Brisbane Trip Day 24: Armidale

This was definitely the coldest night we've had on the trip so far, and a bit of a shock after such warm nights in Brisbane. We used all the blankets and it wasn't too uncomfortable. I was up early and there was a fog covering the show grounds, with the sun shining through and silhouetting all the show buildings, it was very pretty.

I had a cup of tea and breakfast and the kids joined me as they woke up. Once I'd eaten I started work on my car window - being a Sunday I figured there'd be no one around to fix it, and also I didn't want to pay someone again, I was sure I could figure it out. It took me a while to get the door panel off, there were a couple of screws I didn't find until I looked up a diagram online. With the panel off I could see what the problem was - the window had jumped the rails and was jammed between the window column and the door frame. I tried to shift it out but it wasn't budging at all. I thought I just needed more strength, so asked the guy in the camper trailer next to us if he could help. He was a young guy, and a mechanic, and happy to help out. He'd also had a similar problem with his own window. My window though was well and truly jammed and he couldn't shift it with strength. He tried a few things and eventually found a screw that loosened the window enough to move it back and out of the jam, then put it into it's rail. He put everything back together for me and the window worked perfectly. I was very grateful.

By now it was nearly 11am so we quickly got ready and headed off to explore. We drove around Armidale and I showed the kids places that I remembered. Amelie was impressed with all the churches. I wanted to show them the 3 houses I'd lived in, on the first pass I couldn't find any of them - everything looked so different. We got petrol and drove up Elm Avenue to the uni, I was pleased to show them this beautiful road that I walked up so many times. There were a few yellow leaves here and there, but it was mainly showing it's summer glory. Driving back through town I found 2 of my houses and I think the driveway of the third.

We set off along the Waterfall Way to the east. I love this countryside - with the elevation so high the sky seems to go forever and the clouds sit differently to what we are used to. The land is pretty dry, with beautiful dead trees in all the paddocks, and lots of large rocks strewn everywhere. It's pretty tough land, very beautiful. We saw 3 eagles on our drive out to Wollomombi Falls.

At the falls we wandered around the picnic area a bit, got a glimpse of Chandler Falls, looked at the gorge, used the toilets then checked the maps and decided to do the walk that goes towards the tops of the falls. The walk was quite pretty, through wooded hills with a mix of living and dead trees and interesting undergrowth. The first lookout gave us a good view of the gorge - it was deep and immense looking - lots of places where we could see that rockfalls had happened, huge slabs of rock lining the walls where there hadn't been falls, and the river way way down below. The day was hot and at one point the kids were thinking about heading back. We could see a cool looking metal bridge up ahead though so kept walking towards that. The bridge crossed the river, above (and a few hundred metres back from) the top of the falls. It was gorgeous, the river trickling between lots of big rocks, and the river banks sloping up to grass and then trees and the blue sky above. We had a play around on the rocks and saw some rock skinks (one swam across the river to get away from us). We found a spot in the shade and sat and ate some lunch (tuna, avocado, ritz and saladas). After eating we explored a bit more above and below the bridge, then kept walking to the lookout at the top of the falls. It was pretty as well, we could see several arms of the falls coming from a rock pool at the top, and had a great view right along the gorge. We couldn't see the bottom of the falls though, they were way below us. After resting a little and admiring the view, we continued on to the lookout for Chandler Falls (two rivers meet at the bottom of the gorge, and they both have massive waterfalls dropping into the gorge just before the meeting place. Wollomombi Falls are the tallest in Australia, over 200m). These falls were also impressive. Not a lot of water in them at the moment, but we could see it falling in steps all the way to the bottom. The gorge here was similar although had different things to look at - a slightly less recent rockfall, different trees, more farmland at the top. We could also see the top of the ridge between the 2 rivers.

