Half-lap Day 60: Kununurra

When we woke up we weren’t sure if we were going to leave today or not. Tony’s wine was potentially going to arrive at the post office today, but it was more likely to arrive tomorrow, which would mean staying another 2 days, or even after the weekend, which was longer than we wanted to remain in Kununurra. We decided to wait and see if any of the tracking information gave use more details later in the day and we’d decide then. So we had a bit of an uncertain morning, I caught up with some more blogging, talked to a young couple for ages who had lots of tips for the West Coast, the kids played on the iPad, Tony had a rest. LiAM came to find me when I was chatting to the couple in the camp kitchen, and asked if we had any eggs for breakfast (we didn’t). My new friends said they had 3 eggs left that they’d be quite happy not to have to try to fit back in their fridge, and gave them to LiAM. He was very pleased. Later in the morning we talked to Australia Post and they still weren’t sure where the package was… We decided to stay one more day and if it hadn’t arrived by the time we left tomorrow then we’d ring and get it transferred to Broome (and do our waiting there).

The kids were happy to have a rest day after the two massive days we’d just had. They played at the tent for a while more then Tony took them to the pool and I did a big load of washing. I caught up on some more sorting and cleaned the fridge out and the kids came back for a relaxed lunch, then we played some more games at the tent. Millie wrote her postcards that she’d bought in Katherine, and Caitlin made a new friend, a girl who had just arrived at the caravan park. She went for a swim with her friend. LiAM spent a lot of the afternoon doing mazes in his puzzle books. Tony rode his bike in to town to see if his wine had arrived – it had!!! He rode back, then drove back in with LiAM and Millie to pick it up.

We talked for a while to man with a dog who is half kelpie, and chases balls just like Buckley does (ie all day). Caitlin spent most of the afternoon with her new friend, then excitedly discovered that the kids’ friends from a few days ago were back from the Bungle Bungles and staying here again. I’d met a 5 yo boy in the morning, who had gone to the toilet and then couldn’t find his caravan (so I’d helped him get home), and I’d said my kids might play with him later in the day. Caitlin went and found him as well, and the 7 kids all played hide and seek and tiggy and spotlight before and after dinner. We also got our colouring in stuff out and the younger kids happily coloured and drew for a while before getting involved in the more active games.

I sorted a few more things so that packing up will be easier tomorrow. Gradually the kids came back to the tent. Millie was freezing cold (it was about 18 degrees) so put on her thermal pyjamas. Caitlin had exchanged details with her new friend, who will be moving to Melbourne when her trip is finished, so they are hoping to stay in touch and catch up again later in the year. Caitlin had hurt her thumb when playing earlier in the afternoon. She’d strapped it up herself and I hadn’t thought any more of it – when she sat down to get ready for bed though the pain got really bad, I had a look and it was very swollen and bruised. I strapped it a bit more securely and hopefully it will settle down overnight. We went to bed and read Inheritance for a while – I was getting sleepy before the kids so I stopped reading and they played the iPad until they were more tired.

Half-lap Day 59: Kununurra

Caitlin and I were up early as we needed to be at the horse place by 7am. The others were up when we left and happily waved us off. Caitlin was extremely excited (and pleased that her jodhpurs still fit her – she’s grown so much since we left home that there was a chance they’d be way too small). We drove out to the Yeehaa ranch, and the owner met us at the gate. He was very friendly and welcoming, and I felt quite comfortable letting Caitlin go on a trail ride with him. He introduced us to his 2 workers, young men who’d been through the training program he runs, helping boys get an agricultural certificate. It felt like a fantastic place.

Caitlin rode an appaloosa called Dollar. They ride Western style here, which she hadn’t done before, but she adapted quite easily. The boys took her out on the trail, and I chatted to the owner then sat under a huge boab tree and read my book until she came back. She loved the ride, they trotted a lot, and rode to the river and along the base of a big rock called Elephant Rock (although she didn’t see the elephant side). When they got back they had a bit of time left and tried to get the horses to canter in the arena – her horse was more interested in coming over to look at me instead… She dismounted and while the boys put the horses in the stalls we chatted to them about the training program and riding and rodeos etc. It was a really lovely morning and Caitlin had a great time.

On the way back we called in at Coles to get a few more supplies, and then to the op shop to get a jumpsuit Caitlin had seen the day before. Back to camp where we had a bit more breakfast and then Tony and the kids went for a swim, while I got ready for our day out. After they came back we had a bit of lunch and then headed out of town.

