Week Thirteen Day Eighty Eight

Well this is the end, the end of our travels around Australia. Thank you for following our ups and downs around a beautiful part of the world. We covered over 15000 kilometres, spent a lot of money on petrol, travel and accommodation, but no price can be put on the memories we have of these last three months.

We did not end up murdering each other (living in such close confines). But grew closer and more understanding of one another. We spent a wonderful three months watching our daughter enthralled by the experiences she was exposed to. We learnt that we could live with minimum of possessions for three months and survive. We learnt that the world won't come to end if we wore unironed clothes (except for those looking at us in Bondi Junction).

There are places that we will, one day hope to, go back to and experience once again. Ormeau, where we lived for almost two years. Cape Arnhem the most beautiful, unspoilt part of the Northern territory. Coral Bay for the snorkeling experience on Ningaloo reef. Monkey Mia for the sea life and dolphins, and of course who could discount Coober Pedy the most eccentric and unique place we have ever encountered.

Thank you Australia for the beautiful memories and for providing us the opportunity to challenge our boundaries.

Hope's Blog......... Thank you for everyone that visited us on this trip and for all the nice friends we made. My best memory of the holiday is when I fed the dolphins at Monkey Mia W.A.

Week Twelve Day Eighty-Three

Sydney Opera House.

Sydney, our final stop in Australia, and we have found a beautiful place in this hectic part. Cabbage Tree Bay and Shelly Beach!

Just a nice photo of an angle of the Opera House.

We did what everyone does when they come to Sydney...... the Opera House and Sydney bridge. Now when we see the New Year Eve's celebrations, we can say that we have been there. Sad we know!!!!!!!

Sydney Bridge.

It was great to stand there admiring such magnificent architecture, to soak up the ambiance of the whole area. After wondering around, we stopped for a coffee at one of the local outdoor coffee shops. Watching the ferries leaving Circular Quay we decided to catch one to Manly. Hope decided that she has had enough of sightseeing so opted to go home with Wendy's sister, Debbie.

Some time for ourselves, woo hoo!!!! We bought return tickets to Manly and jumped onto a ferry. It was a lovely trip out to Manly, sun shining on our faces, breeze through our hair, nice.

A walk down the corso ( pedestrian precinct) to the beach was interesting, lots of shops and restaurants. The beach was, wow, why don't we have our swimmers...... We had lunch in a lovely restaurant on the beach front. While we where there we watched a couple of women dress up like cows, black and white ones! I suppose you are wondering why? Well we where next to Ben & Jerry's, who was giving away ice-cream. I presume the cows where there because......... I am sure you can figure it out!

Cabbage Tree Bay, notice the little swimming pool.


A view across the bay to Shelly Beach.

After lunch we followed a path along the beach and that is where we came across Cabbage Tree Bay and Shelly Beach. Cabbage Tree is an aquatic reserve so there where loads of snorkelers out there, oh......where are our snorkels. We took photos of a posing frill lizard, every time you took a photo he changed position. We must have seen about six more people take photos of this lizard, he was obviously enjoying the attention.

The posing lizard.

Our time at Manly came to an end and we made our way back to Sydney. From there we caught a train to Bondi Juntion, Debbie lives not too far from there. A nice walk home ended a great day.

We have spent quite a bit of time doing normal things as well, such as shopping, cinema, banking and housework....

However a trip back to Cabbage Tree is planned for a bit more snorkeling!!!

Week Twelve Day Eighty

The locomotive of The Ghan!

Wow, what a trip! We left Darwin on Saturday morning for the Ghan. We arrived at the train station and what a sight. The Ghan looked quite impressive standing there with its bright red regalia and silver compartments. We watched as the train was shunted into position and all allowed to board. Some of the sleeper compartments were very expensive so we opted for "Sleeper seats" in the Red compartment. Not much sleeping happened but what a great journey and scenery.

Our coach.

The train stopped off at Katherine, allowing passengers to do whistle stop tours. We ended up going to Springvale Homestead, for afternoon cream tea (yummy).

The camel at Alice Springs train station.

Back on the train we settled in for the night. We arrived in Alice Springs mid morning, where we were met by our motel's shuttle bus. While waiting for our room we wandered down to the

Todd river as it had flooded a few days before. As this does not happen very often we had to witness it with water in it. John and Hope where not feeling well, so they went straight to bed when we returned. Wendy walked into Alice to look for a pharmacy. After stocking up with medicine and some food she returned. We must say we were not impressed with Alice, it was incredibly dirty. There was so much litter on the streets.

The Todd river, Alice Springs.

We where up early on the Monday morning as we where being picked up by "Emu Run Tours". For a trip to Ayers Rock and the Olgas. This was a round trip of 1100km's, glad we where not driving. It departed at 6.00am and returned at midnight, mmmmmmm.

