Oh I do love a good family trip away. It is such a big to do, packing and cleaning and getting everyone in the car and trying to get away at a decent time.
We managed to get underway by 10am, which was one hour behind schedule, but pretty good considering. The traffic wasn't too bad up our end of the coast, well at least in the direction that we were travelling. I did feel sorry for those heading north as they reached the new bottle neck of Macksville. Every time a new section of road gets opened the bottle neck moves to another location just a little further along the road. The Beautiful Kempsey bypass is open and now Macksville is copping the endless lines of traffic, stretching for kilometres.
The thing that I like about travelling at Christmas time is all the silly bling that you see. Tinsel and lights, Christmas decorations and Santa hats abound everywhere. It's a nice way to break up the monotony of a long journey to be rewarded with random displays of silliness. We saw a few good ones on the way. The big brown dump truck up on a pole just outside Macksville that had a big inflatable Santa riding in the tray and the truck itself was adorned with reindeer antlers.
There were lots of cars dressed as reindeers too, or just sporting a nifty little bit of tinsel. It's so nice to have a time in the year where everyone can let their silly side out for a bit of a run.
Our intention this trip is to stay at various scout camps/ halls in lieu of accommodation. Our first stop was an over nighter at Woy Woy where we camped at the Kariong scout camp. It was a big regional camping ground like Glenreagh with amenties block, camp warden, dorms, activities and different camp spots. It was a bit of a hike to get into the camp, but we had trolleys to help us. When we booked it we kinda thought it would a little remote and we would pretty much have the place to ourselves. When we turned up at the car park there were about 30 other cars there. So this was not going to be a quiet camp by any stretch of the imagination. Bankstown Scouts were there and they were intent on having a raucous time. Luckily we were far enough away for it not to be an issue.
Unluckily, they were near the toilet blocks and we weren't. I had decided that a twinkle in the bush was going to be just fine for me as I was not too fussed on heading up to the toilets in the middle of the night. Steve was not so lucky. He came down with the tummy bug, and not only spent all day feeling extremely poorly, but decided to pick that night to get a bad case of the trots. He found himself haunting the toilet block for a goodly proportion of the night. By morning he was totally wrecked and could merely supervise the pack up of camp.
With another full day's travel, Steve was happy to sit back in air conditioned comfort while we drove along. Ellie travelled relatively well and managed to sleep through a good portion of the journey on both days. She coped so well in fact that I was bursting with milk by the time we reached camp on the first day. She was so interested in everything and the places that we were going, that a feed was pretty low on her priority list.
We got to Bateman's Bay around 3.30pm today after we had a stop in Nowra for lunch. We reaffirmed the fact that we are not overly enamoured of the place. Today, in particular, it was hot and sticky. We were pretty glad to be on our way again and back in the air conditioned car.
We will spend 6 days here in the Bateman's Bay scout hall. We are not allowed to camp inside, but we have full use of the kitchen and bathroom facilities. And we have the place to ourselves. The kids are busy, as I type this, pitching our big tent outside. We will sleep out there, but have a nice cool hall to retreat to in the heat of the day.
Tomorrow we head to Narooma to check out our old house and visit some old friends. I am looking forward to seeing the town again. Every time that we go there, some little things have changed and slowly it is starting to feel less and less like our Narooma. It's always a mixture of happy and sad heading back there. Happy to reminisce and see good friends, but sad that as is the case in life, things have a way of moving on and changing.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 December 2013
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Breastfeeding and hunger
I find that breastfeeding makes me really hungry. I remind myself of my chooks clucking around the backyard. The hens that are laying actively forage for food and go nuts every time they see someone come out of the backdoor, convinced that they are carrying scraps just for them. They are perpetually hungry, seeking out the choicest bits and squabbling over them with determination.
Just like those chooks I feel I am always a little bit hungry and always up for a bit of tucker if it's on offer. At dinner time I seem to eat enormous amounts and as main cook I am probably reserving the choicest bits for myself. I'm sure this is nature's way of ensuring that I definitely don't run the risk of losing weight while I am breastfeeding (and believe me I am not) but more importantly, ensuring that I maintain sufficient energy to support my baby's breast milk needs.
When Ellie was three weeks old I travelled to Canberra by plane to visit family. My siblings seemed very keen for my mum to meet Ellie as she had recently become bedridden and her prognosis was uncertain. While I was pregnant, with about 4 weeks to go, mum caught a urinary tract infection. It was discovered after she had been found a couple of times collapsed on the floor. The infection caused her to be put to bed and treated with antibiotics. In the time that she was convalescing she lost her ability to walk. In her dementia state she still believed that she was able to walk, but she just seemed to have lost the ability to understand the process of steps involved in walking. This was obviously a great shock to the family and there was a real fear that her downward progression may continue.
Leaving my husband and older children at home I left for Canberra wearing my 3 week old in a sling. There were a few hiccoughs to begin with. Ellie poohed through all of her clothing before we even got our of the airport car park in Coffs. So first stop was the baby change room in the terminal. The second difficulty occurred as Ellie and I were going through security before boarding the plane. The staff insisted that I take her out of the sling. I had other luggage too and a long line of waiting passengers behind me. Ellie was asleep and I struggled to try and get her out of the sling and to get the sling off. The staff were not allowed to help by holding her. Luckily, a mate of Steve's happened to be passing through the gate at around the same time and he pushed forward to the front and offered his assistance. He held the baby, much to the acute jealousy of the other females standing around, and I was then able to disentangle myself from the sling and pass it through the metal detector.
