Scribble World Travel Blog

Old Farts Haven

Yesterday, after leaving Port Hedland, we continued our road trip driving merrily along until we started running out of daylight. We followed the Rail Village sign down a long rough dirt that eventually led to the Indee Station.  You’ll know you’ve reached the right place when you see the “Old Farts Haven” sign on the gate.  We passed through a second gate into a field and had our pick of places to park and camp for the the night.

A little different than some of the other places we have stayed- the Indee Station really and truly is rustic.  No electric or water at the campsites. The camper shower/bathroom facility is coed with an old fashioned look and feel.  The water is cold, so most of us opted to skip the morning showers.  There is a solar shower on the other side of the gate that they said we could use, but considering that is a solar shower and we were getting up before 6-it was pretty chilly either way.  It’s a place you can go and just be totally left alone-we may have been the only RV there.  But upon waking, I saw we had been sharing the field after all-with a group of horses!  It was kind of neat.  To think…all that time living in the midwest with horses and we could have been renting out our field to RV’ers.

Well, we’re picking up where we left off in our great Australian road trip.  We’ll be driving to our first  Australian inland national park later today-called Karijini National Park.

Port Hedland Attractions

Our road trip continues, with an afternoon in Port Hedland.

With a whopping 14,000 people, Port Hedland is the largest town in the Pilbarra region of Western Australia.  it is also the highest tonnage port anywhere in Australia, able to accommodate ships weighing 250,000 tonnes and more.  We walked around admiring some of those monster ships with our own eyes-and they are big.  We had a pretty good view from the public park.  We also saw some big trains which are used to transport the areas iron ore deposits.

We explored on foot, snagging lunch at the Oriental Chinese Gallery restaurant, and browsing the downtown shops. I bought fennel candy, while Chris was amused by all the pipes and accessories for sale in a store and took an informational brochure on cannabis.  We also looked around a used bookstore that also sells beautiful rocks and artwork.  Port Hedland has a pretty neat downtown area.

Walking along a side street, I discovered an awesome techie bathroom.  You push the green button and the door will open automatically for you.  You have the whole metal cubicle all to yourself.  While you are in it, the green light turns red and will not open for anyone else.  Everything was automated.  Music began playing- “what the world, needs now, is love, sweet love…”

After pushing a button, toilet paper is automatically dispensed for you, The soap, water and hand dryer are also automatic.  Such a delightful marvel to discover just walking along a side street in Port Hedland-and free no less.  It even automatically cleans itself.

Port Hedland has a nice visitor center for us to check our email-our first time since getting to Australia.  We had a nice note from our cat sitter letting us know everything was going fine-always nice to hear!  We made a quick stop at a Woolworth’s grocery store before hitting the road again in our trusty Maui RV.

80 Mile Beach

We spent the night at the Sandfire Roadhouse in Western Australia, and this morning I woke up at 6 to the sound of something big landing on our roof.  I think it was a peacock.  It was a fun place to stay-they’ve got it all-peacock, peafoul, camel, bull, wild kangaroo, geese, a horse and probably more! It was great.  Plus they have nice hot showers.

80 Mile Beach was our next stop. We walked along the lovely white beach collecting a few sand dollars and other seashells.   There was a building at 80 Mile Beach labeled as the computer room-but when I checked it out, there was only one computer, which of course, was occupied-and they said it was really slow (landline) but was $2/15 minutes.  We’re waiting for a town.  It was quite a bumpy dirt road drive detour to get to 80 Mile beach, but the beach was beautiful and we were the only ones out there.

Lots of beautiful purple wild flowers on the side of the road. The sky is perfectly blue with small white cloud wisps.

Our next stop is Port Hedland.

Sandfire Roadhouse Caravan Park in Western Australia

We are spending the night at the Sandfire Roadhouse off the Great Northern Highway in Western Australia. We’ve been driving south, making some headway on our way to Perth. The highway is practically empty during the day-very unlike our travels through the U.S., but at night there is no one. There are too many road hazards-kangaroos, wallabies- and even cows.

The Sandfire Roadhouse is awesome.  On our way to use the bathroom, Chris & I spotted 3 peacocks in the trees above us.  And right across from our parking space, there’s a bull on one side of the pasture and a camel on the other. They both stood neck and neck with the fence, curious about our arrival.

We had our supper beneath the stars-some very tender Australian beef steaks and baked potatos.  Without any city lights to interfere, the view of the bazillions of stars and milkyway were stunningly clear.  We had a relaxing evening of conversation as we watched for shooting stars and sipped tea (or beer).

Windjana National Park

This morning, at 8:15, we were picked up right in front of our caravan park in Derby by a Windjana tour bus.  Annie was our tour guide and driver and possessed a wealth of information about the area having lived here all her life. She said a lot of people her age were retiring, but she refused to quit, and I’m glad she didn’t as she made for a most unusual guide.

