A flight out at night

1 July 2013

As we’ve been travelling we regularly read Alison Lester’s fantastic children’s book about a family travelling around Australia called “Are we there yet?”.  When we were in Streaky Bay the kids HAD to stick their head in the jaws of the shark because that’s what the kids do in the book.  We went snorkeling at Turquoise Bay and Isobel has been nagging us for a cowgirl hat for ages and I’m pretty sure it’s because Gracie got one. 

Well there’s a page where they see an RFDS plane flying off and they make up stories about what happened.  I think we’ve been following the book too closely as we didn’t need to invent a story – we got to experience it for real.  Not an adventure we really needed.

The Kalumburu Road down to Gibb River is probably only 300km but it’s possibly one of the worst corrugated roads we’ve travelled on this trip.  The nurse had said Otto needed rest and plenty of water so in my head, I was thinking he could rest in the car – not really taking into account the road.  He did sleep but I think the corrugations were probably the reason we had to use the sat phone to call the RFDS (thankfully HEMA map of the Kimberley had their phone number printed on it). In hindsight, I think those bumps caused Otto’s seat belts to rub on his swollen glands and resulted in a stiff neck. But we weren’t to know that at the time.

They rang around stations and found that the Gibb River Station only 30-40km away could light up their runway to do a night landing. We did our first night drive in ages to get there and were surprised to see a really big Aboriginal community complete with their own community nurse AND street lights.  Talk about surprising! 

She was lovely, we went to her clinic, pulled all the fleeces and warm clothes down from the roof as our t-shirt and shorts couldn’t cope with this kind of night-time cold. Before we knew it we were being shown to the airstrip where two community members had laid out all the lights for the plane to land safely.

Here we were, under an enormous dark, twinkling sky shivering in the cold waiting for a plane to land.  When we heard the plane and saw its lights in the distance it felt really surreal to think they were coming  to help our little Otto – a pilot, nurse and doctor and three lovely people on the ground all helping too.

The plane landed in quite a dramatic way!  It pulled up in less than 100 m in a cloud of dust which we could see although it was pitch black.  Thankfully the take off wasn’t that exciting nor the landing on the tarmac at Broome.  The plane was tiny.  They had about 3 single seats, and a stretcher down the length of one whole side.  I sat down on it (they brought the seat up for me so I was semi-reclined) and strapped me in with a big sash belt.  Then they put a harness thing over my belly and then really strapped Otto into that.  Over our lap were lots of machines that went ping but thankfully we didn’t need any of them.

The nurse sat across from us and facing us so she could do all of Otto’s obs while we were on the flight.  The doctor sat right behind us (facing forward though) behind the pilot and there really wasn’t room for much else.  We all got weighed including our backpacks and water before we hopped on the helicopter a few days earlier so that was helpful as I could tell the doctor on the phone before they took off exactly how much Otto and I weighed.  This is crucial for them to know given how small the plane is and how much stuff they already have in it.

As the plane took off I could see three 4WDs beside the runway and felt so sad to be leaving behind my rock, Simon, and Hugo and Isobel.  We haven’t been separated much on this trip and when we have, I really feel it. The nurse and I talked for some of the way but then I collapsed into sleep. The plane took off at 10 pm and it was a 75 minute flight to Broome.  We are usually in bed around 7pm, and 8pm is a late one so I was exhausted.

The community nurse had offered for Simon and the kids to stay there the night which was really generous but Simon drove back to camp. Must’ve been a hard drive. I think he got home around the same time we touched down in Broome. 

A volunteer ambulance driver met us on the runway with a paid paramedic.  Volunteers are so important in non-metropolitan areas – everything would collapse without them.  They did a handover from the RFDS staff and took us to the hospital. By this time I’d heard the flying doc on the phone to the hospital when we touched down to say there was no need to call the pediatricians out of bed as Otto’s obs were all good.  The best indicator that he didn’t have meningitis is that he didn’t have any light sensitivity or rashes on his stomach, bottom or feet.

A lovely nurse and doctor looked after us in Emergency and poor Otto got woken again for about the third or fourth time that night for their examinations!  He then take ages to go to sleep.  Finally at about 2pm we got onto the ward and 45 minutes my bed was made, lights went off and we could both collapse into sleep.

We had a single room, much bigger than the room at PMH in Perth. The paediatric ward in Broome is only 12 months old and is beautiful, functional and designed really well.  I LOVED the shower the next morning and the convenience of having it as an ensuite. What a treat!