The walk back was pretty again although we were all quite tired. The views of the gorge from the lookouts, and even the river at the bridge, looked different because the sun had moved and the shadows were very different. Back at the car we had a big drink of water and a snack and felt a bit refreshed. We drove down to look at the camping ground (which I hadn't realised was there) - it looked pretty and was quite cheap, although the sites looked pretty hard and possibly were all gravel, so it might be tricky for us to set up there.

I'd planned to keep heading east and see Ebor Falls, Dorrigo and maybe even Bellingen, but we'd spent quite a bit of time here and got started later than I'd thought we would, and we were all feeling tired. So instead we went back towards Armidale, then went out to Gara Gorge. The last several kilometres of the road were gravel, and parts of it were the most heavily corrugated I think I've driven on. I had to drive at about 10km/hr in one bit so that the car didn't feel like it was going to fall apart. It seemed to take a long time to get to the gorge, through some very pretty countryside - then suddenly we were on paved roads again as we entered the National Park. We stopped at the Blue Hole and got out to have a look. I remembered people swimming here, and while it was attractive to look at, it didn't look inviting to swim in. No one else was there and there were no obvious paths down to the water either. We found a path through the grass that led to a big rock so we stood there and watched the birds and the skinks and enjoyed the peaceful surrounds.

I'd seen people coming out along the road who had been swimming, and several cars came past from further into the park, so we went down there. There were a lot more cars at the next carpark. We walked down to the river and saw kids in the water, and people walking back up the path in wet clothes, so I popped back to the car and got the kids swimmers. The other kids had said there was a better spot to swim further down the river. Liam and Caitlin clambered over the rocks to explore, which was fun (although Liam scratched his shoulder quite badly on a tree). They came back up and the 4 of us walked down the path a way until we found another place to reach the river. The rocks rose up quite steeply either side of the water, and the valley was narrower and more full of trees than the valley we'd had lunch in. This was beautiful as well, in a darker way. The water was reflecting in shimmery patterns on the overhanging rocks, it was very cool. The kids sat on the edge of a rock with their feet in the water and the fish nibbled on their skin, and I found a beachy area where I could wade into the water. It was cold, though bearable. The kids joined me (we had to duck under a tree branch to get to the beach) and Caitlin made her way over a rock to sit on a submerged (slippery) rock. I'd walked in to about my waist and Liam came with me, then swam out to a rock in the middle of the river. Caitlin made her way out there as well, then when she came back in I went out. There were lots of big rocks under the water and while the water was clear it was in the shade and hard to see, so we didn't swim around a lot. It was lovely though, being in the water and looking up at the rocks and the trees (and the extra reflections that the ripples we were making created on the rocks). Amelie played in the water near where we came in, it sloped down quite quickly there so it was easy to get right in to the water.

We got out and talked to a couple who were making their way up the river going from rock to rock - just where we were there wasn't an easy way to get across or around so they walked through the water. I sat with my feet in the river for a while and enjoyed the fish nibbling on my dry skin. We got dressed and walked back to the car. Amelie read the history of the water flume that used to be here - there was hydro power here once. It was interesting too to look at the debris stuck in the trees and see how high the flood level is here when there's been a lot of rain.

The drive out was a lot easier - the sun was low in the sky and was highlighting the corrugations in the road so I could avoid them as much as possible. We called in at Coles when we were back in town to grab milk and eggs and a 6-pack of beer for the guy who fixed my window. We drove around a little more so the kids could see the attractive main street and the fountain in the mall.

Back to camp and we all went and had hot showers, then had egg and cabana sandwiches for dinner. We tidied up (and I did the dishes so they weren't slowing us down in the morning) and once again were all in bed between 9 and 9.30.

Half-lap Day 94: Kalbarri

I woke before sunrise and sat outside with the computer, gradually watching it get lighter. I’ve been having trouble with the keyboard again, since the first day at Shark Bay, so typing anything can take a while sometimes – I know how to temporarily fix it now, but it can start playing up again at irregular intervals and it is a little frustrating. Having the beautiful bush and river around me though helped me feel quite calm and peaceful even when the computer wasn’t working easily.

