Around Oz the First Time - Chapter 100 - Twelfth Week Down

I looked at finishing up the book with an overview of the highlights of what we had experiences. Initially looking at “Awards for the trip”, I decided to change the original format and talk about those which stuck in my mind. I am sure Robyn, as will each of the tourists on this trip. For me the events of the last few days changed my perspective on life, family and what the world has to offer.

There have certainly been some highlights, things over and above what we expected, and just for the record I thought I would categorise and give you my impressions, as an OCD affected accountant and Silver Schoolie of our first lap of this great land.

Top 5 highlights

1.       87cm Barramundi at Broome, for me fishing is the one thing, other than my family, I truly love. On my bucket list is a one metre plus specimen but this was a great start. The adrenaline rush during the fight was one thing, the returning the fish back to spawn and perhaps fight another day was another
2.       3 Days with Sarah and Matt at Perth. Good holidays are about places, great ones are about the people you get to share them with. Because of the troop mentality, we probably didn’t get to talk to as many people as we could, so meeting up with Sarah and Matt in Perth was a real treat. They are our sort of people, albeit the next generation, but started in the town in which we call home. Their willingness to join us and the comradery they then displayed was also a highlight on this trip. In future, I suspect there will be not just an emphasis on the seeing, but the meeting and feeling bits taking time, not rushing from here t there. We could quite easily have spent a week with them, even if that meant, as we did, go for trips up the Swan River Valley, lunch in a Feral Brewery type place or winery and come back.
3.       Running into Margaret and Merve at Katherine Gorge on the river boat cruise and then again in Albany. This country we call Australia and our home, might be large, but family is larger, and running into someone we knew was only a matter of time
4.       Fishing the Pentecost River at El Questro. I didn’t really catch fish this day, everything I landed was hooked by someone else (read here Shaun the fishing Ranger), but that wasn’t the point. Here we were on one of the iconic rivers of the north, the Pentecost. This river is shrouded in mystique for any fisherman who had dreamed of catching barramundi. It is also part of other names which bring fear to driver and camper alike. Names like the Gibb River Road, the destroyer of vehicles, and the Killing Tree, a place where a deranged man slayed several people, in a most gruesome manner. The mere fact this trip originated from El Questro would conjure up thoughts of the top end, large fish, crocodiles and the like.
5.       The Horizontal Falls – a place we will have to visit again, and this time do it overnight. Our few hours on this trip only got us a couple of boat tours, a breakfast and a lap pf the adjacent river. All too fast, much like the rest of the entire journey. A night here would be amazing, a late afternoon fish for anything large and then the tranquil evening repast and gentle rocking of the boat as we sleep until morning.

