Half-lap Day 69: Broome

I was still feeling a bit sore and low when I woke up, and I spent some time playing on the iPad which was lovely and soothing. I was reluctant to use the computer because the keyboard is still playing up and I didn’t feel like I would manage the frustration well. After everyone was up and had had some breakfast we went for a swim. Tony took the kids over first and I joined them later, they were playing Marco Polo with 3 boys from another family. I played with them for a while then we all went and did our separate things in the pool. It’s such a beautiful pool to swim in, surrounded by big palm trees and sculpted rocks with water running over them, it’s easy to spend a lot of time there. We’re really close to the pool in our new spot now too so it’s even easier to pop back and forwards for a swim.

Tony came back to the tent to watch the Collingwood game on his phone, and after a while the rest of us got out and got changed. The races were on in Broome today, so we decided to go and drive past the racecourse to see if we could see the horses (there are signs on the roads all the way around the track, cautioning drivers to watch out for horses, so we thought we might see some being walked around before their race or something). All the kids came with me, and we drove past the race course and saw a couple of horses in their stalls, nothing too exciting.

The race course is right near Gantheaume Point, and it was high tide, so I suggested we hop out and have a look at what the point looks like with the water up high, after only being there for a very low tide beforehand. It was a completely different place – the very blue, silky looking water came right up to the cliff, and that red rock/blue water contrast was really stark. It was hard to imagine that we had climbed down the cliff just here, the water looked so permanent and like it was meant to be there. We wandered around the rocks behind the cliff, then down to a flat area near where we climbed down last time. The waves were breaking just below this area, and sometimes splashing up near our feet. We kept well back from the edge and stayed and watched the waves for a good while, LiAM and I in particular were fascinated. There were guys jumping off the cliff top into the water – this scared us a bit as we remembered what it looked like under there, the rocks were pretty jumbly and we didn’t think it was incredibly deep – everyone jumped safely and happily though so we left them to it. There were people setting up there for a wedding – a beautiful place to get married!

This is where we climbed down to the rocks a few days ago at low tide.

Once we left we drove slowly past the race course again and saw 10 horses being walked around by their wranglers, getting ready to race. One horse in particular (#9) was not happy, trotting when he was supposed to be walking, tossing his head, trying to go backwards. We pulled over to the side of the road and watched as they got all the horses ready, and #9 didn’t settle down, even once the jockey was on and they’d moved out to the track – he went through the gate to the track sideways and unhappy. It was cool watching all the horses moving around and see how differently they were reacting to race day.

We went back to the tent where Tony was very happy because Collingwood had won. We spent the rest of the afternoon between the pool and the tent, going swimming then coming back and playing, reading, relaxing. LiAM decided he wanted to learn how to ride a bike, so Caitlin took him and Millie’s bike out to a flat, clear area and helped him for a while – half an hour later LiAM rode back over to the tent. He loved it and spent the rest of the afternoon riding around the caravan park as much as he could. Caitlin has been putting Millie on the back of her bike – sitting her on a cushion (or using our stepping stool) on the cargo rack at the back, and they both love riding together. With LiAM on Millie’s bike the three of them were able to ride together which they all enjoyed.

We had a few snacks through the afternoon, then Caitlin put her tent up, and around 5.30 we headed into town to go to the movies. Tony dropped me off at Sun Cinemas to join the line for tickets (I was worried about the length of the line, the realised they hadn’t opened the doors yet, and it ended up being fine) while he and the kids went and bought some hot chips. I got the tickets then met the others back at the car when they returned and we ate our chips, then grabbed our pillows and headed back to the cinema. This is a garden cinema, with the screen outdoors surrounded by trees on either side, and the roof only covers about 2/3 of the seating. The chairs are all deck chairs (hence the pillows, for comfort). We found 5 seats together and debated whether to sit there or on the grass – we all preferred the seats except for Millie, who was worried she wouldn’t be able to see – she sat on her pillow on Tony’s lap and then she was happy.

We saw Finding Dory (sequel to Finding Nemo) and it was fantastic. I loved everything about it. There was a very cool short film beforehand too, called Piper, which had incredible animation and a very cool little storyline, with no words. We had bats and birds fly across in front of the screen a few times, and it felt wonderful to be sitting outside (we were under the roof but it felt outdoorsy, just like sitting under an awning) and watching this great movie. At the end of the film the audience applauded, I think the venue made it all seem so much more real and like we were part of the experience.