Our first stop was the Zebra Rock Gallery – with zebras being one of Millie’s favourite animals it was too cool to pass up. The zebra rock is only found in this area of the world, each rock has unique markings, stripes or blotches, and look so incredible. When we got there we met 2 dogs in the yard, and the owner introduced us to them. We wandered through the gallery and looked at all the different types of rocks, some shaped like animals, some just pieces of rocks. We made our gold coin donations and took a piece of bread each down to the jetty where we were able to feed the fish – catfish again, so many that they formed a kind of carpet on the top of the water. As we walked down to the water one of the dogs (a kelpie like dog) came with us, and headed straight into the water, he kept swimming through the group of fish and scattering them everywhere, it was hilarious. There were archer fish there and if we waited long enough without throwing any bread in, the catfish would move away a bit and the archer fish would come in and shoot their streams of water at us – we all got squirted and then happily gave them our bread. The girls used their bread up fairly quickly, LiAM was very frugal with it and spent a lot of time patiently waiting for the archer fish to come in, he really enjoyed it. There was a great view along the river of Elephant Rock – it really did look like an elephant.

Back up on the lawn near the gallery, LiAM and I played totem tennis. Caitlin bought a mango smoothie (it was $8!!) and we all shared it (the gallery is on a mango farm). Millie browsed the rocks trying to decide which one to buy. One of the dogs came and sat between Caitlin’s legs, he really seemed to love her. Millie eventually decided, and the owner gave each of the kids a small piece of zebra rock for free. We went out the back and talked to the corellas and cockatoos in cages there, and met a couple from Silvan (not far from our place). We played some more totem tennis, had a play in the playground, browsed the gallery again and eventually tore ourselves away – such a great place to hang out.

We drove from there up to Wyndham, past a lot more cool hills and escarpments. The land around the hills is very dry, lots of boab trees, kapok flowers and some gums, all quite spread out, with straggly grass in between. We drove across a huge flood plain – a very wide flat area that had a creek or two through the middle of it, that would flood completely in the wet. As we approached Wyndham we started to see large areas of mud flats – dry, flat, white areas leading to a bit of green foliage on the edge of the rivers. In the wet I suppose all those mud flats would be under water.

The buildings in Wyndham looked very old and fairly rundown. There was an old hospital that looked like it was falling apart, later we saw a newer hospital building. There were several rehabilitation centres and a sobering up hostel. Lots of the houses had bars on the windows, or were boarded up. We drove through town, reading a few of the historical signs, then continued on towards the wharf. There were some old trains on display, and lots of discarded machinery around. We could see a wide expanse of water to our left, which would be the gulf that leads up to the Timor Sea. We reached the wharf area and saw a large conveyor belt leading out to the ships, and some large ships anchored in the water. There were mud flats on either side of the road and it felt like no place we’d ever seen before. We drove back to the foreshore once the wharf road became unsealed (it felt pretty desolate out there, the least bustling port we’ve seen). There was a community jetty which we walked out on, and were amazed at the speed of the water flowing underneath. The tide must have been going out and the water was swirling past the jetty at a fairly alarming rate. Anything that got dropped in there would be out of reach very quickly. The water was slightly choppy and there was no clue as to how deep it was. There were mangroves along the edge of the river and we could see where the waterline had come down a little recently. The end of the jetty was a pontoon that could float on the water no matter what its level. There were a few people fishing out there, and we hung out for a while, watching the water and imagining what might be in there.

On the way back to the car the kids found a large dead fish, LiAM examined it quite closely. We drove back through town and up to the Five Rivers Lookout. The view was phenomenal. We could see the 5 rivers (Ord, Forrest, King, and two others) which empty into the gulf here, all winding through the flood plains between the escarpment and Wyndham. Each of the rivers was flanked by a large expanse of mud flats, especially the Ord. It was cool to think that yesterday we were swimming in the lake that feeds the Ord, and we’d fed fish in it early today. To the north there were more mountain ranges on either side of the gulf. There were a lot of people up at the lookout, and everyone was blown away by the view, which was made extra beautiful as the sun set. One guy I was talking to said it was the best thing he’d seen so far, in part because it was unique. Tony and I had said the same thing, that this place was like nothing we’d ever seen before.

