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June 2003
We spent a quiet month mostly just going to the beach every day and enjoying
the domestic apartment life. They took the Stinger Net down June 12 and now
we can swim anywhere along the beach. Most of the Stingers “should be gone
now”. Comforting. The paper indicated that there might be dead box jelly
fish washed up on shore and we were hoping to see one, but we saw none.
If we venture further, we go to the Smithfield Library or shopping at
Smithfield Center. Nice bike paths the whole route. We went to a wine
tasting event at Smithfield Center one evening and took the bus. $8AU to try
over 50 Australian wines from 9 vendors. A nice event. One day we bussed
into Cairns to see about extending our VISA. The nice lady said that it
starts over when it is renewed … so we will not get the 3 or 6 month
extension we want from the end of our first 3 months .. but from the day it
is renewed. So we’ll wait til closer to August 13 when our first 3 months is
up.
And one day we booked a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef. The really nice
settled weather was gone just after the Queen’s Birthday weekend in early
June, so we had to take our chances. We got a somewhat calm day that was
mostly cloudy. We chose the cheapest boat and went out with only about 15
other tourists for $50AU each. Nice and friendly. It took 3 hours to get to
our first stop at Michaelmas Cay, a bird nesting sanctuary. I took an
Introductory SCUBA dive and Larry snorkeled. Just 2 of us did the dive and
it was great. It looks just like an aquarium and we got to touch some coral
and clams. Then we reboarded the boat and had a smorgasboard lunch while we
headed for Hastings Reef and more sealife. Larry took the Glass Bottom Boat
and saw lots of great fish and coral and such. The lady and I started our
second dive, but she had mask problems and I was on hold underwater. By the
time she got settled I was having panic attacks and went to the top. We
wound up both chickening out and just doing some snorkeling. That was toooo
bad, because this site has such beautiful creatures. The trip back was very
choppy and a few people lost their lunch. The rest were all crowded onto a
few benches under a shelter. Larry and I sat out in the seats and let the
wind and sea spray us. It was great. A German lady congratulated us in
German for being so brave. They were all freezing. Then we enjoyed a Chinese
buffet dinner at the Night Markets in Cairns and bussed home and slept like
babies. It rained for the next 2 days while we recuperated.
Another day we bussed to Cairns again to catch the Kuranda Scenic Railway.
In June a new Tilt Train began running between Cairns and Brisbane 3 times a
week. It replaces the previous train and cuts 7 hours off the travel time.
The Tilt Train was just loading, so we got to take a look. Then over to the
Kuranda track and aboard some 80 year old train cars for the 1 hour 45 min
ride to Kuranda. The railway is another of those engineering feats where
fortitude and dynamite and manual labor created 15 tunnels and 93 curves and
dozens of bridges and removed 2.3 million meters of earth through dense
jungle and cliffs with sheer drops up to 327 meters. It is a pretty route
through some of the oldest rainforest in the world to Kuranda, which is full
of shops. Larry enjoyed Devonshire tea at the Rail Station … fresh scones
with cream and jam with tea, while I roamed the shops. Then we had a great
German Wurst and headed for the Skyrail which took us back. It is the
world’s longest gondola cableway and takes you above the rainforest, almost
5 miles long. The ride stopped about midway due to a power outage, but we
got going again in about 10 minutes. That was exciting. That’s how we spent
Larry’s birthday.
One day we biked to a fish shop and got fresh green prawns. We peeled and
cleaned them .. yuck .. and marinated them with in and garlic and later
sautéed them a few minutes. We never had such wonderful sweet tender shrimp.
But we didn’t think we’d do it again because they were tooooo icky to clean.
Then I checked the fish display at Woolworths where we get groceries and
they have the raw prawns all nice and cleaned, so we got them twice and they
are just as wonderful. I paid $21AU for the prawns we had to clean and only
about $10AU for a half kilo of the cleaned ones. A bargain both ways.
So passed the month. We’re starting to look into Campervans to rent when we
leave here July 19 … our 34th wedding anniversary day. We’ll head north to
Port Douglas and Daintree and Cape Tribulation and west to Kuranda and the
Atherton Tablelands and Mareeba and back to Cairns to try to extend our VISA
in early August. Heidi sent us Jaime pics now that we have a real address
for awhile. And I lost my new bifocal sunglasses that I just got in
Christchurch for only $10NZ … knocked off my head by a big wave … so I
ordered a pair from California and got them in a week. The Internet and the
Post are wonderful.
The news of the month covered a divisive vote in the Labor Party and the US
ships docking for R&R in Sydney and Cairns and what kind of shenanigans they
would get into. A Uni student from Illinois drowned in the Mossman Gorge
north of here swimming after much rain and her foot got stuck between rocks
and her friends couldn’t free her and watched her die. Toooo sad. Should
they privatize Telstra, the major phone company? It is sugar cane harvesting
time and lots of warnings to watch for the narrow rail cane trains. Already
a big smash up between a truck and one of the trains. It seems they burn the
fields before harvesting so there will be much smoke. We haven’t seen that
yet.
July 2003
We decided on a Backpacker Campervan rental. It turns out to be a 1999
Toyota Britz Campervan with lots of kms on it. We rented it for 18 days, but
hope to keep it if our visas are renewed. Rental is about $58AU/day, where a
newer Britz might be about $80. There is a $2500 excess/deductible which we
choose not to lessen by paying more per day. They charge the $2500 when we
rent it. Unusual we think. Refunded when we return it undamaged.
