Wyndham

Here we were half way through July, half way through what is winter in the southern states and we were heading to the very north of Western Australia.  The weather and landscapes were perfect.  The town of Wyndham sits overlooking a dramatic coastline and has one of the world's best sunsets.

AS mentioned at the end of the last post we took the back road to Wyndham so that we could see Valentine and Middle Springs.  We had lunch at Black rock falls.

The closer that we got to Wyndham, the more amazing the country became. Incredible plateaus sitting atop the escarpments.

We set up camp at a local park and then hurriedly drove up to the lookout to watch the fantastic sunset.

That night in camp, we were disturbed by some drunks who broke out into a very loud and aggressive verbal argument.  They were attended to by the local constabulary.

On Monday, we vistied the large Aboriginal statues and watched a local aboriginal man carve into a boab seed with a pen knife.  He carved a picture of a bird, complete with textured feathers.  It was beautiful.

We learnt that boabs could be used for bush tucker. They would grind the innards of the boab seed into a powder and make damper out of it.  They would cook and grind the seeds, mix with kapock roots and make them into cakes.  They could also be mixed with water and honey to taste and then stewed like apples. The young roots were also able to be eaten.

We visited the big Croc, how could we not?  And of course had our photo take there.

Dairy Entry...."Went along Perry's Lagoon Road past Telegraph Hill (where an old World War One era telegraph station once stood) and onto Perry's Lagoon.  loads of Birds there.
I was driving.
We then continued on along Perry's Lagoon Road to the old Hall's Creek Road.  It was constructed in the 1850's for the Hall's Creek gold rush.  There are still lots of stone work intact today showing where the original old track ran.  I drove the 4WD track - it was loads of fun.  
We then popped out at the Great Northern Road Highway and went to the Grotto. 
Had lunch then climbed down inside the Grotto.  It was lovely cool and peaceful."

Kununurra

Crossing the border from the Northern Territory we set our clocks back by one and a half hours.  This meant that our lovely twilight evenings that had been perfect for camping, now were going to end early -we would be cooking and eating the evening meal in the dark.

View from above Kununurra Camp

I personally really like daylight saving as I am more a night person than a morning person.  So I found the lack of evening light disappointing.  It was one of the reasons I loved Northern Territory.

There were strict quarantine laws at the border to Western Australia.  No raw nuts, seeds, plants, fruit or vegetables.  We had finished all of our fresh food, but we decided to stash a packet of alfalfa seeds on the Northern Territory side of the border with the intention to retrieve them on the way back.

We were also slightly concerned that we were going to be embarrassed at the border by the fact that the back seat was littered with the half masticated detritus from the children's car snacks.  There was plenty of seeds, nuts, sultanas, banana skins and  apple cores kicking around on the seats and  in the foot zone, and we secretly hoped that customs would give the car car a jolly good detail for us.

Luckily, we didn't get called out for the appalling state of our car, so subsequently didn't get the free car detail either.  We were waved through the check point with a minimum of fuss.  Perhaps it was hoped that the children's treatment of the mushed up food mass decontaminated the potential of any introduced pests. Or maybe they willfully turned a blind eye, placing us into the too hard basket.

Having Jettisoned all of our fresh food, first stop was Coles in Kununurra to stock up.  We booked into the Kununurra Caravan park where we caught up on washing our clothes and removing the campsite grime from ourselves with lovely hot showers.
The landscape around the town was stunning with more of the lost city style of rock formations.

The town of Kununarra itself was quite pleasant and felt fairly new.  It had been built relatively recently to service the Ord River scheme.

However, even more famously, at the time that we were visiting Kununurra, the town was preparing for an influx of film crew for the block buster movie Australia starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.  There was an air of distinct excitement in the town as it was possibly the most exciting thing to happen to the town in a long time.  Budding future movie stars were seen preening themselves as they dreamed of being recognised as the next biggest talent in being a movie extra. They waited in intense anticipation, sunning themselves to create the perfect movie tan and practising their best facial angles, convinced that they were about to be discovered at any moment.
Kununurra was not a stranger to celebrities.
They have a celebrity tree park. Yes, it's true.
The trees have been planted by various celebrities, perhaps Nicole Kidman will be the next big name to grace the park.

