Tuesday...30 August 2011

Done a whole lot more of nothing. The weather has improved to 35c!
Went into town for a look at Chinatown this morning, had fish and chips for lunch. Went and got my nails painted a nice bright purple...
We had a visitor this morning, a frilled neck lizard that lives in the park and considers our site and the couple around us to be his own personal hunting patch. Himself threw a couple of crickets in his direction and he happily chomped into them. Wouldn't raise his frill though. Guess we not that scary to him!

Saturday...27 August 2011

Cable Beach

Life is soooooo hard in Broome!
Been doing more of the nothing stuff, we sit outside the van in the 33c weather enjoying the breeze and the nice warm air. Every so often someone will wander past and stop for a chat otherwise we sit in the peace and serenity and watch others going about their holiday.
Couple of younger ones over the drive from us had a night on the town last night and came home late and noisy but did eventually quieten down sometime past one oclock.
There are heaps of fifth wheelers in Broome, the one next to us pulled out yesterday on the way to spend four months at a certain Perth park so no doubt we will bump into them again.

Thursday...25 August 2011

So what have we done? Nothing, that is called slipping into Broome time!
The beauty of Broome is that there is very little to do and all day to do it in. We drove around town, took a look at Cable Beach, yep it is still there, the sand is still whiter than white the sea is still bluer than blue, the pretty people still litter the beach area covered in sunscreen and very little else....status normal.

Tuesday...23 August 2011

Well we have been to Derby. We went down to the wharf and had a look at the tide......
When the tyre place opened on Monday morning Himself wandered in and after doing most of the work himself (as the owner had wrecked his back over the weekend), got four new tyres on the F250 and put the four tyres off the car onto the caravan. So now we have Cooper tyres on both the car and the van. He is fairly pleassed with himself as the bloke at the tyre place was so grateful for the sale and the help he gave us a seriously good discount which made the tyres cheaper than they would have been in the city.
Our luck continued when I rang the Broome Caravan Park to ask when they were likely to have their first vacancy knowing that at this time of the year everything in Broome is booked solid. Seemed they could fit us in for as long as we liked beginning today...wonderful. So here we are in downtown sunny Broome enjoying the pleasant 33c weather and trying hard to speed up enough to slip into Broome time!!!! More information on how we are coping when we have had time to take a look around and see if there have been any changes since we were here last year.
Important note: THE best fish and chip shop in the north west is for sale. Hope it gets a good owner and is not shut down.

Saturday...20 August 2011

Wow, lots has happened since last entry. To begin with, remember the scenic flight? Well they originally said we would  have to wait until Thursday to get on a flight, unless we could be ready in two hours for that particular day. We took the there and then offer.
On Thursday one of the scenic flights gave a bit more adventure than the tourists paid for.
It fell short of the runway on landing and crashed with one pilot and six paying passengers. They are all ok, but were ferried to the local Kununurra hospital to be checked out. They are very very lucky people. The official reason is being given as engine failure on landing.......hmmmmmm. All I know is I am glad we took the earlier flights as there was no way I would have gotten in to any plane after that event on the Thursday!!!! Or to quote  Himself, I would be still screaming hysterically even now if that had been me....
Well done the pilot who did well enough no matter what the reason to have seven people walk away from that one. To quote a saying I once heard...Any landing you walk away from is a good  one!
So on Friday we  packed up and left Kununurra, we went further than planned and ended up in a free camp at Mary River. Getting in and out of that particular camp was a bit hairy as it involved crossing a causeway over running water in the Mary River and the bitumen on the road is badly broken up and full of shakes and shudders to cross. But once on the other side there is a huge camp beside the river and us and about fifty other caravans made camp for the night. Would have been really really good if the people with the four loud dogs bothered to keep them quiet. They made camp right near the one and only toilet and every time some one went near the toilet building the blasted dogs all set up barking and growling. Up early this morning to continue southwards. We discussed our options along the way and decided to pop up to Derby for a look as we had not been here before.
Along the way we went through Fitzroy Crossing and it must have been footy finals time or they are really really into their Saturday footy. We started passing groups of indigenous folk waiting beside gateways a good 150kms out from town, they were all obviously waiting for a pick up of some sort. When we got to Fitzroy Crossing every man and his dog and his mother, mother in law and picinniny were coming out of the bushes and wandering around town in the direction of the town oval and they were all excited and talking about their teams. One was Tigers and the other team was the Crows. No idea who won but golly they were excited. We got fuel and got to hell outta there, one surely does not want to be in an indigenous town after a hotly contested footy match!
Ninety kms from our destination there was an ominous bang from one of the caravan tyres. It blew to bits and took parts of the side of the caravan with it! I walked back along the road and removed the debris of the shredded tyre off the road and found the broken bits and picked them up, maybe somewhere along the way we will pass someone who can fix it. Any one know how I can remove the black marks from the white sides of the caravan? Himself changed the tyre and we came on into Derby but being the weekend we have to wait until the tyre shops open on Monday to get it fixed.
The caravan park we are in is over the road from the local Tyrepower business. So close.......
Anyway along the way I found out where the Curtain Airforce Base is, so I guess the day was not a waste. I am sure there will be other things to see and do here too. Apparently Derby has the biggest tides anywhere in the world, they can go to 11 metres and we are parked right near the beach next to the tidal mud flats. Should be worth a look if we are around when the big tides happen.