So we continued to bask in the sun and enjoy our little home in Trinity
Beach. It was cloudy and windy much of the month. Unusual, say our landlords
Dot and Lawrie.
Our main outing for the month was to WildWorld in Palm Cove, a 5+ mile
bikeride. It is a zoo with all the wild animals of Australia. We saw koalas,
kangaroos, snakes, crocodiles, dingos, wombats and cassowaries. They had a
feeding or demonstration going on every half hour and the time flew. There
was a cane toad race and they wanted an international participation. So I
volunteered as an American, since there were no US children to play.
Cassowaries are an engendered bird, big like an emu but not as tall. They
have beautiful black feathers on its large body, a blue head, red wattle and
a bony looking crown on its head and a sharp knifelike claw on each foot. We
saw one in the wild later at Cape Tribulation and today spent the day at
Mission Beach looking for more. There are many many signs here warning to
watch for Cassowaries, but we haven’t seen any here so far. There are even
signs in the campground warning that a family of Cassowaries visits and
warns not to feed them. That’s why we’re here at this campground. But no
sightings yet.
We also went to the Cairns Show, a 3-day county fair-like event. We saw the
sights and enjoyed entertainment by Celtic and Scottish dancers, the Italian
Club, Rock & Roll Dancers and the Edelweiss Dancers. We saw sheep shearing,
horse jumping, chainsaw sculpture, a dog show and an interesting produce
judging.
We picked up our campervan on July 19, bought a 14” b&w TV that can be AC or
12-volt and loaded up on groceries. We’re hooked on TV. Who’d have thunk???
We spent our last night in our little apartment, cleaned it up and said
good-byes to Dot and Lawrie. We headed for Port Douglas on Sunday, not
realizing we should have booked a spot at a campground. Port Douglas is very
touristy. Bill Clinton and Tipper and Al Gore vacation there. We toured the
town and got in the last half hour of a Sunday Market. Then we had to
retrace our steps and hope the Big4 campground outside of town would have
room for us .. and it did. We had planned to spend a couple of nights at
Port Douglas and bike around … but instead we continued on. We visited
Daintree and took the ferry over to Cape Tribulation. Rainforest walks and
seeing the Cassowary were the highlights. It turned cool and we had to dig
out jackets for the first time since we left New Zealand. We didn’t get much
TV reception in some spots, but we were able to hook our MP3 player to the
TV and listen to Bill Bryson read In a Sunburned Country to us. It is very
cool to listen to Bill’s Australian experiences and follow where he’s been.
Then we spent a week in the Tablelands. This is a high area inland from
Cairns that is great farmland, growing sugar cane, maize, tea, coffee,
fruits, etc. Some of it could have been Wisconsin, if you ignored the
mountains in the background. We hiked Granite Gorge and saw rock wallabys,
saw banana trees, lots of waterfalls, lots of Plumed and Wandering Whistling
Ducks at a new 2-story blind near Atherton, camped at Lake Tinneroo and had
Devonshire teas at Lake Barrine and near Millaa Millaa Falls. We do have
fun. We saw lots of sugar cane harvesting activity and loaded train cars
around Mossman north of Port Douglas and saw a steam train loading for a
Sunday afternoon tourist run at Ravenshoe. We spent a night at Innot Hot
Springs and enjoyed for free a series of 7 pools where water heated by a hot
spring was diverted. We enjoyed Take-away fish and chips for $8 for 2,
delivered to our campervan at 6pm. Later 3 young boys ages 6, 9, 10
entertained us campers with songs and instruments including a digerdoo,
saxophone and tin whistles. The next morning I got a $10 haircut outside the
hairdresser lady’s camper. She really clipped me. At a lookout near Lake
Tinneroo we met Joan and Norman who have us lots of advice about what to see
all over Australia and some just picked avocados. We saw Joan again the next
day at the Yungaburra Saturday market. It was fun to know someone there.
Luckily she recognized and stopped me. She is going to email us the site of
a couple from Perth who are biking around the country. Maybe we can visit
them in Perth. And we might be able to visit Joan at her farm in Victoria in
summer. Another lady invited us to visit if we get north of Sydney.
The road south from Innot Hot Springs was a hoot. We had been told that the
road towards Alice Springs is one lane. Larry and I discuss if that means
just 1 lane, or 1 lane each way. Well … the road south was most of the time
just 1 lane .. for everybody … with nice red packed soil berms. We had to
hit the ditch everytime we met a car and reallllly get off and stop when we
met a roadtrain. We saw 30+ roadkill kangaroos, 5 live roos, a roadkill
feral pig and many many Brahma cattle, some in an unfenced field and free to
cross the road in front of us .. and they did. A dot on the map was a sheep
station, just a sign. Fuel was at a roadhouse miles from nowhere. Later we
learned that the road towards Alice Springs isn’t this bad .. just a short
distance with only 1 lane. I haven’t driven yet. It’s tooo scary.
Then we got back to the coast and stayed at some lovely campgrounds on the
ocean. We saw pineapple fields and enjoyed fresh pineapples and avocadoes
and passion fruit and citrus. We again had Devonshire Tea in this little
mountain town and 4-5 varieties of birds tried to share it with us. It was a
hoot. Very tame cheeky little feathered friends.
