Half-lap Day 104: The Nullarbor

Once again it was a very cold morning, and LiAM and Millie had both woken during the night and come up to our bed. Caitlin had moved on to Millie’s bed because it’s a bit further from the floor and a bit warmer than hers. Her sleeping bag is so cosy though that she’s usually not as cold as the others – sometimes her hot water bottle is still slightly warm in the morning when she gets up.

We had enough wood left over from the night before for me to start the fire again, and I had a cup of tea and read Harry Potter for a short while, before we started to get breakfast ready and to pack up. We’d slept till after sunrise, because sunrise is much earlier than we are used to, and so the morning seemed to be progessing faster than we expected it to.

We had a fairly efficient pack up, and all braved the toilet one more time, then were on the road by about 9.30am. This morning it was wedge-tailed eagles that we saw not long after we left – standing on the road eating roadkill, and then flying into the air as we approached – Tony slowed down and beeped his horn at them so they had plenty of time to get away, and it was amazing watching them take off and fly over our car.

As we got closer to the border, we could see the escarpment up ahead of us (it ws still running along to our left) coming to a sharp corner. As we got closer we realised that the road turned and went up the face of the escarpment, and what we could see was the escarpment meeting the coast, and then turning to the east and becoming the Bunda cliffs which run along the edge of the Great Australian Bight. We could see a bit of the ocean to our right as we drove up, and then stopped at a lookout soon after getting to the top. Looking back we could see the plains in the distance and then the cliff face beginning. Down below, with a plateau of green land between the cliff and the shore, we could see and hear waves breaking on the beach. To the left the cliffs became more sheer and headed off as far as we could see to the east. It was pretty cool – the kids at first didn’t want to get out of the car, then we told them it was worth checking out so they came and had a look and quite liked the view.

We kept on driving, listening to Harry Potter Book 7 (which was extremely exciting as we approached the end of the book), and looking at the Nullarbor – it was varied enough and fascinating enough to never be boring. Occasionally we’d get glimpses of the ocean beyond the cliffs to our right. For a lot of the drive today, there were no trees at all, just low grass and bushes. IT ws all much greener than we’d expected too – a muted, dull green, but definitely green and not brown.

We’d heard from a few sources that stopping at Head of Bight to see the whales was a highlight, so we pulled in there early in the afternoon. We paid our money at the Visitors Centre then started down the boardwalk towards the lookout. LiAM bought his binoculars with him in case we saw any, but he wasn’t confident that we’d get a whale sighting. As we walked I could see dark shapes in the bay to our left, which occasionally puffed water out – obviously whales and LiAM started to get excited. A family walking back up the path told us that there were LOTS. The kids ran ahead of me and as the path started to zigzag down the hill to the lookout I could see a large whale in the water beyond the kids – I called out and pointed it out to them, and all of us were astounded. These were Southern Right Whales and they were SO BIG! Bigger than my brain could comprehend. By the time I reached the kids they had counted 12 whales, and we kept seeing more, then realised that most of them had calves with them as well.

In the water below the lookout there were 3 whales with their calves. They were swimming along near the surface of the water, sometimes ducking under a little, sometimes changing direction, occasionally the calves would lift their flippers and flap them on the water. It was so incredible to watch. Once or twice we had one swim straight towards the shore, directly in front of where we were standing. We couldn’t get enough of looking at them, then were so magnificent and beautiful and awe inspiring. Some started to dive a little so we got a good view of their tails, and they always came back up again quickly and we could watch them some more. A little further out a pair were rolling over and flapping their flippers and looked like they were having a lot of fun. Every now and then we’d hear one of them make a big breathing sound – it sounded like a massive wave rushing through a blowhole, a deep, moaning, whoomping sound.

There were two people watching the whales near us and the guy had a massive zoom lens on his camera, on a tripod. As they walked away Tony pointed out their jackets, which said ‘Sea Shepherd Crew’. So these guys were hard core whale lovers, willing to risk a lot to help protect whales.

We walked around to the other lookout, reading the signs about whales on the way. There were more whales visible from here (not quite so close, but still close enough.) From here we could also see west along the Bunda Cliffs for quite a long way – sheer, very tall cliffs falling from a very flat plain, straight to the ocean. Very much of a case of ‘Australia ends here’ – it looked like the edge of the world. Breathtaking.