On our 2 hour plus bus ride to Windjana National Park, she made apologies for the quaintness of the bus as she usually drives a big tour bus-not a little city bus-but there had been some mechanical trouble with the original Windjana tour bus and they were waiting for parts to be delivered from another town.  It was a cozy group with about 20 of us in all.

Annie knew the names of all the trees and plants and would point them out as we drove by them. She also knew about the birds, the seeds, the grasses-the history.  She really seemed to have a deep appreciation of the land.  She told us how the “bungle bungle” grass used to entertain the Aboriginal children for hours.  She even pointed out her old childhood stomping grounds from before it became a national park.

Passing some giant termite hills she asked if any of us had been to see the dinosaur footprints in Broome, and joked that they have something just as good here-dinosaur droppings.  She had to make sure we knew she was only kidding because she once had a lady who went on believing the giant termite hills really were dinosaur droppings for 3 weeks!  Termite mounds, we learned, will last about 5 years on average, but can last 7-9 years on occasion.  Some people search these mounds for greenish clay-an indication that there may be diamonds in the area.  We also learned that a termite mound goes beneath the surface at least 2/3rds as far as it is high above the surface.

We stopped at a ranger station where she got out to drop off a bag full of magazines and newspapers. She explained that it was so remote out there, the rangers didn’t have much to do.  She said they joked and called Woman’s Day the “Toilet Magazine” and wouldn’t admit to reading it, but they really did.  She lived on a station herself when she was 18 and was a medical assistant.  With only a 2 way radio, she was instructed on how to treat a patient who needed a penicillin shot.  She was told to practice on a lemon until she felt comfortable.

Once at Windjana National Park, we walked around and were shown how to recognize a gum tree-if in doubt “give it a cuddle” and if a white powdery substance rubs off, that’s how you know it’s a gum tree. We walked along at our own pace to see the freshwater crocodiles along the shore.  Unlike the ferocious saltwater crocs, the freshwater ones are actually not likely to be aggressive. Four meters was considered a safe distance.  One foreign guy started lunging at the freshwater crocodiles and they would retreat into the water. It wasn’t very nice and some people finally set him straight because he was scaring the crocodiles making it hard for other people to get a good picture.  That’s when you almost wish there was a saltwater crocodile lurking somewhere to teach him a lesson (well, not really, that would be gruesome).  The saltwater crocodiles are the vicious ones that ARE aggressive and will chomp down and ruthlessly twist and turn.  The freshwater crocs seem almost friendly by way of comparison.

Once back near the bus, Annie provided us with tea, coffee and lunch, which was grown and prepared by her bosses wife in her own garden.  It was all quite good, but just the same Annie warned that there better not be any leftovers because Louella (the bosses wife) would want to know what was wrong with it.  Tunnel Creek National Park is the next stop.

Tunnel Creek National Park and Jandamarra

At Tunnel Creek National Park, our Windjana tours guide, Annie, led the way through the gigantic cave.  We rolled up our shorts and waded through icy cold water to get inside.  Once within, we used our flashlights to marvel at the Aboriginal artwork, and the mineral deposits, etc.  We periodically had to wade through more water and it was interesting to later see a crocodile swimming further down in the cave.

We came to a  clearing where the tunnel split and outside were all these black bats sleeping in the trees!

After more tea and dessert, we began our drive back to Derby.

First, we stopped at the Lillamaloora Station Ruins-which used to be a police post.  This is where having Annie as our guide became even more impressive.  Her former husband had been part Aboriginie, and her knowledge of the Aboriginie people was impressive.  She informed us that there are at least two sides to every story…

The White man’s version of the Lillamaloora Station Ruins story is that Jandamarra was an Aboriginal freedom fighter who murdered Constable Richardson at Lillamaloora Police Post, and then freed his people who were jailed there-going on to fight a guerrilla war against the police and other European settlers to defend the Bunuba lands in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.   So according to that version, Jandamarra is something of a hero among his people.

Through Annie, we got to hear the other side of the story.  According to the Aboriginal people, Jandamarra was a traitor who helped Constable Richardson to track down and jail his own people. Richardson had a repuation for being exceedingly cruel-depriviing prisoners of food and water. One day, Jandamarra tracked down and helped jail some of the elders from his tribe.  Once locked up-it is said the elders got to Jandamarra- tricking him into releasing them saying they would just disappear.  Jandamarra believed them and set them free-only instead of disappearing, the elders got the gun out of Jandamarra’s hand and used it to shoot Constable Richardson, stole more guns and fled.

Jandamarra had no choice but to flee too-he couldn’t just explain that he had been tricked into releasing his elders but didn’t think they would do any harm.  And so Jandamarra fled-an outlaw hated by all sides.  He hid out at Tunnel Creek for 3 years before he was shot.