Next we return to Cairns to try to renew our visas. If we get the 6 month
extension we want, we’ll renew the campervan, drive to Alice Springs and
Uluru, Darwin and Perth. Then on to Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania and
Sydney, maybe Canberra via train or maybe the campervan. If not, we’ll make
up some other adventure.
Happy 1st birthday to our darling little granddaughter Jaime, Happy Birthday
to Ken and Sooz Boldt, Lorie Gedye, Judy Casler. Hope all of our readers in
Wisconsin get to Irish Fest mid-August in Milwaukee. Thanks to pharmacist
friend Jane Greischer and her co-workers for rushing out an order of my meds
to our Trinity Beach address.
We were very saddened by an email from Candy Green that husband Tom … daddy
to Shoshanna Hill who Larry worked with in Madison … did not make it through
a surgery to mend a hole in his heart. We spent a wonderful afternoon with
Tom and Candy in Christchurch and Easter church service with them and
daughter Hadassah. Our hearts go out to Candy and her family. They
celebrated the birth of their first grandchild a few weeks before Tom died.
Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ..…
August 2003
It’s been a busy month. We got our visas renewed for 6 more months .. no
worries .. just show proof of lots of $$$ and pay $190AU each … then got the
campervan until November 5 for drop off in Perth. We asked for a quote 6
months drop off in Sydney and the 3 month Perth option. The young woman
looked at us like we had 3 heads. She couldn’t handle 2 things. So we went
for the 3 months, thinking we might be sick of driving by the time we get to
Perth. We stocked up on supplies, got a big old frying pan and electric
kettle and audio tapes at an op shop, and sent little Jaime her birthday
present.
We set off and retraced the route to Townsville and Charters Towers and
continued west. Our first stop was at Pentland. An older woman traveling
alone in her 4W drive gave us advice on traveling in the Outback. The next
day we stopped at a lookout and a woman said we must go to Winton and
Longreach, well out of our way towards Alice Springs, but well worth it she
said. There was a rodeo going on at Mount Isa that we wanted to avoid, so we
headed to Winton. A bush poet performed at the Caravan Park and the Waltzing
Matilda Museum was great fun. Longreach had a woman and her guitar
entertaining us 2 nights and a couple with blue heeler dogs herding ducks,
to show us how they are trained. We attended a “smoko” at Banjos Outback
Shearing Shed on Sunday morning. A smoko, we found out, is morning tea. So
we enjoyed tea and bikkies following a fun entertainment and sheep shearing
and wool pressing. The Cattleman’s Museum is new and lovely with lots to
keep us learning for hours. We also enjoyed a visit to the Longreach School
of the Air. Each state has several such schools that teach the children in
remote sheep or cattle stations. It has long been handled by mail packets
and two-way radio lessons. These continue, but computer lessons and teaching
sessions are now in place in all areas that have dependable power sources.
We got to see a teacher working with a group of 5 year olds. It was great.
And Longreach is the home of Qantas airlines. We made lots of friends in
Longreach and exchanged names with a couple from Melbourne that we’ll visit.
We had 2 routes we could take to get to Mount Isa. One was longer, maybe
prettier, and went through Boulia, where people have witnessed alien type
lights late in the night. We chose the shorter route that took us to Kynuna.
Here Richard Magoffin runs a Waltzing Matilda Expo where you can camp for
free if you attend his $12 evening entertainment. The place is pretty worn
but is a bush experience. You can eat his bush tucker for $10. We didn’t
plan to, but started drinking with Mark and Maria Kamper from Sydney, our
camping neighbors, and soon it seemed the friendly thing to do. So we dined
on Diamantina duck, corned beef pancake type tucker, and other bush
delicacies. Then we adjourned to Richard’s theater and he told us the “real”
story of the Waltzing Matilda song. The Winton place presents it as a love
story Banjo Patterson wrote for Christina MacPherson. Richard has spent his
life proving that it is a political song about the sheep shearer’s uprising
of 1890. The shearers had just burned a shed full of lambs and a bloke got
killed and wound up in a billabong. Richard has the original 1895 manuscript
of the song that Christina wrote for Banjo. We got a glimpse of it the next
morning after we enjoyed Richard’s bush breakfast. Then we paid to tour the
museum and bought postcards. Larry noted that it’s amazing how much a free
campsite can cost. Another couple at the evening show is retired and travel
to rodeos and shows and such and run a snow cone/popcorn/lolly booth. They
drive an old ambulance and pull a caravan. They have a 100 liter chest
freezer in the ambulance for the snowcone ice and the stretcher has been
rebuilt to serve as the table for their stand. They’re having a ball.
On to Mount Isa where we didn’t do the tourist mine tour thing. We biked to
the Irish Club for a Guiness and shopped a little. Kampers were our
neighbors there too and we all had a nice night time wine session with Piet
and Marian from Holland. Mount Isa is pretty deserty .. dry. But it rained
all day Friday and we enjoyed a rest day. On the next day to the Barkley
Road House. Petrol went from $.749 at Mt. Isa (with a $30 purchase at
Woolworths) to $1.259 per liter. Everything there runs on diesel, thus high
prices. A brochure said no fruit and veggies could be brought from
Queensland into the Northern Territory. So we ate everything and peeled
remaining onions and garlic, as that might not be confiscated if peeled. But
we didn’t get stopped and our fridge smelled mighty powerful for many days.