Millie came out and went to pat the goats. I mentioned that we were allowed to go in the goat pen, as long as an adult was with any kids – she was keen to go straight away, I suggested she have breakfast first, and wait for the other kids. She decided she wanted French Toast, cooked up in the camp kitchen – the idea of sitting on a couch, or around a large table, with real (non-folding up) chairs, really appealed to her. Tony took the food he’d need up to the kitchen – it is really well equipped (like staying at a backpacker hostel) so he didn’t need to take any cooking utensils. He made French Toast with bacon, and the other kids wandered up there too as they woke up. I sorted out our washing and had a good chat to the guy in the tent across the road from us – again getting a few tips about places to see, and sharing our love of these remoter, less populated campsites.

Breakfast was delicious, and the kids enjoyed playing in the communal area. They got out a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle from the cupboard and started working on that. We considered just hanging around at the station all day – we haven’t had a rest day for nearly 2 weeks and it is more tiring when we are really active every day. There was one thing at least that I wanted to see in the National Park so we decided to still do that, but not stay long in the Park, so we could come back and have a quiet afternoon. The kids had agreed to meet up with the kids from the station this afternoon as well, so they were keen to be back before 4pm.

I took the kids in to see the goats – there was a small goat kid lying in the sleeping area, and when we looked closer we realised that it had died. The kids were very sad, and we went to look at the rest of the goats a bit more somberly than when we’d first entered. The other goat kids were sleeping, some of the mother goats came over to us for a pat. After a while some of the kids woke up as well and everyone had a great time playing together.

We got ready to go out and headed for the National Park. We stopped at the entry station to get a new tag for our National Parks pass – ours appears to have blown out the door at Cape Range. (We had the receipt with the details on it from when we paid for the pass, so we didn’t have to pay again, just get a new tag.) This is our fourth National Park since buying the pass, so now we’ve saved money by buying it rather than paying day entry each time). Driving in was quiet pretty, there were wildflowers everywhere, purple, red, yellow and white. The road was sealed for about half the way, then dirt – it was a little corrugated in parts, and sandy occasionally, but the car handled it fine. We did unplug our fridge cord in case it was the bouncing around of the corrugations that blew the fuse last time (at Karajini).

Our first stop was Nature’s Window, which was the one thing I really really wanted to see in this area. As we approached the carpark we were amazed at the view – wide, deep gorges with sloping cliffsides leading down to the bottom. The rock layers were horizontal and obvious and the gorge sides looked like large cakes. The scale of the gorges was quite overwhelming. The walk down to the window was quite easy – and very pretty. We were up close to the wildflowers now, with the gorges and river in the background. At this point the Murchison River does a massive loop, as well as doing a hairpin turn on either end of the loop – so walking out to the lookout, we had a U-bend in the river on either side of us, and we were walking on a narrow isthmus (high up on top of the cliff, which dropped down to the river on either side. Except around the area of Nature’s Window the cliff top wasn’t so narrow that it was scary. Beyond the window the high land widened out again and filled the whole circle of land within the loop.

View of the gorge as we approached it

We reached Nature’s Window and clambered around to get a good view – it is a natural hole in the rocks, large enough to stand in, and it frames the view of the river quite nicely. I was excited to see it and to take photos through it – I always love framing my shots with something like a tree branch or a rock, so having a ready-made frame on all 4 sides of the shot was quite cool. The kids loved it there too, looking at the river and the cliff faces and the birds and the flowers. We saw 6 emus down on the grass next to the river, and several bushes that also looked like emus – again, the natural features of an area often imitate the shape of the local animals (or perhaps the other way around). There was a walk that went right around the loop, 9km and at least 5 hours – we’d decided not to do it but once I was there I really wished we had the time and the energy to attempt it, it would have been amazing.

