On Shark Bay this morning

Feeding dolphins at Monkey Mia, Shark Bay WA

Palm tree memorial drive to HMAS Sydney

Heading south through Carnarvon today we saw this memorial avenue to those sailors who died on the HMAS Sydney and thought back to the memorial service around a year ago at St Andrew's Cathedral.



Each of the palm trees has a plaque in front of it with a soldiers name. It was a different way to remember those who have fallen to the Adelaide River military cemetary that we saw in the NT. But I thought this was good.

Heading south to cooler temperatures

As the temperature outside the car has dropped from 43 to 33 most days. So the engine temperature has dropped about ten degrees. It's great to be be back south of the tropic of Capricorn.

We are still very high up - the tropic of Capricorn is north of Brisbane.

Glass bottomed boat at Coral Bay

Snorkling at Coral Bay

Glass Bottomed Boat at Coral Bay

This morning Hannah, Solomon, Abraham and I headed out on the Glass
Bottomed boat at Coral Bay. Cathie had a morning at home by herself.

I decided against the six hour cruise and went instead for the two
hour cruise with two opportunities to snorkel. It was lovely.

The guide wasn't much of a talker but the view was amazing. He took
us out on a glass bottomed boat to a patch in the middle of the reef.
The kids got in first and complained that it was cold. I was sure
that I would hate it (not being much of a fan of cold water) but
surprisingly I think they had over reacted.

I didn't think it was too cold and the view under the water was amazing.

They fed lots of fish off the back off the boat while we paddled
around amongst the fish that were being fed.

I thought the coral was better than the coral I had seen at the
southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.

Solomon and Hannah seemed to be swimming fairly freely around the boat
(Hannah more than Solomon) so I tried to encourage Abraham to come out
with me on a rope away from the boat. He started but quickly retreated.

After a while all the kids were back on board and in fact I was last
of the adults to get back on board (which means I must have been
enjoying it).

Then we headed to another spot and repeated the exercise.

This time Abraham didn't go in at all. Solomon went in for a small
time. Hannah and I headed off up the current to where the captain
said we might be able to see turtles. We didn't but had a nice time
looking.

On the way back I recorded a short video announcement for church this
Sunday - re our new executive pastor Matt Lemsing (see seperate post).

What fun!

Tom Price to Coral Bay

Monday was the 600km drive to Port Hedland, yesterday 600 kilometers
to Tom Price. Today we did 600 kilometers to Coral Bay. It was
lovely driving today. The temperature outside for most of the day was
in the low thirties not low forties as it has been. It has now been
two nights without having the campervan air conditioner on at night
time. And I wore a jumper in the evening for the first time since
leaving Sydney. Tomorrow we will take a rest at Coral Bay.

Kangaroos at the Caravan Park -

As we were setting up for dinner at Tom Price Caravan Park three
Kangaroos came into view. The boys enjoyed feeding them. On the road
today we saw emus walking across the highway.

Tom Price to Coral Bay -

Monday was the 600km drive to Port Hedland, yesterday 600 kilometers
to Tom Price. Today we did 600 kilometers to Coral Bay. It was
lovely driving today. The temperature outside for most of the day was
in the low thirties not low forties as it has been. It has now been
two nights without having the campervan air conditioner on at night
time. And I wore a jumper in the evening for the first time since
leaving Sydney. Tomorrow we will take a rest at Coral Bay.

Cathie's dad died from cancer contracted here

Tom Price Caravan Park

Port Hedland

Port Hedland is one of the biggest commodity ports in the world and
the largest in Australia.

Tom Price -

Tom Price worked for the American Company Kaiser Steele. He arrived
in this part of Australia in the 1960's to check deposits of ore. And
was instrumental in convinicng the mining companies that it was worth
mining here. He lobbied the Australia and WA governments to allow
mining to proceed and for the ore to be exported.

In September 1962 he went back to the USA aged 71. Two hours after
being advised that a very rich ore deposit had been discovered on the
mountain he died of a heart attack.

The Tom Price tourist brochure says 'IN recognition of Thomas Moore
Price and his efforts during the foundation of the industry, the
mountain and our town. Tom Price was named after him.'

Amazing that it all happened just fourty years ago.

Port Hedland is rich

Port Hedland is an extraordinary city. The banner in the tourist center claims that it is the economic center of Australia. And the amount of stuff exported here is phenomenal. And so the city is rich. Mining Rich. And much richer than Mount Isa. Rio Tinto and BHP-Billiton export out of this part of Australia. Like at Mount Isa everything seems to be sponsored by the company. But there's obviously more money this side of the country.

Wittenoom has vanished

Cathie's dad Wilf Dibdin worked at the CSR Asbestos Mine in Wittenoom in 1958. Wilf died of an asbestos related lung cancer in 1974 when Cathie was seven and her younger brother David was five.

Wilf's brother Bob, Cathie's uncle, also worked briefly at the Wittenoom asbestos mine. He died four years ago of mesothelioma contracted at Wittenoom.

So, the town of Wittenoom, the company CSR, and the subject of asbestos related cancer have been big issues in Cathie's family.

Before I met Cathie in 1988 I came on a bus trip from Darwin down to Perth with my family. We called in at Wittenoom on the bus trip. At the time it was a ghost town. The problem of asbestos cancer had led the WA government to close the town. It wasn't illegal to go there but people were discouraged.

20 years later Wittenoom has been removed from most of the WA maps and there are no road signs to let one know where it is.

From the start of this trip it has been important for Cathie to go there. To see the place that her dad worked. To see the place that killed her father.

And today was the day. Emotions were running hot (not a good day to drop the campervan!)

I asked the lady at Port Hedland's tourist information center and she said 'Obviously we are to discourage you from visiting and to recommend that if you do go there that you don't stop and don't get out of the car and don't walk around and kick up the dust and don't breath deeply.'

It's 300km from Port Headland to Wittenoom on the way to Tom Price.

Heading along the highway south we got to the turn off to Tom Price and the road sign said 'Tom Price (unsealed)' and then there was a sign saying 'Tom Price (sealed)' If you took the unsealed road to Tom Price then you went through Wittenoom. If you took the sealed road you missed it. At the turnoff there was a roadhouse. I asked the girl if we could leave the campervan as the road we were going on was unsealed (she said yes!) and for directions to Wittenoom (she wasn't sure!).

There was a sign along the unsealed road warning of blue asbestos dust so we put on the dust masks that Cathie had purchased in Sydney.

We got to the place that the NAVMAN indicated Wittenoom was. The signs pointing towards it have been removed from the street signs. There clearly is a street grid. There are perhaps 20 houses. Some are lived in. I guess squatters are choosing to risk the asbestos cancer. It doesn't look like there is electricity or law and order.

Cathie got out of the car to lay a wreath near a tree by the petrol station. The kids and I stayed in the car.

We prayed thanking God for the life of her father, for his provision for Janet, Cathie and David. And thanking God he is safe in Jesus' care and that Cathie will see him in heaven.

There was no sign of the cinema or any other public buildings that I remembered from 20 years ago. They must have been demolished. It appears the only buildings standing are the ones that are currently lived in and claimed by either owners or squatters. I imagine that as each building becomes vacant the government demolishes it.

I think in another 20 years there will be no reference to Wittenoom on any current map and the area will actually have been flattened.

It will be as if this sordid chapter in Australia's corporate and mining history never happened. Except of course that little girls and boys grew up without dads and wretched companies like CSR and James Hardie tried for years to get out of meeting their responsibilities.

We left Wittenoom sober and drove another 300km to Tom Price.

Campervan fell off the car - Tuesday October 28

Heading out of Port Headland this morning first stop was the
Woolworths where as we went over the car park speed bump the Caravan
fell off the back of the car.

Note to family: the tow ball attachment needs to be attached around
the tow ball not resting on top of the tow ball. (I present this
point fairly deadpan but it was high drama at the time.)

For two months we have been attaching the safety chain with a D-clamp
and now I am very pleased that we have been.

Oh well this is a mistake that is only made once!

Much better thankyou

Hannah and I are now fully recovered. Abraham is still a bit subdued
but drinking and eating again. We are praying that Cathie doesn't get
it.

Happy Birthday Solomon - Monday October 27

Ten years ago today our eldest son Solomon was born.  Today we gave him his own saxophone.  It was a really nice breakfast time sitting around as a family giving presents, getting phone calls from home, reading out cards.  He is such a mature, strong, confident Christian boy.  I am so proud of him. 