On our second day in Kununurra, 14 July, we went to the Agricultural show. It was pretty cheap to get in, $10 for adults and $3 for kids. The show wasn't very big, but we had a ball.  There was musical entertainment, pavilions of livestock and produce, typical show rides and the best bit - novelty races.  The watermelon races (watermelons for shoes) were hilarious.
In the evening we bought our dinner from various stalls and headed into the bar, a fenced off area where we could enjoy a drink and still see the stage.
For dessert we bought some auctioned off cupcakes from the produce pavilion. What a cool idea, auctioning off all of the fresh exhibits. You could bid on cakes, fruits and vegetables.
We met and talked to some entrepreneurial Mirriwong people who sell some interesting art work,  They carve designs into the outer casing of boab seeds.  They look quite good and for $5 we bought one.  The kids also attempted to create their own on some boab seeds that we had found a long the way.

On Sunday, before heading north to Wyndham, we walked up behind our camp ground and climbed the Mini Bungle Bungles. For a short walk, it afforded fabulous views.

Next, on the back road to Wyndham.....

Gregory NP- Timber Creek - Keep NP

On the 9th of July we decided to move on to Bullita so that we could partake in the guided tour of Bullita homestead. However when we turned down the road to Bullita the sign said that all tracks in that part of the park were closed.  We were not sure if this also included the campsite at Bullita so to play it safe we headed to Timber Creek.

With all of this travelling on dirt roads in an old car, part of our suspension had come loose and we didn't want to risk it on the dirt road to Bullita.

In Timber Creek, we scored a campsite at the Wayside Inn. It was a bargain at only $13 for the night
In the morning in turned out we were lucky that we had chosen to pitch our tent on a slight rise.  The lady in the residence behind us had left the sprinkler on all night and water had inundated all the low lying areas of the camp ground. A couple next to us, from Grafton, got completely flooded out.  The water had pooled right under their tent and wet all of their gear. They were leaving that day and had to spend a bit of time drying out everything before they could get on the road. As they were going to be crossing the border later in the day into Western Australia, they had to get rid of all of their hessian sacks and fruit.  As it happened they had a big shopping bag full of Grafton oranges and mandarines  that they gave to us.  This of course has given us more to eat before we too could cross into Western Australia. We are not allowed to have nuts, seeds, honey, fruit or vegetables.  They actually stop you at a check point at the border and investigate whether you are carrying any contraband.
We were already madly eating our way through our supplies, and now we had even more to eat.  As we were to discover the close that we got to the border, people are only too happy to pile you with food stuffs.  If I am ever destitute and having trouble feeding myself, the Northern territory/ Western Australia border town camp areas would be a sensible place to go for a plethora of free tucker.

Having only stopped the single night at Timber Creek, we traveled onto Keep River National Park after lunch. We managed to get the car fixed along the way, so that was one worry less.
The camping ground we chose to stay at was called Gurrandalang and is set amongst Bungle Bungle type sandstone formations.  It is very pretty

As we keep heading west and no having swapped into a new time zone yet the sun get up quite late.  This suits me fine as I am not an early riser.  I can't really see the point in their being any daylight before about 7 am anyway. This, however, did not deter some very selfish and noisy campers who decided 6 am would be a splendid time to make a whole bunch of noise.

On the morning of the 11th we did the Gurrandalang walk. It was a really pleasant walk.  In the afternoon we looked at an Aboriginal Art Site called Cockatoo Dreaming.  The art was painted in a rocky arch that had grand views over the surrounding countryside.

Diary Entry..... The kids and I love the boab trees. They are so big and ugly, but cool too. So much Character.  The big ones look really old, like 100's of years old.

On the 12th, Steve and I did another walk while the kids stayed behind in the car park watching a video. While on the walk, we discovered Aboriginal Rock art in rocky overhangs.
After the walk we had lunch back at the campsite and then packed up.  Time to head to Western Australia..........

Katherine NT

Katherine sits on something of a crossroads, so anytime spent in the Northern Territory inevitably means that you will visit Katherine more than once.  We certainly did.  Travel arrangements and circumstances found us decending on Katherine numerous times during our travels in the Northern Territory.

After leaving Mary River Roadhouse we travelled onto Katherine and were confronted with no vacancy signs everywhere.  Our plans of staying at low level crossing camping ground were foiled as there were no sites available. After searching around a bit we found Mercure Four Seasons and scored a powered site with ensuite for $29 per night.  It was awfully luxurious to have our own ensuite.

