Half-lap Day 80: Karajini

It was great to wake up today with no set plans – we had the whole day in Karajini and had already done most of what we wanted to do, so we could take our time and just see how the day unfolded.

The kids’ friends walked over to our tent at about 9am, and the five of them played until their mum came to get them so they could do the Dales Gorge walk. Tony had made her a coffee so she stayed and chatted to us while she drank that, then they headed off. The little girls had been playing with Millie’s toys again and didn’t want to stop – the plan was for the others to come back after their walk so the girls could have a long play together in the afternoon, and that made them willing to stop playing for now.

Tony had bought a roast in Port Hedland and we weren’t able to have campfires here, so he decided to try cooking it in the camp oven over occasional heat, kind of like slowing cooking it. He seared the meat and put lots of potatoes and liquid in the big pot, got it boiling, then we set it up in the sun, with the grill plate reflecting sunlight onto it, and black tarp on the ground around it. Throughout the day we’d put it back on the stove and get it bubbling again, then give it some more time sitting in the sun. The heavy, black, metal pot stayed pretty warm and we could see that things were cooking in there.

Tony and Caitlin went for a bike ride to the Visitors Centre (a bit over 10km each way). They had a head wind on the way there and Caitlin found it really difficult at times (the road was quite undulating as well). They had an ice cream when they got there, looked at all the information displays and Caitlin bought a little sand filled turtle. The trip home was easier as the wind was behind them.

LiAM and Millie and I hung out at the tent while they were gone. Millie played with her animals, LiAM played with her for a while and then played on the iPad, and I mainly read my book, in between occasionally organizing a few things or keeping an eye on the meat. It was great to really relax and do not much at all for a few hours.

Tony and Caitlin returned and had a bit of lunch, then rode their bikes to the Three Ways Lookout, and walked back down to the Circular Pool to have another swim. They said it didn’t seem as cold today (it was a sunnier day as well) and they had forgotten how beautiful it was down there. I had a little nap while they were gone (possibly my first nap of the trip) and then read my book some more.

Our friends called in after their walk to say hello and drop off a water bottle they’d filled for us at the water tank. They took our techni-ice back to their freezer so we could use it in our fridge tomorrow (they had taken our freezer packs the night before) and they went back to their tent to have lunch.

We’d been surprised at how few birds we’d seen at Karajini. There was an occasional crow, a very occasional raptor flying over the gorge, and we sometimes heard the littler birds but hadn’t seen many. Today though we had a few spinifex pigeons wandering around our campsite, which the kids and I were quite happy to see.

Once Tony and Caitlin were back I went for a walk myself. I wanted to do the rim walk along the top of Dales Gorge. With it being such a warm sunny day I was also keen to swim at Fortescue Falls, the one place we didn’t swim on our walk the other day. It was great to be out walking after sitting all day so far, and I love walking on my own and setting my own pace. I had my telephoto lens with me and was able to take lots of photos that I hadn’t been able to get the other day with only my shorter lens – the ghost gums along the top of the other side of the gorge in particular, looking fantastic today with blue sky behind them and the vivid red cliffs below.

Fortescue Falls

I walked down to Fortescue Falls where there were several people swimming. After taking photos of the reflections of the cliffs in the water on the rocks, I got ready to go in the water. It was hard to get in because the rock shelf along the edge of the pool, where the water was shallow, was extremely slippery. The water was cold but not like the other pools that we had swum in, this was cold at first and then quite comfortable. The water here was flowing more than some of the other pools we’d been in and it felt different – also the first time I’d swum here with blue sky so the cliffs looked starker and it felt so spectacular. The sun had obviously been on the water earlier in the day, by now it was lower in the sky so the water was in shade, with the southern cliff face still in sunshine.