The guy with the camera was here as well, along with several more Sea Shepherd Crew members. I started talking to him about his camera, and then being on the Sea Shepherd, and he introduced me to the Captain. He and I talked for a while, about what they do when they come across a whaling ship, and what it looked like in Antarctica, and what they are doing at the moment (trying to document lots about the Bight, so that they can raise awareness and hopefully help stop BP from drilling for oil here). He was so interesting to talk to, he was very self-assured and calmly spoken and his passion came through powerfully but not in an overwhelming way.

While we were talking one of the whale calves started to breach, it jumped out 5 or 6 times and everyone was excited to watch it. It was cool to see even the Sea Shepherd guys get so excited, when they have obviously seen this happen so often. We also saw one whale spy-hopping (just popping it’s head up above the water) and then we reluctantly left the whales and headed back to the car.

We had a bit to eat and then kept driving east. We stopped for petrol at the Nundroo roadhouse, and asked if we could camp there but the girl said they were all booked out. We drove a bit further on to a free camp – without toilets, but there were no camps with toilets all through the South Australian section of the Nullarbor. We made sure everybody went while we were at the roadhouse, and figured we could go bush for one night. We sat in the car and listened to the end of the 7^th Harry Potter book – very exciting and a little sad to be finished, we’ve been with Harry now since Alice Springs I think.

We arrived around 4 (West Australian time, which was now 5.30 South Australian time) and set up as the sun was setting again. We gathered wood, there was plenty available if we looked a bit beyond the main part of the camp. I made everyone a hot chocolate and we sat around the fire and felt cosy. We had left over potatoes and tuna and corn and mayo for dinner, very tasty. LiAM read a bit more Harry Potter and I read the first couple of scenes out loud to everyone. Tony and I also spent time looking at the map trying to figure out a bit of a plan for getting home over the next 6 nights. We had hoped to go down to Streaky Bay or somewhere (we’d wanted to be at least to Ceduna by tonight, but travelling east and not starting early enough in the day each day made that tricky) but decided it was going to leave too much distance to travel in the last couple of days, so we’d just go straight towards Port Augusta tomorrow and hopefully get as far as Kimba.

We decided to start Millie off in our bed, she had a bit of a sore throat and a sniffly nose, and it was easier than having her climb in half way through the night. This meant Caitlin could start the night on Millie’s bed too. We also offered LiAM the opportunity to start in our bed, and possibly one of us sleep in his bed, but he decided to just rug up earlier and go to bed with socks and jacket on, and stay warm that way. I also reorganized the blankets a bit so that he would be warmer. We got the hot water bottles ready and went to bed to read more of Inheritance.

Half-lap Day 89: Coral Bay -> Edagee

I was woken once by people being loud in the carpark near the overflow area, then again by someone’s alarm going off in a nearby tent. I thought perhaps someone had set their alarm to get up early to pack up, so was going to get up myself – I looked at the time and it was only 3.45. I spent a while trying to get back to sleep and eventually drifted off and woke up again around 6.30. Tony and I got up, I got a cup of tea and we agreed to wake the kids around 7. Tony took the dishes over to the camp kitchen to wash them, and I woke the kids. All we had to pack up were the chairs and all the bedding, and we did it easily in about 45 minutes once the kids were out of bed. We folded the tent up and put the solar panels, table, annex roofs and walls, rubber mat and the bikes on top of the trailer, then had it hitched up by 8am. A very quick and impressive pack up, and great to know that we really can do it when we need to.

We drove across to the information centre which had parking out the front, and had some breakfast out of the back of the car. Caitlin and I wandered over and chatted to the guy at the info centre, finding out about the best places to snorkel, and looking at the fish charts they had there – he said they were hard to find and he didn’t have any to sell. I might try and get one online when we get home, to put up on our wall.

Millie wanted Nutri Grain for breakfast, and all our Nutri Grain was packed in the back of the trailer. After she had something else to take the edge off her hunger, she and I walked up to the supermarket to see if we could buy some more. It was $8 for a small box, so I suggested we look and see if there was anything else she’d like. She decided on a packet of mentos in pink lemonade flavour, which were not exorbitantly priced, so we were both happy. We also bought some cheap (but good quality) milk and some salami on special. Caitlin walked over to our friend’s van to pick up our computer and camera battery, which they’d charged for us overnight, and they said they’d meet us on the beach once they were packed up. 