And there’s no place to buy more fresh stuff until Alice Springs .. unless
you’re brave enough to shop at Tennant Creek. Stops at Tennant Creek and
Devil’s Marbles. Devil’s Marbles has a nice campground we’ll try on the way
back up towards Darwin. No power. It’ll be fun to see the Marbles at sunset.
Overnight at Barrow Creek .. a really bush pub and basic camping. It cost us
$9 that night. And we made more friends .. from Melbourne. We thought the
drive from Charters Towers to Alice might be boring .. just some class of
desert. But it is grand. It changes every few kms and is just gorgeous ..
especially thru our orange tinted sunglasses. The greens are so bright and
the red sand soooo red. Same for the trip to Ayers Rock/Uluru. The Red
Center is aptly named. The Ghan train goes from Adelaide to Alice Springs
twice a week. They are extending it to Darwin and we saw the part that is
complete and saw them working on the last few kms to Alice … fancy
equipment. It will be ready for passenger service from early February.
Got to Alice Springs the next day and parked the camper and left it there
for almost a week. We were putting around $40-100 worth of petrol in the
tank some of the long travel days. Ouch .. but were happy to have it to
purchase. We saw a road train put in $700 worth of petrol one day. So we
were happy to park it and bicycle around the Alice. We visited the Alice
Springs School of the Air, the Alice Springs Desert Park, the original Alice
Springs Telegraph Station, watched the Ghan train arrive and biked to
Simpson Gap. And we enjoyed a sumptuous date-shire tea at a date farm near
the campground. The campground offers entertainment most nights. We attended
a star watching talk, a didgeridoo performance and an Aussie musician
performance. And .. the Kampers were there too and we shared lots of beers.
Campers in all of the campgrounds are most outgoing, especially the retired
Aussies, and we make great friends in them all. We had 2 couples near us who
are staying at the campground for several months. They checked on us morning
and night and wanted to know how we spent the day and what we were doing
next. Too fun.
More supplies and the yummy free Sunday morning pancake breakfast at the
campground and off the 400+ km to Yulara campground and Uluru/Ayer’s Rock. A
3-day pass to the Kata Tjuta National Park costs $16.25 per person. Day 1 we
biked the flat 20km to Uluru. We spent some time in the Cultural Center, but
as we always get a late start, we saved most of it until Day 3. We thought
we might bike around the Rock, but wanted to do the path closer to the Rock
and didn’t know if the bike would be a bother to others. So we walked the
9.4km. We could have biked. Mark Kamper and little Charlie and Robbie were
at the campground playground and on their way to visit us when we got back
to the campground. They parked their big new Winnebago in Alice Springs and
rented a 4W drive for the Uluru/Olgas/Kings Canyon experience. After a few
beers we cleaned up and joined them for a wonderful buffet at their resort
complex and sampled our first barramundi, crocodile, kangaroo and emu. It
was sumptuous. Later we went out to the open air pub area and listened to an
Aussie singer. Little Robbie is blond curly haired and attracted a young
woman whose biological clock was humming and he got lots of attention and
lots of dancing. The blokes wanted to dance with Charlie too, but she was
toooo bashful .. like her Mum. We met a young man from County Meath west of
Dublin, Ireland. The next day we met 3 more. You could just see that they
are Irish. The 3 said they don’t say “top o’ the morning to ye” in Ireland.
They might say “how’s it going?” Who knew????????????? Mark and another
family we talked with at the buffet all climbed the Rock that day. The
family included a 5 year old girl and a 9 year old boy. Should we try to
climb it??????? It’s a pretty incredible climb.
Day 2 we drove the campervan to the Olgas/Kata Tjuta, 36 domes made up of
“glued together” rocks. The circuit was 7.4km and we weren’t up for it. We
decided to go just to the second Lookout, and return. It was such a climb
that we didn’t want to return that way .. and continued on to do the
circuit. Phewww … we are working wayyyyyyyyyy too hard. We returned and
stopped at the Sunset Viewing area for Uluru. Immediately a couple from
Adelaide started chatting and once again we could have made friends for
life. These people are soooooooooooooooo friendly. It’s great fun. Back to
the campground in the dark, but no kangaroos spotted. Darn.
Day 3 we returned to the Cultural Center. It is a cold windy day and the
rock is closed to climbing. Oh .. darnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. They have these nice
t-shirts that say “I didn’t climb Ayer’s Rock, but my Grandma/Grandpa did”.
Jaime would look soooooo cute in one of those. Then we drove 300km to King’s
Canyon to get ready for another hike the next day. We did the 6km hike up
the canyon and around the rim and back down. It was pretty wonderful. Our
friends .. who we now know as John and Freda Kidman from Adelaide ..
Nicole’s parents?? … from the Uluru Sunset viewing were just arriving and we
caught up on the previous days happenings. Fun.
