Half-lap Day 91: Shark Bay

Millie came up to our bed just before 5, and I lay awake until our alarm went off at 6. Everyone got up fairly easily and we had a quick breakfast then got changed – we all wore fairly bright clothes as we’d been told that that can sometimes help in being chosen to feed the dolphins. We were in the car by 7.10 and drove out to Monkey Mia. There was a queue to get in to the reserve so we were glad we’d left ourselves plenty of time. We paid our entry fee and parked the car then headed over to the boardwalk.

There were already several dolphins swimming around in the water when we arrived, and it was a beautifully calm, clear morning. The sun had just risen and it wasn’t too cold – I relaxed a lot as the weather was great and we’d already seen dolphins, and that could even be enough for Millie. She was pretty excited and waited patiently on the boardwalk watching them play in the water.

At 7.45 the ranger came down to talk to everyone (there were nearly 200 people there), explaining how the experience would work. After a while we were invited down on to the beach to stand along the water’s edge. The kids quickly found a spot next to the water and Tony and I were behind them. The dolphins were swimming around and then we were all allowed to walk ankle deep in the water. Some of the dolphins swam right past us which was pretty thrilling. One of them had a 3 year old calf with her, so they tended to swim along together, which was even more exciting.

We moved back onto the edge of the sand when asked, and the fish were brought down in the buckets. There were 4 dolphns around to be fed, and each one gets 3 fish at each feeding (they are only given a tiny proportion of their daily intake, so that they will continue to hunt for their own food and to teach their calves how to feed properly as well). People are chosen at random to feed each fish to the dolphins – the kids were prepared that they probably wouldn’t be chosen, although they were all hoping that they would be. We had people either side of us chosen, and just watching the dolphin eat the fish was a beautiful experience, everyone was very happy. After the dolphins had been fed we were asked to move back up the beach, onto the boardwalk or the jetty, so that the dolphins could go out to deeper waters and feed their calves, catch some of their own fish and so on. We stood up on the jetty and watched them leave – some people went back down on to the beach and tried to touch the dolphins, which meant that the dolphins didn’t leave. The calf was trying to feed and her mother was more interested in playing with the people by the edge of the water. Eventually the rangers convinced everyone to get off the beach and we all waited to see if the dolphins would come back in for another feeding – they need to wait at least 10 minutes before they will feed them again.

We were all thrilled at what we’d already seen, Millie was happy and it was a relief to know that the morning had fulfilled her expectations already – anything that happened from here was a bonus. A lot of people left after the first experience, so when we went down 10 minutes later for the next feeding, it was a bit easier to find a spot along the edge of the water and we had a slightly better view of the dolphins. A different ranger did the talk this time and while most of the information was the same she gave a few more facts and it was nice to have a different perspective on the experience. Again it was great to watch the dolphins swimming past and to see people feeding them.  The dolphin with the calf didn’t come in this time, but a new dolphin did, so there were still 4 dolphins being fed.

After this experience Tony and I went back to the jetty, and the kids went up onto the boardwalk to look at all the interpretive panels there. We waited a bit longer this time for the next feeding. There were a couple of pelicans on the beach who were strutting around and seemingly enjoying the attention of everyone trying to take photos of them.

We moved back down to the water for the 3^rd feeding, and there were even less people here this time. A different ranger again did the talk, and again she had slightly different information to give (not contradictory, just sharing different details). One of the dolphins swam in with seagrass draped around her fin, it looked pretty cute and funny. When it came time for the feeding, Caitlin was chosen to feed Puck, one of the oldest dolphins there and the mother of a couple of the others. Family and friends are allowed to go out with whoever is chosen, so all three kids went out to the dolphin, very excited. Caitlin gave the fish to the dolphin and all of them were thrilled to be out there so close to it!

Another dolphin (Piccolo) came in at that point so there was an extra one to be fed. The volunteers were choosing people to feed it, and kept choosing people who had already had a go earlier. They picked me next, so I took Millie out with me and let her feed the dolphin – an experience I think even beyond her dreams, it was so so cool. The dolphins looked like they were smiling when they took the fish – they don’t take it out of our hands, they like to think they’ve caught it themselves, so Millie laid it in the water in front of the dolphin and she snapped it up.

As I got back to the shore I could hear the volunteers selecting more people, and some were saying ‘I’ve already had a go’. Suddenly Tony was walking back to us and handing my camera back to me (he’d walked down the shore to get better photos of Millie feeding Piccolo), then he went out to feed Puck. He hadn’t been fussed about getting a turn and it all happened so quickly from when he was selected, and he said it was amazing and was so glad he’d got the chance. Having 3 of us selected was so far beyond what we’d expected to experience, it was so incredible. 

