Nasty Sharp Pointy Teeth

Mike and I took another great adventure up to Darwin in the Northern Territory. Well, I can call it a great adventure but the reality is he had a business trip there to discuss the highly romantic 'electronic taking of inventory' in the warehouse.  He called spur of the moment and asked me if I'd like to go with.  Of course I said yes, because there could indeed be spectacular adventure involved.

Somehow the notion of a Territory in a big modern country is odd...makes one think remote, wild, uninhabited...things that sure, you know are part of the whole Australia experience, but as an American you expect to be more like rural Wyoming.  You know...thinly populated but still one of the gang.  I'm not sure that's the exactly what the NT is like.   Here, find out more 

The Northern Territory has a population somewhere around 220,000 hearty souls in a land mass two and a half times the size of Texas.  Texas is pushing a population of 26 million and there is still PLENTY of room.  Wyoming - one of the most desolate places I'd ever experienced, has a population about double that of the NT.  You get the picture.   There aren't many people around.

And interestingly, wandering around Darwin, I noted that the mix of people hanging out in the CBD consisted primarily of cotton clad European backpacker types who cleverly arrive to satisfy their outback longings and checking another continent off the list in the location closest to the inexpensive beaches of Bali.  This is a very good plan indeed. From Perth it is a 4+ hour flight.  Further proof there is just nothing close to Perth.

Getting off the plane felt like hitting the Houston summer again.  Heat, humidity, and a touch of funk in the air.  It started to rain as we arrived and ended up pouring rain for several hours - giving us the opportunity to settle in to our club level room, take a misty photo of the bay, and figure out that one channel worked on the TV, the bedside lamps were both broken, the A/C needed service, and it takes 20 minutes for the hot water to make it to the 10th floor.  :-)  The rain broke eventually and we wandered out to see the town and source some dinner.  We walked up one side, down the other, then over to the casino/beach area for a fruity tropical cocktail and finally down to the yacht club harbour where we scored a nice Thai meal and enjoyed the sunset.

I'd cleverly booked us a tour for Sunday morning.  Pick up at 6:50am was prompt and we were joined by 9 other bleary eyed tourists for a day of natural wonders.  These natural wonders were indeed delivered by our rather jaded driver but at the cost of about 12 hours and over 450 km of driving.  Good way to get the flavour of the place but perhaps not the most relaxing.

Our travels took us to the fabled Jumping Crocs!!!! of the Adelaide River.  I confess, I had zero interest in the freaking saltwater crocs since I find them scary as hell, but they were part of the tour so I was trapped.  Turns out they are actually very awesome and while still scary as hell, pretty neat to see live and in person.

These are fierce bad crocodiles. 

Most of them had missing limbs and ugly gashes healing up on their crusty flanks.

Our dampish croc excitement done, we headed to Litchfield National Park to view the exciting termite mounds (anything for fun in the NT).

And then to the highlight of the day, swimming in a gorgeous rock pool fed by two waterfalls.  You can see little people heads bobbing in the pool to the bottom left of the photo.

But here again, there are freaking salties!  Our guide regaled us with tales of the last poor innocent Japanese girl taken as we approached this delightful swimming spot but assured us the authorities cleaned all the crocs out after every wet season before they opened the pool to the public.  I was not as comforted by this as I might have hoped but figured any crocs had had a choice of tasty human morsels in the hours before we arrived.  I sneakily checked out the pool by pretending to enjoy the rain forest, giant banana spiders, and flying foxes before I dipped a toe in.

We toured several different waterfalls, and swam in some other rock pools before heading back to Darwin.  I reflected on the experience and decided I am just enough of a princess to not be keen on outdoor adventures anywhere that saltwater crocs live.  Perhaps it was an early childhood reading about horrible deaths that continues to haunt me, but my immediate reaction to anything associated with crocodiles is *shudder* and "no thanks".

Safely back to civilization and cleaned up we managed to snag a table at a really lovely restaurant in town serving indian/malay themed dishes along with tasty exotic cocktails to my amusement.

Mike had to work Monday so I kept myself busy wandering around the areas of town we'd missed on Saturday and doing a bit of shopping since the prices seemed a bit more reasonable than in Perth. The aboriginal art galleries were gorgeous and had a far better selection of art than anything I'd seen in Perth. This kept me happily busy until my feet started yelling upon which I retired to the hotel room and read my book.  It was a pretty day at last which meant the sun was out with a vengence - something my lily white winter skin is not up for.  Here are some miscellaneous photos...