The four main domes of The Olgas

What a fantastic day we stopped and looked at "Fooluru" Mt Connor. Then we started seeing the Olga's and Uluru. Wow, what a sight we couldn't wait to get up nice and close. We stopped off at Yalara the resort for lunch then went to the Olga's. Impressive, we walked between two of the domes, there are 36 domes in all. The Aboriginal dreaming story of how the Olga's came about is quite fascinating. They are supposed to be that of a marauding party of Aborigines that had abducted women and children from another tribe. When their men tracked them down, they buried the surviving marauders up to their necks in the sand. They then turned to stones, Kata Tjuta means "Many Headed Mountain".

The Olga's at sunset, taken from "Sunset Boulevard".

We then headed for Uluru, unfortunately due to a possible thunderstorm, the rangers had closed the climb. However it did look impressive the area where one could climb. We walked a part way round the base exploring a cave and listening to more Aboriginal stories on what had transpired years before. This explained imprints in the rock, for instance there appears to be huge dog print in one of the caves. This was suppose to be a huge dog called up to destroy a tribe living there.

The dog paw print, embedded into the wall.

We where sceptical about Uluru, as one always is when something is hyped up. But to be there, touching it and just being in its presence proves that there is something magical about the place.

Uluru at sunset, notice the sunset creeping up the side.

A couple of minutes later.

We went to "Sunset Boulevard" for a BBQ and glass of champagne to watch the sunset on Uluru. It was magnificent, it was amazing to watch the sun climb the mountain. The colours changed and Uluru seemed to come alive. Beautiful!!!!!

The sunset, wow it was beautiful.

We where grateful to climb into bed that night as the next morning we where catching the Greyhound to Coober Pedy.

We where looking forward to experiencing the redness and dustiness of the "Red Centre", hey right, we go when they have had unprecedented rainfall and everything is green. Never mind, it will be good for the animals.

33km's from Coober Pedy we started seeing mounds of sand from the opal mining. We later discovered that next to each mound was a huge gaping hole about a meter wide and anything up to 30 meters deep. These holes are left uncovered so definitely not a place to wonder around in.

Two of the sand mounds with equipment.


Our underground motel room.

We entered Coober Pedy and was met by a representative of our motel. After checking in we made our way to our underground motel room. As our nephew Max (2) would say, Ahh cool! There is only one word to describe it, pretty, the colours of the natural rock is salmon pink and white. We wondered down to John's Pizza Bar and Restaurant. There we ran into an American couple and their two children who was on the same Emu Run Tour. We had a great chat and swapped details.

The next morning we headed off to the "Old Timers Museum", we donned hard hats and wondered through the mine looking at opal seams and loads of gypsum seams as well. We discovered that opal was first found in 1915. After our tour we scratched around the noodle pit and picked up bits of opal. Wandering through the town one can't help noticing the uniqueness and eccentricity that you see around you. Most of the homes and motels are underground, so you see these hills with ventilation chimneys sticking out. There is no grass and very little of anything else green. You might find a few cacti around but that is about it.

Inside the mine.

The underground Church.

We headed back to Radeka Downunder to catch our Coober Pedy tour. We visited an underground church, the golf course, the first tree in Coober Pedy, made out of metal and was taken to see old movie props, because as it turns out quite a few films have been shot in and around Coober Pedy. "Pitch Black", "Mad Max beyond the Thunderdome" and "ground Zero" is probably the most well known films. Our tour guide Jimmy Nikoloudis, a resident of 46 years was most interesting and we learnt a lot on the area.

Props from Pitch Black.

Boot Hill Cemetery sign.

We went to "Boot Hill Cemetery" to look at a couple of interesting grave sites and to learn a bit about the characters that have made up Coober Pedy. One such character was "Crocodile Harry" whose home has been turned into a museum. What an eclectic collection this man acquired over the years. He also made all sorts of art work from metal and skeletons of animals.

The outside of Crocodile Harry's house.

Inside his entrance hall.

We then drove into the mining fields and where shown how deep these holes were, when Jimmy pulled up next to them. Thank goodness he knew what he was doing, because we where close. He stopped off at a "safe area" where we were allowed out to fossik for some opal. Hope found a really nice piece, and John and Wendy some small pieces.

One of the tunnel holes.

We then drove to the "Breakaways". What an unexpected sight. We drove to the end of the escarpment, which fell away sharply to reveal miles and miles of nothing.... a few hills, but the rest as flat as a pancake. It is amazing to know that over 70 000 years ago this was an inland sea. One can still find petrified mussels and other fossils of sea creatures at the bottom.


A view of the old inland sea bed, showing how the escarpment drops off.

From the top, looking along the ridge of the escarpment a person can see caves that had been dug into the outcrops. These have been made by kangaroos, foxes and other animals. The dessert reaches temperatures of up to 70 degrees Celsius and there are no trees to hide under.

