A Visit in Darwin- Big Write by Callam Thomas

In Darwin we went to Litchfield National Park. At the national park we went to a place so cool called the rock pools. We swam in the really deep pool at the bottom. If you use your goggles underwater it looks amazing. When the water rushed through the rocks it made a great spa.

After we finished at the rock pools we went to Florence Falls and plunge pool. We went for a swim and there were lots of fish in the water. There were people jumping off the waterfall. It was very dangerous and they should not have been doing it because there was a sign that said DO NOT CLIMB OR JUMP OFF THE ROCKS.

Family Shot at Wangi Falls Litchfield Natinal Park.

We also went to a fun wave pool. It had big fans that make the waves for the pool. They also have a boogie board that you can use for free. There were a lot of waves to ride.

We went on a boat called the Duckabout and it also goes on land. I got to drive the boat. It is called an amphibious vehicle. You can't swim in Darwin's harbour because of the box jelly fish and the crocs.

Finally we went to crocosaurus cove. At the start we did fish feeding. A man named Josh did the fish feeding. He taught us about the sting ray and barramundi. Then we went to the reptiles and saw a massive gonna. One half of the display was dark for the nocturnal reptiles and one half was light. Also at the reptiles we got to hold an Olive Python. We also held two lizards. One was called Bowser the other was called Yoshi. Also did a thing called fishing for crocs. They put meat on the end of the the fishing line and the little crocs jump up to get the meat. I caught 2 crocs on my rod. They were really strong.

Did you know!
That saltwater crocs prefer to live in freshwater!

Kununurra and Katherine

Kununurra is in the east Kimberly and a fair hike from Broome. And Kununurra is hard to say with a stammer and can induce Tourettes and that is why we bought the trailer sticker - Kunu "bloody" nurra, where the hell is that? It's actually in the east Kimberly only 40km from the NT border. The town itself was built to service the Ord river scheme which supplies water during the dry for the various plantations around the area. There is a lot of water about and lots of fish, crocs and mozzies as well. We were lucky enough to camp next to the Kununurra diversion damn which was a nice little shady spot on the outskirts of town. It was a short walk from a great restaurant called the Pumphouse which unsurprisingly was converted from a pumphouse which is situated on the banks of the lake. Good food and had the added bonus of lots of catfish and a couple of freshwater cros cruise up for leftovers under the restaurants balcony which was great entertainment. Here is a blurry shot from our campsite of the Pumphouse. It's not an arty shot, I just stuffed it up.

If this shot does't make you bleary eyed, do some more shots!

The camp site also had its own resident croc called George who had the misfortune of only having half a lower jaw and three legs. He is a very friendly fellow and always comes up to the dam bank at 5pm whilst some residents are having sundowners, nobody feeds him and he just seems to turn up for a bit of company. He has a big friend in the campsite owner who the night previously to this shot had to jump into the water to untie some rope that persons unknown had tied around his jaws. Apparently he just lay there quietly while the rope was untied and just hung around for a bit to say thanks and swam off to chow down on some leftovers from the restaurant no doubt. A very laid back croc is George.

Handsome George

There is a lot to see and do around Kununurra. Some of it does involve walking, I'm a bit of a fan of a walk. Close to town is Mirima national park which is known as the mini Bungle Bungles.  I am the first to admit that we don't always go prepared for a hike/walk. Often on this holiday we have trekked up waterfalls/hills/small bits of desert or isolated beaches in our thongs carrying one bottle of water between us. Our trek through the ravines and up the hills of Mirima followed a familiar trend.

Finn "Fuzzy stuff and rocks.

Dad "Hey lok there's a short walk to a lookout, let's check it out."
Collective "It's hot, 36 degrees, we have no water and we are wearing thongs."
Dad "Yeah but it's not far."
Collective "Your adventures mostly suck Dad."
Dad "This one will be great, anyway we need some exercise."
Collective "Your the only fat one Dad."
Dad "Right we are going to do this walk twice, three times if anyone complains. We can all drink beer afterwards and if you are under age I will drink your share."
Collective "Daaadddd."
Dad "Let's go now."

It was a great walk and everyone enjoyed it. Amanda and Finn looked like they needed to go on a drip after the walk but they are better and stronger people for it. Surprisingly I am still fat.

The next time I suggested a walk I was left to do it on my own. It was to Black Rock falls and it was beautiful and it was 80 metres from the car!

Wildlife in Nitmiluk

 That was a fun walk, right?

Black Hole Falls

aahhh another sunset shot over Lake Argyle this time.

