’s camp ground on the Victoria Highway, on the way across to Western Australia.  The campground has one pit toilet, a few fireplaces, a croc infested creek, and that’s all.  We have met a few lovely couples from Brisbane, though, and have had a fun evening with them.

Sullivan's Camp site, Gregory National Park

Mark and Donna have retired and have been travelling since February around Western Australia, and are about to travel along the roads we’ve just driven, but in reverse.  Mike and Linda have been on the road for four weeks, and are travelling the same direction as us.  Who knows where we’ll meet up again!

Mark and Donna were full of helpful information.  They gave us lots of ideas of where to stay around Western Australia.  Tomorrow we will travel across the border, and apparently they have very strict quarantine regulations.  I knew we’d have to finish off all the fresh fruit and veg before the border, but I didn’t know they wouldn’t allow honey into Western Australia either.  We have two big jars of Gordon’s honey, which is “raw” and straight from the hive on the top of his roof!  I’m trying to work out whether to boil it.  But in the mean time it is honey sandwiches, honey in the lentils for dinner, and honey on your breakfast.  Who knows, we may get through it yet! 

When we pulled in tonight I cut up half of the big watermelon I bought yesterday.  I cooked up about 10 carrots, four onions, a capsicum, 6 tomatoes, 5 potatoes and a head of broccoli for dinner.  Joseph wondered where the meat was.  I said “just vegetables tonight, Joseph, we’ve got a lot to get through.”  It felt like I was cooking chutney, and I probably could have if I knew the recipe!

I put the leftovers in the fridge.  Apparently they don’t mind if they’re cooked, so we’ll finish them off tomorrow night for dinner.  For breakfast it’s the rest of the watermelon and honey sandwiches!  Then, before we cross the border we will each eat a lunch of half a raw carrot, half a tomato, half a cucumber, and half a mango! At the very least we should all be quite regular for a day!

Eggs are another thing I’m not sure about.  I guess we can always pull over and boil them all if need be!

Mark had also found out how to fix our fridge.  We are travelling with a 90 litre fridge inside the van, which includes the shoe box size freezer inside.  It usually works quite well, but a few days into the warmer weather, we noticed a bad smell coming out each time we opened it.  At first I thought it was the milk that had been spilled inside going off.  I wiped it out but no change!  Then I realized it was the cryvaced (not sure if that’s how you spell vacuum bagged meat) meat I had bought.  I had been advised that it would last quite a bit longer in the fridge but the fridge had to stay below 4 degrees.  We measured ours and it was sitting at around 11 degrees C.  That wasn’t a good temperature for anything to keep at, let alone meat. Well, Mark said that most of these fridges aren’t insulated around the outside, which would help a lot, and also he had a little computer fan installed in the back of the fridge which improves the ventilation around the outside of the fridge.  Apparently it makes a huge difference.  Grant is keen to try out his suggestions.

This morning we set off slowly from Douglas Daly Tourist park, and travelled the 30kms back to the Stuart Highway.  Along the highway I again noticed the power poles, which are all made of steel. On a long, straight stretch of road, these eifel tower design of poles look very cool, all in straight lines into the distance.  Everywhere we go in the Northern Territory are massive termite mounds.  At the magnetic termite tourist stop yesterday, the information board said there are even termites who hollow out live trees.  I don’t think our wooden power poles would last very long around here!

We made our way into Katherine, where we stopped to fill up the gas bottle on the caravan, the fuel tanks, and the food supplies. (we needed another box of cornflakes, but I knew I shouldn’t have bought the bag of carrots!)  Grant chatted to Wayne from Edith Farm who had lots of stories to tell him.  He also had two cute dogs, Zac and Pebbles.  We found the local St Vincent de Paul and bought a few more books to keep us going.

Finally, after my retail therapy, we headed off from Katherine on our way to Kununurra in Western Australia.  It felt exciting heading off on roads we hadn’t been on yet.  There were purple tabletop mountains in the distance and the road was quite hilly, compared to what we’d been on.  At one rest stop, the toilet block was covered in bullet holes.  The double thickness steel door stopped them, though, something we should all remember!!

Vicki

Douglas Daly

Today we managed to get a little way down the road towards Katherine before we stopped for the night.  It doesn’t look very far on the map, but we had a few detours and tourist stops and so it took us all day.

First of all we packed up the van.  Joseph videoed us all so he was very motivated and that helped all the little boys along.  When everyone gets involved it really doesn’t take us long – even with all the boxes of food and schoolbooks that we put outside every time we stop for the night.  They were sitting on the two couches that are now beds for Oskar and Cooper, but with the bed reshuffle, they all have to go outside.

We also found the cupboard at one end of the caravan that I was storing a lot of food in, wasn’t really coping with the weight, so all the cans and heavy items are in a plastic box outside.