Caves dug by animals.

From the viewing area you can see two rock formations. One white and one brown, the salt and pepper hills. According to Aboriginal folk lore these are two dogs that had turned to stone.

The story of the two dogs.

The "Two Dogs"

We also came across a rock formation that looked like a sleeping camel. It is amazing what you find out there.


The sleeping camel.

We then drove to the "Dingo Fence". It is the longest fence in the world, covering 5300 km's through three Australian States. Each state looks after their section, South Australia has broken this into seven sections with the Coober Pedy section covering some 360km's. We where shown loads of dents in the fence where the kangaroos bang into it.

The dog fence story.


Hope standing by a small part of the fence.

Thank you Coober Pedy you where everything we expected and more. We where told that we would either love it or hate it....... We loved it and would recommend you to visit!

From Coober Pedy we headed for Adelaide on the overnight Greyhound. The bus driver very kindly stopped in a really dark section of the motorway at about 3.00 in the morning, to show Wendy the stars. She had mentioned to him that she had been disappointed with what she had seen. She was amazed and saw about six shooting stars in the five minutes she had outside.

From the bus station we caught a taxi to the airport for a flight to Sydney.

A few days of rest in Sydney and then we are sure that we will be ready for some sightseeing.

Hope's Blog.............. It was fantastic to find my own opal. It is so beautiful. I liked Coober Pedy very much. It was fun looking for it among the rocks as it is a bit difficult. I did find lots of gypsum, which was nice and sparkly. I enjoyed walking around Alice Springs with Daddy looking for breakfast, while Mummy waited with the bags at the bus stop.

me

Week Eleven Day Seventy Six

Wow, We have done such a lot. Writing this from Coober Pedy, underground Motel. It looks such an interesting place, but will tell you all about it later. Over the last few days we have been on the Ghan, a tour to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the Olga's. The Greyhound then took us from Alice Springs to our present spot.

This is just a teaser and full details with photo's will follow when we arrive in Sydney.

Week Ten Day Sixty Eight

Long Tom!


The one that chased the fish that was hooked.


The potato cod on the hook and the larger one chasing it.

The children and Leila on the bauxite shelf.

The rock formations in the cove.

Sorry Coral bay, but you have been relegated to second favourite spot. Well done
Cape Arnhem you have just made it to first spot in our personal "best place in Aus" .

We left the main road out of Nhulunbuy and entered this 4x4 track. Now over the last few days we have traversed over some nail biting roads, but this one promised to be the worst. After about 30 min's of been thrown around we stopped to let air out of the tyres, as the second half of the journey was beach sand riding.

Wow the views were beautiful. The sand was white, the sea azure in colour, islands standing serenely in the calm sea. We stopped off at a cove with the most interesting rock formations. We went down to the waters edge, watched fish swim in the shallows and watched a clam dig into the sand.

We carried on with our bone wrenching journey (it was fun) and arrived at the Cape. We unpacked the table and chairs and had lunch, under the trees overlooking this pristine setting. A special permit is required to visit Cape Arnhem, as only a few vehicles are allowed on a daily basis. We were the only people there.

After lunch we walked onto the bauxite shelf that ran along the water edge. We investigated the rock pools and stared in awe at the "drop off", A Bauxite shelf that suddenly dropped to approximately 10 meters . Oh to be able to snorkel here would be fantastic. Three things stopped us, stingers, crocodiles and sharks. The coral bombs and reef fish abounded and it was amazing to watch the fish swimming along the rock face.

We got to a place on the rock where there was just deep water. The fishing rods were baited and we were soon fishing. Adam (nephew) was the first to catch a trevally, unfortunately this was lost. He lost interest after that and went off exploring with Jillian (sister-in-law), Hannah (niece) and Hope.

We saw turtle and John saw a bull shark about 5 foot long swimming along the shelf. We had a fantastic time, Wendy's dad, brother Francois and Wendy caught Sweetlip Emperor. Wendy caught two of these. John caught a Long Tom (similar to Gar Fish) and about an 8kg Potato Cod. When he was pulling out the potato cod, we noticed that there was a bigger fish underneath it. To us, it looked as if it was going to try and grab it off the hook. From the photo's that Wendy took, it looks as if it was also a Potato Cod weighing about 40kg's.

Potato Cod is a protected species so we threw it back in where it joined the one waiting for it.

What a beautiful day in an amazing place, we are very privileged to have experienced the natural beauty of an unspoilt area of Australia.

On Thursday we will be leaving Nhulunbuy with a lot of memories to carry on with our journey. Wendy's parents are taking our car from Darwin back to Sydney, we have decided to add a twist to our journey. We will be catching "The Ghan" from Darwin to Alice Springs. From Alice Springs we will be taking a tour to the "Olga's" and to "Uluru". As the Ghan does not stop at Coober Pedy, we will be catching the Greyhound bus to Coober Pedy, were we will be staying in an underground motel.