We have decided that this has been too hot.  And we need to get to cooler weather as soon as possible and so we want to put in a couple of long days driving heading south.

We drove 605 kilometers today mostly sitting at 105.  (Speed limit is 110).  Much of the drive was in the low forties temperatures that have become common (they tell us it is an unusually warm October).  

Poor Abraham caught was Hannah and I had (and which we think we caught from Solomon).  And so Abraham threw up about seven times.  

We only really stopped for vomit maintenance.  I had a deadline to be part of an important church council meeting via phone conference and we had to get close enough to Port Hedland (the brochure calls it 'the economic heartbeat of Australia') for mobile reception.

ps I am very pleased with the outcome.  Details to follow.

Demolition Derby at Broome Anglican Church - Sunday October 26

Cathie, Solomon and Abraham visited Broome Anglican Church this morning, which is pastored by Tim and Kathy Mildenhall, while Hannah and I recuperated.   They came home with the most incredible story.

We had noticed signs the day before for the Broome Speedway and had actually considered going.  Apparently one of the events on the program was a demolition derby. The Anglican Church entered a car decorated by the youth group and sunday school kids and driven by the assistant minister Lachlan Edwards, who showed some signs that he must have done something interesting before theological college.

Anyway he drove the church's car and demolished (literally) the opposition.  

There was video at church the next morning and the mood was one of jubliation.

Cathie she reported that not only can Lachlan Edwards drive better than all the other demolition derby drivers in Broome but he can preach very well indeed.

I was sorry to miss both events.

In the afternoon we spent a quiet time at the caravan park.  Then WAECO dealer rang at 4pm to say they had finished repairing our fridge. Now here's a bouquet.  We took it in on Friday at 4pm and it was ready on Sunday at 4pm.  Kiss Refrigeration at Broome = ten points.

Pearl Diving & Camel riding in Broome

Saturday morning: off to the tourist center and then Boome Markets. There was no decent coffee at the markets. But there was a Christian bookstall in the market (perhaps this is something we should do at Glebe Markets?). I had a nice conversation with the guy at the bookstall who had used Introducing God and Ideas that changed the world.

Broome has had a huge pearl diving history. We went for a tour on a pearl lugger this morning. This was fascinating. It was amazing to hear how much money had been made and horrific to hear how many (particularly Japanese) died in the Peal Diving industry.

In the afternoon we went camel riding on Cable Beach near Broome. We were running a little late and Cathie, Solomon and Abraham raced ahead along the beach towards the waiting camel line.



Hannah and I walked a little slower feeling a little queasy.

The camel behind me was Ned which apparently worked with Nicole Kidman in the movie Australia at Kununurra a few months ago. So when you see that movie and Nicole and her camel think of me!

We were on our way back when Hannah threw up twice. She and I spent the afternoon throwing up. In the evening Cathie took us to Broome Casualty. Most of our concerns were about Hannah who was looking very very dry and not holding any water down at all. But we were both given drugs and drips and then discharged around one am.

Cathie wrote a prayer point to a friend during the time we were in hospital:

Hi. Just a quick prayer point. Dominic and Hannah are both in Broome Hospital on drips with gastro or food poisoning. They are both feeling awful, and Hannah particularly is very miserable. I must say I am partly relieved that they are not still in the camper. It's one thing maintaining a semblance of order and cleanliness in normal camping, but with two people vomiting today, its been a challenge. It felt good to do a big clean after dropping them at hospital. Now the dishes are washed, the beds are made, the boys are asleep, and we just have to see whether D and H can drink gastrolyte before they come home. Personally, I don't think H can drink gastrolyte when she is healthy. No wonder she is miserable. Thanks for praying, love Cathie

Mad dogs and englishmen go out in the midday sun - Wednesday October 22

Abraham, Cathie and Hannah at the Bungle Bungles
The alarm went at 4am. Cathie and I did all the packing while the
kids tried unsuccessfully to sleep in the back. It was 30+ degrees at
6:30am as we were heading south.

At about 8:30 we arrived at the turn off from the highway and left the
campervan just off the highway inside the Mapel Down's Cattle
Station. You have to drive about 50 kilometers on 4WD track through
the private property of Mapel Downs to get to the National Park. It
was good 4WDing. We only had one big water patch to get through.
Hannah walked through it first as their was no indication of depth
(only up to her knees). Then we headed across.

(video to follow)

The dirt track was very slow maximum speed 40 often much slower. It
took the best part of two hours to do the 50 kilometers.

Then after registering and paying our day entry fee we headed to
Cathedral Gorge.

I was a little nervous about the WAECO fridge which was running in the
back of the car. We couldn't risk turning it off. But it is was
running at full power and it was 42 degrees.

We walked the hour to Cathedral Gorge, all armed with two litres of
water. It was hot. Too hot. Exhausting. Brilliant at the end. But
brilliant enough? I am not sure. We only saw two other cars and one
small 4WD tour bus in the place.

Apparently the Bungle Bungles get 44,000 tourists a year. So I must
assume they come on days when it is cooler.

The drive back was difficult. Not much fun. It was 43 degrees. The
car found it hard going. We had to turn the air conditioning off.

Finally we arrived at the highway. It was fantastic to be back on the
tar. Back to 90km/hour. Back to having air conditioning on. Back to
having other cars going past. Back to no winging.

It was such a relief to pull into Halls Creek at 4pm. I had been
going hard for 12 hours.

Bungle Bungle review: Spectacular. But not sure it was worth the heat/
stress.

Deciding on a Bungle Bungle plan - Tuesday October 21

It's been in the low 40's the last few days. I did a little research
on getting to the Bungle Bungles by talking to some other tourists.
You drive 50 kms to the highway, then 250 kilometers south. There are
two roadhouses on the way, the last of which is Turkey Creek (what a
terrible name).

Then you go another 50 kilometers, then turn left on dirt to the
Bungle Bungles (no campervans/caravans). When you get to the visitors
center (unmanned) you pay your $10 entry fee then go right 25
kilometers on dirt to Cathedral Gorge or left 25 kilometers on dirt to
Echidna Cavern.

There's a two hour walk at Cathedral Gorge and a one hour walk at
Echidna Cavern. Then you turn around and drive back.

Alison Lester's excellent book for kids about driving around Australia
makes a big feature of going to the Bungle Bungles so our kids were
keen.

Would we go tonight and stop at Turkey Creek or head off at 4am with a
view to getting their at say 8am and doing the walk in the relative
cool of the day?

Another caravaner reminded us of the number of dead animals on the
road and that talked us out of the night drive.

So we packed up as much as we could, got all ready, went to bed with
the alarm set for 4am.

Welcome all to Broome

A long days driving to Broome.  Hot, flat and uneventful.  We listened to Williamson's Welcome All to Broome and John Piper challenging students to consider cross cultural Christian ministry.

When we finally got to Broome what a thrill to have arrived on the other side.  Off course I have been to WA probably eight times before.  But apart from 60 kilometers (which Cathie drove today) I have now driven all the way across Australia.

Of course there are many people who have done this, but still for me it was a thrill.  I rang Peter Riches to let him know that we had got his car safely to the Indian Ocean.

I took our WAECO fridge to the Broome WAECO dealer to be repaired.  The part had arrived.  But it was 4pm Friday so they will probably look at it on Monday.

A $100,000 pearl in Broome

... which Hannah put back

Fitzroy Crossing - Thursday October 23

Fitzroy Crossing is another mostly aboriginal town.  1200 population.  There were two caravan parks.  And we stayed at the nicer one.  It was very very nice.  Total contrast to the night before at Halls Creek.  Grass.  And a resterant.  

The Fitzroy River is the largest river in WA.  When it flows it flows.  At it's peak it would fill Sydney Harbour in five hours.  We travelled 20 kilomters out of town to Geike Gorge and to a National Parks Cruise.  

I hadn't realised there are commercial operators and national parks cruses.  Our guide was friendly, professional but dull.  We did see a croc, did see some spectacular scenary.  But after the terrrific tour we had had at Katherine Gorge I confess to a little disappointment.

We had a talk with the national parks guys afterwards and asked them about damming the Fitzroy.  It was clear that just south of Lake Argyle there was lots of productive land, whereas around the Fitzroy River this had not been the case.