They looked after us beautifully. Unlike at PMH I was given a meal along with Otto which was a relief as I discovered during the day I couldn’t buy anything at the hospital – no little kiosk even and a bit of a walk to the nearest shops.  I had taken only $50 cash and some phone cards to make calls; but no credit card. What a mistake!  I couldn’t add more credit on the phone cards without a credit card, couldn’t book a bus ticket – nothing.

Two lovely, young female paediatricians came into examine Otto just when Playschool began!  What bad time. It’s the only show he loves to watch, he hadn’t seen it for months and wasn’t very compliant with them because all he wanted to do was watch tele.  Poor thing. 

He was really bright by now, he hadn’t had a temperature since I’d phoned the RFDS the night before and after a pretty thorough physical examination they ruled out meningitis and said it was probably a virus causing problems in the upper respiratory tract and he had some slightly swollen glands. He had been complaining of a sore neck over the weekend but I thought that as his language skills are still developing, he was actually referring to a sore throat. This was similar to the symptoms Hugo had had so I didn’t think for a minute it was a sore neck until on the Monday night he wouldn’t turn his neck left or right and lay down in a way that didn’t require his neck to strain at all. 

Anyway, they said we could be discharged immediately.  Best outcome we could’ve had really – except that Simon and the kids were about 700 km away from us! 

I had told Simon I’d leave him a message at the Imintji Store that morning.  But as I had quite a lot to share, I had to resort to writing it all down and sending a fax!  How old fashioned!  We then had a few phone conversations, always so happy to hear Simon’s voice on the phone, and we decided the best thing for the whole family was for Simon and the kids to get to Derby and set up there.  Otto and I would catch the Greyhound bus that night from Broome and meet them there saving Simon an extra 200km of driving that day PLUS the stress of trying to find a campsite in Broome in peak season.

Otto and I had a yummy lunch and I felt so exhausted I lay down on his bed while he sat up and watched television and I fell asleep.  At some point I remember him snuggling down and sleeping too.  I think I was asleep for more than 1 hour and when I woke felt so amazed with the staff there.  They needed our room but didn’t want to disturb me so waited until we both woke up naturally.  Amazing!

We read lots of books together and Otto enjoyed playing in the lovely play space they had – both an inside and outside space. The parents lounge was lovely and spacious and looked out over the outdoor play space – so different to PMH in Perth! 

The nurse even ordered an early dinner for us both, and the Aboriginal Liaison Officer drove us from the hospital to the bus stop. We were so well cared for at the Broome Hospital – and not just clinically!  So important.

Otto fell asleep in his bus seat with his lap sash on before we even left the town limits of Broome. So I sat him on my lap and cuddled him all the way to Derby – about 2.5 hours away by bus.  I was never so happy to see Simon when he boarded the bus to help me off…we all had so much to talk about even though we’d been apart for less than 24 hours! 

While the others were still talking I climbed into bed and fell asleep.  What a journey! 

And that was the rather abrupt end to us travelling down the Gibb River Road. 

PS Seems Otto picks his days for major drama.  On my Mum's birthday he got burnt and on my sister's birthday he got flown out by the RFDS. 

Kalumburu – on the coast again

 28 June – 1 July

Simon used our sat phone a few times the day we left Mitchell Falls to try to talk to his mum for her 70^th birthday. But she was never home! 

We got to Kalumburu before the shops closed on a Friday afternoon so we could re-stock and buy the necessary permit. 

We met a lovely gentleman outside the community store and chatted to him for about 5 minutes. As he talked and told us about growing up in the mission with his mother because his father had died in an aeroplane crash I realised I’d read about his dad in one of the Magabala books I was reading.  To confirm it all, I introduced myself and he told us he was Clement.  A ha.  It was the same story.  We felt really privileged to have met him, heard some of his stories, and been greeted so warmly and openly by him.  Thanks Clement.

We’re used to these little sandy tracks that take us to our next home and tend to take them for granted when we shouldn’t. We found Honeymoon Bay and it was so lovely to see the coast again.  Such a beautiful part of the world.

Honeymoon is also one of the highlights of our trips thanks largely to Lancho and his lovely family.  Lancho is the most relaxed and patient person we’ve met on the trip we reckon. On Sunday Hugo and Simon (and Isobel to begin with) made spears. It took them a good solid 6 hours from the time they went into the bush to get some decent saplings, to the time they were finished. I had no idea it would take that long. 

