Mornington, II

Day 2 on Mornington.
We awoke at 5am (yes!...but we told ourselves that was 7am on the east coast, but still...) for a special treat - sunrise bush breakfast on a bluff overlooking the property. We helicoptered up to the bluff (Butch can land that helicopter on a dime) for some spectacular views and food. Swanny is a master gourmet pancake maker, cooked on an open fire on the edge of a precipice.

The advance party lit a signal fire so we could see where we were headed:

Some of the spectacular scenery and sunrise:



Swanny's gourmet bush breakfast...


After returning to camp for a little rest (it was 5am after all) we took off again, helicoptered over to Rose's pool. This is a natural rock pool on one of the rivers flowing through the sanctuary - a lovely swimming spot. You guessed it, there are some freshies there, but we were constantly re-assured that they really don't like humans, very rarely attack/bite us. But we made sure one of the locals jumped in before we did.





While the swimming was great, it was also nice to gaze around our surrounds - there was some aboriginal rock art (from probably 40,000 years ago, according to Butch), interestingly looking boab trees, some biggish fish (barramundi) in the water. Again, a pretty unique place.

Some of the spectacular scenery on the way back to camp. The countryside looks very green - they had a huge wet season, so everything is blooming - its a different look in November:



So ends day 2 at Mornington. Could it get any better than this?

Broome, WA

So after a few days on the east coast, we headed west - flew to Perth, then onto Broome, the north west corner of Australia. I don't think we could be further away from New York. In pure flying times, 20 hours from NY to Sydney, then a further 6-7 hours to Broome. And it sure feels a long way from NYC.

Broome's only real claims to fame are its pearling industry and tourism. They still farm pearls in the deltas - of course, they're more expensive around Broome than in the shops in Sydney. But you wouldn't be able to hold (& play with) the "rich man's marble" in Sydney...a not quite perfect white pearl nearly the size of a ping pong ball:

Apparently it's valued at $100,000, and would be worth 2-3 times that if it didn't have a few flaws. $100k doesn't buy you what it used to.

Strolling along Broome's legendary Cable Beach:

After one night in Broome recovering, we hired a 4WD & headed south to a resort called Eco Beach. A note on the roads - they're straight. So straight in fact that the kids cheered when we veered around a curve (every 20 miles or so); or even better, passed a car going in the opposite direction. Eco Beach is a self sustaining, environmentally-friendly resort right on the Indian Ocean - miles from anywhere. They solar generate (with a diesel backup), grow their own vegetables and generally try to minimize their impact on the environment. There are no TVs or phones allowed. And the setting is wonderful - right on the glorious Indian Ocean (water a very warm 28C or 82.4F), lovely wide beaches (tides in this part of the world can be huge - 10 metres or more), with plenty of fauna in the ocean. We spent a relaxing 2 days here, lots of beach walks, swimming, stand up paddle boarding and the like.

The view of the beach and ocean from S&P's bedroom:

The kids cooling off in the pool

Why are the kids staring so intently at the water? They had just spotted a small black tipped reef shark and were trying to find him again. Or his big brother.

Some more beachcombing:

Back to Broome for a final night, including a sunset camel ride along the famous Cable beach:

The Kimberly - Mornington Part 1

(I was so anxious to write this entry that I jumped the gun...this post should follow the one about Broome and environs. Apologies!)
This experience truly deserves several posts - we'll break them up chronologically.

After our stay in Broome & environs, we headed out to Mornington, a reserve or sanctuary owned and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC). The AWC is a fantastic organization, dedicated to the preservation of Australian native flora and fauna. Some incredibly dedicated, smart and impressive people work for the AWC - we're big fans, as I hope will become apparent from the next several posts. We've known Atticus (yep), the CEO of the organization for a number of years and have been to various events with them (see our earlier blog post of the party on Jim Clarke's yacht). On his recommendation, we visited Mornington, their most important and best staffed sanctuary...and the one in some of the most spectacular country you'll ever see.

Some of our travelling party expressed some concern about flying out to Mornington on a small chartered aircraft. It had 2 engines (good) but seated 8 passengers (bad). The pilot, Mark, was very re-assuring, the weather was fine, so off we took for the 90 minute flight.

As you can see, Mark had some willing co-pilots during the flight.




And here we are on the ground, having bumped along the dirt airstrip.


After settling in (to our terrific tents - pictures to come) we had a lovely lunch at the bush restaurant (how do these people do it so far away from civilisation?), then took off on a cross country 4WD trip to the mighty Fitzroy River for a swim.

Oh, I forgot to mention - on our way to the camp from the airstrip we came across a blue tongue lizard. Sarah, the head scientist for the AWC and pictured here, spotted it, dove into the bushes and retrieved the reptile, reportedly the largest one they'd seen for some time. We of course wondered if one of their scientists had released the beast just before we passed, but they maintained it was serendipitous. These are harmless (to humans) strong, wiggly, scaly things...the kids took turns holding him before we let him (or her?) go on his merry way.