The rest of the trip worked out pretty smoothly with a transfer at Sydney, this time I was pre-warned about ensuring Ellie was not in her sling when I reached security. The connections involved short waits where I was able to pick up a snack. The flights provided snacks too, but never enough for a hungry breastfeeding mum. It felt like I needed two meals to everybody's one.
I hired a car in Canberra and stayed with my brother Murray and his wife, Sharon. It was lovely to be able to care for Ellie and have them look after me by cooking meals for me. Both Murray and Sharon are really good cooks and the meals were delicious. I definitely scraped my plate clean every time. By a few days into my visit, however, I noticed that my milk supply had radically dropped. Ellie was suckling constantly and seemed unable to be satisfied. My breasts felt really soft. I quickly realised that a few days of consuming not enough calories and of running around visiting people had taken its toll on my reserves. Here I was still recovering from birth, being much more physically active than a mum of three week old should be and although eating a good diet, it was only enough for one adult, not one breastfeeding mum with a baby totally dependant on her for all her calorific needs.
The solution to this problem was to immediately cease all social interaction, and go to bed with my baby. I literally just ate and slept and fed for a full 24 hours. It did the trick and my supply jumped back up again.
I have noticed that at various times during the past nine months I have had days where I feel almost constantly hungry. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner are barely enough. Just in the past week I directly correlated my sudden increased need for food with a period of night waking that Ellie had gone through a few days earlier. For two or three nights she seemed to be waking hourly for drinks. Most nights I am aware that she'll have one or two suckles, but I am barely awake enough to notice. But for these few nights, she was waking repeatedly and suckling for extended periods of time. It was exhausting and I was wondering what was going on.
What was going on was that for whatever reason, growth spurt or increased activity levels, thus increased calorie needs, Ellie was lifting my supply to meet her new needs. I just happened be a few days behind her. Now her needs have settled, either her need for increased calories has passed , or my supply has lifted to meet her new needs, and I now find myself incredibly hungry. The extra milk that I need to make to meet Ellie's needs is made out of the food I consume. So Ellie needs more of my milk, I need more food. That has left me back foraging in the cupboards between meals wondering what to eat and feeling like a mother hen scratching around for scraps and leftovers.
Just like those chooks I feel I am always a little bit hungry and always up for a bit of tucker if it's on offer. At dinner time I seem to eat enormous amounts and as main cook I am probably reserving the choicest bits for myself. I'm sure this is nature's way of ensuring that I definitely don't run the risk of losing weight while I am breastfeeding (and believe me I am not) but more importantly, ensuring that I maintain sufficient energy to support my baby's breast milk needs.
Leaving my husband and older children at home I left for Canberra wearing my 3 week old in a sling. There were a few hiccoughs to begin with. Ellie poohed through all of her clothing before we even got our of the airport car park in Coffs. So first stop was the baby change room in the terminal. The second difficulty occurred as Ellie and I were going through security before boarding the plane. The staff insisted that I take her out of the sling. I had other luggage too and a long line of waiting passengers behind me. Ellie was asleep and I struggled to try and get her out of the sling and to get the sling off. The staff were not allowed to help by holding her. Luckily, a mate of Steve's happened to be passing through the gate at around the same time and he pushed forward to the front and offered his assistance. He held the baby, much to the acute jealousy of the other females standing around, and I was then able to disentangle myself from the sling and pass it through the metal detector.
The rest of the trip worked out pretty smoothly with a transfer at Sydney, this time I was pre-warned about ensuring Ellie was not in her sling when I reached security. The connections involved short waits where I was able to pick up a snack. The flights provided snacks too, but never enough for a hungry breastfeeding mum. It felt like I needed two meals to everybody's one.
I hired a car in Canberra and stayed with my brother Murray and his wife, Sharon. It was lovely to be able to care for Ellie and have them look after me by cooking meals for me. Both Murray and Sharon are really good cooks and the meals were delicious. I definitely scraped my plate clean every time. By a few days into my visit, however, I noticed that my milk supply had radically dropped. Ellie was suckling constantly and seemed unable to be satisfied. My breasts felt really soft. I quickly realised that a few days of consuming not enough calories and of running around visiting people had taken its toll on my reserves. Here I was still recovering from birth, being much more physically active than a mum of three week old should be and although eating a good diet, it was only enough for one adult, not one breastfeeding mum with a baby totally dependant on her for all her calorific needs.
The solution to this problem was to immediately cease all social interaction, and go to bed with my baby. I literally just ate and slept and fed for a full 24 hours. It did the trick and my supply jumped back up again.
I have noticed that at various times during the past nine months I have had days where I feel almost constantly hungry. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner are barely enough. Just in the past week I directly correlated my sudden increased need for food with a period of night waking that Ellie had gone through a few days earlier. For two or three nights she seemed to be waking hourly for drinks. Most nights I am aware that she'll have one or two suckles, but I am barely awake enough to notice. But for these few nights, she was waking repeatedly and suckling for extended periods of time. It was exhausting and I was wondering what was going on.