As the experience ended we turned around to see two pelicans fighting over a fish – one of the volunteers was feeding them at the back of the beach, to stop them coming down to steal the dolphin’s fish as they do sometimes. It was amazing to watch their big beaks snapping at each other and their wings flapping around as they tried to get the fish. There was a small, long haired dachshund nearby (we’d met it and its owners yesterday when we walked down the street) and I was worried that the pelicans might try to grab the dog – Caitlin later found out that one pelican did have a snap at the dog and it chased the bird off.

We sat on the edge of the jetty and watched the water and the pelicans – after they’d finished fighting they wandered down to the edge of the water, where 4 of them sat or stood and seemed undisturbed by the number of people who were coming up to take photos of them. The kids walked out on the jetty and talked to the owners of the catamarans moored there, who were getting ready to go out on animal spotting tours. One of the guys chatting to LiAM said that if we did a tour with him, he would just charge us the family price (2A + 2C for $200) rather than adding on another child fare for the 3^rd child. LiAM was pretty thrilled with this deal (and it would have been great if we wanted to do the tour) but we decided that there were other things we wanted to do that would be a lot cheaper at this stage.

A dolpin came back in to the shore and we wandered over to have a closer look. The ranger came down and said that we (there was a small group of us) could stay close to the shore there in the dolphin experience area for 5 minutes, then it would be best to move away so she could go back out to sea. We decided we didn’t need to stay and see it as we’d already been so close, so moved away from the edge. We spent a while talking to the ranger and another couple from Victoria – the lady had been chosen to feed a dolphin and she was so moved by the experience and we shared our excitement. They had swum with dugongs off one of the beaches the day before, the dugongs were just in the water with them. We shared camping tips and stories of our trips before going our separate ways. 

Millie wanted me to read some of the signs on the boardwalk to her, so we had a look at them then went to the gift shop. Millie and LiAM bought t-shirts and soft toys – a dolphin for Millie and a tiger shark for LiAM. Caitlin bought a dolphin key ring and a magnet, and I got myself a pen. Next to the gift shop was a little interpretative centre, giving lots of information about the dolphins and the area, so we browsed there for a while. Meanwhile Tony had gone back to the car and made himself a coffee and me a cup of tea.

We wandered out into the resort to look around (and find the toilets). Caitlin found the pool – it was sunny but a bit cool and windy and no one was super keen to swim. There was a giant chessboard, we sat near that and waited for the current game to finish, and enjoyed looking out over the water. Once the chessboard was free, LiAM and Millie had a game. The boy who had been playing offered to tell them the rules, LiAM said they didn’t need help, and so he hung around and chatted to LiAM while they played. Caitlin and I went down on to the sand and made a sand sculpture of a turtle.

It was a bit after midday by the time we went back to the car. The kids had a sandwich and then we drove to Francois Peron National Park. The road is suitable for 2WD up until the homestead, so we drove that far. This was an old sheep station, and some of the buildings have been set up as a museum explaining what life was like on the station, or how the native animals and flora are being protected by the national park. We had a bit of a look around (at the history of the peninsula, and then the horse yards) and then headed for the hot tub. There’s an artesian bore here and while the water is too salty to drink, it’s great for washing and bathing. They have set up a little pool with the bore water running in to it – the water is 40 degrees and felt like a hot bath at first, then felt lovely and soothing. We all found we had to get out every so often so we didn’t get too hot and dizzy. Some locals came for a dip and said that it wasn’t as hot as it sometimes is, and they weren’t impressed that the Dept of Parks and Wildlife control the temperature a bit.

We got out of the tub and Tony went back to the car to make more sandwiches and have a rest. The kids and I went and looked through a bird hide to see if there were any birds on the pond (only butterflies) and then to the old shearing sheds which were fascinating. The kids went back to the hot tub for another ‘swim’ (I watched them) and then we joined Tony at the car.

From there we drove to Little Lagoon – a low area between hills that is still filled with water, and is perfectly round. The water was a crystal blue, just gorgeous, and the sand around it was white. The wind was still blowing strongly and there were little waves whipping across the surface of the water. We’d planned to go swimming here but no one felt like getting in even though we all loved looking around. The shores were covered in little shells and the green hills rose up all around, LiAM in particular really loved how it looked. We decided we’d come back tomorrow if we felt like it, and headed back towards town. We stopped at a lookout above Denham and could see out across the bay in 2 directions, it was an impressive view. Across the bay we could see Dirk Hartog Island and the mainland, and there were white hills over there which were more salt mines.