Probably the highlight of the trip to Kununurra was the trip to Lake Argyle and the sunset cruise we did with Argyle Lake Cruises. Captain Greg was our skipper (may of had a job previously in Canberra) and he was brilliant. Took us to islands to feed rock wallabies, told us all about the development of Lake Argyle (biggest man made dam in southern hemisphere) during the sixties which contains the flow of five rivers during the wet into one massive dam which has the capacity to fill Sydney Harbour 21 times. It also contains 30,000 fresh water crocs and a lot more cat fish and maybe not as many archer fish that are damn good at spitting at you if you hold a piece of bread out for them. Finn must have looked like a piece of bread because they squirted him between the eyes. Towards the end of our cruise we entered the water for drinks and snacks. Captain Greg served champagne and beer with biscuits and dips pushed into the water on an esky lid. The catfish joined in as well enjoying the scraps of biscuit. Telling Amanda a croc was about to partake when she was the only person in the water was also a memorable moment, the look on her face was priceless.

Allo beautiful

An island on Lake Argyle

Cheers darling sweetie.

Next stop was Katherine. It is now in the process of being renamed as Nitmiluk or cicada country. Nit nit is the sound cicadas make and miluk the Jawen word for country. Our first trip out to the gorge involved another walk but you will notice from the photo I forced them all to smile about it. The second trip out to the gorge involved travelling up three gorges and being informed about a lot of the history of the place including the famous rock where Jedda and her lover  Marbuck jumped off in the famous 1955 film. There was also some pretty cool 8,000 year old rock art to look at as well as the abundant wild life. But the kids will always remember the swim they had in the lily pond. I will always remember it for Finn almost drowning me. But we survived and had the privalige of putting my head under a  60m waterfall.

Our collective highlight though was a morning spent with Manuel Pakpal who was a Dalabon man who had trekked with his family to the Katherine area 30 years ago from Arnheim Land. Manuel speaks 4 dialects as well as english. They say dialects but they are actually completely different languages, there are no common words. He played the didge for us and explained a lot about living in the bush and survival in that environment. We threw spears with a woomera and Marley comfortably won that contest spearing the cardboard kangaroo from 25m.

With Manuel after a great morning. And we are all members of the Dalabon, not the best artists but we are good with fire and spears so look out.

We also learnt to make fire with Kurrajong branches and grass. There was also an opportunity for us to do some cross hatch painting which we have all learnt takes a great deal of patience and skill. It was quite funny when we stood around looking at some art a few days later in Darwin all discussing some Top End art in the Darwin museum and listening to the boys say things like "Look at that skillage on that! My god that would have taken centuries to do." We all learnt a lot from Manual and if you do only  one thing in Katherine make sure you visit Top Didg and Manuel Pakpal. Also bring some mozzie repellant and visit the hot springs.

Broome

O'Toole, the camel.

I thought Geoffrey Boycott taught me the meaning of tedium years ago but it appears that I have been under a misapprehension about the true depth of the word. Tedium is not watching Boycott grind a meaningless two day 100 it really involves driving from Port Headland to Broome.  I think the distance is a mere 500kms but it feels like an eternity as nothing changes, nothing. Even the Wedge Tail Eagles move around in the same pattern. Unless I had the steering wheel to bash my head against I might have sworn I was in a very bad dream or watching Geoffrey Boycott blocking full tosses for five hours straight.

Here is a Wedge Tailed Eagle floating endlessly over the highway waiting for a car to smash a cow,  wallaby, snake  or lizard or presumably anything that they can eat.

I apologize for dribbling from the start but I think Boycott, eternity, real tedium and 100% humidity took it's toll on me. Broome was not I expected. There is an airport in the middle of town and several hundred eagles circling above it. Broome itself does not really have a town centre, it sits on a peninsula with Roebuck Bay, China Town, the pearl stores, an ice cream shop, Sun  Pictures garden cinema and Matsu's brewery on one side and Cable Beach with all the resorts, caravan parks and camels on the other. And the airport in the middle, planes fly low over the cinema which really added to the effects of the action sequences in Ironman 3.

There is a little bit to do in Broome. The museum is a good place to start. Run by volunteers and staffed at the front desk by Mormon elders doing their tour of duty. I was surprised and amused to see two clean cut boys sitting there in the aircon and not out on the streets doing the door to door thing but who could blame them. Broome started off as a bit of a crazy lawless town and proceeded to become even crazier and more lawless until customs and police arrived after 50 years of operation. Far too late to save the local aboriginal population who had many of their men shackled and forced to dive for pearls until they were too consumed with lung infections to be of any use. Later Japanese, Indonesian  and Philipina's came over to do the dangerous work until eventually WW11 happened and people ended up using plastic instead of pearl for buttons. Pearling made a resurgence in the 60's when pearl farming became established. There is a good exhibit of pearls at the museum as well as a very impressive shell collection, there is also a lot of random stuff like the telephone exchange exhibit which is pretty funny.