We’ve seen a few camels in the wild, some at a camel farm, and one fenced in
with cattle. Mark Kamper says that the camel has an enzyme in their stomach
that allows them to digest harsh desert plants, like spinifex. Ranchers
might put a camel in with the stock. Then when the camel drinks from the
water supply, some of the saliva with the enzyme goes into the water and is
drunk in turn by the cattle, who can then more easily digest the desert
plants. Magic!! We haven’t seen wild emus or dingos yet but we saw some at
parks and such. And no roos yet … live ones … but lottts of roadkill roos.
We listen often to our copy of Bill Bryson reading “In a Sunburned
Country/Down Under” which tells of his travels in Australia. He is a hoooot.
Larry relates often to Bill’s reverie of selling it all and hanging around
Uluru for 20 years telling visitors “it’s different every day. Yes ..
reallllly.” We also love his friend Allen’s query .. “You mean they built a
desert museum? In the desert? And people pay money to see it?” Right. We
also often use his “It’s not what we expected” line from his book “A Walk in
the Woods” about his hike along the Appalachian Trail.
News of the days includes the release of the new Aussie Bible .. written in
Aussie vernacular. The Annunciation goes like the Angel Gabriel saying this:
“Hey Mary. You’re a pretty special Sheila. God’s got His eye on you.”
Happy September Birthday to nephew Mark Graczykowski and Gerry Meicher.
Back to Alice Springs for a few days and then on towards Darwin for
September. We may go to Gemstone and check into fossicking/gem hunting. A
night at Devil’s Marbles, Daly Waters. On to Katherine Gorge, Kakadu,
Darwin, Lichfield National Park, Matarenka Hot Springs. Can’t wait. We heard
about more “must do” boat trips peeeple did, that we’ll be broke if we do
even a couple. But we’ll have to see the saltwater crocodiles jump for a
chicken in the wild. We’ve seen it at Wild World. We hear there are mozzies/mosquitoes
at Kadadu. Noooooooooooooooo We have averaged $2250US for the 8 months to
August, but we kind of went over our fixed income for August .. mostly on
petrol. Guess September and October will be the same. Sorry kids. We’re
spending a little of the inheritance.
The weather has been grand. It gets nice and warm/hot in the day, is cool in
the shade, and downright cool at night. Every campground has a gorgeous pool
area, but the water is too dam#ed cold to go in. We are using our own
sleeping bags now with the campervan sheets and pillows and it’s good and
cozy. The ones they gave us are a little small and a little light. It was
windier than all get out 2 days in Alice. Flattened lots of houses in New
South Wales and Canberra. We heard of a flight from Sydney to Uluru in the
wind. They circled the airport a few times and the windows got covered with
red dust. They landed at Alice Springs instead and bussed to Yulara late
that night, but were happy to just be safely landed.
September 2003
We had another busy touristy month. Before we left the Alice again we
visited the bimonthly Todd Mall Market. Lots of fun things for sale, but we
just had a brat and some Asian food. And more supplies to see us to
Katherine. And of course the $60 in petrol. We got to Gem Tree mid afternoon
and signed up for fossicking the next morning. We could look for garnets or
zircons. We care about neither, so chose garnets, as the zircon route had
10km unsealed road and we had to drive the campervan to the site. There were
5 cars of fossickers and a lead ute. Each party had a jug of water, 2 big
pails, 4 sieves, a pick and a shovel. We spent the day loading a pail with
dirt the lead guy loosened, poured it into 2 dry sieves, sieved out the big
junk, picked out the useless rocks, poured the remainder into a wet sieve,
washed it in a pail of water, then tried to pick out what looked like garnet
and put them in a tin can. We left at 9 and had to return by 3:30. Then we
turned in our equipment in and took our little can of goodies inside and a
gem guy sorted the wheat from the chaff. He put our gem quality stones into
little baggies by size and we wound up with several baggies ranging from 4
to 7. Some of the folks did the zircon trip the previous day, so they can
design lovely jewelry with both. We had a few beers and nibblies and took a
nap before dinner. Then we got up and just went to bed. That was hard work!!
We wouldn’t have wanted to do it for 2 days running. One of the families
fossicking was a US Air Force family from Virginia who are stationed in
Alice Springs for a few years. The tour guide early on noted that we didn’t
sound Ozzie and we were talking about the US and our trip and such. A couple
next to us were taking in the conversation. The lady asked if we were always
speaking English to each other. She couldn’t quite pick up on what we were
speaking. I really chuckled. She thinks WE speak funny. After I found out
about the Air Force family, I was sort of wishing I hadn’t said so loud that
George Bush is an idiot. Not good for the young kids to hear maybe. Gem Tree
turned the generator off at 10pm and the stars were fantastic.
Off the next day and didn’t stay at Devils Marbles because people on the gem
trip said the loos were very smelly. Later the Kampers said they did stay
there and it was great. Oh well. The next morning we met a couple from
Darwin .. the first we’d met so far. They were headed to Cairns for their
oldest granddaughters wedding. Their name was Frame and she said she thought
she was Framed when she got married to Ken. He worked with computers and
people sometimes called him Main Frame. Ken told Larry that Rose is an ABC
.. Australian Born Chinese. Sounded naughty to us, but Ken didn’t act like
it was politically incorrect to say that. They recommended Lee Point as a
good campground area in Darwin.