Wednesday....17 August 2011

Entry #2 for today, make sure you read down to the first entry for today, which is actually yesterdays happenings entered late!!!

Ok today we drove over to Wyndham.
When we arrived we drove to the port. There was a small cruise ship but access to the wharf was blocked so had to admire it from the roadside. The boat was the Orion which tours from Broome to Darwin to Bali and return. Most of the action at the Wyndham port these days is the export beef cattle trade. Wyndham used to have a huge meatworks but that was sold off and then burnt down and finally shut. Now there is only the cattle and bauxite being shipped from Wyndham.
The highlight of any trip to Wyndham is a must do trip to the Five Rivers Lookout. The road to this lookout is 3.7km of very steep winding road and can be a bit hairy but oh boy the view!!!
From up there you can see The Durak River, The King River, The Ord River, The Pentacost River and the Forrest River all running into the Cambridge Gulf which is the inlet that Wyndham sits in.

Then we bounced 25km out a dirt road to look at the famous Prison Tree. This is a huge Boab tree. In the early years of settlement the police used the hollow centre as a prison to hold prisoners during the wet season when they were unable to transport them to the jail in Wyndham because the roads were under water. Himself had no trouble getting in but quickly discovered that getting out again was a touch tricky which is no doubt why they used it to hold prisoners!!!

We also stopped and looked at the Moochalabra Dam which is the water supply for Wyndham and we went through the Museum which was full of fascinating information about the history of the town. We also learnt about the Koolama which was bombed by the Japanese during WW2 in 1942 and after it limped back to Wyndham, it sank 40m from the jetty and is still there.

We were going to have a quick look at El Questro on the way home but ran out of time. Never mind we will take a look next time.

Wednesday...17 August 2011

Missed yesterdays blog. Too darn tired!
We went out to the Ord Dam or Lake Argyle and toured the area, drove over the spillway wall etc. It really is very beautiful out there. Water everywhere.

Then we came back into town and took a scenic flight with Alligator Airways in a small 6 seater plane that left Kununurra and tracked out over the vast irrigation fields of the Ord River Irrigation Project to Lake Argyle and we flew over the entire length of it, seemed to take forever. Lake Argyle is 23 times bigger than Sydney Harbour and during the wet season it can be 64 times bigger. It is classified as an inland sea. And it is all man made!
From there we passed over a couple of cattle stations and had a view of the edge of the Tanami Desert and arrived at Purnululu National Park, better known as the Bungle Bungles.
We landed at the Bungle Bungle airstrip to collect a couple of passengers and when we got back in the air we circled the Bungles for 15 minutes looking at places like Cathedral Gorge and Piccaninny Creek and Echnidna Chasm. Stunning.
On the way back to Kununurra we flew over the famous Arygle Diamond Mine, just another mine from the air but the diamonds in that mine are the highest quality in the world. Quite a big day and three hours in a tiny little plane with no room to stretch legs or even move around is rather tiring.

Monday...15 August 2011

Best wishes to our youngest and her husband as they begin the next phase of their life.