As we were getting our stuff organised and watching the credits at the end, Tony said ‘isn’t that Millie’s friend?’ – and 2 rows in front of us were the family we met at Kings Canyon, who we’ve seen several times since, but not since Katherine! It was so exciting to see them again and catch up on their news and tell them what we’d been up to. We chatted for a while in our seats then realised there was another movie on soon so we probably should go outside. The girls were shy with each other at first, and both feeling tired and wanting to go home. As the rest of us chatted though they started playing, and played a complicated game about being sisters and not realising, and had a great time. We stood out the front of the movie theatre and chatted for nearly 2 hours. LiAM got a bit bored so he and Tony went for a walk and bought a carton of chocolate milk, they came back and we talked a bit more and then finally all headed for home.

It was late when we got back to camp but everyone was in a really good mood, although Millie crashed pretty quickly. We read a quick chapter of Inheritance (it was the first night in 3 or 4 where everyone was still awake so everyone was keen to hear more of the story) then happily went to sleep.

Half-lap Day 43: Darwin

A wind came up in the night and I was feeling quite disoriented, couldn’t figure out which way the tent was facing, and I slept quite badly. The weather was much cooler in the morning though, very pleasant. Tony had a sleep in and felt much better when he woke up, although his knee is still quite sore. We had breakfast and pottered around the tent, Tony put the awning up, I had another go at everyone’s hair, we haven’t quite managed to get rid of all the head lice yet. We chatted a little to our hosts then had some sandwiches for lunch.

In the afternoon we drove in to the Darwin Museum. The kids spent a lot of time looking at the natural history part – displays of shells, birds, reptiles, desert animals, Darwin Harbour creatures, fish, dinosaurs, mangrove dwellers – all based on animals that live (or have lived) in the Northern Territory. We moved on then to the Cyclone Tracy exhibit – I loved it when I was here 20 years ago and it was pretty much the same, although equally as moving. Having experienced the strong winds we did in Hahndorf last month, the kids could really appreciate how much stronger the cyclone’s winds must have been to cause the damage that they did.

From there we went up to see Sweetheart the crocodile – a mounted skin and skeleton from a 5.13m crocodile that drowned when it was being moved many years ago. I’d been trying to explain to Millie how long saltwater crocs can get – and seeing the actual size of a big one boggled all our minds. It is hard to comprehend that a living creature could get so big. It was also cool to see a skull replica of the ancient crocodile ancestor which was at least twice as big as the real crocodile.

Caitlin and I wanted to look at the indigenous art section, so Tony took the others to the Discovery Room for kids. The art was fascinating, especially looking at the very different styles from different parts of the continent. In the Discovery room the kids were playing with blocks, the did some drawings and looked at the animals displayed around the rooms. Tony went out to watch a bit of the Collingwood game on his phone, and Caitlin and LiAM and I had fun with a poster where the names of colours were written in a different colour and you had to say the colour of the ink rather than read the word – it was really difficult. Caitlin went to browse the gift shop and LiAM and I played with some cogs and wooden bars on a little tool bench – we were trying to move a bar from one spot to another using the cogs – we refined our design probably 7 or 8 times and eventually got it to work, it was a lot of fun.

We all went to the gift shop then and there were things that everyone wanted but they weren’t specifically Darwin related things, more cool museum toys that we can probably get in the shop at Melbourne Museum so everyone decided to leave them. I still haven’t found any aboriginal art that I like that I can afford, so thought I might buy something from here with art printed on it, after a while I found some lens cleaning cloths that I really liked with a beautiful print, and the proceeds go back to the artist’s community, so I got that.

We had a look at the fish pond, seeing a pig-nosed turtle and lots of archer fish (my new favourite fish) and rainbow fish, then wandered down to the harbour shore. It was pretty exciting – when we left Port Augusta 30 days ago we said we wouldn’t see ocean again until we reached the other side of the country, and here we are! It was so vast and so blue, and the afternoon sun was shining brightly on it – very pretty.

We wandered around on the shore for a while, found some tiny little brown crabs that were so camouflaged we really could only see them if they moved, a shell with a crab in it, a tiny spider, lots of skimming stones for Tony (the water was really smooth), and lots of cool rocks and shells. The kids didn’t have hats on and the sun was pretty strong (less humidity today but still hot) so everyone got tired really quickly. We had stressed to the kids that we don’t swim in the harbour because of crocodiles (and stingers) but there were people tubing and in the water – not something I’d want to be doing.

Happy to be back on the coast

LiAM with crabs and shells

Back to the car and we went for a drive around East Point reserve, seeing mangroves and the sun on the cliffs back near where we were, and the big gun turrets from WWII. Everyone seemed fairly uninterested in exploring further, so I drove us in to the city to have a look around there. It was cool to see places I recognised from last time I was here. We were trying to decide whether to just head home or to have something to eat before we went, and ended up going out to Nightcliff and getting hot chips and watching the sun set over the water. There were so many people at Nightcliff, but we drove a bit past the jetty and found somewhere to park and a spot on the beach that wasn’t too crowded. We sat on some rocks that made a ledge over the beach – LiAM jumped down onto the sand a few times – and ate and watched the sun set and the water change colour continually, it was incredibly beautiful.