After being filled up with history you can duck around to Matsu's Brewery for a good feed and a selection of fine beers. Chilli or Mango beers would not normally top my list of brews to try but up here in this humidity they make sense and taste good too. They also knock out good pale ale, pilsner, ginger beer and a dark ale. All of this is created on the former premises of Mr Matsu's trading house which has a big wooden bar, cool rooms and a shaded beer garden. Finn enjoyed it too.

On Saturday's and Sunday's there is a pretty decent little market out near the court house. Knick knackery, cheapish pearls and some good asian food and that sort of thing mainly. If you are hot go and see the lady that sells hats as she also sells those cool neck tie things that you did in water and tie around your neck to cool you down, handy...kept this family alive along with the $16 pedestal fan from Target.  

Camels are wonderful animals, resilient, strong and graceful mostly and they also look funny but they are not designed to be ridden, I mean there's a hump on the back innit. Anyway it has not stopped three operators making a mint out of convincing suckers like us to get on one and go for a stroll down Cable Beach. It was hot and yes uncomfortable but it was fun. The boys and went on a camel with some unpronounceable name which I renamed O'Toole after the lead in David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia. "Kill them all, take no prisoners." I mumbled to myself as we heaved off. 

Ships on the beach

All smiles, notice O'Toole with the biggest grin "Sorrre bottoms foorr you my friends, ha ha ha haaaaaa!!!"

Camels were a lot of fun and all of them were boys bar one, apparently they get a little frisky and naughty when there are too many girls present. After we did the ride we went to say sorry to our bottoms with a cocktail, the kids had slushies and we watched the sun go down.

And Cable Beach is not a bad beach, a few rocks but the water is warm and you can swim with sting rays, heaps of them. You are also allowed to drive on the beach if the whim takes you. If you still want more after the sun goes down head back to Chinatown to Sun Pictures cinema garden (grab a takeaway to take in) and plant your camel sore bum in a deck chair and take in a movie.

Mount Tom Price and Karijini

It's a bit of a drive out to Tom Price but then again it's a bit of a long drive to anywhere out in these parts. But I did do my bit to cut 50 klicks off the trip from Coral Bay to Tom Price by taking a dusty detour around the back and therefore avoiding Paraburdoo, not that it impressed Amanda much as everything got covered in red dust and it was a little bumpy in parts. Still it was an adventure and the scenery was awesome, lot's of hills made out of iron covered in red dust.

Above is a picture of my feet and Mount Nameless in the background. As you can see it is fairly steep, Amanda will tell you all about when we return because her car drove up almost to the top although her eyes were closed for some of the descent! Fun, adventure and good view from up there.

Tom Price is quite an oasis, very green and full of young people, I think I was the oldest person there. About 800 people of the 2,500 local population work at the Rio Tinto mine. There are about 500 FIFO's and it has one pub and one petrol station. So in effect the town has one iron ore mine and two gold mines. 

Callam made some friends in the camp groung. We had been feeding Galahs and Corellas until I saw a sign saying not to feed them. Apparently they are a real pest around town and that have expulsion weeks where they let off sirens to get rid of them. Anyway they were fun for a while.

We all went down to the mine on a tour. Here we are nice and clean before the tour.

The tour itself was very informative, of course, so much so we only remember snippets. Tom Price was an American who took a helicopter ride out here and said "Wow, look at all that black stuff sticking out that mountain...it's pure iron." When he told the Australian government they said "Yeah, so what mate. It's miles from bloody anywhere you can go and scrape it off the mountain." Tom Price died before the mining started in the mid sixties, we named the mountain after him but not a nearby mountain called Mount Nameless. Rio Tinto owns the mine and the railway that runs 236 wagons of iron ore rock and fininings out to Dampier each day. Rio Tinto don't like Twiggy Fortescue so they won't let him use the railway so they have sole use of it. Twiggy has loads of four wagon road trains that run up and down the road from his nearby mines to Dampier every day. It's very hot and dusty at the mine and there is quite a bit of very heavy and big machinery. Look at these pics.

Finn and Cal sizing up an old Tonka.

The boy and girls that drive the big trucks like to beep their horns long, hard and often as they pass.

The red dust gets everywhere and it wise not to lean against anything. Look at Marley's leg.

They dig big holes up here as you can imagine.

