Purnululu!

I have wanted to visit Purnululu or the Bungles since seeing that Qantas ad on telly. And we have just come back from an amazing three day camping trip there.

I took 318 photos before my camera battery died. I thought I had recharged it before I left. It would help if the actual charger was plugged in though!

282 of those photos taken were taken from a helicopter! My Dad, Grace and I went up for an 18 minute flight over them. It was just incredible even if I spent the first ten minutes thinking what have I done?? I never go on those rides at shows that take you up fast and whiz you around and here I am in a helicopter with no doors for fun?

The view was just awesome though. Grace was breathless when we got off the ground. Something to tell for news when she goes back to school!

Oxidisation of the iron in the sandstone gives the range the beautiful orange colour. Darren tried to convince the girls the bee hive domes were giant dinosaur droppings from millions of years. They laughed at him.

On the last day we did the Piccaninny Creek Walk. Amazing views along an eroded creek bed.

We walked up to the lookout.

Running back along Piccaninny Creek. Matilda's energy was boundless despite the 32 degrees!

And another lookout!

Milly strolling through the Domes.

We did walk Echidna Chasm too. Initially you walk through a palm filled gorge, but that soon becomes narrower and narrower, and then narrower still till at the end it's less than a meter wide.

One last view from the sky. Can't wait till Daz's folks come backup so we can go again with them.

The Show!

It was show weekend in town this weekend. There was squealing in the pavilion when we found out that Milly had got a first place for her entry in "4 - 6 year old drawing, any medium" plus a ribbon and prize ($20 gift voucher to local craft/stationary shop) for being "the best overall exhibitor aged 4 - 6 years". Go Milly!!!! Very proud. We are already thinking about what we can do next year, moving up into the 7 - 8 age category! I scored a 2nd for my Rainbow Squares quilt which I was happy with. I didn't take a photo of it as it was just folded up on the display, too big to pin out I think!

I was involved this year in the school's P&C committee, cleaning up the show grounds. So I was off doing that in the afternoon, turned around to look on the oval to find Milly had made her way into the grand final of the aged 6 and under Lawn Mowing Pushing Race! They had to push it under a bar and then around two poles and then dash across the finish line, she was excited to come in second and scored $15.00 for her effort. Which was immediately spent on the dodgem cars!

Grace joined in the Melon Olympics. You had too scoop out the flesh of two watermelons so you could wear them as shoes, walk down the slippery bit of plastic clutching a honey dew melon and throw it in a tub. Just for the fun off it! We are on school holidays now for two weeks and are off here on Tuesday. Can't wait!!!

Grey Nomads do El Questro.

My parents are back in town. This post is for you Aunty Connie! Thought you might like to see some snaps of our outing last Sunday to El Questro.

We did a day trip out to have a swim at Zebedee Springs.

As you can see Dad likes the massaging effects of the waterfall!

Then we drove up to Pigeon Hole Lookout. Lunch, and then back home by 4!

Ord Valley Muster Wrap Up!

It has been a massive two weeks up here for us due to all the activity of the Ord Valley Muster!

After watching Daz have all the fun last year singing with the Adult Community Choir, I joined up this year. Those who have heard me sing karoke are puzzled by this! But it was so much fun. Here we are about to go on stage for the Kimberley Moon.

Straight from the hairdressers!

And here we are on stage! I'm third on the right and Daz is on the left, at the back, about 5 faces in? Can't see him that well but you could certainly hear him!

Then we had the kids triathlon. One of the Mum's at school roped me into the committee in March. Me? On a committee for a triathlon??? Whoever thought I would be saying that sentence a few years ago. The kids had a great time though.

Go Gracie! And we did it all again the next day, this time with the adults!

Daz has been training since February, has lost 10kgs in the process! Looking very trim and terrific as he zoomed past on his bike.

We all cheered as he crossed that finish line. Well done Daz!

We also dug for diamonds. Remember last year? 25 pink diamonds up for grabs this year. See Milly head down in the yellow shirt? Alas, no diamond for us, although it was exciting to know about a dozen people who did win one! Daz dug up nothing. Grace dug up nothing. Milly dug up a $10 voucher to the local toy store which was better than a diamond to her. And what did I dig up then? A 3 day self guided canoe tour down the Ord River. Cool!!! Now to wait for some grey nomad grandparents to arrive to leave the kids with so we can go off and do it!

