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.

Queenscliff 2015 - Day 2

I was awake earlier than anyone else so I headed down to the beach early - it was already 30 degrees when I left the house just before 7am. The beach was beautiful, and the water not too cold, and I had a wonderful morning swim completely by myself. I swam in the area enclosed by rocks on 2 sides, which I remembered from last year, but I was a little nervous about undertow and there was a strong current pulling to the left (away from the area that went out to deeper water) so I was very careful when I was in there. After I had swum for long enough I thought about going for a walk around the headland, but my knee was still quite sore so I figured I'd be better to take it easy and just head home.

There were a few other people up when I got back, and the girls came out after a while. We had a leisurely morning - F cooked some eggs and ham, people had breakfast when they felt like it, I played Uno Spin with the kids and we all played with T. Mum and Dad decided to go for a walk to the beach and Caitlin went with them so she could have a swim. Once LiAM got out of bed I got all our stuff ready and he and Millie and I headed down as well. We met Mum and Dad coming back, so Caitlin turned around and came back to the beach with us. F and T joined us for a little while also. The tide was much lower than when I'd been there earlier in the morning and there were sections of very shallow water with sandbanks in between them, and still lots of deep enough water to swim in. Caitlin and I swam a lot and LiAM was in and out. Millie mainly played on the sand although came in a few times - not very far on her own, and was happy for me to carry her in a bit deeper.

LiAM and Millie started to build a sandcastle with a moat around it, in between two of the channels of water. I joined in and we made it big enough that when Millie sat behind it we couldn't see her at all from the other side! Caitlin helped as well and it was a huge, fun project. I was lying in the shallow water when we saw the Spirit of Tasmania come past, which we'd been hoping to see. We watched it go out through the heads - and then we were hit with the wave caused by it going past - from where I was lying on the sand it looked huge although it wasn't really. It came up past our sandcastle and destroyed our moat a fair bit, but the castle held! It was quite exciting.

Eventually we headed back to the house - just as Tony arrived at the beach. Caitlin stayed with him for a while. We hung around the house and had lunch, played games and so on. Mum and Fi took Caitlin down the street to look at the op shops and some other interesting shops. Mum and Dad went for a drive to Point Lonsdale, and Tony and I went for a walk down the street, checking out the op shop, one or two of the vintage shops and having a coffee. It was lovely to have the chance to go out alone and wander at our own pace. The weather had changed by now too, no longer hot and sunny, but much cooler and with the threat of rain. The kids had wanted to go back down to the beach but it got quite windy too, not really beach weather. Tony and Dad played a cricket card game for a good chunk of the afternoon.

In the evening Caitlin cooked spaghetti bolognese for everybody, which was delicious. Tony had suggested we go down to the bowling club for barefoot bowls - I felt my knee wasn't up to it, so Mum, Tony and the kids went and played and had a great time. Dad, Fi, James and I started to play a board game called Wit's End - kind of like Trivial Pursuit, but with more brain teasing questions. It was hard, and a lot of fun. After a while Dad, Fi and I went for a walk down to the beach to see the sunset, where we were met by the others after their bowls game. Back at the house LiAM went straight to bed and the rest of us played a few more games, then headed off ourselves.

Sunset

NSW Trip Day 3: Griffith

This morning Tony went for a morning game of golf at Griffith Golf Course, and the kids and I had a quiet morning at the caravan park. We played a few games in the cabin then went exploring, played in the playground, and played tennis on the tennis courts for a while. After Tony got back Millie and I went to the shops – I got some new leggings which I’ve been needing for a while (and the need had become more urgent when I’d put on my last pair without holes this morning – and realized they also had holes in them…) and some food for lunch.

Once we’d had lunch we set off to Leeton – it was fun driving along familiar roads and seeing new houses or crops in some places, with others looking exactly the same. (One big difference is that it looks like a lot of the rice farmers are now growing cotton). In Leeton we drove to the hospital so LiAM could see where he was born, and then went and played in the playground near the main street. Some of the equipment was the same as we knew it, but they’ve also put in 2 awesome flying foxes – everyone except Millie had a go – it was fast and a bit scary and lots of fun. We got some afternoon tea from Micks Bakehouse and then drove back to Whitton to eat it in the park there. There is a new skatepark, but the rest of the playground is exactly as Caitlin remembers it from when she was tiny. I went down the big slide for old times sake and it was high and scary just like I remembered – glad I wasn’t doing it while balancing a toddler like I used to! Tony had a beer at the pub and chatted to the new owners about the changes in the pub since we left (really only changes in ownership, it looked exactly the same). The kids rode their scooters at the skate park and played with one of the local boys, then we scooted and walked around to our old house. At first glance it looked exactly the same, but they’ve put in a new fence, and air con in the garage, and several sheds in the backyard. There was a guy mowing the back lawn and the kids went and said hello – he was the guy who bought the house from us and we had a bit of a chat about the renovations they’ve done inside as well. We then wandered down to the butcher – as we’d driven into town we’d wondered if the butcher would still be there, and we doubted it as the guy was pretty old when we left – but driving past we could see him sitting in the same chair in the window, reading his paper, as he always was 8-10 years ago. So we bought our dinner from him – and he recognized our faces and wasn’t surprised when we said we used to live there.

LiAM with his impressive chocolate cake

Caitlin on the slide in Whitton

Home to the caravan park and Tony cooked a bbq and we watched tv and chatted until we went to bed.

(I haven't uploaded any photos from my camera yet - will try to do that in the next couple of days so I can add some photos to this post) - I have now done this!