We moved down to the carpark at the end of the road, right next to the beach. The girls ran up the hill to a little whale watching lookout, and we all walked down to the beach and put our stuff under a little shelter that was on the edge of the sand (there were a few corrugated iron shelters dotted along the beach, a very good idea). The beach looked incredible. The tide was going out, and the first 20m or so of water was very shallow, only ankle deep, and absolutely clear, we could see the sand in detail through the water. It was glistening and shining and looked so inviting. As the water got deeper (there was a sudden point where the sand sloped off) it was bluer, and then a very dark blue quite quickly because of all the coral underneath. We walked around for a while in the shallow water and had a look around the red rocks at the end of the point. It was beautiful around the other side of the rocks as well.

The guy had suggested we walk around the rocks and enter the water further down, then drift back to the main bay – but there was a bit of a wind blowing from the north and it really looked as if the current was going the opposite way to what he’d suggested. Tony went in for a snorkel in the bay, and said he saw some cool coral and fish. By the time he came out our friends had joined us. Neither of the kids wanted to snorkel, and Millie didn’t either, so we left the 2 girls in the charge of the big brother, and the rest of us went into the water.

The coral started only a few metres from where the sand sloped down into deeper water. At first there were patches of sand between the coral, then they thinned out and soon the entire bay floor was covered in coral, and we were snorkeling a metre or 2 above it. There was more of the fairy light coral here, as well as lots of types that we hadn’t seen before, lots that looked like big heads of lettuce, some fuzzy coral, lot of different colours. It was even more of a different world that what we’d seen up at Cape Range. There were fish too, parrot fish and angel fish and blue damsels, coral trout, lots of little fish in the anemones, and LiAM and I saw a Painted Flutemouth, a very long thin yellow fish.

We decided to try to swim out to Ayers Rock, a very large bommie coral out in the middle of the bay, that apparently has lots of fish around it. The information guy had told me it was bout 30m to the left of a black and white mooring, and in  line with the last 2 wind turbines on the point. Caitlin was a bit nervous about how deep the water might get out there, but swam with our friend and was willing to give it a go. LiAM swam next to me and was able to do most of it without help. We enjoyed the coral and the fish all the way out there, then started looking around in the area we thought it might be. I was looking further out than the others, and noticed a slight disturbance in the gentle waves – looking under water I could see a large mound coming almost to the surface (at low tide it is visible above the water). I called out ‘It’s over here’ – we all swam to it and around it, and it was pretty amazing. Lots of fish swimming around and the size of it means that it was really, really old. Over a thousand years probably. Coral all around too, so pretty and somewhere we could have stayed for ages. While we were looking at it lots of other snorkelers arrived as well – my friend thinks they probably heard me yell out and everyone came swimming.

We headed back to shore, looking up every now and then to make sure we were swimming in the right direction. Caitlin managed fine in the deep water, it didn’t scare her at all. LiAM held my hand for some of the swim back, we’d gone out a long way, although it wasn’t a difficult swim, it was further than he’d swum in one go before. More beautiful coral and fish on the way back in, we were all so so glad we’d made the effort to go in for a snorkel, it made the trip in off the highway, the expensive overflow camping, the saltwater showers, the early start all worthwhile.

The kids played in the sand together, Caitlin was buried by her friend and the little girls built sandcastles and played games about lost sisters and so on. I asked Millie if she wanted to go in to see the amazing coral, and she was happy to have a go. Her friend was going to come too but decided not to once she got to the water. Millie came in with me and we swam around not far from the sloping sand, there was still so much to see within a few metres. Some black and white striped fish (possibly sergeant fish) swam up to Millie’s face mask and nearly touched it, that was pretty exciting. We had surfaced and were readjusting our masks when Millie saw a pelican swim between us and the shallow water – it was so close to us and quite exciting to essentially be swimming with it. It swam right along the shoreline and lots of people came running down from the beach to see it up close, including all the rest of the kids with us, but we had the best view.

We got out and the kids played a bit more, we said goodbye to our friends – they are going inland for a few days while we are heading along the coast, so we probably won’t see them again until after we’re both back home. It’s been really great getting to know them and spending so much time with them. They left and we had a bit of a snack then got ourselves organised and changed and headed off ourselves.

