all ords

I often hear on the news something about the ALL ORDS, and now that I have been in Kununura for a week, I now know what they're on about.

We have seen the Ord River, the upper Ord, the lower Ord, the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, Ord River dam wall, etc.

We have spent many days traveling around Lake Argyle, by car, by boat, and by foot. Fossicking for zebra rock and eating farm fresh rock melon and paw paw (well obviously not me, just Gav and the kids).

Today we spent 5 hours cruising the Ord River (yes, I actually went on a boat). Some wonderful views and great information. The children got a bit bored after the first 50km, so started counting crocodiles. Hugh got to 28 freshwater crocs, Jacinta got bored again so stopped counting at 20. The boat driver also sensed that the kids were getting bored, so got them to steer the boat back home. Much to the amusement of the other oldies on board. You couldn't get the smile off the kids faces. So Maths lessons are coming along well.

The other day the children got bored on the 70km drive along the Durack stock route in the Gregory NP - maybe because it took 4 hrs. (is there a pattern forming?) Anyway, Jacinta was not content counting boab trees, so made a list. Each tree was classified as small, medium, large, huge and double trunkers.I thought she was doing tally marks, but about an hour later she was looking for another piece of paper. As it turns out she was writing out the whole thing.

EDITORS NOTE: I forgot to mention that there is also a reversing camera on the drivers side of the windscreen, and as of 2 days ago a WA national parks pass. Thankfully the stone chip on my side has been repaired.

impaired vision

As many of you know Gavin made sure we had every 'very important' gadget affixed to the dashboard prior to our departure.

From my seat I can sometimes see the beautiful vistas looking out in front. Though in the foreground I have the fridge/inside temperature gauge and the I-thing being used as our GPS on the dash. On the windscreen there is the rego sticker, our nsw national parks pass, and often our overnight camping permit. Outside is the snorkel and am/fm radio aerial. At the end of the bonnet is the UHF radio aerial (yes, the big one for long range communications) and if we're driving through sandunes - a tall sand flag.

I have been sitting in the co pilots seat for nearly 13,000km now. (Today we entered WA.) Obviously not the co drivers seat, as that would imply that I get to do some of the driving. Some might call it the navigators seat - and I do have to use the I-thing sometimes to zoom in on maps, set the tracer, etc. It is also the seat of the refreshments hostess, the backseat debate mediator, the music director, etc.

The driver also has a great view, only having to look past some 'very important' engine gauges. Skills on the right hand side of the car include driving, and loading photos onto the blog. As you can tell Gav is having trouble multitasking, but has promised to get more photos on the blog this week.

My vision was further impeded today when an oncoming car flicked up a stone and put a lovely star on the windscreen in front of my seat. We will get that fixed in Kununura tomorrow, along with the two punctured tyres from the past few days.

Keys

We have just spent 4 days in Litchfield NP. Another great place to bushwalk around gorges, look at waterfalls and swim in waterholes. Some nice bush camps with simple ammenities too.

Hoping to have a quiet and remote campsite, we took a track signposted '4WD only - no caravans'. After about 10km and a few creek crossings we arrived at Tjaynera Falls. Unfortunately there were only 2 campsites left and there were 3 of us. AND the rangers had closed the toilet block as the bore water pump was broken. We decided to stay anyway, and were prepared to dig a hole if required, otherwise to Hugh's delight - just wee on a tree. (Wayne and Belinda opted to travel back to Wangi Falls.)

It was late in the afternoon on a fairly hot day. So we decided to do the 1.7km walk to the waterfall and plunge pool before dinner. AND ... that's where the saga begins ...

Gavin and the kids are straight into the waterhole, and swimming the 75odd metres over to the waterfall. Often stopping for me to take photos from the dry river rocks on the embankment. After a lot of frollicking the family emerged, towelled down and went to walk back to camp.

For some reason, and only at this point of time Gavin checks his pockets for the car keys. "Did I give you the car keys?" he asked in my direction. I didn't have to answer, my stare was enough for him to know my reply.

He looked around where he'd dropped his hat and sunnies, and retraced his steps towards the waterhole, then started looking into the clear pool and onto the rocky creek bed. At this stage some other visitors came over and offered their mask and snorkel so he could look further across the pool. The other bloke was a keen swimmer and fairly fit looking (not saying that my husband isn't fit looking). Gavin and the other bloke went out til it got too dark to see the bottom - ie too deep to retreive the keys anyway.

As it got dark we returned to camp WITHOUT THE KEYS

Luckily I had the spare key in the camper, but no remote locking buttons. So then the fun begins as we unlock the car and the after market alarm system is set off. Again luckily it only has all lights flashing, no siren. After about an hour Gavin has half the drivers side out on the ground - mats, carpets, dashboard, etc. Then again with luck he remembers that him and James came across a hidden fusebox when they were installing some 'very important' gauges prior to the trip. Once he located the box and removed the fuse the lights finally stopped flashing.

During the disarming process Jacinta and Susan had been preparing some mud crab and pesto pasta for dinner. So over a particularly quiet dinner table plans were made to get to Darwin ASAP to get some new keys and remote from Nissan. No rush though as its only Sat night, and we cant do anything til Monday.