Top 5 sights

1.       Rapid Creek – the scene from Crocodile Dundee where he shows her the place where the croc had bailed him up, looks spectacular on the big screen, but I am here to tell you the big screen does not do it justice. The vista is 360 degrees, and while the view towards Rapid Creek is special, it is no more special than the rest of what you can see from the top of the mesa here at Ubirr. It’s getting towards the end of the dry season as we are here, and there are fires in a couple of points we can see, but the immediate vista towards Rapid Creek is as green as the movie shots. There are birds and other animals easily seen, there are also those you might not be able to see, but you are also sure are there. It’s a mystique area, a place opened in mind by a movie, flocked to by the tourist and steeped in Australia. When people think of Kakadu, they think of Rapid Creek and this vista, not knowing there is much more to the land up north.
2.       Lake Argyle – we spent almost a week here, and could have done the same and still not taken it all in. The colours of the cliffs, sunset, midday and sunset, changed with the angle of the sun. We didn’t get to fish here, and the catfish or cobbler fish as they are known to take away the stigma from the avid angler sound like they are large and put up quite a fight. We saw pictures of monsters reputedly only half of what they could grow and the potential of a fight with something of that size brings tremors to the heart of any avid angler. We didn’t walk here, and that was a shame, the rush of the timetable making it not prudent to overtire oneself, given much more imminent driving was going to be required.
3.       Madura Cliffs – driving along the Nullarbor, you come up to this vista by surprise. The escarpment which then travels along beside the road for eons after you “break the duck” so to speak is a vista into a new world. You can see the ocean for the first time from the escarpment on the Nullarbor trip. Often there will be eagles here, the big wedge tailed variety. Last time we did the trip we had two young eagles sitting on a piece of carrion, do the “Top Gun”, passing either side of us as we sped along the road. A kilometre or so up the road was “mum” sitting on another bit of roadkill and she, a much bigger bird, simply stood there and watched us go by, not worried by our presence. We camped here on our traverse of the treeless plain and were subjected to one of the sunsets of the trip.
4.       The Nullarbor – treeless plain, when translated from the aboriginal. Having said that there are areas where you can take a 360-degree panoramic picture and fail to have a tree in the shot, but very few, the Head of the Bite, being one such place. This time we travelled it in effectively two days, we could have done it in less, but you don’t travel on that road at night without taking your life in your won hands. We saw the potential consequence in that with the road train and the camel incident. The drive offers much more than a long boring time behind the wheel, if you let it. There is of course the Nullarbor Golf Course, but there are also quite a number of vistas to take away the boredom of such a long trip. Bunda Cliffs, Madura Cliffs, Frazer Ranger Station and the Head of the Bight to name a few. This place, if you let it, will talk to you, then all of a sudden you are travelling across the threshold of the Flying Doctors landing strips. Sunsets here can be as spectacular as anywhere in this country as we were lucky enough to be on the receiving end.
5.       The sunsets – yes, the sunsets and every now and then a sunrise, and I was not a slave to them, but I did where one looked like it might offer something outside, simply the sun going down. The majesty of the colours of the cliffs as the sun fell, as well as the colours generated by the elongation of the light rays through the atmosphere, contaminated by dust, spray, cloud and sometimes smoke created vistas I could play with using the settings on the phone, adding or taking away light, causing the sun to reduce to a ball of light, or disappear in an explosion of yellows, oranges and reds. The creation of linings as clouds become the roof of the vista. Then there were unique places like 80 Mile Beach where you could get a sunrise and a sunset over water, and others where the “pollution” of the shot like the traffic in Port Pirie or the flora at places like Margaret River, added their own uniqueness to the shots.

Top 5 van park experiences

1.       Cooinda – in Kakadu, this one is central, its friendly and the food is great. The happy hour lasts two hours, like many places in NT. For me it was the highlight of the first half of the holiday. Crocodiles up close, their steely eyes making you wonder if you would be their next meal. The sunrise tour, snaking along the river, waking birds, seeing fish in the water and the ever menacing crocs, then heading out for Gunlom Falls and Ubirr and the sights they had to offer, and not just those made famous from Crocodile Dundee movies, the paintings, the vistas and the wildlife, flora and fauna, aquatic and otherwise. This place is high on our to visit again list, perhaps closer to the end of the wet season.
2.       Halls Creek – although we had never meant to stay here and we’re here because of the first breakdown of the Jeep, this was made more pleasant by being able to get to know the manager – a lovely German woman over the time we spent in her park. There wasn’t a blade of grass anywhere, but that did not detract from the time there
3.       Fitzroy Crossing – at the “end” of their season, this place was covered with wallabies, we ran into two Swiss guys travelling from Darwin to Perth, warding off issues with their respective partners back in Switzerland as they journeyed along the west coast, experiencing their retirement years, before meeting back up with the girls in Thailand later.
4.       First free camp at Dalby – I remember Robyn’s excitement of getting out of the Cruiser in a paddock beside a lovely creek (with water in it). Our trip was not challenged by the rigours of peak season, and there were not many times at all when we had to call forward to book spots. Only an overnight stop, but the invigoration of a camping spot, devoid of concrete and electricity and having to rely on what you personally have in reserve, can bring as part of the freedom that caravanning is.
5.       Little Creeks Park at Streaky Bay – a brand new facility, about two years old and it wreaked of the thinking man. The toilet facilities were individually encompassed with showers and the ensuite, the sites were spacious, all with water view from what I could see. The staff (as was our experience in most parks) were more than happy to assist you, and always smiled.

Most of all though, and not planned as part of the holiday, has been the events of the past few days, that although you don’t normally get on a holiday, it’s usually those like the flu incident earlier with my son Julian that occurs, where the stress of illness causes conflict in the mind, and not because it’s a family deal, but that it highlights that anything can, and usually does occur the more you let the holiday be the prime motivator.

It’s all about enjoying what is in front of you. Halls Creek and Kununurra are perfect examples for us. Whilst Halls Creek was imposed on us by the breakdown of the Jeep, Kununurra turned into a most pleasant experience, catching barramundi, almost stepping on a freshie and buying diamonds, not to mention being able to view and handle a pair of stones worth close to half a million dollars.

Life is what you make of it. Make the most of it.