Hugo’s instructions for spear-making:

1.     Cut down a good-sized sapling.

2.     Hammer the bark off the sapling.

3.     Chop off all the bad bits such as dead wood and little knobbly bits.

4.     Straighten it in the fire.

5.     Place a metal rod in the fire for a few minutes.

6.     Cut the end of the spear to make a point but make sure it’s not sharp.

7.     Burn a groove into the end of the spear with the hot metal rod, use a hammer to press it into the wood as it will be HOT.

8.     Let the rod cool down.

9.     Do some kind of fancy knot to tie the rod into the groove you’ve made so the rod becomes part of your spear.

10. File the end of the metal rod so it’s sharp and pointy.

After tea Simon and Hugo went out with Lancho and 6 kids to the beach to go mud-crabbing.  They speared two good-sized mud crabs – we cooked up one and they cooked up the other. 

Unfortunately Otto got sick while here and he had temperatures on and off all weekend.  We could’ve stayed there much, much longer but we were running short on supplies and with Otto not well we decided to high-tail it to Kununurra after a brief stop at yet another health clinic!  Both Otto and Isobel went to see nurses at the Kalumburu Health Clinic – Otto for his temps and Isobel for her eye after some dust got in it and irritated it. Feels like we're doing a full inspection of all of WA's health services.

Mitchell Plateau and Falls

Around 25 June for 3 nights

I was over being sick, having a sick family and being in a remote place.  At lunch (Drysdale river Station does the best burgers!) I said, “hands up if you want to just head to Kununurra, (just me), hands up if you want to go to Mitchell Falls.” I was out-voted.  So glad I was as this part of the trip was the highlight!

We camped beside the King Edward River which was a beautiful campsite next to a beautiful stretch of river.  We contemplated staying here and doing a day trip to Mitchell Falls but we’re glad we pushed on. Although the campground at Mitchell Falls wasn’t as nice as King Edward River it was lovely to rush our walk to the Mitchell Falls.

While lots of people told us how great the Mitchell Falls were, we hadn’t heard anything about the drive there.  So we were staggered when we were on the Mitchell Plateau that we drove through at least 50km of palm forest.  Not rainforest, palm forest where the only tree you see was the livastonia palms.  It was a magnificent forest; one I’ll always remember.

As Hugo had been so sick, and as people had told us the walk was long and hard, we decided to fork out money and come back in a helicopter from the falls.  This decision meant we wouldn’t be taking to the air for the 6 minute flight above the famous bee-shaped domes at Purnululu National Park (Bungle Bungle).

The walk was just beautiful, easy and thoroughly enjoyable. Just 20 minutes into the walk (for us, with a recalcitrant 3 yo) were the beautiful Little Mertens Falls.  Anywhere else along the Gibb, this would be a place to stop in its own right.  The falls dropped down into a big water hole but the best bit was that Isobel got to realize her dream.  There’s a path half way down the hill that takes you over and under rocks to get in behind the waterfall and in a cave.  AND the cave is filled with amazing Aboriginal art!!  How special was this place.

Maiden hair ferns grew in the cave, you could get the cooling mist of the water fall and I took a really special photo of Isobel.  She went out further than anyone else, drank in the view and experience and then did a naturally big sigh, “I’m here.”  It was beautiful to watch her have this moment of accomplishment and joy without her knowing she was being observed.

Of course the perfect moment was shattered less than a minute later!  A misunderstanding between Simon and Isobel ended in shouting and tears.  Oh well.

Just downstream was another picturesque swimming hole and across the river was more Aboriginal rock art.  We should’ve rockhopped across the river rather than just being content with seeing it from the opposite bank.  There was a painting of a thylacine there!  Fortunately someone has told us we’ll see a thylacine painted at Ubirr at Kakadu too. Phew.

From here Big Mertens Falls dropped into a mouth-dropping gorge.  A “Mothers -hold –your- kids- hands, kind of drop.  It was simply spectacular.  We sat down on a rock, ate our mandarines and apples and just enjoyed the site.  It looked ancient and you could just see the Mitchell River at the mouth of the gorge. 

Before we knew it we were at the ‘big’ one!  Simon went exploring to get a view of the top of the Mitchell Falls and called us over when he realised it was all safe and easy.  We were there in late June but the power of the water was still something to behold.  There was a swollen, dead kangaroo in the second pool just doing circles because of the white water and currents – it wasn’t going over the edge any time soon.