I talked briefly to a guy who was bringing his baby down to the edge to have a swim (warning him of the slipperiness) and then swam around to the falls. I sat on a rock at the base of the falls with the water running over me. It was very cool to twist around and look at the water bouncing down over these terraced rocks – each terrace is only about 10cm high and the water hit each one then bounced down to the next. The waterfall water was a bit cold, and so refreshing. I sat and soaked up all the sensations of being there for a while, then swam back, meeting the guy with the baby on the way, both of us so thrilled that we’d chosen to get in and swim to the waterfall. His wife was sitting on the edge holding the baby. When he got back we started chatting and he asked if I’d mind holding the baby so he and his wife could swim to the falls together – she wasn’t as confident in the water. I’d been wondering whether I should offer to do just that, so I was happy to help. The baby was an 8-month old boy and he sat happily in my lap, looking at the trees and the cliffs and the water. His parents went for their swim and then came back for him, and we had a good talk about travelling with kids.

I felt so happy and content by the time I left to walk up the long staircase to the top of the gorge. It seemed longer than when we did it a couple of days ago, but it wasn’t difficult. I set off on my rim walk, with the light getting redder as the sun approached the western horizon. I’d been thinking of going over to the Circular Pool lookout to watch the sunset, so the timing of my walk ended up being perfect. Along the rim I could see a lot further down the continuation of the gorge, where the walk doesn’t go (to the east of the Threes Ways Junction). It really struck me how different these gorges are to the others we’ve seen on this trip. Everywhere else we approach the gorge from the level of the bottom, then walk along the gorge or climb to the rim. Here, the land is mainly hilly, with large flat areas in between, and the gorges drop down below the flat area, deep into the earth. We approach them from the top and walk the rim, or else climb down into them. I would love to see this area from the air – I imagine it would look like there are lots of long scars cracking the earth.

The rim walk was pretty easy and quite pretty. I got to Three Ways lookout and found myself less concerned with height of the drop off, without the kids there with me. I walked along to the Circular Pool lookout and enjoyed seeing the pool again, and had a bit of vertigo which didn’t worry me overly. It wasn’t quite sunset yet but the light was beautiful, and I was happy to watch it for a little while and then move on.

I got back to camp and the 5 kids were happily playing. Tony was finishing off the lamb on the stove, and the other kids’ mum was just arriving back from her campsite, after having had a few hours over there by herself, something she hasn’t had often on this trip, without another adult around. She bought a bottle of Baileys, and some steamed vegies and cheese sauce, and they joined us for a roast dinner.

It was a lovely evening – a big glass of Baileys each for the adults, and a delicious roast lamb with lots of vegies, and great conversation. The kids really enjoyed their very long play. Having now spent more time together, it was enjoyable too for the conversation to start to move beyond just trip related stories, we’re sharing stories about our lives before the trip and really getting to know each other.

Eventually the others headed back to their van and we got ready for bed and read a chapter or two.

Half-lap Day 71: Broome

I was awake at 5 again and soon got up to spend some time on the computer, which now seems to be working fine. As people woke up the kids from both families started playing together, chatting and riding bikes, and Millie and her friend played in our tent with their animals again. Once everyone was up and about we went over to their caravan and Tony cooked pancakes for everyone. They had honey with them, which we haven’t had since we left home, so that was an added bonus.

My friend and I spent an hour or so looking at maps and I showed her lots of the places we’d been and stayed. She went in to town and Tony and I started planning the next little part of our trip, and the kids played Minecraft.

The others came back and we all had lunch at our own sites, then all went to the museum in town – 2^nd visit for us. The kids asked for the quiz sheet that they didn’t get to do last time, then said they’d do all of the quizzes again because their friends were starting from the beginning. My kids remembered some of the answers and where most of the items were. I helped them in between looking at bits of the museum I didn’t get to last time. Everyone enjoyed it and we were all able to look more thoroughly at things. We all went out to the sailmaking shed and practiced the knots, and spent some time watching the DVD about the history of Broome. I had a good look at the shell collection with both Millie and LiAM, and was fascinated with the old aerial shots of Broome, which really showed how the town developed. There was a lot of information on the old tramway too, which I didn’t see last time.

We were there for a couple of hours or more, then headed towards Cable Beach, stopping at the supermarket on the way to get something for tea. We arrived just as the lifeguards took the red and yellow flags down – there were still heaps of people in the water and it felt quite safe. Our friends had bought a 10 pack of choc-coated ice creams, they and our kids ate theirs straightaway, Tony and I had a quick swim first (I just couldn’t wait to get in the water) and then ate our very melty ice creams before heading back to the water with everyone else.