They were strongly opposed to any talk of damming the Fitzroy.  They were of the view that every river that the government had dammed they had ruined.  They pointed out that they weren't properly utilising the water in Lake Argyle.  

 

The kids went to the campervan pool and Hannah lost her watch.

We made dinner for the kids in the campervan and while they watched Crocodile Dundee in LA I took Cathie out for dinner.  I love these moments with Cathie.

Halls Creek

First thing on Thursday morning we packed the campervan and headed up to the tourist center in Halls Creek. The population of the town is about 1100. Mostly aboriginal. Mostly unemployed. It's a hard hot place.

The best maintained building in the town was the liquor store.

Outside the tourist center is a statue of a man and a wheelbarrow. They are paying tribute to a man a century ago who pushed a sick mate in a wheelbarrow all the way from Halls Creek to Windam for treatment. I think that's 600 kilometers. I was amazed.

On the drive we listened to John Piper speaking at a Uni Student conference in the UK on Ruth 1.

We arrived at Fitzroy Crossing about 2pm.

Halls Creek

Halls Creek Caravan Park is all red dirt.  Virtually no trees.  But there was a pool.  Hannah, Solomon Abraham and I ended up there pretty fast. 

As Cathie and I reviewed the day and thought about what was next we decided to scratch the Wolf Creek cater from our itinerary.

This will disappoint my father so a few words of explanation are required.

Dad has been encouraging us to visit the Wolf Creek crater.  And I like the idea.  And our friend Tim Walker wrote in his blog of a trip through here a month ago: 

About 150km down the TT is the Wolf Creek Crater the second largest  well preserved meteorite impact crater currently identified on the surface of this planet. This is a substantial bullet hole in the  Earth's surface with the bullet being a metorite about 30m in  diameter which impacted about 300,000 years ago. The crater is about  

850m in diameter and about 20m deep but it seems much deeper than this when you are standing on the top of the rim.

Maybe it extends 20m below the level of the surrounding land rather  than 20m below the rim. The sides of the crater form a noticeable  wide flat hill as you approach it. The inside of the crater was 120m  deep but has filled with sand and sediment over the millenia and is  now a round flat area covered with low lying scrub around a small  tree covered centre - obviously this is where the small amount of  rain that falls accumulates. Apart from the structure itself there  is very little to see. You cant find identifiable meteorite  fragments and even if you did it wouldnt be legal to take them. So,  you drive the 20km from the track up to the crater, walk up the rim,  look at it for 5 minutes then, unless you want to walk down and into  the centre, walk back to you car and do the 20km trip back to the TT  to continue south.

The Crater is worth diverting for and worth seeing - it is virtually  unique at a planetary level - but it doesnt take long to see once  you are there.

Tim was writing of diverting 20 kilometers off the Tinarmi Track (Halls Creek to Alice Springs) all dirt and 4WDing at it's hardest.  Spectacular but hard driving.  And the turn off to Wolf Creek was 100 kilometers down the Tinarmi Track.

Anyway after 150kilometers on dirt in the heat to do the Bungle Bungles.  I couldn't stomach another 200 kilometers on dirt to see the Wolf Creek Crater.  So that will have to be somehting we missed out on.

Sorry Dad!

I don't think Hannah and Abraham realised how nervous I was

As we pulled into Kununurra last night Solomon began to vomit and he was up a bit overnight as well. Cathie was feeling like a subdued day so she and Solomon hung around Kununurra's air conditioned shopping center this morning.

Hannah, Abraham and I headed out to Ivanhoe Crossing. It's 12 kilometers out of Kununurra and is a causeway over the river. I put the jeep in 4WD and we headed across. On reflection I don't think we should have done that. We got there (in the kindness of God) but it was a bit too harrowing. The creek was fairly fast flowing.



Having got across we headed north but couldn't find the tourist spots that we were looking for and I was getting a bit nervous about the amount of petrol that we had in the tank.

I didn't want to go back across the Ivanhoe Crossing so we took another turn that on the map should have taken us to a turn off a little west of Kununurra, but there was no sign indicating that was the case. We drove for what seemed like ages with the tank on empty. Before God answered my prayers and gave us a T-junction. We turned left and headed back into Kununurra.

We had a spare 20 litres of fuel in the back of the 4WD but were relieved not to have needed it.

Then we headed out to a place called Zebra Rock where they sell rock with Zebra like colour patterns. I managed to get Hannah and Cathie Christmas presents.

On the way back we saw a Boag Tree. The kids could actually go inside this one. Apparently there is one near here that is so big that it was used as a prison to lock up offenders. I found that hard to believe until I saw this one.

Then it was back to pick up Cathie and Solomon who had had a much less eventful morning than us.

WA, Lake Argyle and Kununurra

A full day of driving today - quite a bit of it at temperatures over 40degrees (the car is doing very well). There are 508 kilometers from Katherine to Kununurra. A great pack up saw us heading out of the park at 9:15. We filled up the campervan's gas bottle ($10 cheaper than Alice Springs) and headed west.

The Kimberly Ranges are spectacular. Really quite amazing.

We stopped at the WA border for a fruit check and picked up an extra hour and a half. They searched our car and campervan. We handed over lettuce, mushrooms and honey. And we ate the last of the grapes. The kids had fun lying down on the highway right on the border for the camera to establish that the traffic volumes were less than the traffic volumes on the NSW / QLD border.

Just over the border into WA was the sign for Lake Argyle. It was a 35 kilometer diversion (70 km return). Lake Argyle was a visionary initiative in the 1960's. It is Australia's biggest inland sea and it is man made. The ord river was dammed and a 1000 hectare lake created. We dropped the campervan at the caravan park then drove to the look out. It was truly spectacular.

Back to pick up the campervan then drive to Kununurra which, having been founded to serve the Lake Argyle construction process, is a town that is max fifty years old. We're spending two nights at the Big 4 campground here. It's going to be interesting to explore Kununurra tomorrow.

Resting in Katherine

Cathie in front of the Crocodile trap at Jim Jim Falls

We were feeling wacked in the heat so decided to Sabbath all day at Katherine except for a trip to Woolies to stock up on three weeks food. We had a good time reading Ephesians 5:21f with the kids. I am reading Peter Costello's biography and enjoying that. I like political biographies. I am enjoying reading Costello's take on events that I was involved in covering on the radio news in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The last political biography I read was John Andersons. And before that Paul Keatings.

Clicking over 10k

Very exciting just before pulling into Katherine we clicked over the 10k mark. 10,000 kilometers since leaving Sydney. The NAVMAN reckons the way home is 6500 km going via Perth. We are also past halfway timewise in our holiday.

We overnighted at Katherine's Low Level Caravan Park - Big 4. Which we thought was significantly better than the Riverside Caravan Park where we stayed on our last visit to Katherine.

Cooinda and Edith Falls

Hannah, Solomon and Abraham at Edith Falls, Kakadu

Having seen Jim Jim Falls yesterday, today we headed south to Coolinda. We arrived about 11am. The next cruise on the Yellow Water wasn't till 2:45pm. We decided not to wait for this, but went down the the dock. Walking out along the dock there was a great view of the wetlands and no doubt it would have been a great experience, but the highlight would have been crocodiles and we have already had a very positive experience of that so we kept on going.

We stopped at the Cooinda Cultural Center which was good. We skipped the Aboriginal Rock Art.

We pulled into Edith Falls which was lovely. Solomon and Hannah swam all the way across to the waterfall on the other side. I was very proud of them for this as it's such a long swim.

I watched an episode of the west wing on my iphone while they did that. Abraham splashed around and Cathie read in the car.

Itinerary

I have had a few emails from people who are thinking of doing a trip like the one we are doing asking various questions. In the comments below Ben asked 'What's our itinerary?'

Honest answer. Here it comes (it's pretty sketchy!)

Qld: 3 weeks (including one week on the gold coast at those worlds)

NT: 3 weeks

WA: 4 weeks

SA & travel home: 3 weeks

(This is as far as we had planned before we left).

How are we going? We were half a week late leaving Qld. Now we are a full seven days late. If I had my time over again I would do the worlds in Queensland as a separate trip (but you live and learn). We're not planning too much in front. This is possible at this time of the year because the caravan parks are almost empty. It would be impossible in peak period (July August). It also lacks efficiency but appeals to our spontaneous nature.