Everyone was very tired by now and very happy to get back to our tent. I went and had a wonderful hot shower, great to finally get all the salt water out of my hair. The kids played with their toy animals in the tent, and visited our neighbour who let them bring the bearded dragon back over to our tent for them to hold. I sat in the car for a while and caught up on email, blogging, banking and so on (it was the warmest and quietest place). The weather got colder and windier as the evening drew on, and we all ended up putting more and more clothes on. I was laughing that perhaps it wasn’t really cold, we were just used to northern Australian temperatures – when I looked at the weather on my phone it said it was 13 degrees, and that it felt like 10 degrees. So that made us feel a bit better, it really was cold. We had French Toast for dinner again, and then steamed puddings with cream for dessert – great on a cold night. I filled hot water bottles for everyone so we could snuggle in to our beds, and we went in to our very noisy tent, which was being buffeted around strongly by the wind.

Half-lap Day 37: Katherine

Tony and I were up early, getting things out of the car and figuring out what we’d need for the day without the car there. He put his bike on the back of the car and drove it to the mechanic’s. The kids and I played with the puppies and played on iPads and did some puzzles, had some breakfast and hung around the tent. Tony rode his bike back to camp after dropping the car off.

Later in the morning the girls came over to play so all the kids wandered around chatting and looking for animals and looking at the fish.  The girls left in the late morning and everyone was sad to see them go. Tony and I started packing up so that we could leave as soon as the car was fixed, he’d said it would only take a couple of hours. Tony rode his bike back over to the mechanics but it wasn’t ready yet so we hung around the tent some more, played games and chatted, talked to a few friends on the phone. We were reluctant to pack everything up in case the car wasn’t ready in time, so it was a long, slow, hot, uncertain afternoon.

At 3pm we decided it was too late to pack up and go now even if we did get the car back, and it did feel better to know what we were doing. I paid for another night and throughout the afternoon we got the beds back out and set things up again. Tony rang and they said the car was ready, he rode into town to something and got another puncture so walked out to the mechanic, who said the car was all fixed. Tony drove back in to town to get his bike and buy food for dinner, then back to camp, and the engine was overheating again. I rang the mechanic and he said to bring it straight back – by the time Tony got there it had cooled down and they couldn’t reproduce the problem – he drove back to the tent and it was heating up again.

We were both feeling extremely frustrated and everyone was hot. Caitlin had been really keen to go to the hot springs, so I said I’d take her and see how the car went. We drove for a while with no problem, then I turned the air con up and the heat started to rise. I turned it off and it didn’t go back down! We drove to the hot springs and had a really quick dip – basically just in and out. There were other people swimming, not very many, and the signs were still saying do not enter the water because of crocodile sightings. The water was very clear and we checked it carefully before we went in, and we’d been told that the sulphur in the springs usually keeps them away, but any more than a minute in the water felt too risky and scary. A quick dip was enough to feel refreshed anyway. We walked along the springs, they are quite pretty, then back to the car. I drove home via the low-level bridge, and the temperature kept going up. I stopped a few times, let it cool down a bit, then kept going. I drove past the mechanic and the shed was still open with lights on so went in and called out but no one answered so we went back home.

Puppy cuddles

We had dinner, everyone a bit subdued, and played with puppies and kittens and read our books and did puzzles and hunted for geckos. The kids and I went over for a shower – took ages to get all of us organised – then in to bed as quickly as we could, Millie was really tired. Tony had a chat to his dad about what the car problem might be, still no ideas, and he took the car for another drive after we’d gone to bed – still getting hot. Town driving seems to make it worse, but it’s all a bit mystery.

Half-lap Day 32: Mataranka

Originally we had planned a 1 night stay in Mataranka, but with everyone being so hot and tired, and the springs being so beautiful, we decided to stay a 2^nd night and have a bit more time to relax. It was lovely to have a slower morning, to eat breakfast at a leisurely pace and be able to play some games and chat while we got a bit organised.

We went to see a Barramundi fish feeding at 9.30. We arrived a bit late, but still in time for each of the kids to grab a salmon to feed to the barra. They were able to stand in ankle deep water and hold the fish out at water level, and the barramundi swim up to grab it. LiAM’s fish was eaten immediately, Caitlin’s took a bit longer, and Millie got Tony to come in with her and help her feed.