We prowled up and down the walkway of the lookout, watching the sun set from different angles. Once the sun was down we got out our stove and boiled some water for cup-a-soup and cup-a-noodles. A couple of other families stayed up at the lookout and had dinner as well. The sky continued to get a darker orange before finally fading to black, it was gorgeous, and the rivers kept changing colours as well. We could see fires burning out on the flood plains of the Ord river, which became brighter as the night got darker. We had a lovely picnic dinner and eventually packed up and headed back down the hill.

We stopped once on the way home for a toilet stop and marveled at the stars – we were a long way from any sort of light source so the stars were extremely bright. We got back to the tent around 8pm and quickly got ready for bed, everyone was exhausted after 2 huge days. We read Inheritance for a while, and closed all the tent windows, it was quite cool (17 degrees), then went to sleep fairly quickly.

Half-lap Day 57: Kununurra

It was a windy night which can make it quite tricky to sleep well, especially with the windows open. The nights are warm here – not hot and sticky like in Darwin, but warm enough to easily manage with the windows open and maybe using a blanket in the last few hours before dawn.

I was up early and spent more time in the camp kitchen on the the computer, catching up on blogging, email, bills and sorting out some stuff with Telstra (always a fun job, and even more so when I’m on holidays!!! I did get a credit on my bill for their mistake which was cool, but they haven’t yet figured out how to fix their mistake….)

The others had a quiet morning at the tent, playing games and having breakfast, and wandering over for a swim when they got hot. Tony had put up one side wall of the annex so we now had shade along the edge of the tent for most of the morning.

Tony went in to town to see if his wine has arrived at the post office (it hadn’t – he arranged for his work to send a case up and we’re hoping it arrives before we leave) and to vote in this Saturday’s election – we don’t know where we will be on Saturday, so decided it was easier to do an early vote while we had access to a polling station. We had some lunch then Caitlin, Millie and I went back over to the pool – it was so lovely in the water on a hot afternoon. We were about to have a race when another girl and boy got in the water and asked if Caitlin wanted to play. They decided to join in our race, and then we all played tiggy (chasies). Millie can’t stand up in much of this pool so she got on my back and we were a team. Chasing the kids in the deep end, with Millie sitting on my back – extremely hard work, I was exhausted and needed to take lots of breaks which the kids thought was pretty funny. LiAM joined us after a while, and then we formed teams (boys, girls, and Millie and me) and kept playing until I really needed to get out and rest. It was fun.

Tony came over to the pool so I left everyone there and I went into town, to vote, and have a browse around the shops. I really do like wandering around the towns we are in and getting a feel for them, rather than just being a tourist. Target had shelves and racks of items on clearance, and I was able to get some new swimmers and clothes for some of us, and some more Skylanders, all for around $2 each. I walked around to Coles and browsed some of the souvenir shops on the way, grabbed a few groceries then went back to the tent. I’d enjoyed my browsing but felt pretty flat overall – a bit worried about where we’ll be able to stay when we reach Broome (it will be WA school holidays) and whether we’ll catch up with our friends who we want to see – too much thinking ahead can up my anxiety quite a bit.

When I got back the kids were playing with their new friends from the pool (who are on their second lap around Australia) and Tony was relaxing at the tent and thinking about dinner. I decided to go for a walk in the National Park, one of the paths to which was about 20m from our tent. I checked with the kids (they’d talked about coming with me when I went) but they were happy staying with their friends, so I went for a quick wander around the big, red rocks that we’ve been looking at for the past few days. The track I took was little used and the spinifex was sticking out over the path in a lot of places – I didn’t have long pants on so my legs got quite scratched and irritated. I found a larger path and explored it a bit, then another smaller one, which gradually led up between two of the large mounds of rock. I climbed for a way but the light was fading, and the path was getting rockier and narrower. I saw something slither or scuttle under a rock – I only saw the tail so not sure if it was lizard or snake… I got a few cool photos of the view of the rocks and felt like I’d gone far enough in this light, so headed back to camp, feeling a little more relaxed.

I rang my sister and had a good chat to her and felt much better again. We had a delicious dinner of steak, mushrooms, cream and potato. The kids played with their friends a little more after tea, while Tony and I looked at more of the things we can do while in Kununurra or en route to Broome, then we headed to bed and read Brisingr – and reached the end! We’ve been reading this book since early this year and it’s been wonderful, and very exciting to finish. On to book 4 tomorrow night!