Aboriginal stories are passed on through word of mouth and often exaggerated, so sometimes it is hard to tell what exactly really happened. One possible exaggeration was that Jandamarra would sneak into an Aborignal community at night and make off with a girl-get her pregnant, then she would start slowing him down.  He couldn’t release her because then she would know his tricks and hiding place, so he would murder her and kidnap another Aboriginal girl from another village.

The plaque about Jandamarra being an Aboriginal freedom fighter is frequently vandalized by the Aboriginal people, even today.  Annie once asked an aboriginal man about him-wanting to know his version-but when he heard the name “Jandamarra” he spit-which is considered the worst insult imaginable-worse than punching someone or swearing-spitting-the ultimate insult.

We pulled over in front of a large boab tree where Annie cracked open a boab tree nut for us to sample.  She said it reminded her of sherbert.  I wouldn’t go that far, but it wasn’t bad-kind of sour and nutty.

On the drive back to Derby, Annie, our Windjana Tour Guide, entertained us with stories and jokes. One true story was about how she got a bull up.  It was an extremely stubborn bull, finally she lit some dead grass on fire by it’s testicles and boy did that ever work! She raced to her horse barely escaping without getting mauled.  A couple of the Aboriginal boys that saw the bull get up, but hadn’t seen her trick, told ever more exaggerated stories about her heroics and toughness-as though she has muscled the bull to it’s feet.  It was very entertaining.  We arrived back at the caravan park a little after 7 which was well after dark.

Dinosaur Footprints, Crocodile Farm, drink driving

8:34 A.M. We’re getting ready to leave Gantheaume Point, where the dinosaur footprints are in Broome.  We were a little late and the tide had already covered them up. It’s best to get here early-early..  But we saw the ones on land and a replica of the one in the water.  Dinosaur footprints are a lot smaller than I had imagined-not much bigger than my shoe, but a lot wider.

There’s been a slight delay in our departure.  The RV blew a fuse.  Out the window, on my right, are all kinds of sailboats.  The dinosaurs were in this area 135 million years ago in the Cretaceous period.

We’re now driving back to the RV dealership to get a fuse replacement and also the promised awning they forgot to give us.  We just saw a van that’s powered by vegetable oil. That’s cool.  We’re leaving Broome on a highway that runs North-South.  Roads names are uncommon.  I guess it’s called ‘Broome Road,” but we’re now heading to Derby.

We spent over an hour at the Crocodile Farm in Broome.  We showed up just after their feeding so it was $25/person instead of $50.  It was an interesting place with only a standard wire fence with holes separating you from ferocious salt water crocodiles-one with a story about how he was a menace to people at a beach.  It was interesting reading their names and brief histories.  One croc was stalking Chris and I, lurking beneath the muddy water unseen-then as we began walking away it charged out, but quickly sank back into the water.  Sure wouldn’t want to be snuck up like that in nature without the fence.

At the Crocodile Farm we also enjoyed a close up look at some wallabies.  Wallabies are almost indistinguishable from kangaroos. Wallabies tend to be smaller, but there can be large wallabies and small kangaroos, so the best way to tell them apart is to look at their ears. A kangaroo’s ears are pointed and a wallaby will have ears that are more rounded.  One of the wallabies had a very large “joey” or baby in her pouch.  It was funny because it’s feet were practically the same size as hers. They’re only supposed to stay in the pouch 5 or 6 months.  This one’s feet were dangling out-it was running out of room.

We stopped at a mall for breakfast and a quick shopping experience.  It’s interesting to observe little differences between here and back home in the U.S.  Here, they’ll announce the price followed by a thanks-”That’ll be $16, thanks” and then wait for you to pay.  Or to ask how you are, they’ll ask “how’s you going?”

When you thank a waitress for anything, it’s as though you’ve just apologized-they’ll always say, “that’s alright.”  it’s interesting how catch phrases just sort of permeate throughout a region.  Another one is “drink driving”-to us it seems like a typo.

We’re pulling into a gas station-they call them road houses.  There are picnic tables.  We blew another fuse so Chris hasn’t been able to track our G.P.S. trail since leaving the Crocodile Farm in Broome. For future reference, Crocs have much narrower snouts-long and pointy-unlike the thicker ones on the aligators we saw in Florida and also at the Colorado Gators place.

It has been an interesting drive. We’ve spotted a couple kangaroos.  There are gigantic termite mounds all over the place.

We watched the sunset over a bridge in Derby and are spending the night at a caravan park.  It’s much nicer than the one in Broome. The one in Broome was like a city with hardly any room to park between two trees. This is much more spacious so we have room to set up our chairs and picnic table.