My mum has emailed this quick summary of our July 1998 trip on a bus with her school (thanks mum!) Some of which route we are about to repeat.

July 88.

We flew to Darwin where we picked up our bus, then drove to Katherine and went on the gorge boat trip to levels 1 & 2, stopping off to see the cave paintings at 2^nd level. We also saw Jedda's leap cliff.

Via Victoria River, stopped at the Roadhouse to Timbar Creek. Watch out for Road Trains! And Boab trees!

Kununurra, Lake Argyle, the dam and the Ord river scheme.

Turkey Creek and Halls Creek (not long after the 2 young lads had died).

Fitzroy Crossing and Geike Gorge in the Kimberlys, where we went on a boat trip. Geike Gorge at sunset is also a sight worth seeing.

We camped at Margaret River and went via Willane Roadhouse to Broome where we saw the dinosaur's footprint, the Japanese cemetery and Cable Beach as well as the town. I was amazed at the stark bright colours, just like a flag, red dirt, bright green grass and vivid blue sky.

Port Hedland with its iron ore, the amazing Hammersley gorges, Dales and Weano and the meeting point of 3, Weano, Red and Joliffe. Watch out no-one falls into the icy water of the gorges, don't let anyone swim in them however hot outside. People have died from hypothermia with the shock of the cold icy water.

Tom Price, the Tropic of Capricorn, and Carnarvon and where Dominic had his 23^rd birthday.

Mt Augustus which is the world's largest rock.

Denham, Monkey Mia (unfortunately the weather turned to rough for us to camp there.) I don't know what the road is like now, but then it was soft dirt and we were lucky not to get bogged. We all slept the night in the Town Hall at Shark Bay (lots of shells)

Stromatalites-living fossils.

Geraldton

The Pinnacles

Perth

In Perth we were met by another driver and had a non stop coach journey, except for toilet & short food stops back to Epping.

I don't know how much Dominic will remember of the last part. He might have stayed in the coach at the Pinnacles, because unfortunately when we were at Fitzroy Crossing he got sick with what we thought might be bronchitis. We did get antibiotics at the hospital but he got much worse and by the time we were in Perth, while the rest of the people went on tours aroundPerth and I took him to a doctor in Perth he could hardly stand. Apparently he had reacted badly to the antibiotic and had very little lung capacity left. (that probably isn't the right medical terms). Afterwards I remember sitting with him in the outdoor shopping mall, he falling all over the place, and people staring and avoiding us no doubt thinking he was either drunk or on drugs. I had to leave him sitting by himself on a bench while I went to the shops to buy lemonade for him. Then when he had a drink he vomited. I think the reaction of people around certainly cemented in my mind that you must never judge anyone. I managed to book him on a flight home, arranged for his flat mate to meet him at the airport, and got him to the plane. I wasn't sure whether he would actually be able to get on the plane unaided, but he did.

I was very relieved to see him waiting for us, looking recovered, two days later when we arrived back in Epping.

Clicking over 10k

Very exciting just before pulling into Katherine we clicked over the 10k mark. 10,000 kilometers since leaving Sydney. The NAVMAN reckons the way home is 6500 km going via Perth. We are also past halfway timewise in our holiday.

We overnighted at Katherine's Low Level Caravan Park - Big 4. Which we thought was significantly better than the Riverside Caravan Park where we stayed on our last visit to Katherine.

4WD excitement in Kakadu

At Jim Jim Falls in Kakadu

I hadn't properly looked at the Kakadu brochures and so hadn't realised that Jim Jim Falls is judged one of the highlights of the national park. And yet because it is so hard to get to by 4WD many visitors don't see it.

But I was attracted to a little more 4WDing through the national parks. And this was brilliant.

It was 40kms south on the tar, then 50kms on a pretty rough corregated dirt road. Then 10 kilometers of the most exciting stimulating thrilling driving I've done. What a buzz 4WD'ing in Kakadu through sand, bumps, rocks, hills, little water courses. I had an absolutely brilliant time in Peter and Vini's Jeep. It handled itself so well. I found my inner 4WD enthusiast. And at the end a walk to a beautiful Jim Jim falls - which had stopped flowing but were no less beautiful.

On the way back Cathie held the camera on the dashboard to give me a record of the fun drive (and when we get a decent internet connection we will put that up on youtube).

Back on the bitchiman we listened to Ephesians 4:16-5:2, but I think we will probably need to finish this tomorrow. Then back to the campervan at 8:30pm.

Cathie heated up meat pies for dinner while the kids had a quick swim, then she retired early. And then what a delight as I was tidying the campervan I found my missing wallet.

All is good.

A nuclear disappointment

The open cut Ranger Uranium Mine at Jabiru

I had to have a phone conference with Sydney this morning which took longer than I had hoped. While I did that Cathie organised the kids to do their first bit of schoolwork in seven weeks so there was some silver lining.

After lunch we raced to the Ranger Uranium mine at Jabiru. Cathie had spotted tours of the mine advertised at 11, 1 and 3. And we have never had a tour of a Uranium mine before so it seemed like a good opportunity.

Well. We still haven't seen a Uranium mine tour. The tour only operates during the dry season and as we are now on the cross over between wet and dry it's just stopped.

We did get to take a couple of photos of the open cut mine through the barbed wire fence and the kids were able to get a sense of what an open cut mine looked like. But no answers to our thousands of questions about how the whole Uranium industry works.

We were a little disappointed but headed back to the main tourism info place for Kakadu and then down to Jim Jim Falls.

Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise

Bible time today was on Ephesians 4:1-16 and it was all about living
worthy of the calling we have recieved.

As we drove Cathie and I planned the next few days. We decided that
we wanted to visit some of the main scenic spots in Kakadu, do a croc
cruise and go to Ranger Uranium Mine.

Heading down the highway we saw a sign saying 'Spectacular Jumping
Crocodile Cruise' 11am, 1 and 3pm. As it was 2:50pm we turned left
and headed in.

Behind the counter they had stuck up fourty odd posters from the
Northern Territory Newspaper all with reports of croc killings.

In the five minutes we waited for the cruise to start a woman was
walking around with a diamond python. I didn't realise what was going
on until I turned and saw the python wrapped around Abraham. Anyway
the kids all had a go, then I was peer group pressured into it and
finally Cathie did. It's strange experience the feeling of a snake
wrapped around you.

Straight out of the dock we saw a huge crocodile - one of the biggest
in the river the captain said. They dangled bait over the side. The
croc came up. He snapped for it. And they lifted the bait in the
air. They managed to get the croc to jump at least a meter and a half
out of the water before giving him the bait. This process was
repeated with about five more smaller crocs during the cruise.

It was an hour tremendously well spent.

We overnighted at Jabiru.

Crocodiles at the Adelaide River

What an amazing day. This morning we checked out Darwin's military
museam.

Then this afternoon. We were inside the boat about three meters from
the crocs as they fed them.

First go at snake handling

On the way into Kakadu this afternoon we stopped for a croc cruise.
While we were waiting they gave us a go handling a diamond python.
It's allegedly not poisonous - it kills by crushing you to death.

Cathie wrestling a python

Domestic maintenance issues 2

Solomon wrestling a python just before going on the Spectacular Jumping Crocs ride.

While at the war museam I rang Waeco in QUeensland and discovered that
the fridge repair part that the local Waeco dealer was tellign us
would arrived at 10:30am would not in fact arrive until late on
Friday. This means that it would be potentially not to be repaired
till the following Monday.

Having done the two things worth doing in Darwin I didn't want to stay
till Monday (I know there's all sorts of crocodile stuff, but we have
been to Australia Zoo and we are goiong on a croc cruise). So asked
the Waeco people to send the replacement part to their dealer in
Broome. We went and picked up the portable fridge. So far on this
seven trip I have been to the Waeco service agent seven times. All in
all (at this stage) it's looking like a $1000 lemon. It not working
and the impact of that on frozen meat has been a major stress factor
on our holidays.