We drove down towards Carnarvon, through more desert type terrain. We saw wild goats, something we haven’t seen from the road so far on this trip. Approaching Carnarvon we saw lots of banana plantations – none of them were open though so we couldn’t pop in and get some bananas. We drove into town and filled up with petrol, then drove through the town to have a look. I’d hoped to find a department store here to replace Millie’s carseat and get a few other things – apparently the Target closed permanently in July and now there is no department store. The town looked interesting, lots of very old buildings and interestingly laid out.

We drove out to see the mile long jetty. There was a little railway museum there, which was free. Trains used to bring people from town out to the jetty – to work and for pleasure I guess. It was a very busy port in the 1800s and early 1900s. We walked up to the top of the old water tower which gave great views of the jetty and surrounding area. The land here is very low and there would be lots more water around at very high tides and after a lot of rain. Apparently they’ve had a lot of trouble keeping the river out of the town when it floods. We looked around at the trains in the museum and at some of the boating history of the area, all very interesting.

We drove back to the township and the kids and I played at a cool playground along the harbour shore, while Tony went to the supermarket. The foreshore has been done up quite nicely, and the old train line out to the jetty is a footbridge across the harbour and then a walking track out to the jetty.

We left Carnarvon around 4.30, heading for a free camp further south. There were a couple near the coast that had been recommended to us – one required a chemical toilet, and they both said to check tide charts because they were low lying, they were also at the end of dirt roads. Given that we weren’t going to get in until around 5.30, close to sunset, we decided to play it safe and stop at a 24 hour stop a bit further along, just next to the highway. We arrived with plenty of light to find a spot and set up. We’d been vaguely worried that it would be full, but there were several sites still available (and 4 or 5 people arrived after us and found a spot.) There was large, flat dirt area with enough room for car and trailer. We decided to try leaving the trailer hitched seeing as it was just a quick stop. This meant we had to sleep the other way around on our bed, as the trailer was sloping down a bit, which felt weird but was not a problem.

We set up the tent (only takes us about 20 minutes now to get everything off and the tent up) and explored the area. We saw the couple that we’d talked to in Exmouth the day before, and had a bit of a chat to them. The sunset was quite pretty over the low scrub. Tony cooked rissoles and eggs for dinner and we had hamburgers. Everyone was pretty tired so we headed to bed as quickly as we could and read Inheritance for a while. We were camped quite close to the road and the trucks were pretty loud as they passed by – everyone was tired enough that they fell asleep despite the noise.

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 52: Edith Falls -> Timber Creek

It was a little different sleeping with the windows closed again, and it did cool down quite a lot over night. We actually felt cold when we woke up in the morning (just as I’d packed our warm clothes away) but we were fine still in our summer clothes.

We had breakfast and enjoyed being in nature on a sunny morning, there wasn’t any shade where we were but we weren’t hanging around so it didn’t get too hot before we left. We’d hung washing up the night before and the air was dry enough for it to be dry not long after the sun rose. Everyone managed OK without a toilet – using the bushes and trees and shadows that were available for privacy was fine.

Sunrise at our free camp

We headed off before 10 and drove the short distance (about 30km) to Katherine. The kids really wanted to see if any of the puppies were still at North Bank caravan park so we called in there – we parked out the front and walked in, and didn’t see anyone we knew. It was weird to be back, it felt quite familiar although did remind me a little of how frustrated we felt at the time. We saw Bundy and Pumbaa and the kittens, and the kids had a pat and a play with each of them. None of the other puppies were still there. Satisfied to have seen them again, the kids said goodbye and we drove into town. The kids and I went to Target to look for snorkels (no luck, though we did get a Skylanders figure for only $2), to the Visitors Centre to use the toilets and buy some Top End postcards and a tea-towel, and to Woolworths to get milk and other supplies for the next few days. Tony went to Home Hardware to get our empty gas bottle refilled (it had run out during breakfast this morning),to get petrol and to buy meat for the next few days.

Driving around Katherine also felt familiar and like we were almost locals. It was very exciting to head out on the Victoria Highway, on a road that none of us have ever been on, and to start the next stage (far more unknown) of our holiday. 