Once the mossies came out we headed home, driving back a different way and seeing a bit more of Darwin. Back at the tent we had a quick chat to our hosts then got ready for bed and read a few chapters.

Half-lap Day 30: Elliott -> Daly Waters

It was warm all night so hard to get a good night’s sleep, but we all felt better in the morning anyway. Everyone was awake by around 7.30, and we had breakfast and started to pack up. The kids played with the kids from the caravan next door, Millie took her animal friends over there again, and LiAM and the little boy wandered around after the peacocks. We chatted to a retired nutritionist who is travelling around Australia for a few months by herself, and said goodbye to our friends next door. I saw the little frog again sitting on top of the soap shelf in the shower.

When I took the key back to have my deposit returned, Caitlin came with me to buy herself a slushie, and Millie saw a very cute unicorn that she wanted to buy. I tried to convince her to wait until we could find it somewhere cheaper, and she reluctantly agreed. The shopkeeper overheard our conversation and asked if she had to pay for it out of her own money, (yes), then said he’d put in $3 if she could pay the other $10, so she very happily bought it (after spending a bit of time deliberating over whether she really wanted that one or an equally cute seal). Caitlin saw a lady that she’s met a few times on our travels and we chatted to her briefly.

We were on our way just after 9.30, and with the windows down it wasn’t too hot in the car for a while. Before we left Tony and Caitlin had seen 3 kestrals swooping around together near our tent, and as we drove we saw many many more, sometimes in groups, sometimes alone. At one point we saw 2 birds up ahead eating some roadkill, right in the middle of our lane. The looked like crows from a distance. As we approached they didn’t move, even with Tony beeping the horn – and they didn’t seem to get any smaller. We realised they were wedge-tailed eagles – one of them flew off as we pulled into the other lane to go around them, the other one stood it’s ground. It’s so amazing to see them up close, they are SO big. We also saw a flock of red-tailed black cockatoos fly up from a tree as we passed. Today we saw our first 4-trailer road train too - they are long!!!

We only drove about 160km, and it was heating up as it got later in the day. We stopped at the Daly Waters HiWay Inn for petrol (and saw a 4WD with a spare tyre that had been torn to shreds) then drove in to the Daly Waters Pub. We were given a shady unpowered site and set up while the kids explored the caravan park. I went with LiAM to see if we could find the pool, none of us could see it. We chatted to the guy next to us, who had a Labrador and said the kids were welcome to pat him anytime.

Once we were all set up we all went to check out the pub – it’s full of items that have been donated by visitors – shirts, thongs, ID cards, hats, bras. There are funny outback signs everywhere and it has a great atmosphere. We found the pool out past the bar, and came back to get our swimmers. It was so great in the pool, the water was cool but not too cold, and there were shade cloths so it was possible to get out of the sun. There were several older couples hanging out in the pool, so we mainly stayed down the shallow end. Millie’s water confidence has grown so much in the last month. She jumped in and turned and swam back to the edge, then swam increasing distances to me or Caitlin or Tony or the edge. After a while she realised she could swim from the steps to the other side if I was there to catch her, and she swam back and forwards for ages.

Memorabilia at Daly Waters Pub

I got out after a while and read my book, then LiAM and I came back to the tent and played cards. The others returned after a while and we hung out here, playing cards and chatting. Our neighbours from Alice Springs arrived and we caught up on our journeys of the last few days. A bit after 5 we went back to the pub for happy hour, and met up with our neighbours from Devils Marbles. Their dog was there too, he’s an assistance dog so is allowed in the bar. We chatted to them, Tony and I had a beer (my first full beer in a very long time and it was great place to have it) and the kids had slushies. Once they’d finished they went back to the pool, where they met up with their friends from Kings Canyon. The kids all swam together for a while then Millie’s friend got out. I had a quick swim and Millie did more laps across the pool to me and back to the steps. Tony stayed chatting to our friends with the dog – they were sitting at the closest seat to the pool so it was easy for us to be in different places. I read my book once I’d had enough, and we bought some hot chips to share for tea – we got a double serving but it still wasn’t very much. They were delicious with the gravy though. The atmosphere in the pub was great, there was live music and lots of people there for the beef and barra bbq, and the water in the pool was a perfect temperature. We were the only ones in there for ages.

Eventually LiAM and I came back to the tent again, played cards and got ready for bed. The stars were incredible, a deep black sky with bright stars peeking through the gaps in the trees. Tony and the girls came later, everyone was exhausted and happy, so we got into bed as quick as we could and read for a short while.