We crossed the river carefully as it’s a pretty strong current, and then checked out some more vantage points of the falls. Spectacular. 

Before we knew it, it was 1.30pm and we were lined up watching our helicopter land. How exciting was this!  We handed all our bags, hankies, hats, camera lenses, everything to the pilot to be stowed away so absolutely nothing could accidentally fall out of the helicopter and interfere with its ability to fly.  I sat in the front as I wanted a door (!) and Hugo and Simon sat at the open doors with Otto and Isobel sitting between them.  What an adventure.  Would you believe our camera ran out of batteries before we even left the ground?

Hugo used the microphone to let us know ‘This is the most awesome experience of my life.” The pilot got a chuckle from that.  We flew over the falls so all of us got another great view of them, and then we followed the Mitchell River down to the Little Mitchell Falls which is where the river becomes tidal.  From the air we still couldn’t see where the national park ended in the west, we could see where the Mitchell entered the sea up near Admiralty Gulf and then the helicopter took us up the Western Gorge to another little waterfall. We skipped over Mitchell Falls again, rounded a hill and landed back at camp.  We couldn’t believe how close the campground was to the falls! 

The whole day is one of the highlights of the trip – the three falls, amazing scenery, rock art and then a helicopter ride!  Who could ask for more. 

But there was!  I’d asked the ranger the day before whether he was going to do a slide show so he did one that night.  He is incredibly knowledgeable about Aboriginal Rock Art and has worked with Graeme Welsh and archeologists from UNE. He said one day they found a grinding stone but because it was so heavy they put it above the floodline and left it on a rock ledge.  Months later he got a phone call from the university who had finished doing their lengthy analysis of the other objects they’d collected and a sample from the grinding stone. They asked him to collect it and send it to them as it turned out to be much, much older than they’d expected!  I guess they’re not talking about the age of the rock, but how long ago it was used as a grinding stone.  It was a fascinating and insightful talk that covered rock art and then plenty of photos of the area in the wet season.  Awesome! 

The next morning we were talking to the ranger (again).  Simon said he hadn't seen this much helicopter activity in a national park since an episode of Skippy.  One ranger laughed, the other one didn't!  

Gibb River Road

Around 11 June to 21 June or so

Preamble

When we were planning our trip it was the Gibb River Road area of the Kimberley we were really keen to explore. We decided we wouldn’t put ourselves under any time pressures and take as long as we needed to explore it.  The Gibb River Road was made in the 60s for the cattle trains to carry the stock from the stations to market much quicker than by droving. It’s about 700km along the Gibb from Derby through to Kununurra – the first 80km are sealed near Derby and the rest is dirt.

Well it’s turned out to be the hardest part of the trip and possibly even the part we’ve least enjoyed.  Just a combination of travel fatigue, sickness going through every member of the family and the crowds of tourists everywhere we went!

So the Gibb River Road…

We pitched our tent by the light of the setting sun on the banks of the Lennard River on our first night.  Nice place to camp for a quick overnighter.  We set off the next morning through the Inglis Gap and into the King Leopold Ranges and some amazing country. We drove down much of the road to Mt Hart Wilderness Lodge and it was scenic – but it’s landscape we’re familiar with – it could’ve been in NSW somewhere. 

We then heeded the advice in our guidebook and other travellers who said the track into Lennard Gorge was really rough.  So we pitched our tent a few kilometres away on the banks of the picturesque Dog Chain Creek and went back to do the walk at Lennard Gorge. It just felt hot and long and hard and none of us enjoyed it – not even Simon or I.  Yes, it was beautiful, but you couldn’t really get a good view of the gorge, the waterfall was pretty but we were questioning whether we really needed to see it on such a hot day! We were comparing it with what we’d seen in Karijini and well…

What we didn’t realize was that this was probably the first symptom that Simon and I were getting sick! 

Fortunately we loved our little camp beside a crystal clear creek complete with water lilies and some paperbarks and river pandanus. Little did we realize that these gorgeous creeks punctuate the entire Kimberley landscape.  It’s one of our favourite campsites so far in the Kimberly.