As impressive as the mine was for all the human ingenuity that goes into its workings there was also the natural beauty of Karijini National Park to visit as well. The park is the second largest national park in WA and the little part of it that we decided to visit was the Dales Gorge area. It had an excellent visitors centre which is that well designed that it blends into the environment, we only found it because Finn hit it with his head whilst searching for somewhere to pee. From the outside it looks like a huge rusting ships hull, on the inside it is full of really interesting stuff. The video commentaries by the local indigenous people are great as are the stories that that explain the lanscape and some of the star constellations. 

It was nice in the aircon of the visitors centre but we had a trek to do. "Not far" I said "Quick walk and a swim and back for a picnic at another swimming hole." 2 and half hours and five 5km later we had walked along the top of the gorge, clambered down a cliff, swam in the beautiful circular pool and trekked down the bottom of the gorge and had a swim at Fortescue falls. There was a twisted ankle, a bloodied shin, an unplanned slip and swim and some hot faces but by crikey it was a good adventure.

Ahhhh, the swim after the long climb down. 

It's lovely Dad, but it's hot.

Are we there yet?

Just prior to our second swim.

Macho macho men.

The kids decided that this pool would look good in our back yard, scaled down perhaps.

Surely this has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Shark Bay to Coral Bay

It's a long way into Shark Bay from the main highway that threads north to Port Headland and beyond but it is well worth the effort. A couple of travellers tips though, make sure you stop off for supplies at larger places before you stop in Denham or Monkey Mia, and if you are thinking of camping in Denham bring a drill in order to get the tent pegs in the ground. I recall looking at three tomatoes for sale for $4 at the local store in Denham with the same stunned disbelief that I had looking at bent peg that I had been bashing into the ground an hour before. The next day I was stunned again when we saw emus in the sea at Monkey Mia. One could say it was a stunning experience all round. Callam covered off very well the experience that we had on the Shotover catamaran in the previous blog but I will add a photo of the crazy emus.

And I suppose now thinking about it after seeing kangaroos on the beach in Cape Le Grand it does seem to make sense to have these two beach loving animals as part of our national emblem.

We were lucky enough to arrive at Monkey Mia for the third feeding of the dolphins and as luck would have it Marley was lucky enough to be chosen to feed one of the dolphins.

I stuck the Go Pro in the water....and as luck would have it a mother and calf swam past. But because video is a pain to upload here are some photos of those cheeky creatures.

And I better not forget these two sea dogs we saw out and about.

Overall Monkey Mia and Shark Bay were well worth the visit. We were fortunate enough not to compete with crowds of people and we saw a lot of sea life.

Coral Bay was  our next destination. We stopped off in Carnarvon for supplies, it looks nothing like Carnarvon in Wales BTW. This place had bent gum and palm trees that seemed to have been bent by the strong winds the place tends to experience. They grow a lot of tiny bananas up here which are quite delicious, they even have a little big banana on the road out of town which commemorates "The home of the lunch box banana." I was too stuuned/lazy to take a shot of it so you will have our word for it.

Coral bay is approached through some very arid country dotted with termite mounds and red earth. It is surprising then to get out to get out of the car and get hit by the humidity. It we were primarily in Coral Bay for snorkelling, fishing and swimming with whale sharks, sunburn was just an added bonus. The good thing about Coral Bay is that you can walk into the water and in a few metres you are swimming amongst some beautifully colourful fish and coral. Finn was very excited by all this and found a confidence that was to encourage him a few days later when he went out snorkelling in the open sea on Ningaloo reef proper where to his delight he saw some even bigger coral formations coral and two Loggerhead turtles, his squeals of delight were hilarious.

Marley and Captain Macca

The boys with brother Jim

Unfortunately Finn was just a little too small to dive with the whale sharks but he did manage to see one from the surface. The rest of us managed to get into the water up to five times each to see two whale sharks up close and although they were reasonably "small" at 6 -7 meters thy did appear to be very large and majestic.  

A view of our boat out on Ningaloo reef

The whole experience was made possible by Captain Macca and Callam and Finn's new brother, Jim.

Another great experience we had was out on the boat Seaforce reeling in all sorts of snapper , cod and the occassional Red Emporer. Cal and I did pretty well catching the biggest two fish of the day , a Gold Banded Snapper and a Red Emporer. For those that are interested we used two hook baited with sardines and squid on a hand line dropped to 100-110meters. Cal did the long haul up with a couple of fish including a 2kg Honeycomb Cod, it was the best fish he had ever eaten. We had so much fish we had to give some away.

Our two big ones which other people also had their photos taken with them! Fibbers.

Our box of fish.

Well we are in the Pilbarra now and will update soon on our Karinjini Dales gorge experience and our trip down the Rio Tinto mine. Cheers for now.