The Staircase To The Moon, Cable Beach, Broome

This morning there was a frenzy of activity to get checked out on time and for Mom & Bruce to go pick up the Maui RV we’ll be renting for the next 11 days.  I burnt the tip of my tongue trying to eat my hot curry noodle soup too fast and now am sitting at a picnic table near the Mercure pool guarding more than 10 pieces of luggage awaiting the others return…with seemingly all the time in the world.  Chris is squeezing in a quick load of laundry while we wait.  There were 2 washing machines but only one dryer. Many places don’t have dryers at all-there are clothes lines everywhere we go. 

The Rv has arrived and seems quite nice-sure is a lot more roomy than traveling around the United States in a van.  I fear we may get spoiled. It’ll be very interesting to see what it would be like to live out of an RV.  So far so good-it has an electric hot water maker, tea kettle, microwave, stove, shower, toilet, fridge, a bed above the cab and one in the back that’s a couch by day and a bed by night-oh, and great big windows. 

We’re spending one more night in Broome at a caravan park.  We’re going downtown to do a little shopping, and I’m going to have lunch at a neat looking Egyptian restaurant I passed by earlier. We’ve been told there may not be much in the way of civilization and grocery stores once we leave Broome, so we’re also stopping by Coles grocery store to get supplies.  Then later tonight, we’ll walk to the Mangrove Hotel to watch the Staircase to the Moon.  The tide is low so this is a particularly great time to see it, we’ve been told. 

p.s. I was the only one brave (or crazy) enough to get all the way in the ocean at Cable Beach tonight. Ok, Chris made a valient plunge right as we were all getting out, but that hardly counts.  It was rather funny seeing Chris and Bruce standing up to their shorts in water paralyzed. It was pretty much mind-numbingly cold, but I figured what the heck, I’ll be back in Arizona where the pool is warm soon enough.  The coldness certainly does have an exhillerating quality to it..and when you get out it doesn’t even feel that bad-a bit of a relief actually because the air temperature is probably 75 degrees. 

I’m impressed by all the fresh fruit juices I’ve seen available in Broome.  Today, I had a “liquid lunch” at a juice stand in front of Coles.  It contaned beets, celery, apple juice, and lemon.  Not bad.  Then at the Egyptian place I had a fresh carrot, apple, orange and ginger drink that was 100% delicious. 

Time to crawl up to the upper level, the bed above the cab.  G’night

Sunset Camel Ride

Back in Broome, we checked back into the Mercure hotel, then hung out on Cable Beach to go on a sunset camel ride.  From a distance the camels sounded so grumpy-grunting and groaning, but as we moved closer, we were invited to get aquainted with the friendly camels and could even pet them.  Chris and I were soon introduced to “Tiny” one of the tallest camels in the herd and still not even full grown.  The camels were all in a lying down position and saddled. 

We climbed aboard and were amazed at the ease with which Tiny stood up.  From a distance they look so gangly, -their strength is truely stunning.  Camels can carry up to half their body weight for up to 6-8 hours/day.  So to a camel that weighs up to 2000 pounds (1000 kg) carrying 2 humans probably isn’t a big deal at all-at least Tiny was kind enough not to let it show if it was an effort.  She was a very well behaved camel-and as one of the camel girls said, “if your knuckles are turning white you’re holding on too tight.”  Unlike horses, the bit is in their nose.  This looks rather odd but is a necessity because camels regurgitate their food and would choke if they had a bit in the mouth as horses do.  It was a beautiful experience that I would highly recommend to anyone-even the horse shy.  Yes, you are considerably higher up, but their gait is so smooth, you could almost take a nap.

The girls that worked with the camels had only been there a few months.  One was from Norway, another from Canada.  If you’re under 30, you can get a work visa.  Quite a few people do that, get these ineresting jobs for a while, then move on to the next place.  We were told Broome is constantly hiring because so much of the workforce consists of young travelers.

After our sunset camel ride along Cable Beach, we took a local bus back to our hotel. It was $3.50 per person and a very respectable and safe way to travel-lots of well dressed tourists and locals.  We got off in front of Matso’s, the brewery for a light dinner and drinks.  Bruce really likes the Chili Beer and wishes he could  buy some to bring back to Alaska.  They do sell some of their beers at Matsos, but not the Chili beer. It may be a bit too strong for some people, but the authentic chili taste is what others love about it…almost like a meal in a drink.  Chris liked a Matso’s original beer called, “Hit The Toad.”

Kooljaman at Cape Leveque, The West Beach

I awoke before the sunrise after our 3rd and final night at Kooljaman Wilderness Camp at Cape Leveque and went for a walk down to the west beach.  (Typically, one would go to the East beach for the sunrise and the West beach for the sunset, but I just wanted to see what it was like).  Cold and quite windy, I was the only one out there so early.  The sun rose revealing the deep red splender of the many jagged rocks and boulders, making a unique contrast of colors. 

After checking out, we explored the West beach some more and took pictures of the tall pillars, red sand, cliffs and rocks.  We’re getting ready to head back to Broome, WA, Australia.