Needless to say my cold shoulder was exposed in his direction for the rest of the night.

Next day we travelled to Wangi Falls, with plans to get to Darwin first thing Monday morning. We went for a swim in another great swimming hole at Wangi waterfall, with me securing the spare key, and returned to camp for lunch.

Our final bit of luck was when a car pulled up at our campsite, our fellow campers from Tjaynera Falls emerged. The lady hands Gav the car keys and says "you must have been having a man look".

(These friendly people from the Blue Mountains had returned to the waterhole the following morning when the sun was shining in, and within minutes the lady had found the keys in the water, but it took her husband some effort to get the keys from about 15ft depth.)

We opened up the remote buttons and let them dry out in the sun for the arvo, now they are working fine. AND Gavin gets out of trouble yet again.

CRABS
We have had our fair share of fresh seafood lately. Whenever the men get the chance to take the boats off the roof and into the water, the results are wonderful.

At Couburg Peninsula we had a mixture of fish over the week, with some crumbed, some BBqed and some curried.

At Shady Camp on the Mary River we had a lot of barramundi. The fishermen had to fight off the 5m saltwater crocodiles in some spots to get the barra. (Gavin actually ran his lure over a croc one day, and survived to tell the tale.) Only the big barra were brought home - anything under 55cm is deemed too small and must be released. Mark prefers the theory of 'fillet and release' so was annoyed to put back a 52cm and 53cm fish. By the end of the week the kids sounded like a 1970s heinz ad during dinner - oh no not barra again.

When leaving Darwin we wondered to head towards Dundee Beach. We got side-tracked to a little resort called Crab Claw Island. It was marvellous. A few cabins and campsites on the beach, with a little restaurant and 2 very good chefs. The fishing didn't prove too fruitful, but the crab pots were filled daily. We ate mud crab for about a week. The boys were bringing home 6 - 12 crabs each time they went out. Then there was a campsite ritual, with everyone involved in the various stages of getting the bity buggers on ice, then into a boiling pot, then removing all the meat from the hard shells. Each task of course requiring various amounts of beer consumption.

The dry season visitors are just starting to move through, we were there mid-week, and most caravaners just cook at home. So we sort of comandeered the restaurant during our visit. We were able to take our fresh crabs to the chefs for them to create dinner. One night we had 6 courses of crab - all various chef creations using crab, seafood, etc. Another night they cooked us chilli crab, which was too hot for me so I had Barramundi. The kids loved being served a whole crab and a pair of shell crackers. About 2 hours later we left the dinner table.

During the day we sat in the restaurant to do schoolwork. It is a huge elevated open balcony with a thatched roof - balinese style. With a breeze coming through it made the 32 degree days quite bearable. The children often running away from the school books when they heard the boats coming back, sometimes they even went fishing in lieu of doing school work.

off to market...

As most of you can imagine, I had to contain my excitement when the family said that we were going to the local markets on mothers day morning. It was our last day in Alice Springs, so I only had time for a quick look around before hitting the road north.(Ahh, the disappointment)

I was however looking forward to the Mendil Beach sunset markets in Darwin. We managed to get down there both Thurs and Sun nights, and yes the sunsets are marvelous.There are numerous clothing and craft stalls, but the feature is the food stalls - seafood, Chinese, Vietnamese,Japanese,Sri lankan, etc (oh yeah, and anything fried) and the very important ice cream man. We spent most of the night buying and eating lots of small serves, of lots of different things. We were all pretty stuffed by the end.

Some of you will remember Gavin's orange hemp pants bought at the channon markets when 4WDing near nimbin all those years ago. Well now he has some similar lightweight pants for fishing. No not orange, ochre red these ones. The kids style boasts 'one size fits all'.This should actually have an 'except Hugh' disclaimer. Hugh bought a lime green pair, so with them on and his oversized fishing shirt he looks more like a refugee boat person than a Aussie boy enjoying a family holiday up the top end.

Jacinta has just had her ears pierced for her 12th birthday, so she spent hours looking around the jewellery stalls.

Hugh has been taken with the aboriginal culture, so is now the proud owner of a didgeridoo from the top end. I quite like the aboriginal dot paintings from central Aust, so bought a little one with the storyline - man hunting. Picture Hugh wearinig his baggy green fishing gear, sitting cross legged on the grass a the caravan park, hiding under his new buffalo hind hat, playing his didgeridoo. (I will try and get Gav to put this photo on the blog.)

Gavin likes the X-ray art done by the top end clans. So we obtained another permit to enter Arnhem Land, and went to visit the local Injalak Art Centre. Our days planning was dictated by the high tide at the Alligator River causeway, but it just meant we had to do the return crossing by lunchtime. Now most people have to haggle with the vendors to agree to a price. Gavin however had to haggle with me to get my approval of amounts he was wishing to spend. I initially found him looking at a $500 painting. Apparently Susan had already warned him off the $1500 items. We agreed on a $200 maximum, and he finally found a nice barramundi painting.

We are leaving Darwin tomorrow (Monday) and heading back into Kakadu (hopefully the mozzie situation has improved). Planning on spending a few days there before heading over to Litchfield Nation Park. Some more photos are below.