Our time in Katherine was mostly spent catching up with the mundane things like school work, washing and shopping.  The children enjoyed having a network of paved roads around the camping ground to ride on with their scooters.

On the night of the 5 July, we met Steve's parents, Pat and Eric at Kumbidgee Tea Rooms on Gorge Road, Katehrine. Here we enjoyed a buffet dinner.  It offered picturesque outdoor dining over looking a duck pond.  The atmosphere was very relaxed and and great for families with kids. At only $14 per adult and $7 per child for all you could eat it was great value.  It was also BYO.

Low level crossing

On the 6 July, Steve's parents left Katherine and we farewelled them after a lunch at low level. We had a swim at the hotsprings, they were warm, but not hot.  It was a bit cool getting out.

Katherine  Hot Springs

After the parents left we investigated the library and discovered that it had a lot of children's books on CD......Oh so little time to really enjoy the offerings.

We ended up spending an extra night, which meant we could rip some CD's send a group email, and get some more shopping and school work done.  I made the diary observation that the promise of minities works wonders to get the kids doing their school work-amazing.

Flora River reserve

On the 8th we packed up camp and moved onto Flora River Reserve, where we had an explore and ate lunch. We decided that we didn't like it enough to camp there, so moved onto Gregory NP (east).  Here we set up camp for the night at Sullivan's Creek Campsite.  It was not far off the road, but still was quite a nice spot.

Kakadu

rock art Ubir

Ah Kakadu, you either love it or hate it.
Depending on the severity of the preceding wet season many areas can be off limits, which leads disappointed visitors to name the park "Kaka-don't".  I can certainly see how frustrating it can be to travel long distances to a genuine wilderness area in a once in a life time journey and find yourself prevented from fully enjoying the experience.

We, however, fell firmly into the Kakadu (do) camp.  We loved our time there and found that we could explore heaps and yet still leave some to come back to some other time in the future.  There were plenty of free camps to take advantage of, and many, many interesting walks (some ranger led) to enjoy.  It is the sort of experience that demands you get out of your car and explore.  This maybe why some people drive in and then drive out believing that there is not much to do or see there.

Ubir

We approached Kakadu from the northern end as we were coming from Darwin.  First stop for us was a wetlands walk at Malabanjbanjdju. We camped here for a few nights while we had a look around the northern part of Kakadu.  We dropped in on the Bowali waters visitors centre.

Ubir Rock

On the 27 June we stopped at Ubir Rock and explored the area.  The views were absolutely magnificent. There was a lot of rock art there, and it was all in amazing condition. Anna the ranger gave us very interesting insights into the rock and the aboriginal art that we were looking at.

view from Ubir

Gumlom

On the 28th we packed up camp and dropped into Jabiru to shop for supplies.  Jabiru is the commercial centre of Kakadu, where you find normal town amenities like a supermarket, petrol station, and town library. Then on our way south we visited the cultural centre.  There was a lot to look at there. Our destination for camp was Gumlom, in the southern part of Kakadu.  There we met Steve's parents, Pat and Eric, and two of their bushwalking friends Mary and Ray.

Koolpin Gorge

While staying at Gumlom we were very lucky to be able to access a special permit only area called Koolpin Gorge.

Koolpin

View down Koolpin Gorge

 Ray had a key, so we accessed the walk up the gorge and enjoyed the most magnificent views.  It was a very beautiful place and we had it to ourselves for a day, spectacular.

Rock pools at the top of waterfall walk

Back to reality and the rest of the tourists, over the next few days we enjoyed the regular sites with the rest of the crowds. The waterfall walk at Goomlom revealed gorgeous rock pools at the top of a steep, rocky climb.
Steve, Evan and I walked to the south Alligator river via Murril swamp.
Local Aboriginal rangers ran hands on information sessions, showing basket weaving and damper making.  It was a lovely experience, sitting back in the sunshine, trying our hand at local handicraft.