I’m not a real neat housekeeper, and in a van that’s a bit of a problem.  My sister, who is camping right now in Hervey Bay, is very organized and has lots of systems in place for keeping everything ship shape.  My systems all seem to work for a bit, but things just get messy when I turn my back.  However, the baskets and boxes system at the moment is a basket for togs and towels, a basket for dirty washing, the food boxes, and a few mango boxes full of shoes.  The other things we put out each time are four folding chairs, a table with four chairs attached, and the ground mat.  The ground mat is such a great thing.  It doubles the size of our living area, because it gives us clean floor before we walk into the van.  I’ve never had one before, and I don’t think I would go camping without it ever again. 

After packing up the van we went for a short 1.2km walk around the Wangi Falls.  The walk passed through nice rainforest, then stairs up to a tree top viewing platform, then more stairs to the top of the falls and across the little creek that feeds it, then down a whole pile of stairs to the bottom.  It was very nice and the children did it very well.

Oskar, Dom, Katie and Jo in front of rocks at the Lost City, in Litchfield National Park

We jumped into the car and headed back towards Batchelor, taking detours to the Lost City (a pile of sandstone rocks in all sorts of shapes that you reach via a 15km 4WD track.  Grant loves speeding along those dirt roads!) and the Magnetic Termite mounds (tall, flat termite mounds built oriented North South, so that one side will catch the full morning sun and keep the mound warm).  Both were interesting detours but certainly gobbled up our day.

Grant in front of Magnetic termite mounds - they look like a pile of Gravestones

In front of a giant Cathedral termite mound

We kept heading down the Stuart Highway a bit and then turned off to the Douglas Daly River area, which was recommended to us by our friend Maryanne. After driving up and down the river, we settled on a grassy, shady spot under some trees beside the river.  It is a nice change from camping on rocks and dirt.

Our campsite at Douglas Daly

Cooper hunting out a good camp site for us

We are beside a little river with murky green water, who’s banks are crowded with pandanus.  It just screams crocodile home!  I must be incredibly paranoid.  I stay way back from the edge! There was a rope swing tied up to one of the trees above the water hole.  Grant said the crocodiles put it there to entice unsuspecting swimmers!

Nadine found a whole tree covered in cicada skins.  There were wallabies everywhere, as well as very large cane toads after dark. 

Joseph has been our chief washer-upper this week, and I usually load everything into the washing up bucket and send him off to the amenities block, where there is often a washing up sink and light provided.  He will start to get himself sorted out there, and decide he needs to use the other facilities for a bit of a sit first.  Well, tonight, he headed into the toilet block as usual, and in the toilet bowl was a large, green, frog.  He flushed the toilet, and the frog swam down below the s-bend.  Joseph decided that sitting on that toilet for any length of time was too risky, so he went into the other toilet, only to find two, large cane toads sitting on the ground staring at him!  What to do?  Well, of the two he decided he could defend himself best against two toads he could see – only to be attacked a little later by a mosquito, you know where!  Joseph, the ultimate bush camper.

Vicki

Litchfield National Park

We made it to Wangi Falls in Litchfield National Park today.  It wasn’t a big drive, but it took us until 4.30pm.  I think we managed to get the last camping site at the camp ground.  That made Grant very happy.

We seemed to take a while to pack up this morning.  Even a few days in one place and everyone was settled and happy to stay with the power and the shops and the swimming pool for the next four months.  Cooper and Oskar found the heavy duty sprinklers and had a great time cooling off, while Katie and Joseph hosed off the caravan and the car, getting rid of some of the red dust we collected in Kakadu.  Nadine and Dominic scratched their sandfly bites.  Dominic’s legs look terrible, covered in great huge welts that he’s scratched open.  He refused to sleep in his bed tonight because he thought he was being targeted where he was sleeping.  Before he went to bed he dug out my portable vacuum cleaner (yes, I bought one just before we left.  Didn’t think I could do four months without one!) and vacuumed up the bugs on the roof of the caravan. 

After we finished collecting our gear and loading up once more, we started the drive out of Darwin.  Grant spotted another roadside Mango seller just too late to pull over, so we did a big detour and finally made it to the stall.  Back into the car with our tray of mangoes, and we noticed the chip in the windscreen that I’d spotted after a big truck flung a rock at us coming into Darwin seemed to have grown.  We decided we needed to get it fixed before we headed off to Kununurra and the Kimberlys in Western Australia so around we turned again and after a few attempts, hunted down a windscreen repair business.  Grant unhooked the caravan so that we could get the car into their workshop, then they had one look at the chip and told us it was an old one and had already been repaired!  We felt a bit silly, but also glad that we hadn’t done the same thing in the middle of nowhere and driven miles for no reason at all.  The man who spoke to us was very helpful and gave us some windscreen patches so if we do get any chips we can cover them and keep them clean until we can get them fixed.