We stopped at Daly Waters to see the much famed pub and see where Bill
Bryson and Allen had such a darned good time on their way to Alice. We
probably should have spent the night .. but I just couldn’t feature the bad
hangover I knew we’d have if we did. It is a pretty neat place. Underwear
hanging along the bar, mementos from folks everywhere .. and more tourists
and traffic than we’d seen on the road outside a town. Kampers camped there
also and had quite a night of it. Later we stopped at Fran’s in Larrimah for
Devonshire tea. That was quite another place. She talked our arm off and we
bought Barramundi wings and some little fruit pies. And got the card from
her hairdresser in Katherine. Instead of Daly Waters, we wanted to get to
Mataranka and soak in the hot springs. Behold .. Kampers were there and our
site was just near theirs. Good to see little Charli and Robbie again. There
were lots of wallabies and about 7 peacocks that visited the campers each
evening looking for handouts. There were also thousands of fruit bats/flying
foxes hanging in the trees near the springs all day and they all took off en
masse at sunset. Funny musty smell, otherwise just interesting. We had a
nice soak in the springs .. a constant 34° which sounded warmer than it was,
but nice. Then we cleaned up and went over to the bistro for some barramundi
and chips and joined Kampers to listen to a nice country western couple
croon.
We stayed another day and took a tour of the place the next day given by the
male part of the country western duo. Then we watched a showing of a film
“We of the Never Never” from a book of that title written by a woman who
came as a bride from Melbourne to the station that is now the campground and
National Park and where the film was made. It was a good story of a woman in
the outback in those days and the role of the Aboriginals on the station. We
had drinks that night with a couple from the Sunshine Coast who had just
visited their daughter and son-in-law who are traveling about, currently
working for 3 months on a cattle station west of Kununurra. Interesting
stories.
On to Katherine and hair cuts and some hot restful days .. again camped by
the Kampers .. for the last time as it turns out. A beautiful pool that is
just a bit chilly. More fruit bats in the area .. lots of birds. We caught
up on shopping and email, finally bought new camp chairs .. and decided what
to do about Katherine Gorge. Finally decided just to skip it .. too darned
hot .. and headed north to Kakadu and more heat. We checked into the Cooinda
campground for 2 nights because 2 were a bargain. We left in a few hours on
a Yellow Waters sunset boat cruise and saw lots of salty crocs and lots of
birds: darters, white bellied sea eagles, purple swamp hens, forest
kingfishers. The Aboriginal guide said that the darter dives in and spears a
fish, then comes up and tosses it in the air and catches it head first in
its mouth so the scales don’t hurt its mouth. And we saw that scenario
later. Cool stuff. And a most spectacular sunset. And beautiful water lilys
with big bowl size leaves and gorgeous pink flowers. Lots of info on
Aboriginal bush tucker and how they use the vegetation for food. The next
day we just did laundry and swam and lazed by the pool. It was
soooooooooooooooo hot. On the next day and wandered where we could in the
heat … Jabiru, a great Info center and some big rocks with Aboriginal
paintings. The next day we wound around inland to Bird Billabong, which
sounded great, but was 1.5 hour hike to it .. return or not? didn’t say ..
but too darned hot to manage it. A stop at a nice Winds on the Wetlands
center where we could see and learn in air conditioning. And lots of termite
mounds to admire.
On to Darwin and located Lee Point. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm .. the campground’s not on
the water .. but is close and the closest of any of the many available. So
we check in and set up and later take a path to the beach for sunset pics.
We took another path back and wound up not knowing where we were and
eventually found our way back to the road near the campground .. only to
discover we were inside the fence with multiple BIG signs saying it was
Commonwealth property and No Trespassing and such. Whoops. Hopped over the
barbed wire fence and safe once again. Phewwwwww …. Hope the security dogs
didn’t sense us. This place had 2 beautiful pools as warm as the hot
springs. Lots of dips there. Darwin has the Mindl Beach Sunset Markets on
Thur and Sun nights. We heard that people go down early, set up their chairs
on the beach, drink wine and eat delicious Asian food from the market
stalls. So we got right in step and set up early and polished off 2 bottles
of wine and took turns perusing the market for goodies. An excellent sunset,
great food, great music .. so we went both nights. The Sunday market was
much smaller than Thursday … both number of booths and the crowd. We were
surprised. We stayed a few days in Darwin and toured the Esplanade area, the
Museum where Bill Bryson saw the Cyclone Tracy exhibits from the major
cyclone that destroyed the area on Christmas 1974, had beers at Kitty
O’Sheas and biked to the Cassauaria Shopping Mall .. the largest in
Australia someone told us. And made frequent use of the pool. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
… nice.
Off to Litchfield National Park for the day. It has Magnetic termite mounds.