Sunshine Coast - Fridge stopped working
Sunshine Coast - Dropped fridge off to Waeco for repairs (visit one)
Sunshine Coast - Picked fridge up from Waeco after repairs (visit two)
Kings Canyon - Fridge stopped working
Alice Springs - Took fridge to service agent, unable to replicate
fault (visit three)
Tennant Creek - Fridge stopped working
Darwin - Monday morning, Took fridge to repair agent (visit four)
Darwin - Wednesday morning, Visited repair agent to check on progress
because concerned over lack of progress, told on/off switch wasn't
working, part had not been ordered (visit five)
Darwin - Wednesday morning, Visited repair agent to check on progress
because concerend over lack of progress, told part had been ordered
(visit six)
Darwin - Thursday morning - rang Waeco and was told that the part had
not yet been dispatched from Victoria
Darwin - Thursday lunchtime - rang Waeco and asked to send part to
service agent in Broome
Darwin - Thursday afternoon - visited Waeco agent and picked up fridge
(visit seven)
Broome - in a week or so - will take fridge to be repaired (visit eight)
Broome - in a week or so - will pick up fridge from repairs (visit nine)

Darwin Military Museam

I took this shot at the Adelaide River military graveyard just south of Darwin. I was amazed at the ongoing impact of WW2 on the territory.

Then we went to the Darwin Military Museum and I am so glad we did. My tip in visiting Darwin is the Military Museam and the main Darwin museum's cyclone tracey exhibit. These two museams mark the two landmark events in the history of Darwin.

The military museam was Cathie's idea and I am so glad that she pushed for it. I had absolutely no idea that Darwin was such a world war two hot spot. I knew something went on, knew the hosptial was bombed (we found that out at Mount Isa when we toured their underground hospital which was built because they were concerned about what had happened to Darwin's hospital) and driving up from Tennant Creek there are lots of military airfields and the

But the situation in Darwin was far far worse.

When the war hotted up they evacuated women and children from Darwin leaving a population of 2000 (including only 63 women).

Then in February 1943 the Japanese struck. There was a note at the door of the museum giving the history.

'The devastating bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1943 was one of the most signficant days in Australian history... The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 had horrified the world. on that day, the Japanese used 380 planes to drop 271 bombs and torpedoes, killing over 2000 people. More than twice that firepower was launched against Darwin just two months later.

'On 19 February 1943 343 Japanese planes dropped 683 ombs, a total weight of 114,620 kilograpms of explosies. The 138 Japanese fighters and dive bombers in the first [part of the attack were each armed with four or more machine guns and cannon and about 1000 rounds of ammuntion which they used to strafe anything that moved in to the town and on the harbour. The second wave of 54 eavy bombers destroyed the RAAF airfield.'

The number of people killed in that attack by the Japanese was between 900-1100.

Why isn't this on the tip of my tongue? Why is this not part of my general knowledge?

The museam was organised by Darwin military veterans. It recieves no government support and survives just on the funding recieved by admissions.

The kids are learning lots on this trip and have actually learnt much more than I expected about war. I note that Solomon has written on his blog that he doesn't like Japanese as a result of visiting the museam. We will talk through later about how forgiveness and reconciliation can work on a national scale as it does with one's siblings.

We did read the declaration of Japanese surrender with the kids. But there was nothing at the museam about how post the war relations have been repaired and restored with the government and people of Japan. And I confess that my knowledge of how that came about is also sadly lacking. So I shall need to work that out over the next few days.

IMG_0350.JPG

Domestic maintenance issues 1

Up before six because we had to have the campervan in at the Dometic dealer in Darwin at 7:30am. We'd agreed that we'd all work really hard to pack fast and then the family would drop me at the Dometic dealer while they went to Macca's for breakfast. (We had rung the dealer when we arrived in Darwin but the first time they could fit us in was Thursday morning).

When we got there they had to take the campervan around the back to do the work on repairing the stove's right burner. I asked Solomon to get the campervan keys from Cath and to bring them round to me. On the way he got in trouble for being a kid in the factory area. That's a tough call. Who do you obey? Your Dad who tells you to bring the keys so that they can repair something in the campervan or the factory person who is stopping you from taking the keys so that they can repair something in the campervan. He has a dim view of them.

The start of the wet season

Solomon with Fannie Bay and the Timor Sea behind him.

The timing of our trip was really influenced by the ministry demands of Christians in the Media and what worked best for the kid's schooling (last term of the year for Hannah Yr 6 and Solomon Yr 4). But in hindsight in terms of experiencing northern Australia (if we had thought about it more) we may have done better doing the actual northern Australian bit in July or August.

We are actually here in Darwin right at the very end of the tourist season, quite a few of the casual staff at Kings Canyon (for example) were finishing up as we left, there are lots of huge caravan parks with very few customers. Contrast this with stories we have heard of people being turned away from these same parks in July.

The reason there are less tourists now is that it is now very very hot. We have had several days with fourty degree temperatures. We are a little nervous about Kakadu tomorrow because we understand there's some bushwalking to do - and it is so hot.

Also we are starting to get the first taste of the wet season. I didn't really understand this when people spoke of it before. But it teamed down mid afternoon and at about two o'clock this morning.

One good thing is that it is so humid that the campervan air conditioner has been working very effectively. The air conditioner struggled in the dry heat of Uluru and Kings Canyon but has been working very well in the more humid Darwin climate.

Our plan now is to go Kakadu for a day and a half and then head across to Kunamurra and Lake Argyle on our way to the Kimberlies

Now this is a call out to my parents or sisters: Do you happen to have the itinerary of mum's school's early 1990's bus trip from Darwin to Perth? It would be interesting to compare.

Cyclone Tracey and a WAECO fridge

After two days in Darwin doing nothing really - resting and shopping -
today, Wednesday, we went out to explore.

First, we downloaded a song from itunes 'Santa never made it into
Darwin' and listened to it a few times over breakfast and did a study
on Ephesians 2:10-22.

Then we headed to the WAECO dealer (Berrimah Airconditioning) as our
portable fridge still hadn't been repaired (despite taking it in first
thing on Monday). They had just started to look at it this morning
and had got as far as establishing that the on/off switch wasn't
working.

We headed then to the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery and this was
really interesting. We particularly wanted to see the Museum's
Cyclone Tracey exhibition (as most of the other museum's content had
been covered in other places).

We spent a fascinating few hours at the Darwin Museum. The exhibit
had three main features. First, A newsreel from the morning after the
exhibit. Second, a five part feature: 1940's darwin, darwin just
before the cyclone, an audio tape of the cyclone, Darwin the morning
after the cyclone, Darwin five years after the cyclone. Third, lots
and lots and lots of photos.

At the gift shop I saw the above book on the Chinese experience in the
Northern Territory. I was appalled to read of a 1875 sign in
Queensland: 'No dogs, chinese or aborigines in this park.'

Then lunch looking over Fannie Bay (it was actually exciting to be
looking at an ocean off the coast of Australia facing north). Then we
went and looked at the main tourist shopping strip of Darwin.

Back to the WAECO dealer who had established that we needed a new
circuit board for the on off switch and had ordered it from WAECO. It
is not clear whether this will arrive before we leave Darwin or not.
And it's not clear if this will solve all our problems with the fridge
(i.e. make it go) or not.

It's going to be a fun few days at Kakadu

Celeste

We had a very nice time with Celeste Powell tonight.

As Abraham did not know what Celeste looked like he made a sign to hold up at the entrance of the caravan park, so that when she emerged from her taxi she would know who to go with so that he and Solomon could escort her to our campervan (just like you see at the exits at the airport).

I first met Celeste when she was three days old. I had just returned from Beach Mission in 1991 and Robyn had just come home from hospital with her. I was asked to pray at her dedication and have prayed for her regularly through her life. She's up here nannying for six months for a family who she met in Sydney.

Not having had a guest for six weeks there was lots of excitement building up to her visit and we very much enjoyed her company.

Spotted in Darwin ...

Word from home

I've chatted on the phone today to a few friends in Sydney. We are
missing you and are really encouraged to hear about how things are
going. We're delighted that church has been going so well. That
Matt, Sam, Andrew and Con have been doing such an excellent job in
teaching the Bible and really that things are going so well. Thanks
for your prayers for our health. I think these prayers have been
answered as we are very well now. We really are having a good break.

A quiet day in Darwin

After a very busy week we are having a quiet day in Darwin. We are off
to JB-hifi to get some more DVD's for the WA drive. The kids are
blogging and replying to emails.

Optus reception and net coverage has not been good in the outback. So
they are happy to be back on the 3G network.

