Boodling along on the Barkly Tablelands

Hello dear blogsters, after three nights of roadside camping as we traversed the Barkly Tablelands - we are in Mt Isa and I can catch you up on our travels.

We left Mataranka and headed down to Daly Waters. This bizarre little town ("town" being a very liberal description of the place) - has a rather famous pub, some 'different' residents and interesting architecture. The local sign-writer also entertains in the pub and has rather an unusual dress sense - what a bizarre hat!

The pub is a popular stopping point for tourists from all directions. Many like to leave a little memento of their visit behind and the pub is full of a bizarre range of these. There is money of every denomination, bras and undies, t-shirts and even an artificial leg.

The local pet pig likes to run around the pub, and squeals loudly when picked up.

After enjoying a glass or two of Northern Territory Ale - lovely stuff - we headed off to continue our journey. We found a nice little spot on an unused track for our overnight camp. We set up in the red dirt and had a lovely campfire for the evening.

After a good night's sleep we set off again. We drove down to Three Ways, but were unable to get fuel as the service station had run out. Mum and Dad were a bit short, so they headed another 25 km down to Tennant Creek to fill up. After this, we turned onto the Barkly Highway and headed off across the Barkly Tablelands. Let no-one tell you this is a fascinating drive. In short it is.... bloody boring. Flat, dry landscape with no trees and no features of interest (unless you think "no trees" is a feature of interest - and let me tell you, it ceases to be interesting pretty quickly. Anyway, the younguns in the car resorted to pulling faces to entertain themselves.

At least they thought they were funny.

The 'oldies' amused ourselves by counting how many people waved back when we waved at them. I even kept a tally (much to the disgust of the younguns). This should give you some idea of just how boring it was!

Eventually we pulled into a little unused track for another off-road stop. The boys collected wood for the fire (deforrested the landscape) and we soon had a wonderful roaring fire going. Uncle John set up the bush shower and we all enjoyed a good wash. Uncle John brought out his Northern Territory stubby and we had an ale to toast the sunset. We had quite a good night's sleep (except for Mum laying awake listening to the wild pigs snuffling around and Lachlan, Danni and Sam laughing hysterically into the night as they played around with static electricity caused by rubbing their nylon sleeping bags).

We had breakfast by the fire the next morning and then set off again. Before long we came to the Queensland border and stopped for the obligatory border photo. Mum got into the action and had a bit of a ride on a delapidated motorbike which had been left at the sign.

Not too far over the border, we came to the little township of Camoweal. We stopped in to have a look at a little old shop which has remained the same for over 100 years. The lady serving in the shop said that only two families have run the shop since it opened in 1891. The lady also had a little museum in an adjoining building and we really enjoyed looking through it. The lady was wonderfully interesting and is obviously holding much of the history of this interesting outback town.

The lady kindly let us leave the van and trailer in her back yard so we could take a drive out to see the Camoweal Crater Caves National Park. We drove out on the red dirt road, enjoying a bit of a play in the bulldust, before stopping to have a look at the 'caves' - which are actually sink holes. The first cave was pretty small - Lachlan reckoned it was just a "little hole in the ground" - but the second sink hole was magnificent. It was incredibly deep and the younguns enjoyed climbing down to the edge. This photo looks ok,

until you look at this one, and realise just how deep the hole was (look carefully and you will see Danni sitting on a ledge just above half way up the photo).

After a good look around, we continued on and searched for a place for a roadside camp. We were starting to think we weren't going to find a suitable site, when Mum and Uncle John spotted a good little spot just off the road. We pulled in and set up camp. The view out of our "bedroom window" was pretty darned good. We had a terrific night around a campfire before retiring for a peaceful night's sleep. Breakfast was a peaceful affair around the campfire. The younguns posed for an early morning photo - Lachlan revelling in his new "red-neck, yokel, hick" look. Gotta love those hi-hitched dacks Lach! I can't say I looked any better - a good shower and hair wash is definitely on the agenda at Mt Isa.

Hi to Sheree at home - thanks for the beautiful pictures of Eli - what a gorgeous boy he is!!!!! See you in three weeks!

We of the Never Never

Hello dear blogsters,

After our exciting times at Katherine, we have moved on to Mataranka (about an hour down the road). Mataranka township is nothing to write home about - a couple of shops and a very well attended bottleshop and that's about it. But just out of the township, is the Elsey National Park and Mataranka Homestead - and this is where we are perched as I write this entry.

Elsey Downs was once a huge station - and was the home of Aeneus and Jeannie Gunn. If that doesn't mean anything - Aeneus (well actually it was Jeannie, writing under the name of her husband) wrote "We of the Never Never" about her experiences living here. The station has now reverted back to aboriginal ownership, with the adjoining national park open to the public. Some of you may remember seeing the film "We of the Never Never" - a full size replica of the original homestead was built as part of the set of the film - this is located just inside the national park for visitors to explore.