So, back on our way again we checked the email one last time before we left Darwin, and found an email from the glasses people Grant had contacted about replacing his prescription glasses.  Pulled over again and sat waiting while Grant phoned the post office in Broome to arrange to have them sent there, then navigated the web site and ordered new glasses. I hope it all works out.  It turns out the company posts their glasses from Western Australia usually anyway.

Continuing on a bit further, we took the turn to Batchelor, and headed into Litchfield National Park.  We passed the Magnetic Termite Mounds – we’ll stop and look at them more closely on our way out – and pulled into Florence Falls for lunch.  We tried out our tinned chicken….well, it looked like dog food, smelled like dog food, and the kids all thought it tasted like dog food too.  Not sure how to get rid of the other half of that.  Might have to turn it into fried rice.

The walk to the falls was lovely beside a rushing creek along a crazy paved path for 1.1km.  Cooper loved it and ran most of the way in his little red swimming togs.  The falls were very popular with lots of people there.  It was the coldest swimming hole we’ve swam in so far, and there were big black fish in schools swimming around.  They didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned about all the people swimming in their pond.  Cooper saw them and said “they are MASSIVE”.  Not sure where that word came from.  The older kids like to teach Cooper to say things.  He goes around saying “oh Katie, (or whatever name he likes) you stink”

It was so cold, no one lasted long, so back to the car we went and continued on into Litchfield National Park.  We passed the turn off to the Lost City – we’ll visit that tomorrow as well – and finally pulled into Wangi Falls.

Setting up camp seemed to go a lot faster than packing it up, and after it was done Grant informed me there were some mites that lived in the long grass at Litchfield that carried scrub typhus, a disease the symptoms of which are fever, back ache, head ache and a black scab at the bite site.  Nice.

We decided to head off to see how Wangi Falls compared to the others we’ve seen, staying away from any long grass.  They were excellent (I think it was the best I have ever seen – huge, warm and really pretty.  Grant)   A huge cliff with several waterfalls crashing down the rock face.  During the wet season the volume of water coming down would be enormous.  Obviously a popular spot too, because there were steps to climb in and out of the pool with a stainless steel handrail.  The floor of the pool was made of lots of rocky gravel, until you reached the very middle, where it was sand.  Over near one of the water falls there was a large rock pool, warm like a Jacuzzi!  It was lots of fun, until Katie nearly put her hand on a snake while she was climbing back in the water! She said it was greeny brown with a sort of diamond pattern on its back…not sure what type that is.  I didn’t rush over for a look.

Cooper ran all the way back to our caravan in the nude.  At first he was wearing beach sandals, but he soon got sick of that.  He seems to like to shed his clothes.  Hopefully he will grow out of this tendency!  We called him the “dude in the nude” and the “bush walker in the raw”.  Pretty funny.

Tonight we huddled inside the caravan to eat our dinner, hiding from the biteys.  We didn’t like the look of Dom’s legs. 

One of the things the bigger kids have been doing in the past week or so is reading the Little House on the Prairie series.  I brought them along just in case, and Joseph got so desperate for reading material he read the nine books in three days!  He has a huge reading appetite, along with a huge food appetite!  Seems to be hungry all the time and I’m running out of ideas.  He really appreciated the pies from Maryanne and ate them both in one day, along with one from me – his share of the pies I bought for everyone who was drooling over Joseph’s good fortune!  Maybe he’s getting ready to grow.

Well, it’s time for bed again – the crickets are out and the cool breeze has just started.  I am going to sleep well tonight!

Vicki

Why Bomb Here?

The Darwin Military Museum was a highlight for the boys and I (Grant) yesterday. 

Some weapons of the Allies and some Japanese weapons and a few examples of the fake weapons that we had built to imply a stronger defense than we really had.  I am not sure why we don’t hear more about it but apparently the same fleet that bombed Pearl Harbour came here shortly afterwards and dropped more bombs, sunk more ships and killed more civilians than they did at Pearl Harbour.  I am told that the Japanese had really good maps of the area as prior to war, they had been contracted by the Australian Government to survey and generate better maps of key areas around Australia including Darwin. 

9.2 Inch Plywood and Steel Replica

But what I really don’t understand is why Darwin was so important to them?  It is so far from anything, apart from Mosquitos it is really hard to grow anything here and the place doesn’t seem to have any resources or industries.  I could see the Japanese dropping dead from lack of fuel and water before they got to any of our capital cities.  I suppose that may have been some of the thinking behind the Brisbane line? 