This road felt very long and isolated (surprisingly so, having come up the Stuart Highway. I guess this one is not quite as well used, not as many people come this way, and it’s heading to even more remote areas than the Stuart does). We saw lots more cows (Brahmins) and lots of kites. The ground was mainly sparse woodland – not much undergrowth, and the trees spread fairly thinly. After a while we saw our first boab tree of the trip – quite an impressive tree.

We pulled into the Victoria River Roadhouse to get petrol. I got a brief glimpse of the river as we crossed the bridge before the roadhouse, and the kids and I walked through the campground to see if we could get closer to get a better view of the river. There was a path leading down between tall cane grass, which rustled a lot as little animals moved around in there. It was quite spooky, not knowing how far away the river was and knowing that crocodiles lived in the river. Every rustle made us (well, some of us, LiAM seemed quite calm) jump a bit. We reached a sandy area high up on the river bank and could see the water and the bridge through the trees. That was good enough for us and we looked for a while then headed back. The kids also met a couple with a fluffy dog and talked to them for a while before we went on our little walk. It was hot in the sun, not so bad in the shade. We had a cool drink then kept driving west.

The drive from here was along huge craggy escarpments for a while, as we drove through part of Gregory National Park. The rocks were red and high above the road and so amazing to look at. We passed out of that section of the park and the road passed through sparse woodland again. There were many long straight stretches in this bit – it was a lot windier through the national park area. As we approached Timber Creek the escarpments returned. For a while we drove alongside the Victoria River – it was incredibly wide, the largest river we’ve seen so far. Looking at the map we could see we really weren’t that far from the mouth and the Timor Sea (about 100km).

Gregory National Park

Just before we reached our campsite (Big Horse Creek Campground in Gregory National Park) there was a bridge across the river which was signposted as a lookout, so we drove in to have a look. The bridge crossed the (still very wide) river and led to a Defense Force restricted zone. There was on vehicle access allowed on the bridge but pedestrians were able to walk out and look at the river – which we did. It was pretty cool looking along this long, wide river, with very green foliage all the way down to the edge. We looked for crocodiles but didn’t see any.

Victoria River

It was only 500m down the highway then to the campground. We drove around a couple of times and the only spots left were narrow bays in the middle, we looked at each of them for shade potential and flatness and eventually selected one. Tony backed the trailer in perfectly, right against one edge, and we were almost able to pull the tent out without it hitting the bollards on the other side. We were able to work around it though – with the kids’ beds down that end, we don’t use the bottom end of the tent so the little dent in the wall didn’t really matter.

The kids explored the campground while we set up, then LiAM, Caitlin and I went for a walk (bike ride in Caitlin’s case) down to the river. There was a boat ramp at the campground and we stood on it watching the water and the birds and noting how high the water level was so we could see if it was tidal. Caitlin rode back and met some people with a dog and chatted to them. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting and doing puzzles and playing games, and had another walk down to the river to see a ground bird’s nest surrounded by shells and sparkly things. The kids talked to more of the other campers and met lots of people and dogs.

In the late afternoon we drove back to the east a little way to where we’d seen a sign saying Escarpment Lookout. We turned off onto the road indicated and it quickly climbed the escarpment and came to an area marked ‘Sunset Views’. We parked and got out – the sun was setting over the river and the escarpment and it looked amazing. We watched for a while then had a look at a memorial that was up there, commemorating and telling the story of the horse brigades that patrolled this area of Northern Australia in the 2^nd World War. It was fascinating, a piece of Australian history I knew nothing about. Another couple arrived and were looking at the monument too – and the lady said that her dad was one of those soldiers. She was so excited and moved to find all this information about it and to know that more people would learn about these men. From there we drove further along the escarpment and ended up at a lookout over the town of Timber Creek, with a different view of the river. It was quite peaceful up there. We had to drive past some parts of the bush that were being burned off, amazing how much less fierce these fires are than the ones at home.

Back to camp where had hotdogs for dinner (I had soup) and the kids played on the iPad for a while. It was another pleasant evening, temperature-wise, and the forecast was for a coolish night so we did close the windows again. We were slightly concerned about where we’d put our tent – there was dampness around one of the pegs, which was pegged in outside the bollards, so wondered if we’d hit a pipe or something.