We decided it was unfair to Hugo to be travelling on his birthday so we skipped Bell Gorge and drove onto Mornington Wilderness Camp which is owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. We knew it was going to be one of the most expensive places we were going to camp so we were disappointed with the choices of campsites.  Fortunately the 90km drive south of the Gibb River Road was spectacular, as were the two swimming holes on the Fitzroy River (less than 100km up river from Geike Gorge but it had taken us a good couple of days to travel via the roads to get here!).

Hugo’s birthday was a beautiful, sunny day. Simon made a chocolate cheesecake and then collapsed in bed feeling very unwell.  Hugo played all day long with his Lego Star Wars A-wing star fighter – he loved it. I took the kids swimming at Cajeput later in the afternoon and it was beautiful – a nice sandy bank, easy sandy entry, not very deep – ideal for Otto but he was asleep!

Next day I was sick!  But we still went canoeing down the Dimond Gorge which was pretty spectacular. We even saw a rare rock wallaby. We took the short walk to see a little waterfall, had lunch on the little beach and then canoed back.  We didn’t even take our camera we were both feeling so unwell! Simon got the hammock out at Cajeput swimming hole and I lay down on the grass and the kids entertained themselves.  It was perfect (other than feeling unwell). 

The drive to Silent Grove/Bell Gorge was quicker than we were expecting.  Bell Gorge was really beautiful. Simon took Hugo and Isobel to swim under the waterfall and I went down stream to another little waterfall. It was warmer downstream as the water wasn’t so deep!  We met a family from Perth, originally from the UK, who are on an 18 month trip around the world. They plan to spend a few months here in Australia, then head to North and South America and then to Europe. We are reasonably jealous and it’s got us thinking…

I was still feeling completely exhausted so we had another day at Silent Grove and just hung out.  We skipped Charnley River station as we were beginning to run short of time, skipped Manning Gorge because I was still feeling exhausted from the virus and couldn’t contemplate the walk, missed Adcock Gorge as a bunch of travellers we met on the track in convinced us that it was pointless – they couldn’t find the gorge, the track was terrible and they thought they’d just wasted 90 minutes.  Oh dear.  Your beginning to get the picture.

Fortunately we stopped at Galvans Gorge and it was simply beautiful. If only we knew it was going to be so beautiful and such a delightfully easy stroll to reach it, we would’ve taken our lunch and spent a few hours there. 

Simon and Hugo swam, Isobel didn’t as we were trying to get her infected mossie bites and scabs under control, and there was even some Aboriginal rock art beside the beautiful water hole. Magic.

At Mt Elizabeth Station the skies were overcast and it rained and the temperature dropped.  It’s here that Hugo began to get sick.  We’d taken our first proper 4WD track to reach Wanumurra Gorge and by the time we got there, Hugo had a temperature.  The poor boy. We gave him some panadol and then walked slowly to the gorge – but he’d perked up and didn’t mind the walk.  Plus we were walking with our new friends Mike and Cathy who we’d met on the station tour the day earlier. There’s one ladder to help you get up and down the layers of the gorge and it was pretty lovely.  Even had a little sandy beach!  Shame it was overcast and Hugo wasn’t very well as it was the perfect gorge for Otto to swim in. 

Mt Elizabeth Station has some rather amazing Aboriginal rock art – Gwion Gwion paintings aged at about 16-17,000 years old (!) and Wandjina art which can be up to 6000 years old to 100 years old.  We drove through forests of ironbark, forests of silky oaks, and forests of bloodwood.  It was a really beautiful place and the tour was worthwhile (and reasonably priced for the Kimberley!).  We all enjoyed the home-made cakes and slices! We also went to a lovely sacred waterfall and waterhole that was a burial site.  We could see the skull and bones in the crevice of the rock wall. 

We realised that the Munja Track was something we could tackle on our own, but didn’t want to do it with the trailer (you really need not to be towing anything), with a broken UHF aerial, and a child who wasn’t well.  Good decision.  We moved to Drysdale River Station on the Kalumburu Road and stayed 3 nights because Hugo didn’t get out of bed!  High temperatures, a bit of vomiting, then just when I thought he was getting better he got a roaring red, very sore throat. 

On the journey to Drysdale River We crossed the Hann River again, this time on the Gibb River Road, and it was still sandy-banked and beautiful. This would be a great place to spend a night or two. Beautiful river.