Yesterday, after I had done my blogging, Himself went down to the creek behind the caravan park at 5pm when the park people feed the local crocs. He got to offer the two visible crocs a slab of steak attached to a flexible hook. Who is a lucky lad? Hand feeding crocs now! I was not in attendance so no pictorial proof. What a shame.
Today we moved to Kununurra. Nice easy trip of only 225kms, broken by a mandatory stop at the border check point. They are really sweet out there. Twice now we have come through this check point and the first thing they do is write down your vehicle rego, and twice now as soon as they see that WA number plate they say "Welcome Home". One wonders if they welcome others to the state and encourage them to enjoy their visit,  but when you have been wandering in the wilderness being told welcome home is a bit like that moment you get onto the Qantas jet on the return trip to Oz, feels like you are home already!
We have parked up at the Kununurra showgrounds, nice quiet site that only takes big rigs and those with pets that cannot go to the non pet caravan parks in town. We are parked under lots of shady trees which is good as the weather is around 34c.
Went down town and got the printed info on all the tours available here. As I said to Himself one is only limited by the size of the bank account when choosing tours to do.  We are looking at a flight to the Bungle Bungles and I would like to do the Argyle Diamond Mine Tour.......sigh, its not high on his list......lol.
Himself wants to go fishing for the barramundi on the Ord River, not high on my list....lol.
Perhaps we will do another trip out to the hoochery too. We also want to do a day trip to Wyndham. They say there is not much to see there except the five rivers lookout. Sounds good to us!
Stay tuned, the end result may be interesting!

Sunday...14 August 2011

Rough night, couldnt sleep, too hot with blanket, too cold without!~!!
Packed up camp and have moved.
Nice trip along the Victoria Hwy which is beside the Victoria River in places.
We have pulled up for the night at Timber Creek.
Middle of nowhere but just that little bit too far to Kunnunura.
We will go there tomorrow.

Saturday...13 August 2011

Happy Birthday to my BB.
So pleased you are having this birthday. In fact very pleased you are here for this one, considering things could have been much much worse.
Look after you, be kind to her, and do your exercises.... I will be popping in again next year to see how you are going.
Nice lazy day in camp today. In fact we are so comfortable here that we have been discussing whether to bother packing up tomorrow and moving. Would be so easy to settle down and stay put for a while.
Beautiful  weather, soft breeze, open country to look at, whats not to like? We even have some animals for company!!!

Friday...12 August 2011

Today we went on a tour/cruise of three of the gorges in the Katherine River system. It took four hours and required getting out of each boat and walking over the rocks to the next gorge and the next boat waiting.
To get there we had to go back into town and turn onto the Nitmiluk National Park road and travel for
30kms, avoiding all sorts of things along the way. Seems it must have been pension day this week!!! All forms of interesting groups and individuals along the streets, in the streets, sitting on the footpaths etc...
Once out at the gorges area we parked as instructed by the Information place in town where we purchased our tour tickets, and wandered into the Information place to make sure we were in the right place only to be told we could continue down the road and park right near the boat ramps instead of having to hike over to it from the main building 600mtrs away! Not a good start but we duly moved the car to the nearer park and stood in line in the blazing sun for more than half an hour waiting to be called to our boat. Golly it was hot and I did have a hat on, just hot and humid and the air was impregnated with the smell of the bats roosting in the trees beside the river. Thousands of them, I first thought it was a half dead tree with black leaves until someone told me it was bats. Phewwwww.

Anyway we eventually got on the boat and it was worth the wait, such stunning scenery and the local parks and wildlife boys driving the boat and doing the commentary really knew their stuff. We learnt all sorts of facts and history of the Katherine area and its local tribes and how they have leased this area back to the government so that everyone can get to see and admire the beauty of the land.

Thursday...11 August 2011

Shocking night in Darwin last night, very very steamy. Kept waking up sweating.
Up nice and early at 7am to pack camp and move. Finally on the road by 9.30am. Such a shame really as the weather while we were in Darwin was wonderful, so barmy but that last night was like Darwin was saying to us that it was time to go...
Stopped at Pine Creek for lunch, Himself found a mini museum of old mining equipment and railway stuff. Pine Creek has had a chequered past depending on what mineral was found and mined. It began when gold was discovered by the builders of the overland telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin. Over the years several other minerals have been mined in the area depending on the market.
Onwards to Katherine arriving early afternoon. We went straight into the Information Centre and booked for a three gorges tour tomorrow beginning at 1pm. It goes for four hours so best I remember the sunscreen and a hat!!!
We took someones advice and went the extra mile to check into the Manbulloo station homestead caravan park which is 9 kilometers outside Katherine on the road to WA. Pretty little place beside the Katherine river. It is a working cattle station so we got up close and personal with some of the residents.