Joseph Demonstrating How to Diagnose a Misfire

What was a disappointment was how we lost the 9.2 inch guns.  They would have been amazing to watch as they fired shells distances of nearly 30 kilometers.  I was watching a video of one of the returned soldiers who was lamenting how they had put in a bid to preserve the guns from being junked for scrap metal with a view to keeping them to remember their history.  The Japanese had also put in a bid and beat them by about 25 pounds.  I can’t believe we let things like that happen but I suppose part of it appears to be that Darwin doesn’t seem to have a high profile in our history of World War II.

Grant

Last day in Darwin

One of the things that’s great about visiting the Top End of Australia at this time of year, is that it’s not too busy.  Peak season is winter time, but we’re finding it beautifully warm, although we have heard it is usually hotter than this by now.

The tours aren’t booked out days ahead, and the campgrounds are almost deserted.

We rocked up at a tour this morning, and although I think it was overpriced, we enjoyed our trip along the Adelaide River, watching crocodiles jump for the pork chops they dangled over the side.  Eagles also enjoyed the pork chop feast and they dangled one for them too.

They jump up very quickly once they decide to

Although we didn’t see any enormous ones, the crocodiles were very powerful looking up close.  They had golden beady eyes, and cruised up beside the boat, checking out the smorgasbord inside!

Check out those teeth!

All the crocodiles had names and they recorded which ones they fed, so they wouldn’t keep feeding the same ones on each trip up the river. It was a good way to see crocodiles, but I think I’ll be happy to never see another one in my life!

We checked out Stuart’s office, which was very interesting, and on the way home, after taking the wrong turn, we passed a mango seller and bought a tray of very yummy mangoes.  Yay, Darwin.

Stuart showing Cooper his great work area

An afternoon of resting and sorting ourselves out for the next stage in our journey, and we’re keen to head down to Lichtfield National Park tomorrow.  There are so many national parks and waterfalls to visit, it’s hard to choose just one or two, but we have to keep moving towards Broome.

The mosquitoes are relatively mild here.  In Kakadu at the end of our time there we were almost carried away by them.  One night Grant killed about 32 mosquitoes in the caravan, then someone needed to go outside for the toilet and they all came in again! The flies are pretty bad here during the day though.

Darwin

I seem to be staying up later and later to write this blog!  Everyone else is asleep, spread out with no sheets over them, trying to ignore the yellow lights from the toilet block next door, and the traffic going past on the road outside.  Urban living has its price.

It’s lovely and hot up here in Darwin, but it means you don’t really feel like cooking dinner until the sun is gone and the day is cooling off a bit.  That means we are eating later, then the children are getting to bed later and later, so hence, here I am, sitting in peace and quiet, but perhaps a little late.  Cooper particularly is getting grumpy and tired.  If we are out and about in the afternoon, he will sleep in the car.  But once we stop he tries to keep up with the big kids, and can sort of fall apart, or get very silly, in the evening.  I think we need earlier dinner and some afternoon naps.

This morning we worshipped at the Darwin Baptist Church with the family we know here.  The singing was great, and the message was about Paul and lessons taken from his life – he was brave, even though he was beaten etc – and continued to preach the gospel.  We also need to be brave in telling others the good news. 

Cooper wiggled a lot, then started to throw paper aeroplanes, then spoke loudly.  I took him to the back of the church and drew all sorts of animals that we’d seen over the past two weeks.  That kept him happy.

After church we drove a little further into Darwin (nothing seems very far away in Darwin – apart from that shopping centre the silly GPS sent me to yesterday!) and walked through the Darwin Botanical Gardens.  They were lovely, with vegetable gardens, a lake with fountains, and a really cool tree house built around an old fig tree.

We tried to walk to the museum, but Grant ended up going back for the car.  It was a hot old day.  We passed the cemetery, though, and the most interesting thing we noticed was the masses of mango trees full of almost ready mangoes!  We thought fondly of our mango tree back home, and wondered if it would have any mangoes on it when we got back…probably not.  There was also a grave with what looked like a marble dog house on it.  Was a bit confused by that one.

Joseph and Dominic were very keen to start their own vegetable patch after we’ve finished our trip.  I’m not sure what triggered that off, but I’d love to give it a go.  I’ve tried vegetable gardens a few times, with very little success.  Bugs, possums, drought, weeds….forgetfulness.

The Darwin museum was very small.  That was great.  There was enough to look at and wonder over, but it was easy to get around in an hour.  I followed Cooper from room to room, keeping him away from Dinosaur bones, old aboriginal artwork, models of pre and post cyclone Tracey displays.  He particularly liked the shell displays, and the cases of stuffed birds and butterflies.  He was very cute running around naming the fish and birds and spides at the top of his voice.

There was a large saltwater crocodile on display that had attacked several boats before they captured him.  In the process of getting him into the boat, he drowned.  His name was Sweet Heart.  iHisHStuffed crocs aren’t that scary looking.  Not sure why.