While here we got to see a grim reminder about the need to respect the roads we were on.  At Drysdale River Station we met some blokes whose long-range fuel tank (newly installed) just dropped out of their ute!  A woman rolled her ute and injured her mother-in-law slightly and the worst accident were two Swiss women we’d met completely wrote-off their hired Troopie.  They had minor injuries but were shocked and just coming to terms with facing an enormous bill as they’d signed a waiver to say if they caused the accident then the insurance wouldn’t cover them!!!! 

Fitzroy Crossing

 7 – 10 June

Because of friends we made at the Pilbara, we decided to overnight in Fitzroy Crossing rather than just visiting on a whirlwind day visit from a free camp up the road.  It turned out to be one of the highlights of the Kimberley for us!

We arrived on a Friday afternoon and were greeted really warmly by the two Aboriginal women who run the visitors centre (the first time we’d seen this on our trip!).  Joleen who had booked us the tour of Tunnel Creek shook my hand when she realized I was Joanne, and they were both tickled pink that Otto could recognize Tunnel Creek when he saw it on a promo video. 

Otto had noticed the library in the room next door and was pestering me to take him there. I explained it was closed so we couldn’t go there – but then Joleen offered to open it up for him!  So we were immediately taken with Fitzroy Crossing just from this warm welcome.

We made our way to Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency and again, were warmly welcomed this time by a woman who originally hailed from Melbourne. She explained how the centre was set up, that the artists don’t work on Fridays so the studio was empty, turned on a DVD for the kids about an old desert man returning to a waterhole he is the custodian of with his family and performing a dance there – it was all in his language and was amazing to say the least.  Unlike Mowanjum, there is no gallery space here so all the canvases are stacked up against the walls, on tables and you just take your time going through them all.  I’ve now been there three times and haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of looking at all the paintings available to buy!

I read the biographies of some of the artists and some of the older ones remember walking out of the desert when they were kids.  These women are called ‘first contact’ people and it’s rare to meet them these days.  The woman also explained it’s the two tribes of desert people who have been the driver of many of the initiatives in Fitzroy Crossing because they felt they had so much to learn – needing to learn English, how this new culture worked etc.  So they set up the language centre which is now the Adult Education Centre, the local radio, the arts cooperative (owned and managed by the artists themselves). 

I wanted to see the artists working so was keen to extend our stay through to Monday morning….

We met up with our friends Em and Tom for a BBQ and stayed at the caravan park as it’s really beautiful.  The Fitzroy River Lodge is owned by the Aboriginal community and is on the banks of the Fitzroy with lush green grass, lots of shade and nice amenities.  It was such a nice, relaxing day we chose not to rush off to Geike Gorge but just chatted and Hugo got to challenge Tom to another game of Chinese Checkers.

That night we watched a beautiful sunset over the river and then forced ourselves out of our lethargy to eat our left over snags while watching the local footy match under lights and took the kids to the fun fair which was in town (and handily located at the footy oval!).  It was a night to remember.  There was a small crowd watching the match and a handful of people at the fun fair and other than the fair/ride operators we were about one of two white families we saw the whole night.  It was the first time I was the minority while in Australia and it was a nice feeling to be a minority among a big group of Aboriginal people. 

The kids had a great time and had their very first go on dodgem cars that were completely dodgy.  Poor Isobel got the slowest car!  And the longest jumping castle time ever that required at least 3 stops for water for each child!

Next day we went out fishing with our friends at a beautiful spot on the Fitzroy. They had borrowed 2 kayaks so Simon took Hugo and Isobel out on a kayak and had a go at catching us some barra.  Then all the kids and Simon got to go out on Em’s brother’s tinnie!  How lucky are we?   Tom caught a good-sized barra and kindly gave it to us as we weren’t going to be staying there like he is. It was absolutely delicious!  Thanks Tom.

Em’s brother is as generous as she is, and offered us to borrow his kayak so we could come back the next day and camp. So we did!  He even gave us a hand line and suggested we put a hunk of meat on it to see if we could catch ourselves a croc.  We didn’t try.

On Monday I went back to Mangkaja on my own and watched the women paint and was very disciplined and didn’t buy anything – I’ll buy one or two of Rosie Tarco’s painting when we’re back in Brisbane with an income coming in! 

The following morning I ran into the shops and thought that one of the older women sitting down on the footpath was Rosie, one of my favourite painters. So I stopped and talked (well tried to talk) but I had a lot of trouble understanding the kriol she speaks.  But I told Rosie that I love her painting and helped her up. Then I discovered the woman with her was Nada Rawlins – another of my favourite artists!  I couldn’t wipe the grin off myself after I left these women. Both of them can remember walking out from the desert as girls. 