St Peters Anglican Church Darwin

We were five minutes late for the five pm service at St Peters. There
were about sixty adults and twenty kids there. It was informal,
friendly and the speaking was good. The speaker was Mark Dixon. He
used to be minister at Harbord in Sydney and years ago I spoke at
men's breakfast for him there. His assistant Bruce Chapman led the
meeting. They have only just started working here up from St Phillips
Eastwood. Afterwards they had a nice meal. The kids had a really
good time. And they were delighted that the Bible Passage being
taught this weekend was Ephesians 1.

I don't think there were any indigenous people present.

Apparently their morning service is much more traditional. I bought a
colour booklet and DVD about the Church Missionary Society's work
amongst the aboriginal people up here. More on that when I have read
it.

After church we went out for pizza in the center of Darwin.

Sunday October 12 - Litchfield National Park to Darwin

We had a slow start because I was up a little too late chatting last night, packed the campervan and left in the caravan park while we went and explored Litchfield National Park again.

First we saw the Banyan tree.  It's a parasitic tree that takes over a host tree and grows to a huge size, eventually strangling it.  We stopped because they were offering coffee and we still hadn't had any since Alice Springs.  While it wasn't cappuccino it was make your own filter coffee.  Cost $8 for two cups.  The territory is expensive.  

First, we headed to the lost city.  Perhaps more for the fun of the 4WD track that we took to get there.  We enjoyed listening to Harry Chapin's 30 thousand pounds of bananas. There are huge rock mounds making up what they have dubbed a city.  How this all came about is a geological story that is long, complex (and which I might have been prepared to read if the temperature was under forty).

Abraham wanted to visit the tabletop swamp.  And as a result of our visit he now understands what a swamp is.

We had lunch at Tolmer Falls.  It was beautiful.  No swimming. No shade and too hot for lunch.

We raced back to the caravan park.  While Cathie and I attached the campervan the kids jumped in the pool then we headed to Darwin.  Ephesians 2:1-10 and the subject was 'from the gutter to the penthouse.'  I am not sure who the speaker was but the kids understood the main point.  We are going to work on learning Ephesians 2:4-5 off by heart over the next few days.

We arrived at the caravan park in Darwin just after four, quickly set up the campervan and raced to the pool for a quick dip.

 

Indigenous Issues

The above poster - seen in a few places around the Northern Territory - sums up well the massive cultural difference between life here in the Territory and inner Sydney where education is a god.

'Out in the park some black people sprawl and share their money on flagons ,

There's s so much here to be understood,

before coming out here like Robin Hood,

And the do gooders do more harm than good,

with out really knowing the Isa.'

John Williamson singing about Mount Isa but he could be cautioning me about the observations I am about to make about life in the Northern Territory.

I don't really know the Territory but here are a few early observations.

1 Employment and Purpose. It has been enormously disturbing to see so few indigenous people in real gainful employment. And even fewer men. Unemployment is a massive problem. Someone was telling me that there are now families up to their third generation of complete unemployment. Grandfather, father and son have not had jobs and have only lived on government handouts.

Of the employed people I met: there was Jimmy Hooker, who was a tourist attraction at Tennant Creek, Russell who was our tour guide on the Katherine River. A woman who efficiently worked the office at Uluru and another lady who made a complete hash of attempting to process our entry to the museum at Tenant Creek.

Add to that the eight or so women who were working at the Pink Palace, producing native style art in Tennant Creek.

But, when you count this against the number of people we have seen hanging around on street corners with nothing to do. It is truly alarming.

And particularly alarming that the men are so directionless.

One man said to me (and this is a crude generalisation) that he thought the women have a role - the role of wife, mother and sometimes artist. But the men have lost their purpose. And so just hang around directionless, dependent, waiting for the government handout.

Our social policies have led to a culture of complete dependence.

It was such a delight to speak to our Katherine River tour guide yesterday (see my seperate note on Russell). In this system he seems to be a success story. He is mid twenties. Left school towards the end of year ten. Didn't like his casual job so went back for year eleven then left school.

2 Alchoholism is a massive problem. I have not seen so much consistent daily widespread consumption of alcohol before. The pubs and bottle shops open at midday. And so yesterday at 11:15am on the steps at the Bottle Shop at Katherine we saw 16 aboriginal people, sitting four to a step, four steps deep, waiting for the bottle shop to open.

I've only bought alcohol once in the territory. I had to have my driver's license scanned in. It was explained to me that there is a 24 hour limit on how much alcohol one person can consume.

The security guard at the shop was critical of what he saw as a paternalistic policy. I think one would need the wisdom of Solomon to work out how to handle these issues best.

3 Town Camps. There is a system of 'town camps.' There are for example in Alice about 20 of these camps. Each have about ten houses. They are aboriginal only settlements. Liquor and Pornography are banned. Whites are not allowed in. Large amounts of money have been spent on these camps. The different camps are places for the various tribal groups to stay when they have business visiting Alice Springs. They are apparently quite separate from one another.

The one aboriginal lady I spoke to who lived there thought that it was better having the 'town camps' than having an integrated system where aborigines were provided with houses in regular anglo dominated streets. She said there would be too many complaints to the police about people hanging around chatting, drinking and singing on the front verandah late at night.

But these town camps all look squalid. I suspect they look worse than they are. From our perspective and priorities they look very bad. I was not able to detect a sense of each family caring about the rubbish in their own yards for example.

4 Kids. Visiting one camp out of Alice I saw a naked ten year old boy just hanging around. My companion asked me later 'Did I notice that the boy was eating a raw chicken leg.' Contrast this with the petrol station at Mataranka where I chatted briefly with three aboriginal kids from a tiny school 200 kilometers south of there, who had been with a teacher visiting a trades expo at Katherine for the day.

5. Dependency. The mining leases paid out to the traditional owners mean that there are some who don't have to work. They get lots of money. Have lots of time. And hang around doing nothing, causing resentment amongst those who are aboriginal but perhaps not from the tribe that gets the mining money. There are some also, who get a payment every time someone takes an official photo of Uluru apparently.

6. Violence. The minister at the Alice Springs Lutheran Church David has been there a year. His first three funerals were murders. One a member of the church. They have a violent stabbing in their church community roughly once a week. And it's likely that the Christian community will be significantly better off in this regard than the wider indigenous population.

Saturday October 11 - Katherine to Litchfield National Park

We headed off early to Litchfield National Park because it's seemed
that everyone we have spoken to has said that Litchfield is prehaps
better than Kakadu.

We drove in the morning to Batchelor listening to Rhett Harris' talk
on Ephesians 1:9-10 on the way, then left the campervan at the caravan
park at Batchelor and headed in the jeep to the national park.

It's forty degrees outside.

Caravan Park

Back at the Caravan Park I was cooking on the BBQ and another of the campers was commenting on the current economic crisis.  He mentioned that when he was young gold was $30 an ounce and marijuana was $30 an ounce.  He then reflected on the relative prices of gold and marijuana and how if he had invested in gold instead of marijuana as a young man he would now be a very rich man.

Ephesians

We've started listening to the Central Coast Evangelical Church podcast talks from 2007.  And the kids have really liked them.  Tonight we listened to Dave Meirs talk on Ephesians 1:1-10.  Abraham responded to this talk best of all the talks we have heard this holidays.  

Tour guide Russell and the Katherine Gorge

We arrived at the Katherine Gorge (or NITMILUK to use it's traditional
name)just after midday, enjoyed a Cappuccino then headed down for the
cruise.

Our guide - Russell - was a 25 year old aboriginal man, a member of
the Jawoyn (Jarwin) tribe, the traditional owners of the land. He was
exceptional, lucid, well informed and self deprecating.

We had booked the three gorge tour. Just after we left he announced
we had to head back to pick up some extra passengers. Reading between
the lines only four people booked on the two gorge tour and they
offered them a free upgrade to the three gorge.

As he brought the boat back in and accidentally smashed it on both
sides into the boats either side he said 'Welcome to WISHMELUCK
tours.' And that was the fun tone of the rest of the afternoon.

I have the vaguest memory of being on Katherine Gorge once before
(with my parents and mum's school in the early 1990's but really the
memory is so vague that I may or may not have been here before).

But it was spectacular.

We walked past aboriginal artwork to the second (main gorge) travelled
again down that by boat. Then walked again to a third gorge.