What was going on was that for whatever reason, growth spurt or increased activity levels, thus increased calorie needs, Ellie was lifting my supply to meet her new needs. I just happened be a few days behind her. Now her needs have settled, either her need for increased calories has passed , or my supply has lifted to meet her new needs, and I now find myself incredibly hungry. The extra milk that I need to make to meet Ellie's needs is made out of the food I consume. So Ellie needs more of my milk, I need more food. That has left me back foraging in the cupboards between meals wondering what to eat and feeling like a mother hen scratching around for scraps and leftovers.
Sunday, 3 November 2013
Jamboree 2010
We had 2 of our children go to AJ2010, Sarah was 14 and Evan was 12. Sarah was pretty laid back and confident about being away from home for almost 2 weeks. Evan being younger was a bit more nervous. Evan called home regularly and tried to get Sarah to as well, but she was always far too busy. As Jamboree headed toward its close, we started to think that Sarah did not miss us at all and she was far too busy having fun to be bothered contacting her parents, then we received this long missive from her. She had been busily writing it all through jamboree. It makes a great memento of the wonderful time that she had there. This is how it went......
1a
2/1/10
Dear Mum, Dad and Harry,
its only the first day here and already we're exhausted and have had some minor adventures. We all have our bags and stretchers safely back in our tents now, off ground in case water leaks in. After hardly sleeping a wink on those rock-hard bus seats and almost dieing (sic) from heat and hunger between breakfast and lunch as we slaved away at
1b
our tents, our stretchers are like heaven. Insects are definitely out in force, especailly (sic) those tiny black ant (sic) who we had to firmly relocate from our tents, patrol boxes and kitchen gear. It was quite an itchy challenge taking everything out of the ant-hill/shipping container, which, I might add, needs a very good water proofing! The tents, too, are letting the edge of my
2a
stretcher become damp! And other troops, one not two sites away, have nylon dome tents! We have heavy leaky patrol tents that will easily let in another insect which is much more deadly than a black ant. I haven't seen one yet, but there are warning signs on the way into Cataract. Oh and I haven't told about the gateway. You'd have to be blind to miss it, 4 identical,
2b
massive concrete arches. I have a badge showing it. The weather has been balmy with random showers, and, just five minutes ago a thunder storm. Not much different from Coffs Harbour.
6/1/10
Its our fourth day here at cataract and the 2nd day of the official Jamboree. When we got here 4 days ago our campsite looked like a paddock with NSW camps
3a
dotted around. The, the next day, the spare spaces started to fill up and now we have to walk around on the paths between camps. On the 2nd we were allowed to walk around and the badge trading began.
As you walk along the main road between sub-camps you are asked which state your (sic) from by scouts wanting contingent badges. We've got our troop badge which is one of four from all the troops from North Coast NSW.
3b
All four, plus a region badge, join together to make a set. I have all the badges in that set. I also have all the sub-camp badges, which make an octagon when put together, with Aquarius in the middle. All the sub-camps are named after constellations. There is Andromeda, Gemini, Orion, Taurus, Aries, Leo, Pegasus, Aquarius and Scorpius. (sic)
Its really fun putting our troop pegs on peoples clothing without them noticing.
4a
We made these pegs yesterday and used them up yesterday. It says, "you have been bitten by the NC123 bat colony" and has a cute picture of a bat on the peg too. I am writing this on the bus to Jamberoo water park, where we will stay for the day. Last night was the opening ceremony. There was fireworks and a live band. Me and five friends from my troop got to a metre from the
4b
front row, where there was no room to move. Tonight's a rock night, though I don't think I'll have any voice left to scream with.
11/1/10
Jamberoo was great. The best ride was the Taipan. It was pitch black, in a raft, down 200m curving back and forth. Today is the 11th of January and more than halfway through Jamboree. I'm still tired and still having
5a
Fun. I miss you all loads!
The day after we went to Jamberoo we did adventurous activities. Our package included BMX, Challenge Valley and Laser Skirmish. BMX- I only went round the track 3 times but stacked twice. It was hard. Challenge Valley was run by venturers and was like a big commando course with mud and water in more than half the activities. By Laser Skirmish we were so tired, but it was fun.The day after that we had Endurance 2010. It lasted all day with 17 bases. We only had to do ten, we did 11. We skipped both the skirmishes in which you get died (sic) red with water. One of my favourites was rock climbing. There was also abseiling, mega board games, a maze & first aid.
We almost missed the bus out.
The day after, we did Brownsea Island. It re-enacted some of the activities @ the first scout camp. We did animal tracking, knotting nets & Law & Promise, and Pioneering. That afternoon we went 2 Cirque du Scout. That was awesome. We painted each others faces, practised 4 types of juggling & did trampolining.
Two days ago was market Day (Visitor Day) we had the day off to try and raise lunas (Jamboree Market Day Money). Vicki came and visited our camp. We were duty patrol that day. Our troop made an Emoo Steak stand and raised over 200 lunas.
Yesterday we went to water activities in Chowder Bay. There was canoeing, kiaking (sic), swimming, snorkelling, a ferry ride and a scenic walk. Candle was at the snorkelling base. The ferry ride was fun because we could go right on top and see all round Sydney Harbour. Today we had another lot of adventurous activities. We had Waterslides, giant swing and high Ropes. The waterslide was just like the ones @ the Big Banana and the giant swing was awesome! I was pretty good @ high ropes though it was scary.