We set up our camp and quickly headed down to the springs - the water is a lovely, warm 32 degrees and bubbles up through a spring from deep beneath the ground. We enjoyed lolling around in the water, looking up at the palms above us. Danni, Sam and Lachlan liked it so much they stayed in for hours and I had to go and drag them out at about 7.30 pm so we could have dinner.

Mum created a feast of chow mein followed by pancakes with bananas and maple syrrup.... golly we are doing it hard! The younguns stayed up talking for a while and we more mature specimens dragged ourselves off to bed (the canoeing of the day before catching up with us I think).

This morning we all had a bit of a sleep in - except for Lachlan who inexplicably woke up at dawn and, much to his consternation, couldn't get back to sleep. I wish that happened on days when we were trying to get packed up to move on!!!!! Anyway, we had an extremely leisurely breakfast and then morning tea. After this it was nearly lunch time, so Dad, Uncle John and Lachlan picked up a bite to eat at the kiosk and headed off fishing. Mum, Danni and I went to watch the daily lunch time screening of "We of the Never Never" and have a kiosk lunch. (Sam stayed back and did some school work - and then joined us). The kiosk and reception area is a bit interesting.... and interesting is probably the kindest way to describe the food!

After lunch we wandered over to have a look at the homestead - I don't think I would have liked living in it during the wet season with all of the mosquitoes and bugs.

We wandered back to the campsite and then headed down for another swim at the pools. The blokes returned from their fishing trip (empty handed again - though Lachlan did catch a couple of tiddlers which he returned to the water) and then went down for a swim too.

Tomorrow we pack up and head off again - not sure if we will be in range, but I will write the next blog as soon as we are.

OH... and here's the photo I didn't get into an earlier blog (coz Uncle John took it and I had to get it off his camera) - here is Lachlan and the barra he caught at Kakadu - hard to believe he had to throw it back - but it was 2 cm under the legal size!

Hi to Kaity - sorry to hear about Bob. Hi to Ben - great to hear from you.

Canoedling up the Katherine Gorge

Hello dear blogsters, I am so tired tonight it is hard to write the blog.... but I shall endure so you have something to read (sigh).

Today we canoed for 13 km up the Katherine Gorge (well actually we canoed up 3 gorges). We left early and picked up our canoes at 8.15. We climbed into the canoes in a slightly less than expert manner, and set off up the gorge. The first leg was over 3 km and we did this with great style. Lachlan and Sam were entirely silly in their canoe..... nothing new there!

At the end of the first leg, we had to get out, leave our canoes, walk over some rocks and pick up a new canoe. The second gorge was even more beautiful and we really enjoyed this paddle. We stopped off under an overhang and enjoyed getting "rained" on by the water dripping from above. We continued on to the end of this gorge and then had to carry our canoes over the rocks to the third gorge. Thankfully Lachlan and Sam helped out with carrying the heavy canoes (of course, if we had emptied the water out of them first, they would have been lighter).

We continued on to the end of this gorge and then paddled back to a sandbar for lunch. Lachlan took the opportunity to have a swim - the crocs left him alone fortunately. We stopped off for lunch and, apart from Sam who buried himself in sand and Danni who amused herself making little slides down the sandhills, we all had a snooze. Paddi had been showing off on an oar earlier and had fallen into the water - so he needed to dry out.

After lunch we started the long paddle back. We stopped off to have a look at a waterfall, and Lachlan and Sam took the opportunity to have a shower.

After this we continued on - with Lachlan and Sam stopping to have a look at every crevass and hole along the way. They stopped off under a little waterfall to do a scientific experiment - to find out how much water it takes to sink a canoe. The answer is - a lot - but they did finally get their canoe to sink to the bottom and then discovered just how heavy a canoe full of water is to lift out and empty.

Mum and Dad and Uncle John did a great job of paddling (pretty darned good for old buggers) - there's life in them yet!

When we got back we were feeling rather tired after 8 hours of paddling. It was good to get back to our camp site where I cooked up a green chicken curry for dinner (go the wok!). Tomorrow we move on again.

Happy winter solstice to all my Chrysalis Friends - I hope you have managed to celebrate in style. We are having a very different, warm solstice here. The sky is clear and the night calm and warm - a lovely, different celebration.

Hi to Nic and Bron - wish you were still with us! And Hi to Kelley, Steve and Gail - I miss you all!

The Gagudju Thing

Hello dear blogsters.... I hope you aren't too cold where-ever you are - because it's above 30 degrees and humid here... and the pool beckons!