Not sure why but cannot access my own blog to reply to comments! So yes it is a Brahman and it is a BULL, a very big bull who enjoyed being scratched and rubbed by Himself at the fence next to the water trough.....

Wednesday...10 August 2011

Just home from dinner at Tracy Tavern. Interesting place, nice meal, very busy during dinner. Such a shame the brother in law was unwell and unable to join us. Do hope his health improves. Our thanks to Himselfs sister and family for a lovely visit.
Tomorrow we leave Darwin. Down the track to Katherine again.

Tuesday...9 August 2011

Census night!
Went out to Palmerston today to do a spot of shopping but after going all that way was unable to get anything on my list......typical.
Maybe I will have better luck tomorrow in town.
Dinner tonight at his sisters, apricot chicken, yummy.
We are taking them out for dinner tomorrow night.
Got home from all that to find a census form on our caravan steps so I guess we will be counted after all.

Sunday...7 August 2011

Went out to his sisters for tea on Friday night, lovely meal as always. Did very little yesterday. Himself went out on mens business with his brother in law on Saturday morning. I did the housework, well I was going to do the housework until I found my vacuum cleaner flatter than a pancake. Somehow the switch had been left on..... Never mind I put it on the charger and sat down and did nothing but watch the activity here in the caravan park. Caravan parks can be fascinating places if one takes the time to sit quietly  and just watch!!!
Today we have been into the CBD of Darwin to join the crowds strolling the Mall. I bought swim wear for the first time in 30 years. Thank goodness I will never have to do that again! Stressful.We did lunch at a nice little eatery in the Mall and then came home. We are going out to his sisters again for tea tonight.
Had a series of messages last night from the eldest brother of my Benalla mob. Him and his wife are in Broome and are going into Karajini and Tom Price and wondered if I was likely to be home......lol. Ended up calling him for a chat as he must have missed the 'we have retired and left town' message in his Christmas card a couple of years ago!!!! They are hoping to make it to Perth before a recently bereaved uncle leaves on an overseas trip with friends later this month.  He was telling me that another of his uncles and another of his brothers with wives and caravans etc,  are also out here on the road in the big paddock. Maybe we will run into some of them. That of course will depend on what pace they are travelling at versus our stop start progress towards the west. We have paid for a week in Darwin, the weather is perfect and our air conditioner is working so it matters not how hot it gets. Right now it is 31c and drops down to 22 or thereabouts overnight. Have packed the doona away and we are sleeping under a cotton sheet only. Lovely.

Friday...5 August 2011

Had a nice big sleep in! Instead of getting up before 7am I rolled over and slept until 9am....go me!
Did the washing, will be nice to sleep in clean sheets. Then we went to local shopping plaza place and I got a pedicure and manicure, so nice to have tidy nails again. Came back to camp and took the washing off the line, made the bed and went to Keiths sisters place for dinner. Her two girls who live here in Darwin dropped in, was so lovely to see them and their families. Had a nice BBQ dinner with salad and a glass of wine while watching St Kilda beat the Freo Dockers. Gotta love Friday night football.

Thursday...4 August 2011

Left Kakadu and moved on to Darwin. Got here mid afternoon. Being Thursday we went into town to  the Thursday night markets at Mindl Beach. These markets are an iconic part of Darwin. They only run from April to October during the dry or tourist season. Everybody gathers at the beach and watches the magic of a territory sunset then its back to the stalls. Even local Darwin people drop in for tea as there are so many food stalls and just about every type of cuisine is catered for. There is all types of Asian available and Indian curries and Italian pastas, there is even a stall called the RoadKill stall. Their motto is you kill em we grill em!
We will stay a few days, visit with his sister and then be off again.

Wednesday...3 August 2011

Today we were due to move toward Darwin but instead added another day to our stay and drove into Jabiru. Seen one mining town seen em all! Well actually this one is very very different. We asked directions to the bottle shop. Seems you can drink all you like at any of the several licenced premisis in town but no one can buy take away alcohol. Part of the governments clean up program.
So here we are, middle of nowhere and just as well we are not dying of dehydration. We have heaps of soft drink and even a bottle or two of wine but no beer!!!! Himself has gone off to the bar in our caravan park to sit and drink a beer.......poor love, he will probably have himself a wonderful time chatting to other parched travellers as they try to decipher the governments logic.
I will just sit here writing the blog listening to the group of camper trailer campers that just came in. They sound loudly happy.
The other thing we did today was to drive out to Ubirr Rock. It is out near the border to Arnhem Land. You walk for a kilometre and climb a lot of rocks and you end up on top of the NT with 360degree views of the magnificent countryside in this area of Australia.
At Ubirr you can see a range of different art styles and how new paintings are often superimposed over older ones. Most of the paintings in the main gallery are from the freshwater period meaning they were done in the last 1500 years!