5b
Hope u are all well
Lots of Love,
Sarah
.......What an amazing letter that gave us so much detail about what she did at Jamboree. Three years later, at the beginning of this year, Evan got to Go to his second Jamboree, AJ2013. From being one of the youngest last time, this time he was one of the oldest. Gone was the nervous boy. How many phone calls did we receive from him this time?
None.
How many letters home?
None
Not a single word, even though he knew he was going to have a baby brother or sister enter the world very soon, possibly even while he was away.
I am told it's a good sign if you don't hear from them, they are obviously having too great of a time.
From conversations with him when he got back, he did indeed have a ball, but with no written record I fear the details of his big adventure may become obscured by time.
Next it will be Harry's turn in 2016 to experience his first Jamboree, AJ2016.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfMKe-QwNNw
2/1/10
Dear Mum, Dad and Harry,
its only the first day here and already we're exhausted and have had some minor adventures. We all have our bags and stretchers safely back in our tents now, off ground in case water leaks in. After hardly sleeping a wink on those rock-hard bus seats and almost dieing (sic) from heat and hunger between breakfast and lunch as we slaved away at
1b
our tents, our stretchers are like heaven. Insects are definitely out in force, especailly (sic) those tiny black ant (sic) who we had to firmly relocate from our tents, patrol boxes and kitchen gear. It was quite an itchy challenge taking everything out of the ant-hill/shipping container, which, I might add, needs a very good water proofing! The tents, too, are letting the edge of my
2a
stretcher become damp! And other troops, one not two sites away, have nylon dome tents! We have heavy leaky patrol tents that will easily let in another insect which is much more deadly than a black ant. I haven't seen one yet, but there are warning signs on the way into Cataract. Oh and I haven't told about the gateway. You'd have to be blind to miss it, 4 identical,
2b
massive concrete arches. I have a badge showing it. The weather has been balmy with random showers, and, just five minutes ago a thunder storm. Not much different from Coffs Harbour.
6/1/10
Its our fourth day here at cataract and the 2nd day of the official Jamboree. When we got here 4 days ago our campsite looked like a paddock with NSW camps
3a
dotted around. The, the next day, the spare spaces started to fill up and now we have to walk around on the paths between camps. On the 2nd we were allowed to walk around and the badge trading began.
As you walk along the main road between sub-camps you are asked which state your (sic) from by scouts wanting contingent badges. We've got our troop badge which is one of four from all the troops from North Coast NSW.
3b
All four, plus a region badge, join together to make a set. I have all the badges in that set. I also have all the sub-camp badges, which make an octagon when put together, with Aquarius in the middle. All the sub-camps are named after constellations. There is Andromeda, Gemini, Orion, Taurus, Aries, Leo, Pegasus, Aquarius and Scorpius. (sic)
Its really fun putting our troop pegs on peoples clothing without them noticing.
4a
We made these pegs yesterday and used them up yesterday. It says, "you have been bitten by the NC123 bat colony" and has a cute picture of a bat on the peg too. I am writing this on the bus to Jamberoo water park, where we will stay for the day. Last night was the opening ceremony. There was fireworks and a live band. Me and five friends from my troop got to a metre from the
4b
front row, where there was no room to move. Tonight's a rock night, though I don't think I'll have any voice left to scream with.
11/1/10
Jamberoo was great. The best ride was the Taipan. It was pitch black, in a raft, down 200m curving back and forth. Today is the 11th of January and more than halfway through Jamboree. I'm still tired and still having
5a
Fun. I miss you all loads!
The day after we went to Jamberoo we did adventurous activities. Our package included BMX, Challenge Valley and Laser Skirmish. BMX- I only went round the track 3 times but stacked twice. It was hard. Challenge Valley was run by venturers and was like a big commando course with mud and water in more than half the activities. By Laser Skirmish we were so tired, but it was fun.The day after that we had Endurance 2010. It lasted all day with 17 bases. We only had to do ten, we did 11. We skipped both the skirmishes in which you get died (sic) red with water. One of my favourites was rock climbing. There was also abseiling, mega board games, a maze & first aid.
We almost missed the bus out.
The day after, we did Brownsea Island. It re-enacted some of the activities @ the first scout camp. We did animal tracking, knotting nets & Law & Promise, and Pioneering. That afternoon we went 2 Cirque du Scout. That was awesome. We painted each others faces, practised 4 types of juggling & did trampolining.
Two days ago was market Day (Visitor Day) we had the day off to try and raise lunas (Jamboree Market Day Money). Vicki came and visited our camp. We were duty patrol that day. Our troop made an Emoo Steak stand and raised over 200 lunas.
Yesterday we went to water activities in Chowder Bay. There was canoeing, kiaking (sic), swimming, snorkelling, a ferry ride and a scenic walk. Candle was at the snorkelling base. The ferry ride was fun because we could go right on top and see all round Sydney Harbour. Today we had another lot of adventurous activities. We had Waterslides, giant swing and high Ropes. The waterslide was just like the ones @ the Big Banana and the giant swing was awesome! I was pretty good @ high ropes though it was scary.