At Nature's Window

The layers in the rocks were quite obvious up close as well as from a distance – like some of the other places we’ve walked (Karajini, Kings Canyon) the vertical layers wear away so the layers themselves make natural steps. The layers here were very thin, only a couple of centimetres high, so the steps were quite shallow. We hung around at the lookout for ages, then wandered back along the path. The kids and Tony raced back, and I took my time, enjoying the wildflowers and the view from different perspectives.

We had lunch at the picnic area back at the carpark, then everyone was happy to go back to camp. Driving into the station we could see the river winding through the land towards the coast (we were only 13km from the ocean here), large sloping cliffs that were whiter as they got closer to the sea. There was also a large green grassy area that looked like a natural ampitheatre in among the high river banks – it was a long way away and we weren’t sure if it was grass or crops or what, but we loved looking at it.

Back at camp Tony took the kids in to see the goats again, while I got a few things organised. One of  the kids kept ‘hugging’ Caitlin, and then tried to eat her hair. The little ones are so cute, its great watching them play. Tony went in to town to get some food for dinner and to organise our accommodation in Perth. The kids and I had a bit of a play with the totem tennis and Caitlin practiced walking on the rolling barrel, as well as showing Millie how to do it – she was pretty good!  Caitlin told one of the station managers about the little dead goat, and the lady took Caitlin and LiAM in with her so they could show here where it was, then she organised for someone to remove it. The station children arrived home and I left the 5 kids all playing together with the totem tennis and the barrel, everyone looked very happy. I had a bit of time at the tent by myself which was nice and relaxing.

Tony decided to take advantage of having an oven in the camp kitchen, and made sausage rolls. LiAM and I went to the kitchen with him,  I played cards and he worked some more on the 1000 piece puzzle. A couple of horses walked past the window – they walked all the way down past our tent and LiAM and I ran around trying to find Caitlin so she could see them. She was playing with the girl from the station, who started to call the horses so they’d come back up – Caitlin did get to see them when they wandered back past. She and Millie played with the girl for a while longer on the ipad and with the tennis pole. Once she went inside they joined us in the kitchen and helped LiAM with the puzzle and Tony with cooking tea.

The sausage rolls were delicious – Tony hasn’t made them for ages and he’s so good at it. While we were eating, the lady from the family who had just set up next to us came into the kitchen. We’d seen them out at Nature’s Window today, they looked like a relaxed and fun family, with 2 little boys. We chatted to her for a while and discovered they lived not far from us (Park Orchards) and she knew some people in Healesville – she listed them and we know some of them as well.  Tony offered to bring down any leftover sausage rolls to them, and she said we were welcome to join them at their campfire. Tony had cooked apple pie for dessert – we ate it with ice cream and it was magnificent. We did a bit more of the jigsaw puzzle, then cleaned up in the kitchen and Millie and I went to have a shower. Caitlin joined us after a while and we also ran into our neighbour again. We walked back down to the campsite with her and she invited us to their campfire again, we offered to bring marshmallows.

We had a very pleasant evening chatting to our new friends. We have a fair bit in common (similar interests and lifestyles and beliefs) so had lots to talk about apart from comparing trip details. As we talked we discovered even more people who we know in common – the guy used to play cricket with some of the guys from Tony’s baseball club. Their littlest boy was asleep, and their 5 year old stayed up chatted and played with our kids. The kids all roasted marshmallows, then LiAM talked to him a lot about Star Wars and they played with his toy light saber. Caitlin played with them and talked to the adults, Millie played with them then snuggled up on Tony’s lap once she got tired. Our friends shared a bottle of scotch with us, it was really lovely sitting and drinking and chatting and laughing around the fire, even when it sprinkled rain occasionally. It was a much warmer evening than the night before and sitting outside felt really comfortable. We could see the goats in their pen and they were often awake and walking around, even the kids – we weren’t sure if that was usual nighttime behaviour for goats or if they were up because we were up. Eventually everyone was very tired and we decided to call it a night – back at our tent we discovered it was 12.30! Definitely our latest night on the trip so far! No reading tonight, Millie was already asleep and everyone else bundled into bed pretty quickly and went straight to sleep.