Eric of Cape Leveque

Chris and I sit on the beach watching the waves.  Our tag-a-long tour with Eric has been postponed until this afternoon due to the extreme windy weather and high tide.  I’ve been noticing all the holes in the rocks and boulders along the beach.  It is chilly, windy, sunny, cloudy and warm all at once…where else but Cape Leveque can you experience such contrasting elements?  The pace is beautiful..slow…peaceful. 

—-T.B.C.

Around noon we started our 4 hour tagalong with Eric, our Aboriginal guide.  There were six other vehicles following behind Eric’s 4×4, and we got to ride with him (this saved us the trouble of worrying about breaking our rental car agreement which stated the insurance would be void if driven on the beach).  As it turned out, Eric had room for all 4 of us plus his 3 young grandchildren who rode in the back.  “Sorry about the kids,” he said, “they’re like leaches, I couldn’t get rid of them.”  Despite his leach reference, it was quite obvious he was very fond of them.  The kids didn’t talk to us, but played happily amongst themselves and when we stopped, they were quick to grab their spears and try their luck at fishing.

One of the trucks tagging along got stuck trying to go up a particularly steep and sandy hill.  We circled around to watch and wait to see if he needed help.  The timid young driver slowly spun his wheels and backed up, then cautiously moved forward, hesitating before gently accelerating to get up the hill.  Eric sighed with annoyance, “where’d he learn to drive? He treats that thing like a baby!” 

We stopped at a completely secluded very isolated white sandy beach.  Some people fished, some swam or snorkeled.  We snorkeled for a while, then Chris & I combed the beach marveling at all the amazing shells.  I spotted one of the little Aboriginal kids keeping an eye on me. Was it curiosity?   Was I doing something wrong? Finally, he came up and handed me a seashell.  I thanked him and he took off running without a word. That was kind of cool.

One beautiful greenish blue lagoon was full of stingrays.  Another stop revealed a spectacular cliff side ocean view with lots of jagged boulders to tippy toe out onto. 

We stopped in a Forrest clearing and watched as Eric cut up pieces of damper bread his wife had prepared for us. We dipped it in honey butter or sweet chili sauce and it was very good.  Then, while we snacked, over an open flame, he prepared turtle steaks marinated with a sweet chili soy sauce for us and “billy tea” which, i thought was a type of tea, but “billy” is the method in which it is prepared-using a metal can.  It was regular black tea.  Everything was very good, and at $60/person it felt like an unbeatable deal for everything we did in those 4 hours. 

It was interesting watching Eric pack everything back up again, including the mostly full billy tea, which he put in the back of his truck with the kids.  While we drove over bumps the kids would get excited and conerned saying the tea was “wasting” which meant it was spilling. 

Once we reached the main road, he pointed the other 6 vehicles in the appropriate direction to get back to the Kooljaman Wilderness Camp at Cape Leveque and then asked if we would mind if he made a detour. We didn’t mind, so he drove to his Aboriginal community where he dropped off his grand kids, said a quick word or two to the wife and returned with some beer.  He said he had to work late on a dinghy.

Once back, we hung out on the balcony of the “Ardyaloon” where Mom and Bruce were staying their last 2 nights. The first night they spent at a cabin, the Ardyaloon they call a Safari Tent but it is rather a luxurious structure on stilts, with a priceless view of the ocean and plenty of seclusion.  It’s all open air but there is bug netting in the bedroom, they had their own bathroom and a full size fridge.  The spacious balcony with the fab view was priceless.

Horizontal Falls

I’m the first one up this morning, after a comfortable first night at the Kooljaman wilderness camp at Cape Leveque in Western Australia.  I’m starting my day with an early morning nature walk.  Chris is sleeping in, he doesn’t feel well.

Reading some of the signs on my walk through the beautiful Kooljaman wilderness camp, I was interested to learn about the unusual fruit that grows around here-fruit has grown on the Dampier Peninsula for over 27,000 years-fruits I’ve never even heard of like Gubinge, marool, joogan fruit, pandanus, goolnji, and Lingam flowers-whose roots were used to poison fish. 

Not too surprising, there is only one restaurant here at the Kooljaman Wilderness Camp.  My $9 breakfast consisted of 2 eggs on toast-literally-no condiments, no sides, no drink, just 2 eggs on 2 pieces of toast…which seemed rather steep-but this is a very isolated place-which, admittedly, is part of the appeal.  Pretty much everything must come from somewhere else-somewhere far far away.  We passed a couple “road trains” on our drive up to Cape Leveque yesterday-and it was like connecting 3 semis together to make a train-rather intimidating on a small dirt road- for a few seconds afterward the dust just hangs like a dense fog.  We were lucky to see 3 feet in front of us.