5b
Hope u are all well
Lots of Love,
Sarah
.......What an amazing letter that gave us so much detail about what she did at Jamboree. Three years later, at the beginning of this year, Evan got to Go to his second Jamboree, AJ2013. From being one of the youngest last time, this time he was one of the oldest. Gone was the nervous boy. How many phone calls did we receive from him this time?
None.
How many letters home?
None
Not a single word, even though he knew he was going to have a baby brother or sister enter the world very soon, possibly even while he was away.
I am told it's a good sign if you don't hear from them, they are obviously having too great of a time.
From conversations with him when he got back, he did indeed have a ball, but with no written record I fear the details of his big adventure may become obscured by time.
Next it will be Harry's turn in 2016 to experience his first Jamboree, AJ2016.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfMKe-QwNNw
Monday, 28 October 2013
More travels around Oz
I thought it was time to post another piece of writing about our round Australia trip in 2007. This email follows on from the last one......
27/07/07
We sent our last e-mail from Katherine
library and had no intention of returning to Katherine again in this trip. Well we are back and will explain why a
little later. First, we will describe
what has been happening in the intervening period.
We left Katherine with no firm plan in
mind. Just that heading west sounded
like a good idea, as the night time temperatures seemed far too cold for us to
venture south yet.
First stop was Flora River Nature Reserve
where we intended to camp, but didn’t really like it there so continued further
down the Victoria Hwy. As we approached
Gregory River National park the scenery became quite spectacular. The mountain ranges are amazing. It never ceases to amaze us just how many
spectacular, and different landscapes Australia has to offer.
We opted to camp over night in the first
section of Gregory River NP at Sullivan’s creek. It was quite a nice camp, but a bit too close
to the highway.
The next day we visited Victoria River Road
House and did a few interesting walks in the area, again catching stunning
views of the landscape of the East Kimberley’s.
We wanted to go on a ranger guided tour of Bullita Homestead in the
second section of Gregory and perhaps checkout some 4wd tracks. We made it as far as the turn off when upon
investigating a nasty banging and clanking noise from under the car we
discovered a broken bit of suspension.
Not good for tackling dirt roads, so we turned around and headed onto
Timber Creek in the hope that they could fix it.
Not normally a place we’d stay, the wild
west looking town of Timber Creek played host to us that night. The people in the tent next to us got flooded
by the park’s sprinkler, turned out they were from Grafton. They were loaded up with beautiful home grown
oranges and mandarines, but as they were heading west they gave them all to
us. Already with a large bag of fruit of
our own to eat and now a whole lot more we set ourselves the task of eating all
of this fruit in the three days it was going to take us to reach the border.
Our car got fixed the next day and we moved
onto Keep River NP, still in NT but only just.
We visited Grergory’s camp on the
banks of the Victoria River where you can still see the carved incriptions
dated 1855 on the boab trees around the camp. Keep River treated us to views of
Bungle Bungle type sandstone formations, very impressive. We spent a few nights there doing the walks
and eating fruit, and eating fruit. No
wonder they had to pump out the pit toilets while we were there.
Fueled by scary stories about border
checkposts with surly customs officials, sniffer dogs and fine tooth combs we
tentatively made our way to the NT/WA border.
With three kids in the back of our car our back seat and carpet were a
quarantine breach just waiting to be discovered. (We were secretly hoping that they would
vacuum out our car for us). But the
border crossing was a non event with barely a look at us as we sailed through with
mouldy apple cores and fair sprinkling of raw nuts and seeds through the kids
zone in the back seat of the car. And no
we didn’t get our car fully detailed by the WA customs service, damn.
We headed straight to Kununurra where we
spent 3 nights.The caravan park where we stayed was over run with young
backpackers and movie star extra hopefuls.
The new Baz Lurman epic Australia was due to set up filmimg in Kununurra soon and a few were waiting
around in the hope of getting discovered.
One particularly unattractive man spent a lot of time in various poses,
obvioiusly trying to work out his best side.
We moved onto Wyndham for 4 nights and
watched a most amazing sunset over Cambridge Gulf. We ate the best fish and chips I have ever
tasted (fresh Barramundi) served by a tattooed man whose face was totally and
completely covered by tattooes. He was a
tourist attraction all in himself. We
visited Parry’s lagoon for some bird watching, Emma drove the Old Hall’s Creek
Road in 4wd. The road still has some of
its original stone work on it. Emma had
a hoot, Steve had very white knuckles (it’s not so much fun in the passenger
seat). Next day Steve got his go at
4wding taking us for a trip down the King River Road past a massive boab that
was still alive but could fit about a dozen people inside it, known as the
prison tree. We tackled the Kurunji
Track which traverses through El Questro on the western side of the Cockburn
range. The Cockburn range is
amazing. We came out onto the famed Gibb
River Road at the Pentecost River.
The following day we re-entered El Questro
and walked up Emma Gorge. Had to go
because of its name. Although it was
beautiful it was hard to justify the $15 it cost us for the pleasure when there
are so many other beautiful and free gorges to explore in Australia. On the way back to camp that night we got our
third flat tyre in two days. The local
servo at Wyndham loved us.
Having come this far we desperately wanted
to keep going west. But we had to bite
the bullet and turn around at some stage.
So reluctantly we decided to save Broome for another trip and turned
back towards the East.