The water had that soft silky feeling again, and was not really cold. There was a cool wind blowing, which meant that once we were wet it was definitely warmer in the water than out. The tide was a couple of hours past full, and the waves were big, bigger than anything we’ve swum in so far. Millie came out with me, and was holding my hand at first and then swimming around on her own – the first time she’s done that in the ocean. She was happy to bob up over the gentler waves by herself, and I stayed close enough to pick her up and jump her over the bigger waves. One of the biggest swells approached and I thought we’d need to go under it – I misjudged it though and it would have  been better to jump it, we got knocked over and Millie slipped mainly out of my hands. I managed to keep hold of her shirt and we tumbled over a bit but were fine, and she wasn’t too upset, just rather surprised (and annoyed with me for getting it wrong). She wanted me to hold her for a while after that, then tried again on her own and was happy in the waves again. Tony carried her for a while too and they were able to go out a bit deeper. All the kids had a great time, and us 4 parents were in the water too. The sun was getting lower and we were getting an orange glow across the water – I don’t think I’ve swum at a west-facing  beach at that time of day before, it felt as good as swimming in the early morning, not something that I thought could be matched.

Once Millie had had enough she and Tony got out to go and get dinner from the car. I got out soon after to take some photos of the sunset, and also got some cool silhouette shots of the kids in the water. Everyone got out soon after and played on the beach and/or went to get changed, and we watched the sun go down, with lots of clouds around which made it even more spectacular. We all sat on the beach and had a picnic dinner, along with many other groups of people. There were fire twirlers on the beach, and as it got dark someone set off some fireworks up near the rocks – all pretty cool to see. The kids played in the sand and ran around a lot, and we sat and chatted and relaxed and had a lovely evening. Eventually we gathered up all our stuff and headed back to the cars.

We dropped the men off at the pub on the way home, so they could have some kid-free time. We took all the kids back home then between us organised washing and showers and so on, and the kids played or showered or got ready for bed. My friend went to get the guys once they were ready to come home, and we all headed to bed soon afterwards, after another very fun and quite full day.

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 50: Darwin

The temperature got down to 21 degrees over night and I actually felt cool for the first time in weeks! (It warmed up again during the day - although perhaps the humidity was less than it has been).

We had decided, with everyone being so exhausted, that it made sense to stay for one more day in Darwin, and to use the time to relax and recover and to finish cleaning out the car, sorting some of our stuff and so on. We had a lovely relaxed morning, eating breakfast, playing with the chickens and rabbit and guinea pig, chatting to our hosts, colouring in, playing games.

I went back to work on the car, pulling everything out of the back half, finding more missing things and figuring out how to best rearrange our stuff. The kids and Tony headed over to the pool, and I joined them when I got too hot. I had a quick dip (so lovely to be able to cool down like that) then read my book while Tony got us all some sandwiches for lunch.

In the afternoon LiAM and I sorted out all the food tubs, then I did the clothes then worked on finishing off the car, getting stuff back in there or assigning it to the rubbish or the trailer. Tony and Caitlin went for a bike ride to the Humpty Doo shops to get some sausages for tea, then the kids and I went for another swim while Tony cooked tea.

Back at the tent I pulled the mattress off the bed and repacked the back of the trailer – I put some of our warm clothes in there rather than having them in the car, and I was also able to repack some of the items that had just been floating around in the car or trailer without having a specific spot – it’s like I’ve finished off the packing that didn’t quite happen at the last minute before we left home. All those oh-just-throw-them-in-a-bag-and-shove-it-somewhere-they’ll-fit things now have a home.

We had steamed puddings for dessert for our last night in Darwin, and everyone agreed that they were very glad we’d stayed the extra day, we all feel more ready to leave now. We possum-proofed our outside area (the possum has been getting more game every night, and last night was sitting in our washing up tub with the dirty dishes, as well as rummaging through our food bags while we were sitting right next to them!) – although we left one (unopened) box of cereal out and he woke me up later, he’d eaten through the cardboard and was trying to get through the plastic bag) then went inside, away from the mosquitoes. I read Brisingr while the kids played on their iPads, I fell asleep fairly quickly and they kept playing until they had had enough.