Half-lap Day 87: Cape Range National Park

The wind became very strong through the night, the strongest night time wind we’ve had on the trip. Tony and I were awake several times, and for a long time each occasion. Tony got up 3 times and went out to tie down things that were flapping or knocking, and to make sure that everything that might blow away was put away. The wind was slamming into the tent behind our head and slapping the canvas against the pole, I felt like it was a constant punching right behind me and it really wore me out. The kids each woke up, worried, once or twice, but we reassured them and they went back to sleep, and the tent and all our stuff survived the night without any damage or loss.

We eventually fell back to sleep at some point in the early morning, then I woke up around 6.30, as it was getting light. We had to be up and out early today to go on a glass-bottomed boat tour, so I decided not to go back to sleep despite feeling exhausted, and went up to the beach instead. I sat at the tables and drank my cup of tea and watched the waves and the whales, and the sun coming over the ranges and slowly lighting up the ocean. It was windy up there too and my travel mug got blown off the table, so I lost half of my cuppa.

Back to the tent and I woke the others up around 7.30 – we wanted to leave at 8 so we could call in and see our friends at Neds, they were packing up today and I wanted to see them before they left. The kids got out of bed fairly quickly, and had some breakfast. I made sure we had swimmers and snorkels and food for the day, so that we didn’t have to come back to camp until we were ready, and we were in the car by about 8.10, one of our quickest getaways on the trip.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, although still quite windy. The swell didn’t look very big though, so we hoped the wind wouldn’t impact on our boat tour. We got to Neds and walked up to see our friends, who were happy to see us. The girls played in the car and we caught up on our news of the past few days. They’d gone to Oyster Stacks on the day we did Turquoise Bay, so we’d missed them there. It was great to see them again and to share our plans for the next few days to see if we could catch up again somewhere soon. I mentioned that we couldn’t find Millie’s thongs (missing since Karajini – they could be in the car somewhere, or they could be with Tony’s missing hat and sunglasses…) and my friend said someone had given her a pair that they thought were her daughters (same pattern) but were a size too small – they just fit Millie, so she has thongs again, that look exactly the same as her friend’s thongs. Perfect.

We had about 15 minutes there, and then headed back to the car and drove to the Tantabiddi Boat Ramp. We got there just as the boat driver was reading off the names to make sure everyone had arrived. He introduced himself, Alec, the owner of the company, then we headed out along the jetty to the boat. He suggested that kids go in last as there is more room at that end of the boat, so we let everyone else get on and then we climbed in and sat on the bench seat to the left. The boat had a bench seat along either side, then 4 glass panels covering the entire middle section of the boat – so everyone was sitting facing the glass and could look down and see whatever was underneath. There was another family across from us – a young couple with a 2yo boy.

Sitting at the jetty, LiAM and the girls spotted a sting ray on the sand under the boat – a very exciting start to our tour. We motored out to the Tantabiddi Sanctuary Zone, a rectangular area of the reef where this tour operates. Alec told us about himself and his company and the boat, and made lots of jokes, he was fun to listen to. He then asked where each of us was from, and I was surprised that everyone on the boat was Australian. There was another couple from Melbourne, and he said ‘ooh, you’re not Collingwood supporters are you?’ – they said no, but when he got to us, Tony’s Collingwood hat gave him away. Alec offered to throw him overboard for a free snorkel…

On the way out to the reef some people saw a turtle – it was under our side of the boat and we missed it. Once we got to the reef, we saw amazing amounts of coral and fish, and it was great having a commentary about what each thing was, and interesting facts about behavior, diet, fragility and so on. We saw staghorn coral with blue tips – they looked like fairy lights (so we call it fairy light coral now) and large rock like coral formations which are called bommies. All the fish that we’d been seeing over the last few days were here, and we learnt more names. A very long, thin yellow fish that Millie and I had seen was a Spanish flutemouth, then LiAM spotted a silver one that looked the same – he pointed it out to Alec who said it was also a flutemouth. The most exciting thing was seeing a green turtle, feeding on the bottom. Alec turned the boat around 5 times so we could all see it properly. Very exciting and what I’d been hoping to see on this tour. We also saw a crayfish, and a large reef shark. I managed to get a fair few decent photos, as long as I remembered to hold the camera very close to the glass, and not on an angle. The 2 yo boy was so excited about seeing all the fish, it was very cool to listen to him talk about them.

