A break from the red dirt

Around Community

The community can buy these blow up swim toys at the pool.  Henriqua and Jimmy enjoyed playing on their strawberry today.

On our way out of community we came across this overturned truck. It has been there for a week or so apparently.  Not sure how this happened but it added a bit of interest to the long 3 hour drive.🚚

On these hot days Rusty can be found close to his water bowl.  He left his ear in it this time!!!

IN THE CLASSROOM

On Fridays I bring Rusty into the classroom.  The kids really like him coming in and he gets the required amount of cuddles.

On Thursdays we cook.  This week we made eyeballs!!!  We were reading the Big Book called 'Monsters', so I thought we would make some scary eyeballs.  These are made from eggs cut in half with food colouring to make the veins and pupils.  The kids had fun with this and even enjoyed scaring the Principal when he came in for a look. (Of course the Principal was told to react accordingly.)

I need myself a bigger tent!!!  The kids often need a sleep when they get to school.  The child in the tent slept for over an hour.  I wanted to tickle his foot, but it was more important to let him sleep 😴😴

I am teaching at a Catholic School, so I teach RE.  We made a Rosary bead chain from clay.

Our terms are 10 weeks long, so everyone is tired.....particularly me!!  I decided to let the kids make cubbies on the Thursday in the last week of term.  The kids really enjoy this and like nothing better than to hide inside with blocks, puzzles and books.

OFF ON SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

We headed out the Tanami and called into Halls Creek for a counter lunch and beer.  I know this doesn't sound exciting, but after 10 weeks of not being able to do this, I can assure you all that it is something we look forward to. Our first stop for the night was about 1 hour out of Halls Creek at a 24 hour stop.  This was called Mary's Pool.  Her pool was certainly low as its been a very dry and hot dry season.

This is the Mary River which in the wet season would be a sight to see.

We saw two different Bower Bird nests.  This Bower bird collected white things and not blue!

Next onto Broome

We arrived in Broome and enjoyed an iced chocolate down at Cable Beach.  It was so nice to be near water.

At sunset the camels come up from Cable Beach and its always lovely to see.

We went to the Sun Cinema to see ' Made in Italy' which was a nice film. I had to cover myself in bug spray because this is midge central.🦟

The planes come to land straight over the town of Broome and over the cinema as you are watching a film.  I don't think the town planners thought too much about the placement of the airstrip!!!

On Cable Beach these young lads were walking on an elastic line.  They were so good at it.

Not a bad backdrop either!

We went out on a catamaran for a friends 50th birthday.  With a bit of karaoke, swimming and bubbles, we watched the sun set. 

Everyone enjoyed having a swim behind the boat.

The sun sets on a lovely day.

Derby

The Boab Prison Tree is a large hollow tree near Derby.  There is evidence that police on patrol from Derby in the 1890's noticed that holes in the upper branches indicated that the tree was hollow so cut an opening.  It was then used for a lockup for Aboriginal prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing.  

The boab tree is really beautiful and often really big.  This one was in need of a cuddle!!

The boabab (boab) tree in Australia is one of 9 species of the tree.  6 are native to Madagascar and 2 are on mainland Africa and Australia has the last one.  They can grow for over 1000 years.  Its trunk can hold up to 120,000 litres of water. The fruit is known as 'monkey bread' and is rich in vitamin C.  Its flavor is between grapefruit, pear and vanilla.  Up here in the Kimberley the Boab nut is carved by aboriginals to be sold.  It is known as the tree of life because it can provide shelter, clothing, food and water to both people and animals.

Windjana Gorge

One of the huge termite mounds in the area.  It is interesting to see how many different shapes of mounds there are.  Also the colour of the mound changes with the colour of the soil. 

Beautiful Windjana Gorge.

They make bugs up here BIG.  This was a Praying Mantis that landed on the car.  I am pleased Jeff likes to pick up bugs.

Windjana Gorge complete with 40 ish salt water crocs!  We saw about 3 on our walk, but there are none in this picture if you are looking for one.

I found a Neanderthal  man hiding in the rocks!!

We set out to walk the 3.5 km walk up the gorge at 7 in the morning knowing how hot it was going to be.  As you can see from the car temperature, it was at least 42 that day 

Our 'castle' for the next 2 days

We were amazed that the afternoon brought some rain.  We were so excited to see rain we stood out in it.  It was cooling and so refreshing.  Everyone keeps telling us that it is going to be a very good wet season.  The clouds are certainly building up each afternoon, but it usually comes to nothing.

We would like rain in Balgo but not enough that it locks us in at the end of the year.

A beautiful rainbow appeared after the rain.

TUNNEL CREEK

This amazing creek ran 1km under the rocks.  You have to wade through the creek which you share with the fresh water crocodiles.

This little guy was there to meet us as we entered Tunnel Creek.  I must say the idea of sharing a creek with crocs didn't fill us with confidence.  Apparently there are only 4-5 in the creek!!!🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊.

The Blue Tree Project was started after the suicide of a young man.  We see lots of trees painted blue in the Kimberley that pass on the message that its 'ok not to be ok!'

 

MIMBI CAVES

This cute 'big' Green Tree Frog and his mates were sheltering in the toilet at Mimbi camping ground.  There was one on the toilet paper, one on the wall and one on the toilet seat.!!🐸🐸🐸

Males can reach sizes of 8 cm and females over 11 cm.

Jeff came to the rescue and moved the frogs out of the toilet...phew!!

We went for a walk in this gorge which was in the camp ground.  So many amazing places to camp.

There are many places where we saw rock art.

The Mimbi caves (Mimbi translates to cave, so it is cave cave!) have limestone formations and crystal clear freshwater pools.  It is called the Devonian Great Barrier Reef that was formed over 350 million years ago.
Mimbi cave system reveals ancient large scale fossilised reefs that are amongst the best preserved in the world. This  location attracts geologists from all over the world.

During wet season, this cave system is a raging river.

This chess set was made by German fossil hunters and archeologists in the 1980's. 

I amazed myself and went into the caves.  This is not something I like to do but am so pleased I did.

This is Ronny, our guide for the Mimbi Caves.  He was a very enthusiastic man who knew a lot about his country and of course the caves. He was related to some Balgo people we know.

Over here in the West the sun goes down by 5pm.  We don't have daylight savings, so it is always dark by 5.30ish!!   We took advantage of the light in the camp kitchen and played dominoes.  It stands at 1 all after this.

Sunset at Mimbi Cave camp ground 🌇