Unfortunately, I upchucked all nine-dollars worth of breakfast on the plane ride..and that’s a pity, but at  least i got it all in the bag and felt much better afterwards.  It was a small private tour plane with only room for 6 people, including the pilot. There were 5 of us total and I was alone in the very back row of the plane, so the others didn’t even know, thank goodness-what a nightmare if it was like in the movies where one person gets sick so they all get sick. This was my first time ever getting motion sickness on a plane. If I do that again, I’ll be sure to bring some chamomile tea-which helps prevent that sort of thing.

The scenery from the plane was first class all the way-spectacular island views-which turned out not to be islands at all, but part of the mainland.  We flew over One Arm Point Aboriginal Community and then some of the Buccaneer Archipelago, across King Sound to the East and saw the famous Horizontal Waterfalls which are on the mainland to the North.  We back looped further west over islands a couple of which have some large iron mines.  On our way back we saw a Mother whale and her baby just a few kilometers from Cape Leveque. 

We spent some time on the beach afterwards trying out our new snorkel gear.  Then afterwards, Chris & I lounged on the beach enjoying the dunes and watching the little crabs crawl around. 

We returned to the Kooljaman restaurant after the beautiful sunset to enjoy a leisurely dinner.  We ladies had the lambchop while the men opted for fish.  Chris still wasn’t feeling well after dinner, so I made him a cup of plantain tea.  I didn’t have any hyssop, but better than nothing.  I still find it ironic though that it was me, the healthy one, who got sick on the plane ride while Chris, who felt queasy yesterday just driving on the dirt road, did absolutely fine.

Beagle Bay and Kooljaman at Cape Leveque

Day 3

We’re all in a rented Nissan 4×4 truck on our way to Kooljaman, an Aboriginal owned wilderness camp on Cape Leveque.  Chris is tracking our progress with the laptop and GPS sensor affixed to the back window.  It has been an excessively bumpy dirt road and Chris is starting to feel carsick from all the commotion.  The locals don’t seem to mind though and have been passing us going 110-120 kilometers/hour while Mom goes under 90 kms (which would be under 50 mph).  There are very few other vehicles out this way, it is very remote-endless brush on either side of the road.

We briefly stopped in a small Aboriginal community called Beagle Bay.  We walked through a church well known for it’s beautiful mother of pearl adornments.  A bell with a sign warned not to ring it lightly as it is used to alert the people when there is important news.  At a small store, the others bought ice cream treats for around $5 and I bought a bag of big fat carrots.  The carrots were $2.66 but since they don’t use pennies anymore, they rounded it to $2.65-Rounding-it’s an interesting concept.

Finally-a paved road! (But it’s still difficult to write).  This morning, Chris and I ate at the Mercure hotel breakfast buffet for $22/person.  It was all good with some fun new things to try, except for the “vegimite”-oh how disgusting!!!!  We tried it by accident, it looked just like chocolate in texture and color, so we each added a small amount to a pastry thinking it would be desserty-whoops…instant looks of horror on both our faces, that is the nastiest stuff I think I’ve ever had the displeasure of tasting.  The locals, who grew up on it, just love the stuff.

It takes about 5 hours to get from Broome to Cape Leveque.  3:21 now.

9:05 P.M. We made it to our 3rd night destination at Kooljaman.  Chris & I are in a luxury tent for the next 3 days.  It’s pre-set up with 2 small matresses on either side of a wooden dresser. There is a small light and also a fan. The office provided us with bedding, plastic dishes and cutlery and things of that nature.  It’s cozy but more than adequate.  We’re on a raised platform so that helps keep the sand out, plus there are 2 chairs out front, so it’s like having your own little balcony.  Camping with a few creature comforts-a fun new experience. 

We went for a little beachwalk earlier and it is just stunning as the sun begins to set against the turquoise water, the red boulders, and all the critters, shells, crabs and birds.  It’s like a symphony of sensations.

We had a picnic style supper at Mom & Bruce’s open air cabin.  They have a nice wooden picnic table outside and a great ocean view.  It really does put you right in with nature though because there are so many gaps between the ceiling and roof and the open windows-by the time we left at 8:30 there were bugs and lizards all over the ceiling.  The lizards were fat and happy-and they could certainly afford to be snobby choosing only the best of the best tasty morsels. 

Bruce read his bio to us tonight and it really is 18 pages.  It took around an hour and a half-maybe 2 hours to read it.  Mom, who had been driving all day, fell asleep and started snoring through part of it-he was going to stop but we encouraged him to keep going and Mom woke up and I think felt bad, but it was pretty comical.  It was interesting learning about Bruce’s impression of Harvard and his classmates there-which sort of put into perspective how he perceived his abilities compared to that of his peers in the subjects he was good at…and also the realization that in other subjects-whether he spent hours studying or hardly any time at all, he was pretty much going to get the same grade anyway.

He knew a great deal about his ancestry.  He did a good job describing what it was like growing up in a small rural area back in the 50′s-60′s, de-segration, flooding, and the trouble he and his friends used to get in. 