Staghorn, or Fairy Light, coral

More coral

Green turtle

As we headed back to shore Alec handed out a DVD to each couple or family, filled with underwater photos of the reef that he has taken when diving or snorkeling here himself. I love going on tours when the operator is so passionate and knowledgeable about the area we are seeing, we always learn so much.

Once we were back at the car we looked at the map for a while to figure out what we wanted to do with the rest of our day (it was only 10.30 at this stage). We decided to drive all the way down to the southern end to check out Yardie Creek and the gorge there. We drove down then had a bit of a snack, then set out for the short walk along the creek. It was quite pretty, and we could see the gorge walls up ahead, the permanent water of the creek next to us, low scrubby land in either direction, and the ocean and reef behind us. The walk to the lookout at the start of the gorge was very quick and easy, so we continued up along the gorge walk, which was slightly more difficult but not hard. We saw some tenacious little yellow flowers growing out of holes in the rock, there was much less vegetation up here. We walked to the first lookout, where we could see down into the gorge. We watched some people float past on what I said were kayaks, but were actually stand up paddle boards. One guy was doing yoga on his, head stands and chimneys and so on – fairly impressive. The view was great in all directions from here, seeing the gorge, the ranges, the creek, the ocean and the land between the shore and the range. We could see whales way out in the distance. We walked back down, looking at the tough trees that live here – all bent over quite significantly, with very hardy looking branches and leaves.

Yardie Gorge

Yardie Creek

I wanted to snorkel at North Mandu (our original campsite) at high tide, which was just after 3pm today. We drove back up there, arriving a little after 1.30. Everyone was exhausted after our disruptive night’s sleep, and we considered just going back to the tent for a nap. The wind was still quite strong and was also wearing us out. We decided to stay though and just have a quick try at a snorkel once the water was high enough, then go back and rest. The kids and I wandered down to the beach, and walked towards the creek bed. We sat on the side of the creek bed and watched the ospreys – one was sitting on a dead branch on the other side of the creek bed, the other was in the nest. When seagulls started swooping the nest again, the osprey returned to the nest to help its mate scare them off. We didn’t ever go close to the nest so don’t know if they had eggs or chicks in there, but both adult birds kept looking down into the nest, so we’re sure that the nest was occupied by something. LiAM and Millie made rock cairns out of some of the flatter rocks, and we looked at shells and all the other things on the beach. There were huge white clam shells here, and more of the pink and brown shells, bits of coral, lots of driftwood, and rocks of a whole range of colours. Mainly white, pink and brown, and some were stripey. More whales were going past and I finally got some photos of one breaching – and all the kids saw it too, they have mainly only been breaching a long way out so it’s hard to show people, but these whales were just beyond the reef and one whale went up 4 times in a row, incredible to watch. We wandered back to Tony and sat at the table in the middle of the campground and had some lunch. By the time we’d finished eating it was after 2.30 and a good enough time to go in the water.

Humpback Whale

I went in first with LiAM and Millie. We went in pretty much from the end of the path to the beach, over the rocks and then into the deeper water (it’s not very deep here anyway). I wore my reef shoes so that it was easier to walk on the rocky shore and then over the rocks into the water. The swell was higher than we’d snorkeled in before, and the current seemed to be running strongly to the south, so I tried to go straight out then swim a bit north then head back in. We saw lots of fish again, and it was quite beautiful once we got out past the rocks. Millie coped well with the swell, and both kids could swim easily out there as long as they were holding my hand. Heading back in to shore I was really missing my flippers as I had to do all the work with my legs.