Yesterday we packed up and left Jabiru and drove the short 60 km hop across to Cooinda (otherwise known as Yellow Waters.... and in aboriginal language Ngurrungurrudjba). We set up in a lovely, shady camp spot and then headed over to the pool for a swim. The pool here is pretty fantastic - a huge hunk of water with great shade and a spa pool attached. The toilets beside the pool are worth a look too - they look like something out of the Flinstones!

When the sun started to go down we really had to lay on the mozzie repellant - poor Dad and Uncle John are still recovering from the bites they got 2 nights ago at Alligator River. The younguns cooked dinner for us - scrummy jaffles. Mum and I were very rude and disappeared just as dinner was ready.... we went over to listen to the ranger talk on the animal life of Kakadu (very interesting..... particularly liked the possum-like critter where the males only live to 1 year old... they get to 9 months old and get the urge to mate.... then that's ALL they do for the next couple of months, they forget about eating and resting and basically mate themselves to death..... leaving the glowingly pregnant females with all of the food and shelter to themselves.... needless to say the females live on!) Anyway, dinner was good!

This morning we were all up early as Uncle John, Dad and Lachlan had to head out on their barramundi fishing trip at 5.45. Mum, Sam, Danni and I left on our Yellow Water cruise at the slightly more decent hour of 6.25 am. It was quite a sight to see both Danni and Lachlan up and out of bed before the sun!!!!!!!

The sunrise cruise was just magnificent..... as the sun was rising over one side of the water, the full moon was setting on the other side. We very quickly saw our first crocodile in the water (no chance we would even THINK about swimming here). We were to see many more crocodiles during this cruise. We also saw a Jabiru feeding in the shallow water - what enormous birds these are! In the picture below you can see a Jabiru in the background, and a croc in the water in front.It would be impossible to describe the many wonderful birds we saw... but some highlights were the many varieties of duck (some with ducklings), egrets, kingfishers, cormorants, magpie geese, white bellied sea eagles and the little "jesus birds" which seem to walk on water.

We were stunned at the size of the sea-eagle nest, but then even more gob-smacked when we saw the Jabiru nest (it's in the middle of the photo - between the two trees).

We went in close to have a look at the huge flocks of whistling ducks (thousands and thousands of birds) and were lucky enough to see a magnificent sea-eagle perched on a tree above us.

The landscape was awesome and the reflections of the trees in the still water made for some fantastic photos.

We got back from our boat trip and did the boring jobs like cleaning up and doing the washing. It was quite hot and we tried not to expend too much energy. The blokes got back from their fishing trip, quite hot and tired. They had a fun morning and caught about 10 barramundi - but had to throw them all back as they were just under the legal size. They also saw a heap of crocs and some fantastic scenery.

After lunch I headed off on my own little adventure. I went out on a "Animal Tracks" adventure, spending the afternoon and early evening with a wonderful aboriginal woman called Patsy. Patsy comes from Arnhem Land and has lived all of her life in the traditional way of her people. She took us out to find food. First we went down to a creek and dug for mussells.

Then we went out to the woodland and she showed us how to pick the right sandy palms and then chop into them to remove the heart (very yummy).

Then Patsy found grubs in the bottom of some acacias - I have no idea how she knew which trees and where in the trees - but she seemed able to walk straight up to a tree and hack into it and pull out a grub.

After this we went down to the billabong and Patsy showed us how to pull in lillies and lilly pods. The lily stems taste a bit like celery - you just have to peel them and eat them. The lily pods have seeds in them which taste fantastic - you just have to squeeze them out. It's a good source of readily available food.

Next we went and pulled some paperbark of the trees to make our bush oven. Lots of mozzies here!

Finally, we came to our "camp" site - a beautiful spot beside the billabong. Patsy made a bush oven with hot rocks and then she pulled out some meat to cook. The aborigines have hunting rights in Kakadu and Patsy and her family hunt their own food. Patsy pulled out a hunk of crocodile (complete with skin), water buffalo and 2 barramundi. These all went on the fire (on a bed of leaves) and were covered with the paperbark and a heap of coals.

While the meat was cooking, Patsy pulled out her fire making gear and got a French Guy and I to make fire with her. She also pulled out some of her handcrafts. She is making the most beautiful bag out of cordage and bird feathers - absolutely stunning. She also had some paintings and weaving - what a skilled woman!

Soon the food was cooked and we feasted on all the food we had collected and the meat Patsy bought with her. I even ate the grub! (it tasted like a cross between corn and bone marrow)

We ate as the sun set - in the beautiful way it does in this part of Australia. What a beautiful end to a wonderful day.

To any of my Bello friends reading this - I will be home in 4 weeks and I will need a home to come home too. If you know of anyone with a place to rent - can you email me and let me know please.

Hi to PJ - great to talk to you yesterday. Hi to Margaret - hope you made it home safely.