Sandy Billabong

Rock Art Nouralange

On the first of July we packed up camp from Gumlom and headed to Sandy Billabong.  On the way we stopped at Cooinda for lunch.  The campsite at Sandy Billabong was beautiful, tucked right next to the billabong.  The moon rising over the billabong was serene. But as the night wore on the tranquility and quietness turned a little sinister as I lay in our tent trying to sleep. Knowing our proximity to the billabong (eek crocodiles) and the parks reputation for dingoes, every noise outside had me imagining the most horrible and grizzly deaths I would endure as the thin nylon of my tent was going to offer no protection against the sharp fangs of these marauding predators.  Ah to wake up alive the next day, what a blessing.

 Nouralange Rock

Nouralange Rock

On the 2nd of July we visited Nouralange Rock and had lunch at Anbangbang Billabong. Our lunch consisted of vege sausages barbequed over paperbark.

Rock art Nouralange

Rock rt Nouralange

 The rock art at Nouralange was not quite as extensive as Ubir. But we climbed the lookout and discovered some very interesting rock art that was a bit off the beaten track.  It was really interesting and looked like it told a story.  The style was a bit different to the art work we had seen before, so it would have been wonderful to have an interpreter to tell us of its significance.  The view from the top of Nouralange Rock was great as you can see in the photo.

View from Nouralange

Lookout

Diary Entry 2/7/07
Even those who really love Kakadu still find the mozzies a problem. For us they haven't been too bad - The cold nights have substantially reduced the mozzie numbers. That's a good thing as it means we can enjoy being outside without being annoyed by buzzing, biting critters.

Jim Jim Falls

Jim Jim falls

Jim Jim Falls

Jim Jim Falls were not easy to get to, but were certainly worth it once we did.  It involved a rocky scramble to the falls base.  The falls were very tall and very impressive.  It was also nice and cool down in the ravine.  From the end of the track, another rocky scramble takes you across to a sandy beach where you can have a swim in a plunge pool.  Here, the water is freezing!

Diary Entry 3/7/07
We have had so long in Kakadu, but it doesn't feel like we have been here that long at all.  We have really enjoyed everything we have done - the fantastic scenery, amazing rock art and interesting walks.  There is still so much we could do too, but we will have to save it for another day and another trip.  I would definitely like to come back again, this is a GREAT PLACE!!!!

Our Campsite at Sandy Billabong started to get a bit busy and popular, so we decided that it was time to pack up camp and move on.  The kids had a ball playing at the billabong, running and jumping down the sandhill.  We wet our feet in the cool running creek, and Evan managed to lose his thongs, as they floated out into the main river.  Steve had to try and fish them out.  I was expecting a crocodile to come a long and snap them before Steve could capture them.  There was no such
excitement, however.
On our way back past our old camp site at Sandy Billabong, we saw a dingo prowling around looking for food scraps.  We had had our rubbish bag plundered a few days ago and weren't sure it it was by birds or a dingo.  Looks like it may have been a dingo.  I am just glad that they are too shy to try and plunder while we are there.
On our way out of Kakadu, we stopped at Cooinda for fuel.  Then we sadly left Kakadu proper and stopped at Mary River Roadhouse for a lunch of hot chip sandwiches. After lunch it was onward to Katherine and the next leg of our fantastic family adventure.

Farewell Darwin

Our time was rapidly coming to an end in Darwin.  We felt like we had been holed up there for quite long enough and it was time to get this family trip back on the road.
Before we left we looked through the amazing Darwin museum.  It took us 3 goes to see it all.

Saturday 23 June
Recipe seen at the museum from an old wartime women's weekly

Mock Sausages
1 cup of rolled oats
2 cups of salted water
boil these together for 15 minutes.
add 1 finely chopped onion
cool
add herbs to taste
add 1 cup of bread crumbs
shape into sausages
roll in flour
fry in hot oil.

I will have to try this on my elf children

Sarah and Evan after reading Eragon decided that they were going to become vegetarians like the Elves in the book.  I did try to make the sausages, and lets just say they sound far more tasty than they actually were.  Perhaps if we were starving with war time rations, they'd be ok, but they are no decent replacement for meat, that's for sure.

Sunday 24 June

We went to the beach - this will be the last time for a long time.
We visited the museum again.  Finally I feel like we have seen everything - it took 3 goes!
Good thing that it was free.
We did our grocery shopping to top up supplies.
Cooked seasoned chicken pieces and roast vegies in the camp oven on gas stove. Yummy.