Church - the original stone facade remains but the rest of the building was blown away (along with most of Darwin) in cyclone Tracy Christmas 1974.   I liked the contrast of the modern and old.

Government House above, Parliment below. 

Extra attractive Coat of Arms on the Parliament building and public art in the surrounding area.

And lastly - a fantastic boat that I watched for a rather long time from the hotel balcony.

Tuesday morning Mike took care of a few more business items and we had one last wander around town before heading to the airport.  I think Darwin is a great jumping off point for anyone wanting adventure in the Kimberly or Kakadu but as a destination in and of itself, once was probably enough...mostly because they have those creatures with the horrible nasty sharp pointy teeth :-)

Weekend in Dwellingup...

...and just how different American English and Australian English really are :-)

The sailing gang made a break for it this weekend and spent some time together on dry land.  First considerations were of course the food and how many bottles of wine we each needed to bring.  Food and wine are not surprisingly a critical part of the sport of yachting both on and off the water.  We got that sorted and met up on Saturday morning at Heather and Graeme's place in the hills of Dwellingup.  Dwelli as it's affectionately called, is a small country town with a history of logging and forestry in what is now a designated National Forest.  Heather & Graeme's place is perched right on the edge of the forest and close to the Bibbulmun Track a 1000 km Appalachian Trail type hiking trail from outside Perth to Albany.  This is convenient and we managed to get a couple of good hikes in. Graeme appears to enjoy taking sluggish city dwellers and dropping them into deep uncharted bush that manages to somehow be ALL UPHILL. 

After we all arrived, dined, and hiked (and chased Kevin 07, the neighbors escaped feral ram) we elected to sample the heady delights of downtown Dwelli.  This meant driving back along the dirt track into town, and down another dirt track to The Wine Tree, a cute wooden barn filled with aged farm implements and vintage motorcycles with a nice deck hanging off the back.   The draw?  The Smashing Bumpkins were playing!  Three piece string band with bass fiddle, banjo, and guitar.  Everybody in town seemed to be there toting their own plates of nibbles and buying tall glasses of clear crisp highly potent cider off the owners.  Our hosts met several neighbors and wandered while Mike and I watched a man coaching his teen daughter in the finer points of soccer on the lawn.  We all settled in on a picnic table and watched the band play a variety of American folks classics (to which I knew all the words to Heather's amusement).  Toe tapping good fun.  During Dueling Banjos I suddenly noticed the awful teeth of one of the guys and laughed out loud that he had his Bucky Teeth in...then turned to Heather in horror and said "those aren't his real teeth are they?!"  She didn't know either but we were much relieved at the end of the song when he took them out again.

We headed back to the house and spotted emu, kangaroos, and a big black feral pig in a field on the way.  It was pretty much a race to the hot tub after that and it was wonderful steaming away with a glass of wine watching the stars come out overhead.  We saw a satellite and a shooting star before dinner.  Conversation and wine took us all to midnight and then we crashed.  But I must mention the utterly magnificent pavlova Kate made.  Four eggs people!  That is the base for this fabulous delight...four fresh out of the chook eggs, a teaspoon of vinegar, sugar, and some hot water, bake, top with whipped cream and fresh home grown pomegranate seeds and look what you get!

The conversation really got my attention over the weekend.  I'd noticed before during sailing that as the lone Yank on the boat and at the yacht club most Wed afternoons I'd adjusted my speech patterns a bit to make myself understood.  This weekend all the terms for things in the country needed translation.  "Do you swim in the dam" confused me, because here the dam is the pond in front of the earthworks.  I think I've mentioned chooks = chickens.  cockies = cockatoos. marron = crawfish.  And we had elevenses.  Most every polysyllabic word is shortened in a friendly way.  The whole gang enjoyed mocking me and my endless questions as to what this or that actually means, or why Aussies do things certain ways, or how exactly this whole political post election grid lock works!  And we had yet another round of pecan pronunciation lessons...it will never be pee-can y'all.

To my horror I now say tomAHto naturally.  Please don't judge.