Chris is going to sleep now.  Tomorrow, we’re getting up early-Bruce has paid for us all to go on a scenic private plane ride.  I think it was quite expensive-around $170/person if I recall from the brochure.  They’ve been treating us to a lot of things-and have even paid for our hotel and tent so far–but even so, this feels like an expensive trip to me.  I’m glad I bought that bag of carrots earlier-something I can feel good about. This is a beautiful area-I look forward to exploring. 9:22P.M.

Broome, Australia

Day Two.  Early this afternoon we waked downtown and had brunch at ShadyLine.  I opted for a fresh detox juice with watermelon, cranberrry, apple and ginger and the quiche.  Chris searched in several shops for sandals because the strap on one of his broke.  The good ones were over $100 and he didn’t want to spend that much. Instead he went to a shoe repair shop, but was told it would take days to sew the strap back on-and as an alternative temporary fix for the day, he superglued it back on for $5. 

Everything seems expensive here.  Mom bought a souvinir beach towel for $22.  The cheapest towel I saw was at Target Country for $16 and that was a plain towel without a design. Otherwise, I’ve seen them for as high as $120 for a beach towel at a clothing store. 

Chris is browsing through the phone book reading about the state of Western Australia and the Premier of  the state, comparable to the governor, is: The Honorable A.J. Carpenter MLA.  We’re back in our Mercure Hotel room now.

Earlier, we stopped at a shop and all got some snorkel gear-figured it’d probably be a better deal to buy it than rent it.  I bought a little device that dispenses a little electric shock  to help prevent the discomfort associated with mosquito bites, mild jellyfish stings and more.  The electricity helps to block the histamines and neatrualizes the poisons.  I keep offering to zap them, but so far no takers.

We walked to the Mangrove Hotel for supper.  I tried Kangaroo for the first time.  It was interesting-the texture is kind of like steak, but it’s lacking in flavor.  It was served with a raspberry vinaigraitte sauce.  It was a fun night. We saw a couple bats fly into a nearby tree above a table of diners (we were all eating outside), and that reminded Bruce of a previous visit where he was standing on the sidewalk near a tree when a thick stream started shooting down-he looked up to see a great big bat was peeing.  He was astounded and hearing him retell it was hilarious.  He also told us about a place in Papua New Guinea where it’s like 100 degrees and 100% humidity with this really cranky species of bats that are vegetarians, so they swarm to these trees and hang upside down. They’re huge, like eagles, and real clutzes-so they fly at the tree and knock off a couple other bats in the process that go down squawking angrily-they fly back up and knock some others over-so it’s this really noisy tree full of angry squawking bats.  They just are these really pissed off creatures, he said, and most bats live in caves and come out at night-but it’s like nobody told these guys that-so here they are, black, absorbing all the heat and awake during the day.  He’s a good story teller, very visual. 

I really like the Sunbeam hot water maker-it heats up so fast-less than a minute for piping hot water.  Wonder if I could find one in the states-very convenient. 

p.s. Chris’s super glued sandal fix only lasted for about an hour, breaking on our walk back to the hotel.

Day One: Broome, Australia

Our Quantas boeing 747 flight from L.A. to Sydney was actually pretty cool.  We had an interactive selection of various movies to choose from-both U.S. and international ones as well as commercial-free tv.  I watched a couple movies and a funny documentary on penis’s.  It was an interesting transgression from the beginning of the show when no one would talk to the guy, to the end of the show when there’s a whole room full of anonymously donated pictures of penis’s of all different sizes, shapes, colors, etc, and then people would volunteer to go behind a curtain and take a picture of their own to add to the collection.  

The food wasn’t half bad, and i liked the little care packages with socks, eye shade, snacks, bottled water, etc.  We lost a day in flight and so arrived on the 12th instead of the 11th.  Upon arriving, we discovered a missing piece of luggage.  The lady working at the gate in L.A. had stopped Bruce before entering the plane and said he would need to have one of his bags checked due to space limitations.  As it turns out, she never checked the bag-it just sat by the gate the whole time and had to be re-routed the next day.  So we went to our hotel, The Mercure, by taxi, which came to approximately $8.  Then we tipped him and he instantly said, “you’re Americans!”  American’s get so used to tipping 20%-but over here, most people actually make decent wages and aren’t accustomed to the big tips, thus American’s get a reputation as the big tippers.

We walked a short distance to Matso’s Brewery for dinner…where everything on the dinner menu was over $25.  I tried the famous “ginger beer” which was my kind of drink-low alcohol content, light and flavorful-but it came to $8.50 all the same-something about liquor licensing requirements-they can’t charge below a certain price.  The houses own Pindan ale met with Chris’s seal of approval. 