Monday 25 June

Harry made a wonderful friend at the caravan park called Eddie.  They are travelling Oz for around 18 months while their house is built.

Bye Bye Darwin, we are off to Kakadu......

Canberra and dad's funeral

I was in Canberra for week.  In that time I was able to spend lots of time with mum, which was really special. We planned the funeral for dad and laid him to rest, just three months shy of his 80th birthday.  It was, as you'd expect, a hugely emotional time. But once it was passed I left wintry Canberra and jumped back on a plane and landed back in the tropical heat of Darwin. The trip had to go on.  I had to carry on. I think that I have said it before.  This was a trip of a life time, a family trip while the kids were still young, around our fantastic country.  I had to try and keep my head up and enjoy it.  And I did.  On many levels I did, but underneath it all was the seething emotions that were still there and could not be adequately dealt with.  And still the sibling squabbles continued, with lengthy phone calls about who did what to who and blah blah blah.  Everyone was emotionally wrought and this was fuelling the turmoil.  Before this I would have considered our sibling relationships as quite sound, I never would have predicted that we would all fall out.  It just goes to show what happens when a little bit of emotional stress is added to the mix.  For into the future we still had before us issues to deal with, such as mum's failing mental health as she gradually slipped into the ravages of old age dementia.  But that is another story for another time.....back to the funeral...

Dairy Entries for the days after the funeral:

June 20

Did some shopping with Shirley and mum.  Bought books for the children.
Had dinner at Lezah and Terry's.  Roast Pork, it was very nice.

June 21

Last day in Canberra.
I am very sad about leaving mum so soon after the funeral.
We walked to the Plaza to bank the money that mum gave me to pay for my flight.
We also paid the Hellenic Club for the wake.
Did some shopping, and then walked home for lunch.
Later we visited the cemetery to see dad's grave with all of the fresh flowers on top.  There was a family wreath of native flowers and a beautiful arrangement sent by Steve and the kids. Beautuful red roses, iris, gerbas and white carnations.

Had an early dinner.

Drove to the airport.  Gary brought Jaimi and the twins.  I drove the green machine (dad and mum's green Magna sedan, that Pa had dubbed the green machine as he was an avid Canberra Raiders Fan) with mum, Shirley and Bernie.
The twins (Chris and Nick) loved the planes.
I flew to Brisbane and then changed for Darwin.  The trip seemed to take a long time.  I feel very anxious to see Steve and the kids again, I have missed them so much.

June 22

Back in Darwin.
I caught a taxi to the tent, in the middle of the night.  Was worried about the bright headlights from the taxi waking up the entire campsite.
I woke up Harry to say hello.
Then had trouble falling asleep.  I felt smelly, so I got up and had a shower.  That improved things.

And now, after that interlude, it was back to the trip. Emotionally, fake it until you make it, because as I said before, life marches on, whether you are ready for it to or not......

June 19 - the funeral service

It was a bleak day, weather wise, as we prepared ourselves for dad's funeral.  Mum coped beautifully although she seemed a bit numb.  Understandable, really.

The service was held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pearce at 1pm.  The church was packed.  I was surprised at how many people turned up for the service, in the end it was standing room only.
Mum had her tennis ladies turn up for support, there were plenty of rellies form all over and of course the walking for pleasure group.

Dad was a bit of a funeral groupie and used to attend funerals for many of the far flung relatives.  I think he enjoyed the free tucker at the wake, or perhaps he was shoring up his bets for his own funeral.  I guess one of the worst thoughts would be if no one came to your funeral, it will be like you never really mattered.  He had some quirky ways.  Every morning he would check the obituaries in the newspaper, telling us that he always like to check that he wasn't in them.

Lezah and I shared the prayers of the faithful and read them out to the church.  The eulogy readers did a great job.  Murray, in particular, managed to tailor his eulogy to suit the varied audience that we had.

I was given the job of organising the wake.  I booked the Hellenic Club and organised food.  Way too much food in the end, as very few people from the church ended up coming to the wake.  I guess with the miserable weather, short days of mid-winter and lengthy distances to travel, people felt that they needed to get along home.

My dairy entry is as follows:

All went well.  Mum coped beautifully. Many people turned up. Church was almost full.  Was a foul day. weather wise so few came to the wake afterwards.  Still quite a good turn out, though.