And amongst all that, Grace and I made some lanterns with an artist called Bec Massey who makes these amazing lanterns. The bamboo structure here behind Grace becomes a boab tree.

Then on the last day of the festival, that night there was a street party and the lantern's had a parade.

Spot the boab tree at the back?

And so ends another Muster! See you all next year!

Here Fishy, Fishy!

Back to school this week so to mark the holidays ending, on Tuesday we went for a little drive. Haven't had any rain for a month, but the water is still coming out the ground. We drove through muddy puddles.

And we drove over rocks. Lots of rocks.

And we passed beautiful scenery like this.

And we put our fishing rods in a big muddy brown river.

And taa daa!!!! I pulled out this!!!! The elusive barramundi!

It was a family effort. I held the rod, Grace wound it in and Milly cheered us on. Grace thought holding it was "gross!"

Milly was happy to pose with it though. This is a photo that will be displayed on her 21st birthday. 59cms! Not bad! I'm happy with that for my first barra catch.

Grace was much happier hanging with a green tree frog that had hitched a ride in the bag of one of the chairs.

And then as the sun set, the girls built themselves a tee pee! The perfect end to our holidays. Only something like 43 working days to get through till the next break!

Lake Argyle Swim 2011.

Well the big weekend was here. The Lake Argyle Swim. Daz and a team of 3 fellow teachers were competing in the 10km team swim across Australia's largest body of fresh water, Lake Argyle. That little orange buoy in the distance? That is the 1km to go mark.

We went up the Friday before and camped at the Resort to soak up the view and the atmosphere. The view is just stunning!

Hanging at the beautiful infinity pool at the caravan park before the big day. Such a tough life being on holiday's up in the Kimberley!

The swimmer doing a few laps warming up for the big day.

The before shot. You can't swim without a boat and a few paddlers. I was keen to paddle myself but there was the small problem of what to do with the children for 5 hours. We couldn't all fit on the boat! So I stayed behind with the girls and we got seats on a boat going out later.

Waiting at the boat ramp.

The cheering squad by the boat ramp.

And over the finishing line they go! They swam in 5 minute stints during the race but for the last 30 meters, they all jumped out the boat and swam across together.

The boys minutes after crossing the finish line having a well deserved beer. Thinking about making a Kununurra DHS teachers calender with this shot!

And he got a medal/coaster saying he survived the swim! Does he look happy or what?

We spotted a croc on the way home. Glad it was on the way home, would have been a bad omen if we spotted it going there! There are crocs in Lake Argyle but the swimmers were in the middle of the lake, so safe enough.

So it was a great weekend, Daz is keen to do it all again next year!

Easter Camping.

We are on holidays at last! 12 weeks is a long term for teachers and students! Last Easter we went to El Questro and this Easter we went again. We had planned to go here or here but with all the rain recently, nowhere is open! So we packed up our camping stuff and away we went for a few days of adventures. We ran across a stretch of the Pentecost River.

We did some rapid riding as well. This stretch of the river was right next to the camping ground so while it wasn't 100% safe from crocodiles, everyone was doing it! The water here was waist height and fast! It was heaps of fun.

Only two of the Gorges are open at the moment, again, due to all the recent rain. One of them, Amelia Gorge was only open to the halfway point but we haven't walked it so we choose to do this one. I thought that the three logs and all the stones here were placed on purpose to make a little dam but Daz thinks it's from the force of the water over time. Still debating this one.

Taaa da, we made it! The water at the end was chilly but so refreshing. We walked this gorge early, left the car park at 8am so as a result we were the only ones there to enjoy it in the hour or so we were at the end. Walking back to the car people were starting to come in.

A rest spot along the way in. Usually this would be just a trickle of water.

One day we went to checking out where the water got up to at the Pentecost River where the Gibb River Road crosses. It's a bit hard to make out, but in the photo on the left of Daz, see the sign sticking out of the sand? It says Pentecost River.......

Driving back to camp from here we counted 52 water crossings in one morning! Mind you that did range from the above to a mere few inches trickling across the road. Still, 52!!! That's a lot of water.

And because we were so close, we stopped in at Zeebedee Springs a few times. Now we are back home for a few days to recover before packing the camping gear again and heading out to Lake Argyle for a few days to cheer on Daz and his team in the Lake Argyle Swim. We are going to need to take a holiday from our holiday!