Tony decided to walk further north along the beach and go in at a less rocky part, then drift back down towards us. We walked along the beach near the shore, and saw a little reef shark darting in and out. He kept swimming quite close to us, then shooting back into the water. We followed him along the shore for ages, and later found out that juvenile reef sharks are very inquisitive and often come up to check people out and will swim near them along the shoreline. Tony swam way out and back towards the point, he saw a fair bit of coral and fish and said it was a good way to do it. At one point he was out pretty far and directly in the sunlight and I couldn’t see him – I was starting to wonder what I should do if he’d disappeared when I saw his orange snorkel come out of the shiny sun reflections – a big relief. I went and got my flippers and headed back in with LiAM. We were debating how far out we should walk before submerging, when Caitlin (still on the shore getting ready) shouted ‘Oh my God!’ and pointed in front of us – there was a turtle, right in front of us, only about 10m away. We both dived into the water and shot straight out there, Caitlin was not far behind us – but it had disappeared by the time we got there. We swam out beyond the rocks, and LiAM and I saw a blue-spotted ray hiding in under a ledge (my first ray of the trip, I was very excited). Back along the coral towards where Tony was on the shore, and saw lots more – every time we go out it’s as good as the last time, there’s so much going on under the water, fish eating and chasing each other and swimming around, interacting at times or going about their own business as if no one else was there. It was much easier swimming with my flippers, even though the blisters hurt a fair bit when I put them on. Once I was in the water though I didn’t notice them at all.

Millie came in for one more quick snorkel, then I took the others out again for a lap, and then we’d all had enough. Feeling very happy that we’d seen lots of cool things again, we headed back to the car. We stopped off at Bloodwood Creek on the way back to camp and walked up to the small lookout there. There was a bit of water in the creek although it wasn’t flowing, and there were a few birds around. We walked over to the beach and the kids and I decided to walk back, our beach was really not far. So Tony drove the car and the rest of us wandered back along the beach and rocks. The shoreline here was a series of low rocky outcrops, with small crescents of white sandy beaches in between. There were lotts more of the moss covered rocks on the edge of the larger rocks, interesting rockpools and holes in the rocks that we walked over, beautiful white sand with shells and fascinating driftwood in between each rocky part. The dunes to our left were covered in low bushes – great for LiAM to hide behind when he ran ahead, then jump out of as we came past.

Back at camp Tony was using up some leftovers for dinner – bread and eggs and bacon and maple syrup for some delicious French Toast. Caitlin and Millie went and talked to the guy with the guitar again, and they offered the girls a Harry Potter book that they didn’t want (The Deathly Hallows). Millie eagerly accepted it and then sat looking at the words while we ate our tea, she was very excited to have her own copy of a Harry Potter book. We finished eating then grabbed our drinks again and headed up to the tables for sunset. The sunset itself wasn’t as spectacular tonight, but the company was great once again. Caitlin took my camera up and asked the camp hosts about our nocturnal visitor from the night before – it was a Western Antichenus – I’ve always wanted to see one in the wild so was very pleased that it had chosen to visit us. We chatted with the camp hosts and some of the other couples, then with the other homeschooling family again. All the kids played on the beach again, having races and exploring the rocks until it was dark. The wind had died down by now and it was quite pleasant. We weren’t the only ones who had had a disturbed night, everyone was commenting on the wind and the lack of sleep that had resulted.

We gradually drifted back down to our sites and we got ready for bed. The stars were amazing again and I got my tripod out and took some photos – more successfully than last time I tried (at Devils Marbles) – I still need more practice though. Millie and I went to bed first and started reading her Harry Potter book, she asked me to show her where I was reading and she read the words that she knows (that’s how Caitlin started reading too, with the first Harry Potter book). We did that for a while, then the others came in and we read Inheritance for a short while before everyone crashed.

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.