Wednesday September 7 to Friday September 9

Wyndham and more......

With Trent away for a few days the children have been allowed to take turns sleeping with me. We do not usually have children in our bed as I am such a light sleeper and I am sure they will keep me awake all night. But, we are on holiday...what’s another “special treat”....Emily is first as I know she is the calmest sleeper and I use her as the ‘guinea pig’. All good. Then Jake’s turn, he is a busy sleeper as indicated by all his sheets being pulled out of the mattress each morning....then it is Jasmine’s turn....to say she is a busy sleeper is an understatement...... after having pulled her foot out of my kidney during the night, then out of my underwear I am later woken to her asking me where she should be lying in bed as she was upside down! Off to sleep we go, well I try to go, as Jas lies there laughing and laughing, finally I ask her what is so amusing in the middle of the night. She tells me she is laughing at something she remembered happened in the movie she had watched that day (Ratatouille)! Eventually she overcame the laughter and we slept til about 6am. I looked forward to having the bed to myself for two nights before Trent’s return!

The children and I did a day trip to Wyndham. A small and quiet town an hour north of Kununurra. It is a port town and still exports iron ore and nickel from near by mines. In years gone by it was ‘the’ town in the area but the damming of the Ord River has brought huge growth to Kununurra and there is not much happening in Wyndham these days. We did drive up to “Five Rivers Lookout” but smoke haze limited visibility.

We headed back through town via the “Dreamtime” statues. Large bronze statues of an aboriginal family and indigenous animals. The children were more interested in an older aboriginal couple selling engraved boab nuts. The man was engraving a boab nut and Jake was closely observing his technique (as we had collected boabs to engrave). After some bartering we bought one of the boab nuts which we hoped would help support this couple who had made a makeshift house under a shelter with no walls or roof!

We headed off to the Prison Boab tree, 20 K’s off the highway on an unsealed road. At the start of the road was a sign stating the road was open (often closed during the wet season) and that the King River crossing was “OPEN” today.....I wasn’t sure about tackling the river crossing but friends had been through and hadn’t mentioned it. So off we went. We drove over mudflats and followed the river for quite a while, the river was quite big in parts so my adrenalin levels were rising as I was wondered what I was expected to cross. We finally came to the crossing. After 100m of rocky driving I realised we had just been through the crossing! No water!! Now, more relaxed, we found the prison boab tree just around the corner. The tree is described to have been used by police in the late 1800‘s to lock up prisoners temporarily. The massive trunk was hollow and easy to climb in. We drove a little further (as instructed by our friends) to see the land where the movie “Australia” was filmed at “Digger’s Rest Station”. Beautiful country, on a clear day the contrast of the orange rock, green trees and blue sky would be amazing.

As we drove back out we stopped to view some aboriginal rock art in a shelter on the under side of an overhang. A lot of the aboriginal art is done in areas of rock like this as they do not get exposed to the harsh rain/wind/sun. We then headed off on another unsealed road to see Parry’s Lagoon Nature Park, a wonderful closed in viewing area to observe a lagoon full of amazing birds and (that day) a saltwater croc. We saw Jabiru’s, Brolga’s, Egret’s and many more. Initially the croc was spotted about ten metres away almost fully submerged and very still. Eventually he started to move and within a minute we saw him get a bird (from the surface of the water) and the bird was gone in a matter of seconds. We felt lucky to have seen nature at work (sorry bird!). We hung around as the croc seemed to continue hunting and the children got very caught up in which bird he was targeting and if the bird would see him and get away. It was all quite exciting but after a while the croc went under and we lost him. We then headed back to Kununurra via a little known swimming hole (Molly Creek) that was great. The kids were happy as their day had been completed with a swim!

Upon Trent's return we headed for the Bunlge Bungle's.