Back on the greyhound to Adelaide and we have not decided yet how we will get back to Sydney. So we will keep you informed.

Hope's Blog.......... I had great fun exploring the caves along the beach. We found a sea anemone, which sucked at our fingers. There was also lots of crabs and Hannah and Adam picked up a dead one. We walked for a long time and when we got back my legs where sore. I had lots of fun.

Week Ten day Sixty Seven

Jumping. Must have been mad!


Well the last two days have been spent in muddy water!

Yesterday we went to the "Waterhole". a favourite teen hangout. It is a huge hole with two waterfalls feeding it. This is only available in the wet, but what fun. From the top looking in, it is high, but from one spot people jump in. Mmmmmmmmm should Wendy do it or not?

From the waterhole it looks even higher, should Wendy do it or not? Hope had a heart attack when Mummy left her with Daddy and went to the top. "I've only got one Mummy and I don't want you to die". Anyway when Wendy did stand at the top and looked down, she almost changed her mind, it was a lot higher than she thought!!! However with all these teens looking on what could Wendy do, but jump. So jump she did!!!!!!!!

When she got back to Hope, it took about ten minutes to calm our distraught daughter. So Wendy promised not to jump again, until Hope did.

It was also great to sit in one of the waterfalls and let it massage us.



The waterfall.

Today we went to "The Latram River". In one part there were a couple of swings, and Francois strung a rope across and tied a hammock to it.


The hammock.


We put some chairs into the water and sat there talking and relaxing. It was a novel way of keeping cool. Another couple of families arrived and suddenly it became a little bit more busy. On one side Wendy relaxed a bit more as there were more people for a croc to choose from, if one came along!


Sitting in the Latram.


Leila the Labrador had a fantastic time digging up logs from the river bottom and swimming with the kids. After lunch we walked further down the road while Francois and John followed us with the 4 x 4's.

We came to another section of the river were the kids swam across and with the help of Francois climbed up the opposite bank and jumped in. Hope did as well, marvelous, fantastic, now Wendy can do it again.... he he he. i must say all three kids were brave, because as they were standing up there a goanna, who had been spooked was trying to climb up the bank. So all three jumped in with this goanna in the water.

We have had a fantastic day and are looking forward to tomorrow. Cape Arnhem here we come.



Hope's Blog.......... I was not happy with Mummy yesterday, when she jumped off a cliff, into the water. But I did it today and it was fun. It was also fun in the river, because we let the current carry us to a tree in the middle with a swing on it. We had to fight Leila for this swing, as she liked to hold onto it with her teeth.


Leila!

Week Ten Day Sixty Five

Granite Island.


The yacht "Albatros Two"


The refinery from the yacht.


The green poly craft.


John at the helm.

The swimming pool.

"Red sky at night, shepard's delight" really works. We have had a fantastic day on the yacht. Francois's tinny (tender) is getting fixed, so he borrowed this green poly craft. Two trips had to be made to take us and our lunch and backpacks to the yacht.

After doing the jumping crocodiles in Kakadu one has visions of a crocodile leaping out of the water onto this smorgasbord puttering through the water!!!!!! Luckily for us it didn't happen and we all arrived safely on board.

Unfortunately for us there was no wind so our planned destination was shortened to Granite Island. On the way out to the island we sailed past the refinery, quite disturbing when you see this man made monster against the majestic scenery all around it.

Francois handed over the sailing to John, who had great fun getting us to Granite Island where we dropped anchor. After lunch, the idea was to take the tender to the island and explore......... None of us could be bothered. So we dropped the "swimming pool" that Francois had made, and went for a swim. This "swimming pool" is made out of aluminium and shade cloth. The strength of the aluminium, for the crocodiles and the shade cloth, for the box jellyfish.

After a lovely afternoon, we started back for home. Now when we were under sail, we had two fishing rods trawling off the back of the boat. On the way back we had a bite, a Blue fin tuna, great. Jillian was making sushi for tonight, so fresh fish. As luck (for the fish) would have it, as John lent out to gaff it, it got away. No more bites after that.

This evening we went to a 60 th birthday party. The birthday was for Richard Trudgen, the author of "Why Warriors Lie Down and Die". He started work in Arnhem land with Yolngu people in 1973. It is wonderful to experience a piece of a persons life, who has followed the Lord through the hardships that Richard and his family have experienced. There was so much peace amongst Richard, his wife Hazel and their five children. Happy Birthday Richard.

Hope's Blog............ I had great fun on the yacht. We were allowed to crawl through the windows, which was fun. I also liked to lie on the trampoline, when we went fast the waves wet us.