We had showers, washed our vomit-strewn linen and clothes (Otto had been sick the night before) and left Hugo and Isobel with Em while we did the errands that needed to be done.  When we got back Em had prepared lunch and packed us off with a cake for Hugo’s birthday (a surprise for him), some healthy, homemade biscuits, her own homemade pesto and some fresh basil and chillies!  She is so warm and generous. We missed seeing Tom by about 45 minutes but we’d been in Fitzroy Crossing so long we couldn’t really delay our departure any later.

So Tom and Em’s warmth and hospitality, combined with the amazing, vibrant art of Mangkaja, the fun fair and footy and barra fishing were the reasons we had such a great time here and it’s one of our favourite places in the Kimberley!  For most travellers it’s an overnighter at best but boy, they miss out on a vibrant, welcoming town where the majority of the people are Aboriginal and represent one of four different language groups.  It’s got us thinking about how we could live and work in a place like this for a while…

Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek

? 4-7 June 3 nights 

The original station owner got the pronunciation wrong and so whitefellas have been calling this impressive gorge in the Balili (Napier) Range Windjana ever since – when it is Wandjina.  We drove across flat plains from Derby and then suddenly this limestone range grows out of the landscape like a big, solid, fortified wall.  It is impressive.

The campground was a big dampener to us as it was packed with fellow travellers and the ranger explained that this is what the Gibb River Road would be like for us. I just wanted to hightail it back to the less popular Pilbara! 

We booked a Bungoolee tour of Tunnel Creek the so-called spiritual home of Jandamarra, a freedom fighter who was killed in 1897 (the same year my great-grandfather was born and I also think the year that Simon’s grandfather was born). We are so glad we started this part of our trip, on the famous Gibb River Road, with a Bunuba-led tour of Tunnel Creek.

We had a smoking ceremony, our guide, Jack, called out to the spirits in his language before we entered the tunnel; and it fairly and squarely set us off on our journey knowing we were in Aboriginal Australia now. 

One of the highlights of the tour was seeing an elusive Pilbara Olive Python at the entrance to the cave - it was about 4 metres long and just mesmerizing to see).  Hugo and I scampered up the side of a cliff with our guide to find the cave where Jandamarra was born (our guide found the easier path once we reached it!) and from there you could look straight across at the rock where Jandamarra was shot from when he died.  Not many people are born and die within a few hundred metres of each other do they? 

Jack explained that they were still a few weeks off from having their campground set up for the tag-along tours they take into Bunuba country around Leopold Downs Station (owned by the Bunuba people, as is the neighbouring station, Fairfield). You get to stay in spinifex-covered shelters and they have gorges and fresh water springs and you get to hang out with nice people like Jack, Joleen and Clive.  Next time we’ll do that.

At Windjana Gorge we saw easily 50 or more freshwater crocodiles which was amazing.  The Gorge is pretty spectacular and it was the place where a major battle/stand off took place between the Bunuba and the police.  But this isn’t mentioned in any of the information you read about the national park.

It rained again, we caught up with our old Middle Lagoon neighbours Mark and Leanne and they told us about the highs and lows of the Gibb River Road and then we set off to Fitzroy Crossing. 

We saw the first and only cattle mustering on the road near Tunnel Creek complete with horsemen and women, helicopter and the bull jeep that everyone now uses instead of horses.  Glad we got to see it at least once!

PS We got to see it again when we came back on this road after we left Fitzroy Crossing. 

Derby 2-4 June

Derby

Derby was confronting for me.  I cried when we went to the Old Derby Jail to see first-hand the inhumane way the traditional owners of this land were treated by our governments and the early settlers.  It was harrowing.  I also finished reading the book about Jandamarra and the Bunuba resistance while here so knowing that many of the places we were travelling to were the sites of massacres and killings was sobering. 

Up in this north-west corner of Australia there is no denying our atrocious history or the fact that we live in an Aboriginal Australia.  We saw even more Aboriginal people in Derby than we’d seen in Broome.  We’d been told by a few people that the town isn’t much to look at but it’s got a great community spirit. 

One of the highlights was going to the Mowanjum art centre and looking at the local art and watching a video that explains the connection between land, the Wandjina spirits, and their painting and songs.  It was interesting to then hear Isobel explaining all that she’d understood to one of her grandmothers – these kids are getting quite an education.