Our room at the Mercure is very nice.  I’ve been taking note of some of the differences between this and U.S. hotels I’ve been to.  There’s a flatscreen tv, a different kind of light switch-that’s more a button, the shower isn’t encased in anything, so the whole bathroom floor gets wet, instead of a coffee pot there is an electric hot water maker for making tea or instant coffee (the coffee is freeze dried in little packets, no need for a filter)-you just put it in the cup and poor hot water over it. The artwork and style of the room are interesting, the lamp is curvy and made of wood. And the A.C. unit gets turned on and off automatically when you put the door key in a slot near the door.  And, of course, the power outlets are different-each one has it’s own on/off button.

Saving money on the way to the Airport

Step 1: find pet sitter

Step 2: get bus schedule

Step 3: Find ride to bus stop

So far so good. I dropped Chris off in front of Starbucks with all our luggage and drove the van back to our place, then jogged back, arriving in plenty of time to catch our ride. Chris had placed an ad on Craigslist to get to the Tucson Jewish Community Center, where we could catch a bus to the airport and save some money on airport parking. 

Our ride arrived just on time, a U.A. Business student, who for $10 was nice enough to wake up early to give us a lift.  We made it in plenty of time and are waiting at the bus stop now.  Chris is pacing, trying to keep the bugs away.  He thinks it is working. I read somewhere that bugs are attracted to beer. I wonder if that’s true.  I also hear they are attracted to sweat, fruity smells, and people with high cholesterol-of which feet that smell like cheese is a symptom.

Lots of people are out walking. It is comfortably warm, but not yet hot.  Chris keeps talking.  6:49 A.M.

9:26 A.M. Ok-back to waiting some more.  We were the only ones when we first got on the bus. It’s a good thing since we had all our luggage. Pretty soon, the bus was full and some people had to stand.  We got to the airport around 8 and it was only $1/person to take the bus. 

The lines were short, probably because it’s Sunday, so we had time for a leisurely breakfast at Arizona Sports Grill East.  I’m waiting for Chris to finish his paragraph in The Singularity Is Near.  He’s on page 144 of 496-over 600 pages counting all the notes. I wonder how far he’ll get on this 26 day vacation. I would have picked a lighter book.  I brought Turning Life Into Fiction, but I really don’t feel like reading-my eyes are too tired.  It’s so tempting to pull out my pillow and have a siesta.  “Siesta”-that reminds me of Jose, a guy I used to work with.  Jose was always trying to teach me Spanish, “mucho trabajo poco deniro,” he liked to say, always with a smile-(overworked and underpaid).  We’re sitting at Southwest gate A4.  9:37 A.M.

10:22 P.M.  We’re in the LA (LAX) airport now waiting by our gate #41 for our flight to Sydney, which has been delayed supposedly because they are running a test to see what happens if the computers go down and they have to check people in manually.  it took us an hour to check our luggage and receive our hand written boarding passes-and the line behind us was extensive.

Earlier, we took the Hilton Four Points Shuttle to the room Mom & Bruce reserved near the airport.  They checked in at 8 AM and out at 7:30 PM the same day, but had to pay for 2 full days since they didn’t want to wait for the normal check in time, usually after noon.  But at least they got to catch up on some sleep-they had a red eye flight from Anchorage, Alaska to L.A. 

We had lunch at their hotel, the minestroni was fabulous.  Back at the airport, we’ve all finished our Starbucks drinks. I bought 2 bottles of water and was surprised they charge tax on it in addition to the aleady inflated airport prices. 64 cents tax on two bottles of water.  Money won’t go far at these tourist rates.  I look forward to getting to Australia and going to a grocery store. 

So a couple weeks before our trip, my Mom sent us an assignment-to write a bio that we would share with each other on the plane, “not to exceed 20 pages,” she said.  It was rather amusing, therefore, to learn she had not done her own assignment!  Bruce said he completed his-18 pages-I’ll believe it when I see it, wonder what it’s about. I commented mine wasn’t very long-only 3 pages and he said, “Well you’re young,”-as in- haven’t done much yet. Hah! Pooh! Bah humbug to that, but I managed to keep a straight face.  36 completed journals as of last count -I’ve done/thought more than enough to fill a mere 20 pages.  Hopefully my bio will demonstate that while being concise.  Time to board.  The next time we touch ground will be in Sydney, Australia.  10:37 P.M.

Australia Road Trip

We’re getting ready to go to Australia! We’re packed and pretty much ready.  We found a nice cat sitter, so i think our cats will be in good hands while we’re away.  I’ve been up most of the night, trying to think of last minute things to get done.  Also, we don’t have an alarm clock and I was afraid if I fell asleep we might not wake up in time to get to the airport.  Sometimes, lately I’ll close my eyes “just for a minute” and then hours will pass by.  I wouldn’t want to miss this trip for anything-I can always sleep on the plane, ay?

So we’ll fly from LA to Sydney first, then catch another flight to Broome-and that’s where our road trip starts!
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