There was a 2.5m Grouper (fish) and several enormous stingrays in one display.  One room in the cyclone Tracey display was a small, pitch black cubicle with the soundtrack of the cyclone as recorded by someone during the wind and rain, playing over and over again.  None of us lasted very long in that room.  The wind has a very eerie and spooky sound to it.

There was a dugout canoe in the maritime display that, during a fishing outing off a small island 180 km north of Darwin, was blown off course by big winds and drifted 10 days before being rescued by vessels off the Australia coast.  On board were 10 people; 2 women, 4 men and 4 children, including a nine month old baby.  They survived with dried fish and corn and rainwater.  It was a very small boat!

After chasing Cooper around the museum for an hour I was ready to go, so we headed a short way away to the Darwin Military Museum.  Grant, Joseph, Dominic and Oskar went in for a look at the displays on the bombing of Darwin during the second World War.  I stayed outside and rested!  Apparently there were 64 attacks, and about 250 people died in Darwin during this time!  I didn’t know it had happened at all.  There were big cement foundations for anti aircraft guns around the edge of the coast, but after the war the Government sold them to the highest bidder – Japan – for scrap metal. Figure that one out!

Back at our van we had Stuart and Maryanne over for dinner and a chat – still chasing Cooper all over the place.  Little terror! In a nice way, of course.

Our neighbours here at the van park are from Mackay in Queensland.  They have been travelling for three weeks and have been to Uluru, Broome, Bungle Bungles and are now on their way home slowly.  In three weeks they have had to get three new tyres for their camper trailer.  Once they had to wait on a dry and dusty road for hours while someone came to fix their tyre.  Hopefully we won’t have to do that on the long, dusty road to Broome.

One thing I have seen in the last few weeks that I’ve never seen before is mosquito domes.  They are little dome tents, for one or two people, just made out of mosquito netting.  I saw little colonies of them in Kakadu where it was so hot and dry, there was no need for any type of roof, just protection from the bities.  At night they are almost invisible, and in the morning when it is light, there are these people asleep!  At Katherine Gorge we saw the ultimate in minimalist camping.  This family had stretched out a tarpaulin on the ground and had their air mattresses spread out around on top of it, and that was it!  No mosquito nets, no tent, no roof, no tables or chairs.  That’s it!!!!  I guess it would stop teenagers sleeping in.

Vicki

Slow day in Darwin

We had a lovely day today with Maryanne and Stuart in Darwin.  Grant went and helped Stuart with someone’s house moving in the morning, while the rest of us went with Maryanne into Darwin and visited the wave pool. 

Maryanne holding Cooper at the wave pool

After a few hours floating in there and becoming waterlogged, we drove around the corner to Stokes Hill wharf and had fish and chips for lunch.

I stocked up with groceries in the afternoon, after being misled by my GPS and driving a 40 km round trip to a Woolworths, then we had kangaroo hamburgers with Maryanne and Stuart and Rosie in the evening, surrounded by their tropical garden which they have planted and which looks so nice.  Crimson Finches visited, and large tree frogs, and their five chickens and one rooster.  We heard lots of chicken stories.  Bindi the dog chose Cooper as a good target for leftovers, and we loved the fish swimming in the terracotta pot by the door.  I’m going to have to do that with my gold fish when I get home – as long as Neo doesn’t eat the fish!  Maryanne has always had a knack of making a lovely home.

Oskar carrying his cardbaord to the hill

Before dinner we walked around the corner to a nature reserve where there are two big grassy hills.  Maryanne had obtained cardboard boxes for us and the kids had a great time sliding down the hills. 
A highlight at the end of the evening was Maryanne demonstrating her ibot – Roomba.  A little vacuum cleaner that whizzes around and vacuums the floor then goes and docks in its battery charger.  Very impressive for Joseph and Dominic.

Cold drink and grass are lovely – never to be underestimated, and the thought of heading off into the dirt again is a bit daunting.  Another day yet!

Directly to Darwin

We are now in Darwin.  It’s lovely and cool compared to Kakadu.  We have ended up in a caravan park that has three swimming pools, camp kitchens, laundries, restaurants and a big jumping pillow.  We are very happy!

After all our crocodile watching yesterday, I had a dreadful dream last night involving a deep, clear billabong, lots of crocodiles, and my children all lined up along the edge, watching these fierce creatures.  It was a bit distressing!  Dominic had a similarly bizarre dream about large spiders and a bus.  Must have been a very warm night.

Top of Ubirr, looking out over the flood plains between Kakadu and Arnhem Land

After much dragging and complaining this morning, we all had a lovely time looking over the rock art at Ubirr again, and climbing to the top of the rocks where we had a good view of the wetlands and Arnhemland.  It was very pretty and we saw some rock Wallabies with joeys in their pouches. We saw Marcus, the aboriginal ranger, and also Joel's girl friend, the ranger from Yellow water.  They are a very friendly bunch up here!