Back to the Fitzroy. After the wettest rainy season for many years, the rivers were flowing, the flora blooming and the entire Kimberly looking absolutely lovely. We all dove into the river without a second thought for a cooling swim. Only afterwards was it revealed to us that there were crocodiles in the waters...OK, freshies ("fresh water crocs"), not salties ("salt water crocs") - these latter being the ones of nightmares, but still...

In any event, the water felt great, very cooling. Then, the wonderful people of the AWC (Swanie is pictured here) opened the hampers revealing a spread of cheese, bikkies, beer and wine as we gazed at the wonderful light & colours of the Kimberly. What a way to start our visit to the sanctuary.




All of a sudden, the AWC helicopter appeared - yep, that was to take us back to the camp. Butch, the pilot, is apparently the most experienced pilot in Australia for the R44 'copters. In addition, he's an expert on Aboriginal art, a believer in conservation...again, one of the impressive people we encountered on this trip. After agreeing on a split of our party, the first group took off for a breathtaking flight back to the camp.

Taking off, the rest of the party on the rocks...


More co-piloting




So ends the first day at Mornington. We were all entranced by the countryside, the people, the mission, the hospitality. But the best was yet to come...

Newcastle--9th Best Place to Visit in the World

Took our third trip to Newie to see Trisha and do some early modern scholarly pow-wowing. We stayed at the Sebel just off Newcastle Beach, and while Trisha and I worked over each other's most recent book chapters, the kids and Philip enjoyed the various beaches. Had dinner with Trisha and friend James at Aquazul the first night and the second night Trisha took me to fellow colleague Ros's house for an early modern round-table (quite literally--it was actually a dinner for a visiting colleague from Melbourne and a good excuse to get a bunch of us 16th- and 17th-century freaks together. For the record, it was a spectacular meal with much lively conversation--it was weird; we all had so much in common!).

For those of you entranced by the NSW rock pool phenomenon, the last photo here shows the largest one of them all. Check that thing out. And the deco structure is the bathing house on Newie Beach.

The Blue Mountains

Gorgeous gorges, the Three Sisters, waterfalls, what's not to love about the Bluies? We went old school, staying at Lillianfels (a short walk from the 3 Sister gorge)--the photo here shows the 5 Sisters (get it? I kept making that joke and a little boy nearby, not Emmett who has a sense of humor, kept correcting me).

For the record, our visit to the BM's kicked off two-weeks of travelling. The owners took possession of our house (OUR house!) for the school holidays between terms 1 and 2, forcing us to be itinerant again. As you will see, we suffered mightily.

A Visit from Fellow Brooklynites

Our pals Elizabeth & Alec, and their kids Allison and Graham came through Oz in a wild whirlwind of fun.



That's Graham and Isabella. Note the beautiful day--it was pretty much the only good weather they had in two weeks--wha? And that includes trips to Ayers Rock & the GB Reef.



And here are A & E in a little outboard returning from "The Basin," a picnic spot in Ku Ring Gai Chase with wild wallabies and other creatures (see below)...



Clare and Allison before a surfing lesson at Palm Beach. Allison was game for all things Australian and even braved a half day of Barrenjoey High with Clare.



Alec took this shot of a wild goanna (related to the Komodo Dragon and not to be trifled with)--Elizabeth mistook him (the goanna, not Alec) for a crocodile.

Other highlights: we played doubles (of course) and I believe Alec and I prevailed, n'est ce pas? And we dragged them around the beaches of Sydney and had some lovely meals...the most memorable probably being dinner on the beach at Bilgola with their friends Heather & Tony and a wild, endangered bandicoot.

Good times!

Canberra

Philip's hometown--the capital of Australia. We came, we saw, the girls conquered.

We headed to Canberra to see Grandma Joan and for the girls to play in the ACT Junior Squash Championship. We had fabulous weather, two days of sound and sweaty squash, and some memorable meals with the rellies. Joan had bought fresh bagels from a nearby specialist in this exotic cuisine (bagels!!), which launched the weekend deliciously (bagels!!). Possibly due to the bagels, Clare won her age-group and Isabella was runner-up in hers.

Here are some photos of our visit to the capital of Oz.

Long Time No Post

Hello folks,

I've been slack--my apologies. I will fill in as soon as I can, but for now will just put up bare outline posts. We're currently on a trip to Western Australia for an outback adventure, which we need to document fully...but not at the expense of other adventures.

Here's a photo of Clare turning 13 (13!) and another of a Powerful owl, the largest owl in the world (they can, like, eat crocodiles or something and one just happened to take a nap in a tree in Avalon).