Half-lap Day 55: Keep River National Park -> Kununurra

Today is probably the halfway point of our trip, if we get home on the Friday before Tony gets back to work...

Caitlin wanted to get up and watch the sunrise from the top of the rock in the campground, so I made sure she was up in time and then I walked a little way in to the rocky area to watch the sunrise myself. I sat on Millie’s camel rock and enjoyed the peacefulness and the changing light. Again there were clouds but not as many as yesterday and there was some beautiful light on the cliff face. Caitlin enjoyed her spot too but said there was a tree in the way so the photos weren’t as good as she’d hoped.

Hanging around for the sunrise and to see if the sun got above the clouds meant that we didn’t really start breakfast until about 8.30. We ate and then started packing up. The kids played with their friends until they were ready to leave. They did some more painting and rock climbing and other games. After they left Caitlin spent a bit of time talking to the couple from the ranger station, and gave them some of the boab nuts she’d painted. Once I’d packed the car and trailer I went through our seats to make sure there was no fruit left anywhere – there’s very strict quarantine going into Western Australia along this road, because we’re going straight into an agricultural area that is free of disease and pests. I also went through Millie and LiAM’s collections of things that they’ve found and got rid of all the plants – the quarantine officials can search the car and trailer so it wasn’t worth trying to take anything through. I was doubtful that we’d be able to take the painted boab leaves and nuts, so we took lots of photos of them, and then put them in a bowl to ask at quarantine, and the kids knew that we might have to get rid of them.

We headed back out along the dirt road, filled up our water containers again, then back on the highway. I had been told there was a rubbish bin not far from the park entrance, but couldn’t find it, which meant we got to the quarantine station with all our stuff still with us. They wouldn’t take any general rubbish, but did take the bag that had our leftover fruit and peelings in it. We had to throw out the painted boab nuts and leaves too, which was quite disappointing even though we thought we were prepared for that. They searched through the stuff at my feet and our food tub in the trailer, and then we were cleared to go into Western Australia.

I had been feeling sad about leaving the Northern Territory, I love it there so much. Having those extra 2 days in Keep River National Park was a nice little bonus and I was ready to move on to WA.

I really want to see Lake Argyle and we tossed up whether we should go there first or go to Kunnanurra and come back later – we decided to head for town and get supplies and fuel and figure out what we want to do next and we can come back to the Lake when we are ready. We arrived in Kunnanura and rang a few caravan parks – the prices seemed quite high (up to $59 for an unpowered site) then rang one that was only charging $40. The reviews online were again mixed, people complaining about backpackers and permanent residents and dodgy amenities, other people saying it was the most lovely place they’d stayed and the amenities were great. So we figured that most people’s negative reviews haven’t really panned out in our experience, and we went to the Hidden Valley Tourist Park. We got a partly shady spot right in front of the National Park, with an entrance to a Park walk just down from us. It was hot, but we were able to set up in time to still have shade on us and got the awning up just in time so that we didn’t ever have to sit in the sun.

We went to the pool for a swim – a beautiful pool and the kids swam for ages. Tony and I had a quick dip then started figuring out what we want to do while we were here – wading our way through a pile of brochures and trying to look things up on the internet. We went back to the tent for lunch, and booked a morning cruise on Lake Argyle for Tuesday morning. Not as good apparently as the sunset cruise, but quite a bit cheaper and it will give us most of what we want to get from visiting the lake. It’s so easy to be tempted to spend more – given our limited budget though we’re happy to be able to do a greater range of things, by picking the less popular options when they seem good enough.

The kids spent the afternoon hanging around the tent, playing on the ipad or reading. Caitlin set up her tent and we chatted to our neighbours. Millie moved her chair over to join them while she had a drink. I talked to my brother on the phone for a while – getting some tips for our time on the WA coast, and hearing all about his new baby son. The girls and I went back to the pool for another swim, and LiAM and Tony went into town to get milk and supplies for dinner. The timezone change was weird – we’d gone back an hour and a half, so the afternoon seemed really long. When the sun set we were more than ready for dinner, but it was only 5pm. We ate not long after that anyway, as our body clocks weren’t going to wait until later just because the time on our phones had changed.

After dinner we finished setting up the beds and chatted for a while, then into bed to read Brisingr until Caitlin fell asleep. It was still warm, warmer than the last few nights have been, so will be interesting to see what the temperature is like here overall.