I climbed to the top of the Ubirr rock, the view was wonderful. Lots of green floodplains and some water visible.  I would not have made it up or down without help from Himself. My agility is limited. Am glad I made the effort. Very much doubt I will be climbing such rock faces for much longer.

Himself was most taken with the various rock formations and vegetation in this part of Kakadu.

On our return journey we stopped off at Cahills Crossing which requires a permit to cross as the other side is Arnhem Land and no one may enter without permission from the aboriginal owners. While admiring the river we noticed some extra 'logs' floating up and down. Yep we spotted three and some backpackers insist there was actually four, but one was submerged just near the end of the boat ramp that most of us were standing on to take our pics!!

So tomorrow we pack and move toward Darwin. (maybe)

Tuesday...2 August 2011

Wow, what a stunning country we live in.
Out here in 'Never Never Land' when you drive down the road through Kakadu there really is not much to see, well there is a whole lot of nothing, red dirt, roads and stumpy trees.  But this morning we took a cruise on the Yellow River which is part of the South Alligator river system and saw the views that have made it onto a dozen travel shows around the world. After the 'wet' this whole place is one big flood plain teaming with wildlife of all sorts.

On a two hour cruise this morning we saw so many crocodiles, probably 30 at least, all in their natural habitat. Some were sunning themselves on the river bank, some were swimming in the river right next to the boat. Rather large creatures when you get that up close and personal to them!

The young ranger driving our boat would nudge it into the edge of the river so that we could see anything of intrest really easily. The second ranger on board was one of the local Kakadu tribe and he was pointing things out for us to see. His eye sight was amazing. When we pulled in to the bank to see one particular crocodile he pointed out a snake in the branches of the tree we were next to! None of us had thought to look up above us at that particular point, we were all concentrating on the crocodile on the river bank.
We also saw wild horses, feral pigs and so many magnificent bird species that the bird watchers on board were nearly beside themselves. We saw the so called jesus bird as it is  able to walk on the leaves of the water lillies without sinking so looks like it is walking on water, hence its name. We saw a pair of white sea eagles, beautifully majestic sitting on a tree overhanging the river.

We saw whistling ducks, cop that, a duck that whistles instead of quacking! And of course we saw the jabiru, the iconic NT symbol. Big birds of a similar size to brolgas and cranes.
There was a whole heap more, kingfishers and finches and magpie geese and plovers and on and on it went.
One of the stunning sights was a particular type of water lilly that grows to enormous size. The leaves were a good two foot in diameter and the flowers were just as big and came in blue, pink, lilac, white. Stunning.

The commentary included information on the various ways the local tribes use the river system like one huge supermarket. The ranger said there are more fish in the rivers of Kakadu than the total of the water systems of Qld, NSW and Vic combined. No wonder the territorians are always going fishing.

Monday...1 August 2011

Happy birthday to all the horses.......

Guess what? Guess what?
I just ticked another huge one on my bucket list. Right now I am sitting slap bang in the middle of Kakadu. How good is that?
Gotta love getting away from it all!!!
Man in his natural environment, complete with mobile phones and working internet.......
We left Mataranka nice and early and travelled to Katherine with only one small stop to top the tank with the contents of the jerry can. Never mind,  we only miscalculated by 50kms.
Life appeared as usual in Katherine. Some going about their business working hard, the rest sitting around the parks under trees waiting for the bottle shops to open.
We got groceries and fuel and hit the road again.
Came up to Pine Creek and turned onto the loop road that runs through Kakadu and comes out on the way back to Darwin. We had to stop at Mary River  Roadhouse and pay $25 per person for a 14 day pass to enter Kakadu, then it was on to Cooinda which is where we have camped for the next two nights. From here we are taking a two hour crocodile spotting cruise in the morning on the Yellow River which is part of the  South Alligator River. This is not the famous jumping crocs tour but I will be happy to have a nice quiet little trip.