When I later got back to my family in Darwin, I found out that they held their own special service for Pa at a park.  That was a nice touch for the kids.  It was sad that they couldn't come to say goodbye to their Pa, so they picked another meaningful way to do it.

A picture drawn by Sarah

June 13, 2007 RIP Dad, Pa, Ed.-

Wednesday the 13th June, unlucky number 13.
I was due to fly out to Canberra at 1am on 14th June.  Dad died at 1am 13th June.  Life is not like a movie script.  No death bed confessions, or rushing to just make it just in time for a loved one's last breath.  Life just marches on in it's mundane fashion and you are either there for the poignant moments or you're not.

Diary Entry:

We packed up and headed out of the Gorge.
Got a text message to ring mum as soon as possible......

I called as soon as I got to Katherine......Dad died at 1am this morning.

I missed seeing him by about 36 hours.

I will still head to Canberra for the funeral, which will probably be on Monday.

We had lunch at Katherine Hot Springs, there was no time for a swim.

We drove back to Darwin with a stop at Adelaide River for medicinal chocolate.

Set up camp at Lee Point Caravan Park again.

Steve drove me to the airport and I caught the 1am red eye flight to Canberra (via Melbourne).

From the beautiful warm tropics, long days, balmy nights and endless holidays to freezing cold Canberra.  Reality shock, a metaphoric as well as literal contrast.  From heaven into hell.  From a family who loved and supported me to one in utter turmoil at the loss of a loved parent and grandparent.  The ugly realities of life and death in stark contrast to the idyllic world that I had been inhabiting.

Thursday 14 June

Freezing cold at Canberra. Snow all around. Pete is stuck at Braidwood because of snow on the Kings Highway.
Cold Windy and Rainy.
Murray and Sharon picked me up from the airport.  They took me to Chifley.  Mum was very happy (teary) to see me.

Met with Julie the funeral director.  Murray, Gary, Lezah and Terry were there too - Peter via loud speaker on his phone.  I felt a quite cold reception from Lezah and Terry.

Mum and Gary are confirmed chocoholics.  Dark chocolate is their new vice.

Friday 15 June

Met with Father Laurie, the priest from Mum's church, to organise the service. We have decided to bury dad in a double plot - mum to go on top.
He is having a Roman Catholic service and being buried in the Roman Catholic section of Woden's Lawn cemetery- The Catholics got him in the end!

Got to come up with hymns and organise eulogies. I am a bit worried that Peter might go on a bit, he does like to talk! The Priest was looking worried too, as if he thought that the service might get out of hand.
We have decided to have eulogies from Murray, Pete and Terry, and a joint one from Emily, Leona, Jamie and Lou.

Saturday 16 June

Organising Order of Service.
I wrote out Prayer of the Faithful.

Everyone seemed pleased with the outcome.
Had a look around Woden Cemetery and picked a plot in the bit that we liked the best.  Mum and Pete came too.  We picked a spot under a gum tree with a 'view' towards the Football grounds.  Pretty sure Dad would like his final resting place.

Sunday 17 June

I had another look through the cemetery, this time with Gary, Murray, Sharon and mum.

It is a busy household at mum's with so many people coming and going.  We all just seem to keep eating, drinking tea and consuming chocolate.  I will be very cuddly by the time I get back to Darwin.

Monday 18 June

We picked the plot for dad's grave, and had our final meeting with Father Laurie and Julie.  The order of service has been finalised and dad's clothes organised.  We are burying him in nice warm clothes, must be something to do with it being winter here, and he was always complaining about how cold he felt in his last weeks of life.

Sarah, one of Pa's Grand kids, wearing the fishing hat

We will place a copy of Some Came Free (the first published book that he wrote), his walking for pleasure medals (though I think in retrospect, we decided against putting these in and left them out in case the grand kids wanted them.  I believe we currently have them hanging up in mum's nursing home bedroom), and his fishing hat on the coffin.  Apparently Pa was very proud that he had a picture of every grandchild wearing that fishing hat.  Here's one with Sarah, so he certainly got her.  The current hat is looking a bit more battered and has more badges on it than this photo, so the photo was taken a little while ago.

Shirley and Bernie (dad's cousin) turned up today from their home in Grafton, NSW.

Tomorrow is the funeral, and the subject on another post..........