In front of Rock Art at Ubirr

We rushed back to our campsite to take part in a traditional painting activity, and discovered how aboriginals made their paint brushes, and how hard it actually was to produce the rock art we had seen that morning. Everyone really enjoyed it, along with seeing our friend, Ranger Pete from Philip Island, again.

Painting with the help of the ranger and his two traditional owner teachers.

Some of our Rock Art painting

Next we packed up the van again, to drive the 300 or so kilometers to Darwin.  I drove and Grant read all the information from our lonely planet guide about what was good to see and do in Darwin and beyond!  I only had to pull over about five times to get phone chargers from the van (kept getting the wrong one!) and to make a toilet stop!  The road from Kakadu heads directly west – just one long, straight highway.

But here we are.  And Maryanne has already taken Katie to youth group and I’ve done two loads of washing and been for a swim in the pool with Nadine and two frogs.

Joseph is so glad to be back in suburbia.  He had his laptop and phone chargers plugged in within minutes of us arriving on our site!  Don’t think he will be the original bush man when he gets older.

Crocodile Country

Today we saw some Crocodiles. 

They are big and nasty looking.  And they watch you.  It’s a bit scary.

We started off today pretty slow, letting everyone have a sleep in, and Grant made some yummy pancakes and did all the washing up!  I had a lovely morning!

Katie and I headed off to Ubirr, another rock painting site, and listened to Ranger Pete, the man who is here for six months from Phillip Island, talk about the Rainbow Serpent and the different “skins” of the aboriginal people.  He had two aboriginal rangers with him also, Marcus and a lady, and they were able to add different information to Pete’s talk.

It was interesting to hear the way the aboriginal people teach their children to respect their elders.  The story of the rainbow serpent that we heard was that she lives in a billabong near here and hates the sound of children crying.  The rock painting illustrates the time when a child was crying for a sweet water lilly root because her mum had given her some and now she wouldn’t eat any sour water lilly root.  She cried all day and into the night (now that’s a temper tantrum!) and in the evening the rainbow serpent came and surrounded the camp (it felt like a cool air) and swallowed the child and caused the area where they lived to stop producing plants.  Marcus, the aboriginal ranger, said it was partly the fault of the mother who shouldn’t have given the child the sweet root.  He said the mothers in aboriginal culture are punished if their children misbehave!

There were a few more “teaching” stories they showed us in the paintings on the rocks.  One about the Namidjarr sisters who turned themselves into crocodiles (Marcus said one became a bird who steals the souls of children who cry at night – all aboriginal children go to bed when it’s dark and stay quiet according to him) because they wanted to eat forbidden food.   The different skin groups (you are given one when you are born depending on your mum and dad) determine which other skin group you can marry and which food you can eat and hunt.  The elders can let you have a taste of different foods you are not allowed to eat if they want.  When you hunt, you go and catch what the old people tell you to get.  One wallaby or some turtles.  If you get magpie goose eggs, any with chicks growing in them go to the old people.  Any big barramundi  go to the old people and they can give you which bits they don’t want.  There are lots of things like that where the old people get preference and decide who gets what and who can eat what.  And lots of stories about bad things that happened to children who disobey the rules!

Katie and I found it very interesting and were surprised when we came upon a British tourist who was “very disappointed” with the rock art because it was so primitive, and couldn’t believe we were still paying the aborigines for what we had done to them, because the British had invaded lots of countries in their time, and didn’t pay any of them.  I was a bit dumb struck.

Meanwhile, Grant had been busy taking everyone fishing again, this time in daylight.

They went to Cahill’s crossing again, and there were so many crocodiles (it is their mating season, and one ranger told us Cahill’s crossing is like the crocodile's nightclub) that he got a bit freaked out by Cooper and Joseph down at the edge of the river and came home.

We went for a w
alk at Manngarre this afternoon, again with Ranger Pete from Philip Island.  This was a monsoonal forest and has lots of wildlife as the rest of Kakadu dries up.  We saw and heard a lot of bats in the trees.  We stopped and watched the crocs in the East Alligator river.  There were nests like mounds of leaves on the ground made by the Orange Footed Scrub Fowl.   Birds like turkeys with pointy hair-dos.  Part of the walk was only allowed for women, so Katie, Nadine and I went on that while the boys waited with the mosquitoes.  Aboriginal men and women have different stories and topics that they won't talk about to each other.

We met a family from Melbourne who have been travelling for three months and still have another three to go.  They also had a Cooper who is 6.  That is our third Cooper so far!!! 

Cooked on our fire again and had a yummy casserole.  Grant tried the fishing again.  Dom hooked a Barramundi but it slipped the hook.  It’s getting bigger every time he tells the story.