We retraced out tracks, he gave the boys a chance to drive the boat,
we swam in the first gorge, then he gave us a little digeridoo
performance and then headed back to disembark.

Each gorge has it's own boats. At the start of the wet season they
float all the boats over the gorge dividers downstream to service them
during the rainy period. Then just as the wet season finishes they
tow the tour boats back up to their gorges for the dry season (tourist
season).

Russell pointed out to us a life jacket high in the trees from the
1998 Australia Day floods.

I had a few chats with Russell on the way. He'd been working the tour
boats for about 18 months. He is the only member of the Jarwin people
on the tour boat staff and was clearly very happy in his role. He said
'this is the best job I've ever had and probably the best job I will
ever have.'

It's a great role for him as he able to educate people about his tribe/
people and have a fair bit of fun in the process. He got three
quarters of the way through year ten, went back to school, finished
year eleven and then left. He had essentially been doing work for the
dole projects until he started on the NITMILUK tour operation.

Russell is clearly a very bright guy. He now regrets not finishing
his secondary education. I couldn't help reflecting how he has missed
out on the advantages of life that are just so easily available to us
as a result of being in Sydney.

Katherine Gorge

Friday October 10 - Katherine Gorge

At 9am we were at the tourist information center finding out about the
Katherine Gorge. As the tourist season is winding down the 11am tours
of the gorge were not operating but we were able to book a three hour
cruise at 1pm.

To kill time we headed out see the oldest homestead in region. We
were able to read the tragic letters between the cattle station owner
(in London) and the station manager here in the Northern Territory.
It took the station manager 20 months to bring 3000 sheep, 1200 cattle
and thirty men from South Australia to the territory. But the cattle
station failed and ten years later it was all sold off and the manager
made redundant.

Jurassic Cycad Gardens

Katherine's Jurassic Cycad Gardens has native and exotic plants
apparently some from 250 million years ago - but we went there looking
for a coffee -because we hadn't had a decent one since Alice Springs -
but they are closed till 2009.

Hannah's growing up

After several days of no internet I asked the kids as we drove into
Katherine, 'What makes a good caravan park?'. Abraham's answer, 'A
pool'. Hannah's answer, 'Internet access'.

Thursday October 9 - Mataranka to Katherine

This was one of our shortest trips from Mataranka to Katherine (only 100km - but the NAVMAN didn't get it).  We stopped at the Riverside Tourist Park just out of Katherine.  They were advertising out the front that it was a short walk to the Katherine Hot Springs.  While Cathie had a sleep the kids and i went to have a swim.

On the way we saw a sign warning us that there were not only Freshwater (allegedly harmless) crocodiles but there were also Saltwater (anything but harmless) crocodiles.

When we couldn't see anyone else in the water we decided that the sign might mean what it said and 'better to be safe than sorry' and so headed to the Caravan Park pool.

When Cathie woke up we went for a walk together up and down the Katherine main street (do you know they have piped music through the PA in the main street).  

 

Hot Springs at Mataranka

Hot Springs

There are hot thermal springs around Mataranka.  We visited one.  Tried another and went back to the first.  It was surrounded by bats (more bats than I could have imagined).  But we managed to avoid bat poo and had a lovely time in hot thermal springs baths.  Cathie and I sat at one end and talked for ages in the warm water while the kids apparently developed a dangerous routine.  

They started to perform it for us - but we had to stop it when we saw how dangerous their diving into the shallow springs was.

Wednesday October 8 - Mataranka

Darryl Somers said in the adds for the Northern Territory: 'You will never never know if you never never go.'  I hadn't put the connection between that ad and the book 'We of the never never.'  But this area of the Northern Territory is called 'Never Never.'  After the book and the film (1981) featuring Annandale's Angela Punch McGregor.   Someone said they call it the 'Never Never' because if you come to love it then 'you will never never want to leave' and if you don't like it 'you will never never want to go back.'

And it really is that sort of extreme place.  

We arrived in Mataranka late on Tuesday night and stayed at the Territory Manor.  It was lovely waking up on Wednesday morning to grass around our Caravan (something we won't take for granted for a while) and then while we were having breakfast a peacock walked past.  The Manor has lots of pet Peacocks.  

The kids and I went to the 9:30am session of Barramundi feeding at the Manor dam.  It was amazing - seeing the Barramundi swallow a man's hand - to get a piece of bait.  

The big termite

Well you have heard of the Big Pineapple, the Big Oyster, and Big Banana.  Mataranka has the 'Big Termite Mound.'  Amazing but true.  A talking termite mound in the center of the town, just like John Laws is the talking dog at the Queen Victoria Building.  But they told me that sadly the talking termite mound had broken.

We of the never never

I had heard of 'We of the never never' but hadn't paid much attention before.  But Jeannie Gunn wrote a book about her 1902 experiences in the region around what is now known as Mataranka.  And in 1981 there was a movie of the book produced by Philip Adams and Kerry Packer.  Apparently it was Australia's first huge budget outdoors epic.  It is shown every day at a bar in Mataranka at midday.  We went and watched it.  It was an alarming insight into the way aborigines were treated at that time and also how tough life on the early territory stations was.

One of the shocking things was to see the flood level marker on Australia Day 1988.  I asked the barman if he was there at the time.  He said yes and that it wasn't much fun. (check the marker at the top of the photo).

Q. Where's Wally? A. The Daly Waters Hotel

It's a pretty dull drive north from Tennant Creek towards Daly Waters.

There's nothing much to see. We listened to a Bible talk Colossians
1 then Hannah and Solomon watched 'Storm
Boy.'

The Daly Waters hotel had the most expensive petrol that we have seen
$2.40 per litre unleaded.

Tennant Creek's Pink Palace

The Pink Palace is an aboriginal women's art group. It's located in
one of the 'town camps' on the edge of Tennant Creek. We called in
there on our way out of Tennant Creek because several people had
recommended it to Cathie.

The boss Adam introduced us to one of the Aboriginal painters (whose
English was best) and she in turn introduced us to her colleagues who
were gathered around a huge table painting.

At the end of the room was a huge picture featuring the crucifixion.
When it was clear to the women that we had noticed this they showed us
that in their main pile of paintings for sale about half of them had
strongly Christian themes.

And the woman who was showing us around came to life as she pointed to
the Bible verses that stood behind each of the various paintings.

We were particularly struck by the Aboriginal symbol for God.

To understand it you need to know that the symbol for a person is a
'U'. It's that shape because that's the shape you make on the ground
when you sit down.

So the symbol for the trinity is 'UUU' but with each of the arms of
the U connected together. And usually it is inverted 180 degrees
because God is looking down on us.

There was a painting of judgement day. The UUU at the top of the
picture and a single U underneath. And then someone to the side (a U
sideways) with an open book.

We were interested in buying three of the paintings. But the boss
Adam had gone out and no one else was able to price them for us. We
will give them a call when we get back into mobile phone reception.

Catherine at Katherine

Four serves of witchety grub

We arrived at Tennant Creek at 7:30pm and when we arrived, while
Cathie and I set up the campervan and cooked dinner, the kid's went
and watched Jimmy Hooker's Outback Bush Tucker man show again.

Again the food was witchety grubs. This time Solomon had four helpings.

We had driven 550kms without a turn. All at 100kph (speed limit is
130kph in the Territory). We left at 2pm and stopped once for petrol
and a few more times for toilet.

On the way we listened to a Walking with Christ talk and had a good
discussion about 'Let the peace of Christ dwell on your hearts' and
'Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.' (Colossians 3:14-15) and
then the kids watched Abraham's first DVD Harry Potter 5. (He has just
finished reading it).

Another day of driving tomorrow.

Fixing minor thorns and thistles then 'Goodbye Alice'

The car has been running perfectly for weeks now. But things have
been starting to go wrong with our new campervan. In the scheme of
things they are minor issues but we need to get them fixed.

Our difficulties over the last week have been:

1. The cook top has come loose. Two of the four supports into which
it is screwed have broken. This is a problem because the sing/cooktop
unit swing upside down for driving. We have been proping up the
cooktop with cushions but you feel like every bump is putting pressure
where it shouldn't go.

2. One of the burners on the stove has stopped working.

3. The sink draining pipe has developed a leak. It started as a cink
in the pipe, which caused a blockage. We used pliers to fix that.
But then the this has developed into a leak.