Katherine Gorge

Monday June 11

WE got to Katherine Gorge last night after attending the Barunga Aboriginal Festival.  We are still hanging out with Steve's Parents, Pat and Eric.

It took a while to get organised and started today.
I rang Gary again.  Dad is still out of his coma and he had a big hug with Leona when she got back from Vanuatu.  Leona is dad's oldest (first) grandchild.  I got to talk to dad via Gary's mobile.  He put it on speaker phone for me.  Evan and Sarah said hello too.

We had a look at Nitmaluk visitor's centre and at the prices of the boat cruises and canoe hire.  We decided that they were very expensive and too commercial for us.  Therefore we have decided not to go on anything.

We had lunch at the campsite and then decided to go to Cutta Cutta Caves. (Cutta Cutta means starry)
It was a quick tour and a look around before we come back to the campsite for a nice hot shower and dinner.

Tuesday 12 June

Today we walked up the gorge. Sarah and Evan walked to Butterfly Gorge with Pat and Eric.  Harry walked with Steve and I to Pat's Lookout.  At times the going was frustratingly slow - Harry is not too keen of a walker.

The view out over the gorge was pretty - it involved a lot of walking to see it though.
We came back via the lookout and climbed down to the bottom of the gorge to wet our feet in the river.

It was nice to get back and have afternoon tea.

I rang home about Dad.  He has slipped back into his coma.  They say that it is unlikely that he will wake again...........

Still rambling about in Darwin and a side trip to the Barunga Aboriginal Festival

The next few dates in the diary are a bit sparse on detail.  I guess when I decided that I needed a stress break it included diary writing. June 4 through to 7 have only the following entries...
June 4
library
waterpark
museum
June 5
Territory Wildlife park
Wharf for dinner
June 6
Library
Water Park @ Leanyer

June 7
Dad's Hospise Clair Holland House main desk 02 62730336
Booked flight for next Thursday - 1am Virgin Blue
Friday, June 8 and things got back on track, it seems once the decision was made and enacted I could get back on with things.  The diary entries for the next few days are quite comprhensive.
Pack up Darwin.
Rang Dad @ hospise and spoke to him for a while. Sarah and Harry also spoke to him.
Met Pat and Eric

Barunga Aboriginal Festival

Able to camp with the community for only $5 per adult for the entire weekend.

There are lots of Aboriginal rock bands, and heaps of Aboriginal people. It's pretty cool really to be in such a cultural minority in your own country. It is great to see them all out celebrating, and without alcohol.

Tonight was freezing. After our balmy nights in Darwin the weather is quite a shock. We had to get into all of our winter stuff.  The children were keen to get to bed, being finally able to enjoy snuggling up to get warm.  It is even too cold for mosquitoes.

We met Steve's parents and decided to go to the Barunga Aboriginal festival with them.  It was a bit of culture shock for all of us.  Where Steve and I loved seeing the culture and the people in action, we were surprised that the thing most noticed and commented on by his parents was the rubbish and mess and untidiness.  Funny, Steve and I didn't really notice those things, festivals of any persuasion get messy....

Saturday June 9

Had a better look at the festival today. A lot more whiteys are here today, but we are still well in the minority!

There are lots of stalls set up to educate the Aboriginal people to eat healthy, Centrelink and other government services.  Most stalls give out free fruit to entice the people to come and have a look and take some information.  The children got free hats, t-shirts, sweat bands and a bag and bottle with autographs from Nova Kneebone, Tony Blackwood and a touch football star.

They danced to Yamba the Honey Ant which they really enjoyed.  We had never heard of yamba before but he is big in the Aboriginal community and on their TV station.

 

Tonight we went to a concert which had amazing decorations of massive fish made out of tissue paper and lit up like Chinese lanterns.  We were glad that we were able to have a fire to keep warm.

Sunday 10 June

Today is more of the same.  Lots of sport to watch and music to listen to.
We packed up after lunch to leave.  Unfortunately that means that we miss the bush tucker, spear throwing and masks of didge.  But as "community time" is a loose concept like "Island time" there is no guarantee that those things will be on.

Travelled to Katherine Gorge after Barunga and set up camp in the camping ground.  I phoned home to see how things are going.  Dad has gone into a coma, but woke briefly while I was on the phone talking to Gary.