Tuesday September 6

More Kununurra

We did a brief drive out to Ivanhoe Crossing which is a river crossing that has still not been opened since last dry season. As we are coming to the end of this years dry season it will not be opened this year. The amount of water pouring over the crossing is amazing. This is all due to the high level of water in Lake Argyle and the amount of water that came in the last wet season. Apparently the locals often swim in the falls off the crossing but it is too strong currently. As salties live a little further downstream they are taking a big risk!

Monday 5 September

Today was a very quiet day and I was not going to write a blog but thought some (female!) readers might be interested to hear how "school" is going as we spent about 2 hours on it this morning. The day started well as I made french toast for breakfast. From there things started going downhill! "School" is not a favourite time for the children. Up til now we have only done it while in the car and we have a captive audience. Very hard when there are better things on offer outside the van! I can say Jas wrote a lengthy piece on Lake Argyle during which there were numerous sessions of daydreaming, two bowls of cereal, a carrot and multiple times she had to be told to sit not lie and she could find any excuse to go outside.....needless to say my frustration level was fairly high. In the same time Em managed a project comparing and contrasting estuarine and freshwater crocodiles (inspired by Alice Muir on our recent catch up) and recorded an animal tally consulting people all over the caravan park (inspired by our friend Libby). Em was also excited to receive several emails from her class and she wrote an individual response for each and then tackled some mathletics while Jasmine continued to happily look into space. She lives in a happy place - wish I could escape there sometimes!! Jake had left the caravan in a huff but he got his work done independently in the afternoon while the girls swam. So my hat is off to people who home school- and I am glad I never contemplated a career in primary education. I admire all teachers!! We are all still waking fairly early but it seems quite strange that the sun is up by 5:30am and set by 5:30pm. Can't imagine what time the sunrises in December/January! As we move further west it should be a little easier. You have probably noticed the lack of photo's. Another technology problem I seem to be having. We have plenty of photo's but they don't seem to be downloading off the camera. Will add them when we can.

Sunday 4 September

Zebra Rock Gallery:
A fairly quiet start to the day. Jake was taken fishing by Pat (the Dad of our friends). They had no luck but were fishing on the ocean side of the dam wall where the big crocs hang out so I was happy to see them return with or without fish! One barra was chasing Pat’s line but just teasing so they came home empty handed but Jake had loved it all anyway. Can’t say we have had too much luck fishing- I think the total number of lures lost now is 9 (don’t worry Leigh we will replace your lures!)!! I wish I could say they were chomped off by big barra but sadly we have become very familiar with rock and log snags. I am suggesting we wait til we get to sandy beaches to try fishing again. Jake is yet to be convinced!
After a pool swim we headed 10km out of town to the Zebra Rock Gallery. Beautiful stone that is only found in the East Kimberly in the Lake Argyle region. It is made from clay rock including clay minerals and quartz. Some is striped and some spotted but when sanded and polished comes up beautifully. Of course, a small purchase was made along with some mango smoothies! We obliged by feeding the hundreds of catfish of the end of their jetty with a few slow turtles in there hoping some food might come their way without being stolen from under their noses by a catfish. The most amazing site (which I had never seen before) was a peacock shimmy-ing himself to get the peahens’ attention. Tail fully out and really “shaking his tail feathers”, he was gorgeous and approached any peahen he could see, naturally the girls just kept eating the grass or looked at him with disinterest and walked away! We were later told he is doing that several times a day at the moment as it is mating season and occasionally he catches the attention of a girl and is successful!