From there we went back to Bitter Springs for a proper swim. The water was so clear and a lovely temperature, and we floated down with the current a few times – so great drifting past trees and over all the green plants under the water. The walk back to the starting pool was a bit hard on the feet, quite rocky in places. Some people took their thongs down with them but our shoes aren’t really the best when they are wet so we braved the rocks a couple of times.

We all floated down the first time, then I went with the kids while Tony hung out in the main pool. Millie used her floaty ring to help float, the rest of us paddled and floated without any floatation devices. I tried to use our underwater camera but the battery went flat after 1 photo. After a bit more of a swim I was happy to get out and take some photos, so I took Tony’s shoes down to the exit platform and he floated down one more time with the kids. It was funny, when he went to put his shoes on we all thought I’d picked up the wrong shoes – we thought that they had blue or grey on them but these shoes were all brown. They felt like his shoes when he put them on, and I’d picked them up from our pile of stuff; there were no stray shoes at the springs when we got back there – the red dirt has obviously got into them (like it has with everything else) and changed the colour a bit.

We had a picnic lunch on the tables near the carpark, then went back to Territory Manor for another fish feeding. While we were waiting for it to start we saw a Merten’s Water Monitor and 2 brolgas. LiAM went first and the fish didn’t come up for ages – he ended up letting someone else have a go and then going back to feed his sardine to the barramundi. We met up with Millie’s friend there and the kids played and chatted, before we all headed to Mataranka Homestead for another swim. We detoured via our camp to get the snorkels – they would have been fantastic at Bitter Springs but we had forgotten to bring them, they weren’t as useful at Mataranka but still fun.

We swam for a couple of hours, playing with Millie’s friend and her family, and a couple of other families as well. The kids had races on their noodles and played lots of other games, and the parents chatted and joined in the races and lazed about in the pool .

LiAM and Millie and went for a walk to see the river, downstream from the springs, where the spring flows into the river. I love the colour of the rivers here, an olive green, it looks lush and peaceful and refreshing. We looked for crocodiles but didn’t see any – just a croc trap across from the platform we were standing on. On our way back to the car we all (our family and Millie’s friend’s family) went and looked at Rainbow Spring, which is where the water actually comes up out of the ground, was cool to see it bubbling up and then flowing off towards the river.  At the carpark the 2 families had a wander through the house that was used in the movie of We Of The Never Never, a replica of the house the author lived in. It was small, only 2 rooms, with a massive verandah around the whole thing.

After some extended goodbyes we finally headed back to camp, driving down to the boat ramp at the campground to see the river close to us. Again it was cool and peaceful and free of crocodiles (although swimming was closed because they were in there somewhere). Caitlin and I got out to walk back and spent a bit of time watching the river, then wandered on a few tracks back to our tent. Some of the rocks in the river looked like crocodile heads – I’m always impressed at how the landscape can look like the local wildlife, the Northern Territory is the place where that is most obvious.  Caitlin and Tony went for a bike ride around the area and got a little lost, they found their way back ok though, without having to cross the waterway that they discovered.

We had rissoles for tea, and discovered that the area was home to lots of spiders that camoflauged really well into the ground, even with a light shone straight on them, but they have a reflective part on them somewhere that shines like a diamond in direct light. We could see them from many metres away, little tiny shiny lights in the dark, and when we got up close we would find a spider almost hidden in the leaves.

We packed up as much as we could in preparation for an earlyish start the next morning, then went to bed to read for a while and listen to the donkeys.

Half-lap Day 31: Daly Waters -> Mataranka

I was awake often during the night. It was hot, and I was worrying about our dog at home (he’s having some issues with the chickens) and about crocodiles. I’ve never worried about or been scared of predators before, but this latest crocodile attack has freaked me out a little. I felt less worried when I woke up though, around sunrise. It was cool outside, but still warm enough for us to have all the windows open in the tent and not feel cold.

We packed up as quickly as we could, which included not getting out our saucepan tub so Caitlin didn’t have her usual baked beans on toast and I didn’t have my usual porridge – this made sense in terms of getting away more quickly, but it meant we were both a bit hungrier than usual all day, so next time we do that we need to also eat something with protein as a replacement. While we packed up the kids played with the 2 year old girl camped near us, and Millie’s 6yo friend came over to play while her mum packed. We were ready to go by 9.20, our earliest getaway so far. It was already pretty hot by the time we left.