4. The seal on the camper's internal Dometic fridge keeps coming loose.

5. Our portable WACEO 50L fridge just died on Friday. THis is the
second time this trip that it has died without notice. Last time was
on the sunshine coast and it was empty and we were close to the WACOE
factory (two suburbs). This time it has beef etc in it. We are about
to go through two weeks of high priced isolated country and we are no
where near the WACO factory.

Monday October 6 - Alice to Tennant Creek

After our morning of 'life admin' at Alice Springs we headed north to
Tennant Creek. As we had done this stretch beforehand we decided to
do it as quickly as possible. So we didn't really stop till 7:30pm
when we arrived at Tennant Creek - and the kids went and watched Jimmy
Hooker again - and Cathie and I set up the campervan.

The drive was nowhere near as exciting as when we were heading south.
But then it was our second time along this strip.

Cathie

I just thought I would pay tribute to Cathie for a moment. It can't
be much fun being a mum when the husband is sick. And driving the
entertainment for three energetic kids. And caring for the husband.
And doing it all in high thirties/low forties temperatures.

She is a star. I love her.

ps She is well again now.

Alice Springs school of the air

Cathie asked me when we got back from the School of the Air Q. How was
it different to my expectations? A. It is now school of the Internet.
All done with video, cameras and over the web with no more radio.

The kids do six forty minute lessons each week plus about three hours
supervised homework.

Lots of celebrities had made their marks on the wall of the studio. We
watched a short film about the school's work and then a video of John
Williamson answering the schoolkids questions.

I thought it was excellent!

Alice Springs Lutheran Church

A very very interesting morning - thinking about the gospel and
Australia's indigenous issues.

Thoughts to follow.

Pancakes on Sunday morning

Every Sunday morning the caravan park produces a custom built box
trailer with a BBQ built in and puts on a free pancake breakfast for
the 500 or so park guests.

I thought it was terrific.

Only drawback: International Roast coffee.

And then Abraham went and won!

They had a kid's didgeridoo competition as part of the show.

From Abraham's winnings (a signed CD) I can tell the guy's name is Marshall Whyler.

What I can't tell is if Abraham won by having the most skill - or if it was by the cute way he worked the crowd to give him the most applause.

ps Cathie seems to have caught what I had. So this could be tricky. Please pray for her.

Didgeridoo with the London Symphony Orchestra

As we arrived at the Alice Springs CaravanPark this afternoon they advertised a didgeridoo show this afternoon.

At first I was disapointed that the Didgeridoo player was white (Is that a racist comment?)

But Marshall has been doing it for 32 years and has played with several symphony orchestras including the big one in London and certainly knows his stuff.

We are having a great show.

Back to Alice

A last shot of Kings Canyon

We headed back to Alice today. We are a day later than we intended because of my sickness earlier in the week and this means that we will miss the appointment with the campervan repair person, so we will have to wait to see them at our rescheduled apppointment time of Monday 8am.

We will use the extra time in Alice to go to the Lutheran (Aboriginal) church tomorrow morning and then to see the school of the air tomorrow afternoon.

On the way back we saw another couple of cyclists and then a couple of hundred meters along a dingo looking like he was protecting the road. I really am not a dog person and I felt for these cyclists. 40 degrees and a wild dingo to protect the highway. I stopped for a while to wait in case anyone needed to be taken to history but then it looked like I might have to wait too long in the heat so I drove on comforting myself with the information that that there were many tourist buses coming along and if a cyclist had been mauled by a dingo the tourists would pressure the driver to stop.

On the way we listened to a talk on the cross and the kids watched the DVD of Hello Dolly, which they really enjoyed.

Kings Canyon - Friday Oct 3

Having been sick all week and now feeling a little better I was determined to be part of this. So we headed off. I found that while I still had the stomach pains and gastro issues and couldn't walk fast, I could walk. And decided to try going on the 6.5 km rim walk with the others rather than just the limited view creek walk on my own.

We headed up a hard steep incline. And at the top Hannah (who had been feeling dizzy for several days) decided it was too much. I said that having missed out on much of the rock and all of the Olgas I was keen to try to keep going. Cathie offered to go back with Hannah and try the smaller creek walk.

So the boys and I pressed on. And it was magnificent. View after view each one more spectacular. Kings Canyon is an amazing place.

There had been a massive rock fall 60 years ago creating a sheer cut in the cliff that was breathtaking. As one guide I overheard said '60 years in geological terms is nothing.'

At the main look out we had a terrific chat with two stockbrokers - a German and Brazilian - who both worked at a bank in Hong Kong but had been completely out of touch. We broke the news to them that the US house of representatives had refused the financial market bailout. They were stunned.

There was a side excursion to a place called the Garden of Eden. We saw part of it. Water in the middle of the harsh desert. I thought you could actually do a movie (if it wasn't such an isolated location) portraying well the lovely garden provision of God in Genesis 2 and contrasting it with the harsh rocky hard to farm ground of Genesis 4-5 that Cain and Abel found themselves in when they were ejected from the garden.

And it helped me to imagine how in Messopotania (modern day Iraq) there could have been a tranquil beautiful place where every plant could grow, so close to a place that is so inhospitable as the middle east as we know it today..

We each took two litres of water to carry. I made sure that I and the boys drank lots along the trip. When we were 1km from the end and I was feeling pretty awful. We got back at 10:30 and by now it was 37 degrees.

Cathie met us at the carpark. We had only got about 1km down the road in the car and I had to ask her to pull over and quickly opened the door and threw up spectacularly on the roadside. I had been too ambitious.

But I would have been so disappointed to have missed the Rock walk, the Olgas walk and the Canyon walk.

I spent a quiet afternoon finishing Bryce Countney and picking up Bill Bryson's down under. I have also started a book by Peter Bolt on Christ's cross in Mark - but that requires me fuller concentration than either of the aformentioned.

In the evening Cathie and I headed out for a drink at the pub.

Dingoes in the toilets at Kings Canyon

At first I thought the toilet cleaners at the Kings Canyon toilets
were a bit boundary conscious as there are gates at the toilet entrys
to the caravan park - but then it was explained to me that the gates
are there to keep out the dingoes.

They told us as we checked in to make sure that at night we put all
our shoes inside our caravans because dingos often came and took shoes
in the middle of the night.

Then as Cathie and Hannah were returning from the toilets at about 7pm
walking right past our caravan door was a dingo.

We have been careful. Even making sure that we put the portable
freezer with all our meet inside the caravan at night. It's one thing
having a crow peck open a lunch bag on Great Keppel Island. It would
be another thing having a dingo nudge open the esky-freezer lid.

5 4

Uluru to Kings Canyon - Thursday Oct 2

I was feeling a little better. We drove to Kings Canyon. On the way we stopped to take a photo of Mount Conner - more popularly known as Fooluru. You should really take the photo on the way in. The urban myth is that some tourists have thought that this was Uluru and then turned around and headed back to Alice. Mount Conner is actually quite impressive - but much smaller than the genuine Uluru.

It's about 300km from Ayres Rock to the Canyon. The resort here is much better than Ayres Rock. It's run by the same people but they have to work harder to get tourists so they do. The gardens are watered. There are gum trees planted beside the caravans to provide some shade.

But it's a much more isolated place. No mobile phone reception. Internet is available but it's a dollar for six minutes (and that was too much for me to pay for contact with you). The people next to us at the caravan park, said 'Excuse me but you have NSW number plates - and we have just seen that there is a new premier in NSW. What happened to Morris Iemma?' (This was news from a fortnight ago but they had been so outback they hadn't heard that Rees had replaced Iemma).

At the front desk they told us on check in that we should go out to the Canyon first thing. It is so hot that one is best to do the walk early in the morning.

Uluru - Wednesday - Oct 1

I wasn't feeling any better but was more sensible this time. Don't try anything. I stayed home while Cathie and the kids visited the Olgas. They had a great time. I read Bryce Courtney's Brother Fish.

In the evening Hannah and I headed to the Rock to see the sunset. It was spectacular. Everything that people say it is and more. I would have loved to have been here well. But it was wonderful to have come at all. Driving back in Peter and Vini's jeep I explained to Hannah, 'It's kind of an Australian dream: driving at high speed in the desert at sunset in a 4WD, with Ayres Rock in the background and someone to share it with.' It was nice.