We stopped off at Lake Argyle for a look at
the massive expanse of water (many many times the size of Sydney Harbour). It was created by damming the Ord River and
still has not realised it’s full irrigation potential. We decided against staying at the lake and
made our way back over the border to Keep River NP again. We really liked it there the first time so
decided to checkout another campsite further into the park.
After only one night we moved onto the
Bullita homestead campsite back in Gregory River. Many of the 4wd tracks that we wanted to
tackle were shut because of late unseasonal rain. But we managed to learn a bit about the
Duracks and the cattle stations in the East Kimberly region.
We had big plans to travel from Bullita to
Top Springs down some dirt roads that were actually open. However about 10 mins into our journey a rock
ricochetted off the trailer and smashed our back window. Not a good sound or look. Thinking it was more prudent to go to
Katherine to have it fixed rather than travel any further than necessary on
dirt, we taped the window as best we could and set off for Katherine.
We booked into a camp called Springvale,
that has a pool fed by beautiful warm springfed water. It had a big slide into the pool that the
kids can’t get enough of. The day after
setting up camp we discovered that we were camped next to some ex work
collegues of Steve’s from Narooma. So we
had a great couple of nights socialising and reminicing with them.
As for the smashed window we discovered the
true meaning of NT. It doesn’t mean Northern Territory at
all. It means Not Today, Not Tomorrow, Not Tuesday, Not Thursday, Not This Week........ It took 3
days for the window to be delivered and fitted.
Eager to be on our way we packed up camp, collected the repaired car,
hitched up the trailer and set off. Less
than 1 kilometre from our camp we heard that telltale sound again. Crack. Steve and Emma looked at each other....No it
couldn’t be..... We turned around and looked....yes
it was. The window had shattered again!
Bugger.
Another camp set up and another long wait
for a new window. We were getting to
know Katherine really well, wondering if we would ever leave the place.
So what can you do, but sit back and relax,
pour yourself another Gin and Tonic because we wont be leaving NT in a hurry, at least Not Today, Not Tomorrow, Not Tuesday, Not Thursday, Not This week and it even looks like Not
This Month!
That’s Emma’s version of the story! My knuckles weren’t white at all – just a
pale shade.
With all this waiting around in caravan
parks waiting for car things to get fixed I have invented a new hobby –
spotting forestry look-a-likes. So far I
have a Peter Crowe, John Murray and two Steve Dodds. I thought I had the jackpot when I got a
Graeme Riches and an Alan Douch, but it turned out they were real. I don’t think that counts. Emma thinks I must be missing work but I can
assure you I’m not. In fact last night
Graeme asked me what job I’d been doing and I couldn’t even remember the title
of my job. Just make sure you guys don’t
forget the title of my job OK. Money is
becoming scarce at this end of the trip.
See ya
Saturday, 14 July 2007
Kununurra
 |
| View from above Kununurra Camp |
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.....
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Lost Cities
We fuelled up the car at Cape Crawford, Heartbreak Hotel. Another roadhouse that was the stuff of legend, but still there was no alcohol to be had here either.
We got back on the Savannah Way and bounced our way through Limmen National Park (proposed) to Butterfly Springs. It has a lovely waterfall, but loads and loads of mosquitoes. It's a freeby, though, so we decided to camp 2 nights here.
Sunday saw us celebrate mothers' day with masses of mosquitoes that were, quite frankly, driving us crazy. Such a shame for such a beautiful spot. The car got a flat tyre here too. We are quite aways from civilisation and being able to get it fixed quite yet.
We visited the Southern Lost City, another amazing place. We tried to get into the western Lost City but the road was too rough. We needed to have started earlier in the day to make it all the way as the going was so slow.
Evan's Diary Entry:
Lost City
Today we're at the lost city.
When we were at the lost city I went ahead and got a big idea for my story as well as lots of little ideas for my story.
When I finished the bush walk I waited about 2 minutes before mum came back.
Then we waited 10 more minutes before Sarah came back.
The another 5 minutes for dad and Harry.
The southern lost city was quiet and it was very lost too.
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Mt Isa
Well what can you say about Mt Isa? What a disappointment for us. Our family trip had been humming along beautifully up to this point. Then we pulled into the much fabled Mt Isa and found very little to recommend it. It was busy, smelly, expensive, and as we were to later find out, a hot bed of crime.
I'll relate Evan's diary entry first as it quite succinctly sums up the place:
At Mount Isa we went to Sunset Top Tourist Park. It was expensive.
We went to the library and found lots of crochet books to photocopy. But when we left we had our mobile phone stolen. We also had Sarah's MP3 player, $91 and some other things stolen.
We left Mt Isa quickly.
My diary for Mt Isa:
3/5/07
We packed up camp and arrived in Mt Isa. We are not overly impressed with the town. The Information Centre ladies took one look at me and announced that absolutely no way can we bush camp in Mt Isa, we must stay at a caravan park.
We booked in at Sunset Caravan Park. It has a pool which is good, because it is quite hot. Once again tent campers are shoved down the back on dodgy ground with no tap and the furtherest away from the camp kitchen and pool. Ironically it is the campers who are the ones who use the camp kitchen facilities, but they are always the ones sited the furtherest away. Well, at least we had shade for most of the day.
We went shopping for Steve's birthday....