Sunday was my day to cook brekkie and it was fun explaining the science of American style bacon, and the proper folding technique for breakfast tacos, and even the need sometimes for orange rather than yellow cheese.  The tacos were a hit and I'm happy to report every bite of American bacon was consumed (hope Rob the butcher has more in the brine for us!).   We hiked for close to two hours then lolling, naps, and book reading kept us busy for a while.  I pulled out my last block of Velveeta cheese and last can of Rotel tomatoes and made up the classic dip for lunch.  It too was a big hit but after the breakfast and the cheese dip and tortilla chips I think everyone realized why Americans tend to the fuller figure.  I myself have now sworn off the stuff for life.  I'm still suffering a velveeta hangover a day later.

Spring!

Seriously y'all....is there anything better than Spring?  Those lovely sunny days, the smell of flowers blooming everywhere, the green tones of the grass and leaves.  Sure Autumn has it's good points too - particularly that first hint of coolness in the morning after a sweltering summer (which in Houston lasts until October anyway).  But give me spring flowers any time.  Wild flowers, cut flowers, I'm not particular.

Here are some blood oranges I used to make a fruit salad.  I had no idea they are so gorgeous inside.  It's like a sunset in an orange peel!  I swear I might frame images of the insides of blood oranges and put them on my walls they are so beautiful.

The fruit salad was tasty...sweet and sour with just a hint of coconut for a tasty surprise.

So here's the deal

My niece, Faine Greenwood, writes a vastly better blog than I do and she's got a number of lovely posts up about our adventures during her two week visit.  Please stop by and take a look.  You'll be both amused and enlightened!
click here: The Long Way to Cambodia

Well bless my heart

Since my last post in early July I've actually already been back up to Kalbarri and back along with other destinations. We've had a glorious winter with lovely cool sunny days which just encouraged outdoor activities and a sudden flurry of healthful exercise for a month or so. You know how it goes, stuff comes up, you go to KL, your niece comes to visit for two weeks, your son goes to boot camp...life etc.

Further updates coming shortly!  All is well!  More to follow.

Hamelin Pool - Kalbarri National Park - Kalbarri - Coastal Cliffs - Pink Lake

Our schedule for our penultimate day on the road had us going from Hamelin Pool to Kalbarri to stay overnight and then driving the last 600km in to Perth the last day.  However, we realized that rather than the 100km/hour that we'd hoped we could do easily we were really averaging about 80.  That meant we'd have 7-8 hours of driving our last day and we had to have the caravan returned by 3PM.  If we actually wanted breakfast and lunch we'd have to rush and we'd both be nervous wrecks by the time we finally got back to Perth...so there was nothing for it but to head to Kalbarri with the option of continuing on to Geraldton for the night.  Which is what we ended up doing.  This actually turned out to be one of our most scenic drives and we're both glad we did it though it just left me eager to go back to Kalbarri for a long weekend during wildflower season.

Kalbarri is not on the main drag (Brand Hwy) from Perth north but requires a detour back to the coastline.  So we peeled off and headed in.  Rather than waste the opportunity we went ahead and pulled into Kalbarri National Park for a quick look.  It seems from the map that it's mostly a four-wheel drive environment but there were two roads paved with scenic look outs.  How gorgeous!  The Murchison River cuts through the countryside creating canyons and then flowing to the sea at Kalbarri.

Continuing west on into town which hugs the coast, I was stunned at how the river and ocean converge there with a spit of land, a calm bay and then waves crashing right outside.  Absolutely stunning.

We pulled into our reserved campground and found it unimpressive so as much as we loved the way the town looked, we decided to push on to Geraldton before nightfall.  Wisely we chose the scenic route which took us along cliffs, through pasture land, and past the most incredible pink lake. It was utterly stunning in real life but there was no place on the road to pull over and take a photo.  The photos give a reasonable impression I think...but barely capture the brilliant colors and the feel of the wind and sun.  The pink lake in particular is better represented in this photo online - it is just that pink! http://aslo.org/photopost/data/502/medium/118W__Australia_Pink_lake.jpg

The coastline:

And the very last photo of the trip - a windblown tree in Greenough.  The prevailing wind is so strong that many of the trees in the area and bent over like this.

 

We made it safely back to Geraldton and chose to return to the same campsite where we'd stayed our first night on the road.  It was comfy and felt familiar after so many days on the road.  The galahs displayed in the trees overhead and we were pleased to know that we could make the dash home with time to spare in the morning.  Which we did, returning the camper a little early then getting back home, unpacking and gratefully sinking into a hot bath. Vacation adventures complete for a moment :-)

Next up...a quick trip to Kuala Lumpur.