Move to Merl

We’re staying tonight at Merl in Kakadu, up near the border between Kakadu and Arnhemland.  We are about 500m from Cahill’s Crossing, on the East Alligator River.  Apparently they saw about 74 crocodiles on the river during this morning’s cruise.  Dominic and Joseph are mad keen to catch a Barramundi and so this afternoon, when we arrived, set up camp, applied tropical strength bug repellent and long shirts and pants, Grant headed off with Jo and Dom and Katie and Oskar and a few fishing rods to Cahill’s Crossing.  It turned out to be pretty late and dark when they headed off and I wondered how they would get on.

It was a little while later the adventurers returned.  They hadn’t caught anything.  In fact, they hadn’t even thrown in a line.  They had rocked up at the crossing, after walking a fair way in the gloom through  crocodile shaped cliffs, dark, shadowy forests, past numerous crocodile warning signs and surveyed the murky waters.  A moment later they heard a loud snap and crunch….they decided the large shapes in the water were crocs and that it might be better to fish for Barramundi when they had less competition.  So, back they came!

This morning we rushed everyone along and made it to a free Ranger Talk at Yellow Water.  This wetlands area is host to numerous animals and plants, and Joel’s girlfriend made a good ranger guide!  Maybe next ranger talk we’ll get Joel’s mum…

We saw large catfish, and comb-crested Jacana (those birds with big feet that walk on the lillies).  There were whistling kites and an immature Nankeen Night Heron, but no crocodiles.  There were water lilies in bloom, and lots of wetland grasses, we prayed over the spot that Grant’s glasses dropped in last night, but they didn’t float to the surface… 

After the ranger talk we headed back to Mardugal and packed up the caravan.  It took 23minutes.  I think that was pretty good.  We drove up the Kakadu Highway to Nourlangie, where there are examples of aboriginal rock art.  It was a nice walk, if a bit hot, but we had a good look at the paintings done with different types of ochre and resin. 

Lookout at Nourlangie

The Bowali information centre provided more air conditioning relief for the middle of the day and we watched a video about the animals in the area and how they survive through the different seasons.  There were some interesting pictures of wallabies and sugar gliders, and later, when Dominic and I went for a walk at Merl around dusk, we saw a rock wallaby timidly emerging from his little cave, just like on the video.  It was very exciting!

After the information centre we found the township of Jabiru, the only town in Kakadu National Park, and topped up on fresh food.  We had some good fishing tips from a keen fisherman who told us the right lures to buy to catch Barramundie.  The milk is very expensive, but there was a large crate of enormous tins of powdered milk so I think that is what people use up here.  I’m content to stick with the UHT for a few more days until we make it to Darwin.  We bought some Billabong Ice Blocks and enjoyed them outside on the grass.  I don’t think we’ve ever enjoyed ice blocks more!  It’s very hot and humid.  This morning at 7am, before the sun came up, it was 27 degrees centigrade with 53% humidity.

The campsite here at Merl seems very nice.  There are many more trees than our last two campsites and it is very private.  Most of the campsites are virtually empty because it’s the end of the season and very hot.  The campsites are all spread out around a circular roadway which surrounds a bushy communal area and toilet/shower/washing up block.  It is very nice and shady in the day time but full of suspicious shadows and heart-stopping rustles at night, when we’re walking by torchlight through the avenues of pandanus, the sounds of distant snoring travelling on the cool sea breeze.

Tonight I happened to share my toilet cubicle with the largest black and hairy spider I had ever seen, so I’m a bit nervous of this toilet block.  It is inhabited by matchbox car sized frogs that look white in the strange yellow bug discouraging lights.  There are also several white geckoes with large round dark eyes.  Can't really relax with that much wildlife inside a toilet block!

 

Gunlom to Mardugal

Well, our van is covered in red dust, and I am covered in hundreds of bugs.  “What sort of place is this?” asked Joseph.  “I want to go home” said Nadine.

We’ve moved to the “swampy” part of Kakadu.  We’ve camped for the night at Mardugal.  About the only change we’ve noticed is the bugs.  It’s still very hot and humid (and I just had to move inside, there were too many crawlies) and the sleeping arrangements are proving a bit warm.  Joseph has moved onto a separate couch and I think Cooper will be kicked out of our bed soon too!

Our campsite at Gunlom

We had a lovely time with our ranger, Joel, (seasonal ranger, he tells us, he doesn’t have to do toilets) who showed us more about aboriginal uses for plants and took us to the plunge pool and found us frogs, archer fish (they shoot a jet of water out of their mouths to knock insects they want to eat off overhanging plants – Joel said they can shoot up to 2.5 metres) Saratoga fish, catfish and some turtle shells and croc skulls he’d brought along. We felt very privileged to have his undivided attention for a few days!