Saturday 3 September El Questro

The delay in blogging has been due to my inadequate computing abilities but I won’t go into it for fear of earning yet another new nickname! We headed out to Zebedee Springs in the famous El Questro station unsure of what we were off to see. Of the 90 minute drive about an hour was on unsealed roads. A few corrugations, loose rocks and a little soft sand but not too bad. Glad we decided not to venture in with the caravan. Gunlom has put us off doing that again! Zebedee Springs was beautiful, 28 degree water with many small pools on varying levels separated by small water falls. Lots of people there so you progressively move into a better small pool as people leave. The children loved it (of course as it was swimming again!) and we shared a birthday morning tea for Imogen, a friend we have made while traveling and we have caught up with her family at each place we have stopped since Mataranka. We then attempted driving to Moonshine Gorge but a 40 metre wide water crossing up to 50cm deep put me off! Jake was disappointed- he thought there was no better time to learn how to 4 WD than then! Th disappointment was short lived as we headed off to Emma Gorge for the 1.6Km walk into the Gorge. I was lucky enough to be pack horse for the day so by the time I had completed the rocky hike I was able to tackle the very cold water and venture in for a swim! The sight at the end of the walk was stunning. The Gorge is cathedral like in shape with a smallish waterfall in one part and water droplets falling off ledges all around the remaining rock. Ferns were growing off the veritcal walls and the sun was just low enough that part was shaded and part sunny. Spectacular! I could have sat there for hours- it was a moving experience. This trip continues to leave me in absolute awe of nature. Hard to believe these wonderful things we are seeing/experiencing are here every day and I feel lucky to have witnessed them even for a few mintues. The children didn’t seem to appreciate it all as much as I did but that was mainly due to the cold water which limited their swimming enjoyment. The walk back (minus the weight of 3 Kgs water and lunches) was downhill and much more enjoyable. The colours of the gorge walls as the sun lowered were stunning. The water in the creek alongside us was so clear you could see all types of fish and the rocky bottom. This was all we got to see of El Questro and if the rest is anything like this we will have to come back one day.....

Day 32 Lake Argyle

We’re all awake especially early today, courtesy of the 1.5 hour time change between the NT and WA. 6:00 and everyone is raring to go. We’re making the 45 minute drive from Kununurra to Lake Argyle where we’ll board a boat for a sunset cruise on the lake. We spend the day at the caravan park located at the lake. Some ingenious soul has built a spectacular infinity pool overlooking the largest body of water in the country. The kids are beside themselves with excitement. Until they get in. ‘Freezing’ they report. I feel the water and estimate it’s about 22 degrees. The tough Victorians are going soft. Still, it’s a pool so they swim awhile and we have lunch until departure time. Sunset here is around 5:30 so the boat departs at 2:45. The skipper is cheerful and amazingly knowledgable about the local wildlife and the history of the dam. Lake Argyle was created in 1972 after a three year project to dam the Ord River. The amount of water it holds is astounding. I won’t bore you with all the facts (I’d invariably get them wrong and end up telling you 99% of the water in the entire world is located in the lake, or some other such nonsense I’d make up) but I will tell you that the water needed to raise the lake by 1 metre would satisfy Perth’s water requirements for 5 years. The trip takes about three hours and we spot numerous freshwater crocodiles (35,000 inhabit the lake), wallabies, birds and various other plant life. It’s breathtaking site after breathtaking site as we make our way around. The highlight for the kids is a swim in the middle of the lake capped off by all three kids and me (not Handbrake) jumping off the top of the roof of the boat, about 3 metres above the water. My highlight is a spectacular sunset over the escarpment and water to the west. Just about a perfect day. Tomorrow, I’m handing over the keys of the Blog to Sarah for a week or so. Expect much more talk about feelings and maybe some holding of hands. It will be great.

Day 31 Katherine Gorge- Kununurra

I was going to skip writing about today because it’s boring. Another drive, more school, movies etc. Boring, boring boring. However, today is the first of the Boab trees. They look like a tree from another planet. Seriously. There should be little green men congregating around each of these trees. The trees are native to parts of Africa, the Middle East and Australia. They have adapted to their harsh desert climes by storing water in a huge, bulbous trunk. I read that they can store up to 120,000 litres in their trunks and they can live to be 1,500 years old. So, I reckon that’s worth writing about. We make it to Kununurra, meet up with some of the families we have been traveling with the last few weeks and begin plans to see Australia’s inland sea. Tomorrow, Lake Argyle