Something about other places the termites can burrow into the ground to stay
warm when it gets colder but they can’t at Litchfield so they build the
mounds due North South so they can make best use of the sun .. or some such
thing. And it’s not always due North South but can vary based on what else
is around .. and all of this is genetically engineered into the little
termite to know how to build it. Amazing. There are just all kinds of
different sizes and shapes and even colors of termite mounds all over
Australia. The termites grind up plant material and excrete and saliva the
mounds. A great add in a tourist magazine says “Even a big pile of crap is
exciting on tour”. But Litchfield mostly has several waterfalls and some
have plunge pools at the base of the falls you can swim in. It is very dry,
so not much water for the falls just now .. but some .. and the pools were
very nice indeed. We might have just continued on after our swim day, but
our new Kidman friends from the Uluru sunset experience highly recommended
the boat trip from the campground, so we spent the night and took the
Reynolds River cruise the next morning and it was great. It was lead by
David, who escaped with his family from Zimbabwe and Mugabe’s death squad 2
years ago after his brother-in-law and his brother were murdered. He had a
safari guide company there and got out with only 5% of his assets. An
American bloke recently bought a big cattle station near the campground and
offered David the chance to guide boat cruises on the river. So he picked us
up in a bus and took us through part of the station .. stopping to open and
close gates so no cattle escape .. and to the Reynolds River .. where his is
the only boat operating. It was very hot, so we didn’t see lots of crocs on
shore .. but did spot quite a few in the water .. both salties and freshies.
And more of the same birds we saw at Yellow Waters, plus Jabiro (black
storks), lots of goannas/monitors, feral pigs, wallabies and lots of Brahma
cattle the owner raises. And there were only 9 of us on the tour. Very good.
We headed back to Katherine and stayed at the Springvale Homestead
campground this time. The pool wasn’t as nice, but lots of wallabies came
out from sunset to sunrise .. all around our campervan .. and Larry spotted
a kookaburra in the tree above us the next morning. We’d seen a stuffed one
in the museum in Darwin and knew what to look for. The kookaburra is a
kingfisher. We tried to book a cruise of the Katherine Gorge for the next
morning, but couldn’t. The next day was a lazy one, so we decided to just go
out to the Gorge and try for the 3pm cruise, realizing that they may not
have all the listed cruises as the crowds are thinning. And sure enough ..
the last cruise was at 2:30 and was fully booked. So we just took a look
around and convinced ourselves that it is just like Wisconsin Dells anyway.
Off the next morning early and lots of driving west to Kununurra. On the way
we crossed the border into Western Australia and were stopped to make sure
we weren’t bringing any fruits, veggies or honey products over the border.
Nope .. we were clean. We buzzed the gut in Kununurra and picked out the Big
4 caravan park to stay in .. then followed a sign to the Melon Farm to stock
up on Western Australia produce. We got a big rockmelon./cantaloupe, small
honeydew, a piece of watermelon, some tomatoes and onions all for $7 and
asked the lady what else we shouldn’t miss in Kununurra. She said the Zebra
Rock place .. which we did give a miss .. and the Hoochery .. a rum
distillery. That sounded like our speed so we set out to follow her
directions. We missed the last tour but got samples in a quaint old barroom
setting and bought a bottle of Cane Royale .. a unique blend of Kimberly
Cane Spirits with chocolate and coffee. We always have beer, Southern
Comfort with Vanilla Diet Coke and a cask of merlot on hand .. but Larry had
just been thinking we might need an after dinner liqueur .. so this fit the
bill nicely. Then we went back to the campground, checked in and had a nice
swim. A lady took us around the campground on a golf cart and let us pick
out the site we wanted. That was a first. Classy place. I heard a bloke in
the pool and told him he didn’t sound like an Aussie. Turns out he came from
Dublin many years ago and married an Aussie woman .. so we had a nice visit
with them and got tips for traveling Europe. When they left an Aussie woman
took over and gave us some tips on traveling the west coast. She and her
husband sold all last year and have traveled the year .. soon to return to
Perth and decide what to do next. We meet so many Aussies who travel around
all the time .. or half the time .. or who have made a “lifestyle change”
and are moving on to the next adventure .. as soon as they figure out what
that is. This country seems not to have the “golden handcuffs” concept we
have in the states that keeps us shackled to our jobs all our lives. This
couple stayed 2+ weeks in a campground in Cape Range National Park where
they could catch red snapper from shore.
The next 2 days we drove and drove .. through the Kimberleys and saw
beautiful hills and lots of boab / bottle trees, each with its distinct
bottle or vase shape. We gave a miss to many gorges and to the Bungle
Bungles … rounded rock towers striped like tigers in alternate bands of
orange (silica) and black (lichen) .. as it required 4W drive or a
helicopter to see them. Fixed income and all … John Patterson from Adelaide,
who found our web site and invited us to visit, highly recommended a stop in
Derby and a meal at the Wharf Restaurant. So .. though it was a bit out of
the way .. we took John’s advice and found our way there for lunch. The
Wharf was waaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out on the wharf .. no signs or anything ..
and a great little outdoor seafood restaurant. We enjoyed the day’s special
.. King Prawns for $10. We each got a dozen boiled big prawns with shells
and heads and all. An order of chips, house Aioli sauce and some bottled
water and we had a great messy hands-on lunch for ourselves. I told the
hostess how a new friend from Adelaide told us about the place, and how they
drove the 200+km in hot dusty weather from Broome to enjoy the restaurant.
She told us that there is now just such a Wharf Restaurant in Broome ..
about 2 years new. Great news, eh John? We visited the Prison Boab Tree
where prisoners were locked up en route to Derby .. 14m in girth and over
1000 years old.
Onward and to Broome. Ruth and Sid Chapman from Melbourne, our first friends
just off the boat in Picton, South Island New Zealand last December, were on
holiday in Broome for a few days, with Ruth’s sister Gwyneth. As we were
close to the campground we had chosen, I saw that the resort they were
staying at was right there too. So we stopped in at reception and the woman
gave them a call. They were in!! So we swung around and had a joyous little
reunion with a couple we met 9 months ago for 10 minutes. Like I say ..