4/5/07
We had bacon and eggs for brekkie and cooked a cake for Steve in the camp kitchen gas oven. Well tried to anyway, but managed to burn it instead.
The park has an air conditioned room with a TV. We watched Eragon, Evan bought the DVD yesterday. Both Sarah and Evan have been reading Eragon as we have been travelling.
We collected the mail and then went to the library. Just as it was starting to sound like a ho hum day, reading mail, writing emails, photocopying some crochet books; drama unfolded when we discovered that Sarah's little handbag had been stolen! Sarah had recently had a birthday and she was loaded up with birthday money from her newly opened mail. She had $91 and an MP3 player in her bag that was stolen. We searched the library to no avail.
Later that afternoon, I discovered that my mobile phone was missing. We realised that this too must have been stolen while were at the library. We tried calling it but it was out of credit. The buggers had used up all $30 of credit on it.
We reported the thefts to the police but they held very little hope that we would ever find our goods again. I'm pretty sure that once we walked out of the door they filed our complaint under B for bin.
We decided that Mt Isa was not the place for us so we decided to pack up and move on fairly quickly once we had replenished our camping supplies.
It seems that we were so underwhelmed with Mt Isa that we don't even seem to have any photos of our time there. Maybe it's a good thing, because if we had have gotten our camera out it too might have been stolen.
On Sunday the 6th we packed up and left Mt Isa for Riversleigh fossils. We had a short walk through some fossils, there was not much to see really. It showcased giant crocodiles and thunderbirds that lived around 20 million years ago - the period of mega fauna after the dinosaurs had died out.
We continued on our journey and will continue in the next blog about what happened when we got to Adele's Grove at Lawn Hill.
I'll relate Evan's diary entry first as it quite succinctly sums up the place:
At Mount Isa we went to Sunset Top Tourist Park. It was expensive.
We went to the library and found lots of crochet books to photocopy. But when we left we had our mobile phone stolen. We also had Sarah's MP3 player, $91 and some other things stolen.
We left Mt Isa quickly.
My diary for Mt Isa:
3/5/07
We packed up camp and arrived in Mt Isa. We are not overly impressed with the town. The Information Centre ladies took one look at me and announced that absolutely no way can we bush camp in Mt Isa, we must stay at a caravan park.
We booked in at Sunset Caravan Park. It has a pool which is good, because it is quite hot. Once again tent campers are shoved down the back on dodgy ground with no tap and the furtherest away from the camp kitchen and pool. Ironically it is the campers who are the ones who use the camp kitchen facilities, but they are always the ones sited the furtherest away. Well, at least we had shade for most of the day.
We went shopping for Steve's birthday....
4/5/07
Steve's 41st Birthday
We had bacon and eggs for brekkie and cooked a cake for Steve in the camp kitchen gas oven. Well tried to anyway, but managed to burn it instead.
The park has an air conditioned room with a TV. We watched Eragon, Evan bought the DVD yesterday. Both Sarah and Evan have been reading Eragon as we have been travelling.
We collected the mail and then went to the library. Just as it was starting to sound like a ho hum day, reading mail, writing emails, photocopying some crochet books; drama unfolded when we discovered that Sarah's little handbag had been stolen! Sarah had recently had a birthday and she was loaded up with birthday money from her newly opened mail. She had $91 and an MP3 player in her bag that was stolen. We searched the library to no avail.
Later that afternoon, I discovered that my mobile phone was missing. We realised that this too must have been stolen while were at the library. We tried calling it but it was out of credit. The buggers had used up all $30 of credit on it.
We reported the thefts to the police but they held very little hope that we would ever find our goods again. I'm pretty sure that once we walked out of the door they filed our complaint under B for bin.
We decided that Mt Isa was not the place for us so we decided to pack up and move on fairly quickly once we had replenished our camping supplies.
It seems that we were so underwhelmed with Mt Isa that we don't even seem to have any photos of our time there. Maybe it's a good thing, because if we had have gotten our camera out it too might have been stolen.
On Sunday the 6th we packed up and left Mt Isa for Riversleigh fossils. We had a short walk through some fossils, there was not much to see really. It showcased giant crocodiles and thunderbirds that lived around 20 million years ago - the period of mega fauna after the dinosaurs had died out.
We continued on our journey and will continue in the next blog about what happened when we got to Adele's Grove at Lawn Hill.
Saturday, 14 April 2007
Red Claw
We reluctantly moved on from Mackay and started what really marked the beginning of our grand adventure, heading west into central Queensland, the gateway to the outback. This was the bit that I had been looking forward to, heading towards unchartered territory. As it turned out, you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere unchartered in Australia, indeed, anywhere even particularly far from civilisation. I didn't know that then, though. This was still yet to be discovered on the eve of our exciting adventure.
Again, my diary entries are fairly ho hum. I noted that we had lunch at Nebo on 14 April. I described it as a small historic town. I wrote that we had passed mining shanty towns along the Peak Downs highway. I certainly remember seeing fully laden coal trains thundering toward the coast to fill all of those waiting tankers that we noticed lurking off the coast at Mackay and Rockhampton. I do remember remarking at the time that it was like we (Australia) were desperately digging up our coal and exporting it to China as fast as we possibly could.