On the way out we stopped at the Stuart Tree – Stuart the explorer came through here on his final and successful attempt to walk from the south of the continent to the north – crazy to think of those early explorers navigating this tough, hot terrain, with no idea of what lay before them. Apparently he stopped at the waterholes and named them Daly Waters, and carved his initials in a tree. The tree is still there – well, it’s a dead stump now, with a fence around it, and it was a bit sad looking really, but I like wandering around the area and thinking of Stuart and his team being there nearly 200 years ago. We stopped next at the airstrip – it was built in 1927 and was a leg in the plane journey from the east coast to England, so is Australia’s first international airport. It was also used in WWII as a launching place for planes to fly to Java.

We were back out on the highway before 10, driving with windows down and listening to Harry Potter. Because we’ve done 3 stops in a row of only 1 night, I haven’t been getting in to the trailer to pull out extra food, and our snack supplies in the car had run low. We only drove 160km but it was our hottest and most uncomfortable so far. We saw several dead cows on the side of the road, and the live cattle we saw were large and skinny, like the kind of cows I think of being bred in Africa.

We arrived at Jamulark Campground, in the Elsey National Park just near Mataranka. We found a campsite that looked like it would have good shade, and had a swing hanging from a tree nearby, then realised that under the dirt was bitumen so we wouldn’t be able to peg in the tent. We looked around for another site and moved the trailer, then decided that everyone was way too hot and cranky to eat or to set up, so we changed into swimmers and headed for the Thermal Pool.

The walk to the pool from the Homestead was lovely, through tall palm trees, and the pool looked amazing, blue and clear and cool in among the trees. There were quite a few people there, but the pool wasn’t really crowded. We went in at the first steps and it was very deep – Millie was a bit scared and a lady who was getting out offered Millie her noodle to float on, and told us her site number at the caravan park for us to return it later. We floated around and LiAM, Caitlin and I explored the full length of the pool, discovering it was shallower around the corner and it ended with a small waterfall flowing out into the creek beyond. There was quite a strong current, swimming back up to Tony and Millie took quite a lot of effort. We swam around for a while – the water was quite warm but very refreshing, then Millie had had enough, so she and I walked back to the car to get food. She was really quite unhappy and didn’t want to go back in to the pool. After we’d all had some nutella sandwiches and a drink of lemonade everyone felt better and went for another swim, even Millie. We chatted to a few people and floated on our backs – very cool to look up through the trees into the sky and clouds far above.

Millie’s friend was staying near the other springs so we thought we might head there later in the day. By the time we got out of the pool it was nearly 4pm and we tossed up whether to go straight to Bitter Springs, or go and set up the tent first, or some of us go to the springs and some to the tent – after much discussion we decided we were all too tired and hungry to go anywhere so we’d go back to the tent, set up, have something more to eat, then go to Bitter Springs.

It was cooler back at the campground than it had been, and setting up didn’t take too long, although the ground was so hard that we couldn’t get pegs in even though we were on dirt. The beds hold down the end of the tent and we attached guy ropes to trees, so the tent is stable even if it’s not exactly the right tension. We had some sandwiches then drove back to Bitter Springs, stopping for milk at the little supermarket on the way through and catching them just as they were closing up at 6pm. It was still light and there were still a few people in the springs, which were much more natural than the Mataranka ones. There were metal steps and platforms and no other modifications, the Mataranka pool has stone walls and places to sit in the water. The water was beautifully warm and it was also deep, although there was a rock where Millie could stand up. We swam for a little while and soon were the only people left. It was getting dark and even though I knew logically there were no crocodiles in this water, it started to feel extremely spooky and every ripple sounded like a crocodile. We had a real fright when someone swam around the corner from further down the creek! We got out and walked further down the path to another platform – normally the current can carry you from the first platform to this last one, we might come back in more daylight hours and try it out. We saw 2 turtles in the water, quite large, who swam away when we got close. Tony and Millie had one last swim then we headed back to the car before the mosquitoes got too bad.

The drive back was slow as there were so many wallabies by the side of the road. These wallabies are small, with really narrow heads, unlike any we’ve seen so far. We saw a frog sitting in the middle of the road, and thought we saw a cane toad crossing the road – later Tony and Caitlin saw a cane toad at the campground. We also saw some wild cattle. When we drove in during the afternoon we saw a dingo. We had soup and noodles back at the tent, and heard the wild donkeys braying in the bush around us.

We were all as tired as we’ve been on this trip so far I think, so after we ate we very quickly got into bed and read for a very brief time before crashing.