Aussies are VERY friendly. We agreed to go to dinner at the Broome Wharf
Restaurant the next evening. Larry and I scoped it out the next morning by
bike and found that it too is at the very end of nothing, way out at the
Port Authority building .. no signage and we wouldn’t have discovered it at
all if not for John. We saw that the Sun Pictures open-air cinema had a free
showing of old clips at 3pm so we let Sid and Ruth in on the free event.
They hiked on down and way after 3pm we decided it was a no-show, so we all
went to the pub for a few pitchers of beer and good craic. They answered
lots of Aussie questions we had and we some of theirs. Later we took a taxi
to the Wharf and enjoyed oysters and Barramundi and chips and lobster and
wine and garlic bread. We thought we might catch the 8:15 cinema, but that
didn’t work out. The next evening they had us over at their little apartment
for dinner and we brought lots of cheeses, crackers, bread, fruit, olives,
wine and they served a luscious chicken roast dinner with all the veggie
trimmings .. broccoli, peas, sweet potato, potatoes and such. They left the
next day to drive towards Perth. The neighborhood was lonely without them.
The campground closest to town is right on the ocean. We had a great view of
a beautiful turquoise bay .. so we stayed 5 nights and took plenty of swims.
Then we moved over to a fancy campground closer to Cable Beach, not on the
beach but close enough and with a great pool. Cable Beach is the prettier
beach in Broome, 21km of beautiful sand and sea. At sunset 3 companies offer
camel rides along the beach. We didn’t do the ride, enjoying instead
watching the camel parades and taking pics. Lots of people in 4W drives
descend on the beach for sunset. We biked to Gantheaume Point to see
beautiful rock cliffs and dinosaur tracks .. and a rock pool called
Anastsia’s Pool built by the lighthouse keeper for his arthritic wife to
soak in. Broome is big for pearling, but we didn’t do the tour. Ruth and Sid
and Gwyneth enjoyed it. Our last stop in Broome was at the Saturday morning
market at the Courthouse, which was fun. A great band that looked like it
came from the Ozarks. We just bought some food again and some produce. We
keep hoping some nice people will make some baked goods for such a market,
but noooooooooooooo … just Asian, brats and fruity shakes and such.
A long drive to Port Hedland and an OK campground on the sea .. nice pool
and a rest. And on to Onslow, then Exmouth and Lighthouse Caravan Park and
all sorts of fun things that will wait til next month. A fun scary siting
was 2 Wide Load vehicles that took up the entire road and carried a giant
Tonka truck type tractor with 12’ diameter wheels and a big scoop .. for
mining we presume. We drove 6200kms in September and bought $1003AU in
petrol.
Next month: emus, kangaroos, snorkeling from the beach, swimming with
dolphins, heaps of wild flowers .. and wine tasting in the Margaret River
area with a stop in Denmark. I spent my early years in Denmark, WI with
mother Margaret .. so we’re taking her memory along on a nostalgia trip. We
return the Britz campervan in Perth Nov. 5 and will be back to bikes and
trains.
Happy October birthdays to sister Lois and husband Dennis, nieces and nephew
Jody Van Deurzen and Tom and Meg Schiesl.
News of the month: President Bush is visiting here in October. We heard it
twice .. once in a letter to an editor wondering what Big Bush will ask of
Little Bush this time .. and a funny satirical CNNNN program that says W is
stopping off for 24 hours .. to sleep. Is this for real? They’re planning to
use Simon Crean .. head of the Opposition Labor party .. to act as an
anti-insomnia treatment if needed.
Check your local PBS type channel and see if there’s an Aussie program “Kath
and Kim”. It’s a hoot. Sad to hear that Johnnie Cash died .. and John
Ritter. Slim Dusty died here … a great balladeer and Aussie legend whose
hits include “A Pub With No Beer”.
October 2003
We covered the entire coast of Western Australia this month and it was
great. There are just so many great things to see and do. On the way to
Exmouth we started to see emus in the fields and lizards crossing the road.
Always something to be ready to brake for. The Lighthouse Caravan Park near
Exmouth had a daddy emu with 2 chicks wandering around most of the day
looking for attention and perhaps a handout. Mom emu lays the eggs and daddy
hatches them and takes care of the chicks until they are on their own. The
ocean and a snorkeling reef was just across the road. Turtles lay eggs in
the sand for the babes to hatch and move out into the ocean to begin life.
But not in October. Darn. Just down the road 17km was Ningaloo Marine Park
with great snorkeling beaches. We spent a day at Turquoise Bay where you
could just walk out into the water and drift toward a far shore and snorkel.
Beautiful water great coral and fish. I bought a mask and snorkel .. as
we’ll be finding snorkeling in lots of countries, n’est-ce pas? A couple we
met in Kununurra camped in the park for 2 weeks last fall and loved it. They
said you could catch all the snapper you could eat, right from shore. So we
checked out the Pilgrimara campground and it was beautiful. But it was
tooooo windy to stay and the sites were all taken. Schools were out for a 2
week spring break and some areas were very busy. On the way back to the
campground we saw many kangaroos hopping about, getting ready for a big feed
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