Coral Bay - Hamelin Pool - Stromatolite-y goodness :-)

At last at last!  Stromatolites!  Sure, I'd made two trips down south of Perth to visit the thrombolites in their lake colony, hoping against hope to see a bubble of oxygen emerge from the watery depths, but those are sort of wanna be stromatolites.  I was thrilled to finally get to see the real thing and determined to test my theory about their nocturnal nature (it's a long story involving an extremely high nerd factor).

As much as we'd enjoyed our overnight and delicious meal in Coral Bay we were ready to go the next day.  I think once we'd pointed the van back south again, and since it's essentially the same road up and back, there wasn't much sense of excitement about covering another 450-500kms of road we'd already seen.  The thought of stromatolites kept my spirits high though!  I think this photo taken at the Overlander Roadhouse about 30 km from Hamelin Pool gives some idea of the distances involved:

Still there were sights to see along the way - the Big Banana at Carnarvon and a chance to stop for one more delicious chocolate covered frozen banana:

And the ubiquitous road side signs - though I think this one was enhanced a bit by some weary traveler.

And then at last we were there.  We pulled into the Hamelin Pool Caravan Park and at first glance pretty much wondered just what the heck we had gotten ourselves in for.  Unprepossessing is the word that springs to the lips.  Mike gave me the gimlet eyeball but we pressed on, parked at the office and wandered in to check the lay of the land.  Inside was a veritable universe of stromatolite and Hamelin Pool history and kitsch. You need your glossy stromatolite poster?  Postcards?  Shirts?  You got 'em.  The proprietor was very friendly and welcoming and soon arranged for us to be ushered to our caravan site by the caretaker who looked as if he'd just emerged from 3 months hard going in the outback.   He handed us a key to the shower/toilet block and told us to head up the shell dune for sunset.

We got organized and then decided to take a walk down to greet the stromatolites in person.  Squee!  But, we quickly discovered we were back in the land of the flies.  Our walk became necessarily a bit rushed as we moved along as fast as possible to keep the flies off our heads, out of our ears, and away from our noses and mouths.  Not fun.  The stromatolites, once we got to the lovely wooden boardwalk fulfilled all my wildest expectations.  In other words, they pretty much sat there :-)  Because the water was rough due to wind I didn't even get to see the slightest air bubble make it's way to the surface, but regardless I felt as if somehow I had accomplished a long term personal goal.  So yay.

Walking back to camp we saw kangaroos and a mother emu with two babies.  She was down on her knees having a drink of water...when she stood up I pretty much instinctively backed away.  Those are LARGE birds.  We made a quick foray back to the gift shop to purchase post cards and a pink stromatolite polo shirt for my daughter - the proprietor was extra lovely and when he found out about her geology studies he generously threw in a few extra stromatolite glitter stickers for us to send to her.  We retreated to the camper to escape the flies and play cribbage until it was time to watch the sun set.

Sunset over Hamelin Pool was as pretty as billed and the flies disappeared the moment the sun went down and a cool breeze sprang up.  We met a couple from the UK who had been touring for nearly two weeks without seeing a single wild kangaroo...they wandered off for a couple of minutes and by the time they returned I was able to point and say "shhh...there's a kangaroo right over there".   It hopped off as soon as they made a move towards it and I sure hope it wasn't the last kangaroo they saw on their trip...probably not because I heard them thumping around in the darkness when I had to make a 2AM excursion to the shower block - which in an act of real consideration was wired with speakers so you had soothing music all night long.  It would have been totally scary and creepy in there otherwise I guarantee.  Hard to feel scared when you've got the Monkees on the Last Train to Clarksville in the potties.

Looking back over Hamelin Pool Caravan Park from the dune on the foreshore

Parrots begging from the old telegraph tower while we enjoyed our sundowner

 A lovely sunset needs a good rose to go with it

And sunset itself

And finally, Stumpy Stromatolite and all his pals!!  The commentary certainly added to the fun :-)

Vista of vast colonies of stromatolites quietly doing their work.
Hamelin Pool is very saline which allows the colony to grow and also discourages other sea creatures.  While we were told that they do see all kinds of fish and marine mammals in the area the impression is that they don't stay long.

Even so, I spotted these guys lurking in the shallows. 

All in all I'm vastly pleased that we finally got up to see the area but unless you're a total geoscience and natural history nerd it may not make the top of your list of must see destinations in Western Australia :-)