On the night of the 14th we camped at Teresa Creek Dam. The only things I noted in my diary about this location was that there was mobile phone reception behind our tent, a spot light and that there were many drunk campers, loud music and revelry. I can't now remember why I put a reference in about a spot light, but I do remember the bit about the only mobile phone reception being behind our tent. This was not definitely to our advantage, as it wasn't us who used the opportunity to catch up on mobile phone calls, but every man, woman and child in the place. As is always the case with mobile phone conversations, they are never quiet as it seems necessary to yell down the phone. We found ourselves privy to many private conversations over the course of the night, I wish that I had written some them down! I am guessing by the revelry and loud music, we decided that even at $5 a night it wasn't worth hanging around, so we continued onto Lake Maraboon to stay at Fairbairn Dam.
We stayed at Fairbairn Dam for three nights and tried out a bit of fishing and hunting for redclaw. Both Evan and I made diary entries about this. Redclaw is a kind of yabby and is delicious. people come from far and wide to trap redclaw, after tasting it we could see why.
Evan's Entry:
Again, my diary entries are fairly ho hum. I noted that we had lunch at Nebo on 14 April. I described it as a small historic town. I wrote that we had passed mining shanty towns along the Peak Downs highway. I certainly remember seeing fully laden coal trains thundering toward the coast to fill all of those waiting tankers that we noticed lurking off the coast at Mackay and Rockhampton. I do remember remarking at the time that it was like we (Australia) were desperately digging up our coal and exporting it to China as fast as we possibly could.
On the night of the 14th we camped at Teresa Creek Dam. The only things I noted in my diary about this location was that there was mobile phone reception behind our tent, a spot light and that there were many drunk campers, loud music and revelry. I can't now remember why I put a reference in about a spot light, but I do remember the bit about the only mobile phone reception being behind our tent. This was not definitely to our advantage, as it wasn't us who used the opportunity to catch up on mobile phone calls, but every man, woman and child in the place. As is always the case with mobile phone conversations, they are never quiet as it seems necessary to yell down the phone. We found ourselves privy to many private conversations over the course of the night, I wish that I had written some them down! I am guessing by the revelry and loud music, we decided that even at $5 a night it wasn't worth hanging around, so we continued onto Lake Maraboon to stay at Fairbairn Dam.
We stayed at Fairbairn Dam for three nights and tried out a bit of fishing and hunting for redclaw. Both Evan and I made diary entries about this. Redclaw is a kind of yabby and is delicious. people come from far and wide to trap redclaw, after tasting it we could see why.
Steve and Evan caught a Red Claw today. They put Alan's Opera House trap in Fairbairn Dam last night and retrieved it this morning.
Steve got abused last night by an old codger who thought he needed a lesson in campsite etiquette. Fancy driving through the campsite at 7.30pm! Steve seems to have a way of upsetting people.
Evan's Entry:
One day dad and Harry went down to look at good places to catch big red claw.
Late at night me and dad put in the red claw trap
In the morning we took the red claw trap out and there was a red claw.
The next night the whole family came. Dad threw the red claw trap about twenty yards.
In the morning me and dad went down and pulled out the red claw trap.
And instead of one red claw there were..............................................................................
three red claw.
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
2007 Travel diary: Day 1
Pre-tripI have found some of our diary entries from our 2007 Australian trip. I have already posted two letters here and here that I wrote from Darwin which give a snap shot from the middle of the trip. I home schooled the kids while we were travelling and a part of our lessons was to encourage them to write about their experiences. I remember that at times it felt like trying to get blood out of a stone. Steve wrote extensively, going through a couple of books. I believe he intends to write his notes up onto his blog at some stage. I was a slow starter, probably because I was riding the kids trying to get them to write. About the time that I picked up writing, they seemed to ease off. I thought that I'd share some of our (Evan, Sarah and my) writings here.
Okay firstly my entry for 21/3/07...boring!!!lol.
pack clothes
medical supplies
kitchen goods - curry pwd, mixed herbs, salt, pepper, vegemite, peanut butter, tea, coffee. Whisk, metal bowl, silicon bowl.
Leave for trip
Harry - Preschool/ homework
Sarah - maths book pages
Evan - maths book pages
Lunch @ KFC $36.00
Casino - shopping -woollies, petrol
Set up camp Border Ranges.
Thrilling, huh?
Evan hasn't got an entry for this day, but Sarah wrote quite a bit:
Day 1 Wednesday 21st March 21/3/07
Dear Diary
Day 1 and we're off. FINALLY. It took us ages and ages to pack and get everything ready. Mum had to vacuum all the rooms then mop the hard floors as well. It was 1:15 by the time we were on the road and then we went and got lunch at KFC. It was well into the afternoon before we got to Casino.
I finished 2 pages in my maths book on the way here and I watched most of EMMA on our portable DVD player.
I helped to put up the tent and set up camp.
Next to us is a couple from Texas. You can tell they are from America because of their accents. They are very nice and talk to us. They said goodbye when they left this morning.
Last night I had a good sleep except that I didn't get to read so it was hard to get to sleep. I had to get up a few times and go to the dark stinky pit toilet.
We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, but I didn't eat much because I don't eat much at breakfast.
I hope this will be fun
The Borders N.P. NSW
The trip begins. New hairdos
Here is our first video for the trip.
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