The plunge pool at Gunlom

After packing up our camp (hot work) we headed back down the 30km of red, dusty road.  We were very proud of our Landcruiser, and Grant got me to get out and take a photo of him making a lot of dust, however we’d passed the grader coming the other way and there weren’t a lot of dust clouds to be made. 

Grant tearing along the dirt road to Gunlom

Joel the ranger drove a Landcruiser from the Kakadu fleet, and said the park had tried all types of other 4x4, including Patrols, but none of them survived the rigors of Kakadu like the Toyota Landcruiser!  Go Landcruiser, go!

Driving along the dirt road, Grant kept asking what the noise was.  “Just someone clapping” I said.

But no one was clapping.  It turns out it was rocks, flicked back by our tyres, bouncing off the front of the van onto the back window of the car.  Once we worked that out we stopped and shut a beach towel into the boot, covering the window.  That protected it until we got off the unsealed road, but we’ve found a few chips in the glass.  Grant said it even happens occasionally on sealed roads so we have to come up with a way to protect it more permanently.

The Warradjan cultural centre was very well done, with lots of information about weaving and rock art and the influence of various things on aboriginal culture.  There is a lot written on the “creation beings”.  They seem to be very important to the aboriginals.  And they often come in threes.  Either three beings, or a creation being and his two wives.

Grant took Dom and Oskar fishing this afternoon from the pontoon at Yellow Water.  They didn’t see any crocodiles, but a fellow fisherman said there were loads at Cahill’s Crossing on the border of Arnhem Land, so we might go there.

Jo caught a Barramundi but it wasn’t over the required 55cm length, so he had to put it back.  Oskar reeled in something without scales that made a weird noise out of the water – they put that back too.  They also put back Grant’s prescription sunglasses – oops. Some happy croc can see a lot better.

I met a family from Philip Island in Victoria who are living up here for six months.  The husband is working as a seasonal ranger.  They are finding the humidity hard at this time of year.

Well, that’s all for now.  We are keeping a tight schedule to fit in all our free ranger talks!  Better get to bed.

Gunlom Falls

37.4°C in the shade today.  It was very hot.  Those storm clouds are still building, and the few locals I have spoken to are looking forward to the wet season, and the temperature dropping. 

Despite the heat we managed to hike up to the Gunlom lookout, above the falls, on our free ranger guided tour.  Joel, our long red curly haired guide, grew up here with his mum and dad (his dad was ranger in the park then) and was very nice and informative.  The eight of us were his only customers but he patiently answered our questions and put up with our interruptions.

Joel showed us the native passion fruit vine, the red apple tree, the green plum tree, the big lump on the side of melaleuca trees that store water, pandanus the aborigines use for weaving, the iron wood tree they use for making spear heads, and then walked with us to the top of the falls where there were four beautiful rock pools.  They were clear with sandy bottoms and we could see fish darting around in the green water.  Joel went back down the mountain and everyone had a much anticipated swim.  The bigger kids (and Grant) jumped in off the sides, and even Oskar and also Nadine (after MUCH consideration) jumped off a smaller rock into the water.  Once she’d had that first jump, Nadine couldn’t be stopped and she said she jumped 20 times in total!  Maybe she will be an adventurer after all.

Swimming on top of Gunlom Falls

Down the dusty mountain for lunch and a lazy afternoon, trying to keep cool.  Chess, checkers and backgammon are still popular, however I think Dominic might have a few “in house rules!”

About 4.30pm it started to cool off and we braved the resident fresh water crocodile and swam in the plunge pool below the falls.  No one got eaten much to Dominic’s relief and we came back to light our fire (how silly are we) and cook our dinner in our camp oven.  We managed mince stew and then a peach clafouti – both very tasty – before rushing off to the free ranger slide show on bush tucker, also by our friend Joel.  Again we were the only customers and thought we’d missed it until he came hurtling along, 30 minutes late, having changed his flat tyre on the dirt road, in the dark, by the light of his mobile phone.  Such dedication.  We were very appreciative of his great presentation on aboriginal food, and “calendar trees” (the kapok tree is one of those, as is the water pandanus) that indicate to the aborigines, among other things, when to dig up freshwater crocodile eggs and when they will hatch.  Cooper perhaps didn’t pick up quite so much.  He fell asleep on our picnic blanket with his bare rear end in the air.  I hope it wasn’t too visible in the light of the slide presentation!

I found out about the Cane Toads.  Apparently there used to be a lot of large goannas in the park, but they have mostly died out in the last 7 years as cane toads have moved in. I thought that was very sad.  If only the salt water crocodiles would decide cane toads were the yummiest things ever, it might solve both of those problems.

Tomorrow we’ll see Joel one more time then move a bit further into Kakadu.