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).

Bilgola Beach Rock Pool

Much of our lives during the past few months have revolved around the Bilgola Beach rock pool.

It has to be seen to be believed--a 50 meter ocean-fed pool nestled among the natural rock formations at the foot of the south Bilgola headland. Philip swims 1-2k there everyday, and recently Isabella has been training hard there for the "Zones" swimming carnival. Having come 2nd in breaststroke for her age group at her school carnival, she will be representing Avalon at this next level of competition (tomorrow, actually). Meanwhile, Emmett's class has been going to the rock pool for the past 10 days, swimming lessons being an essential part of the year 2 curriculum. It's been a monumental struggle but PK and I have gone down there daily, sipping our cappuccinos by the sea, to watch Emmett and his mates swim. Once the kids leave, we might indulge in a bit of body surfing (no double entendre there, people). My coffee cohort at home goes to Tazza in Brooklyn Heights. Oh how I wish I could bring them here to Bilgola!



That's Philip in action among the waves.



And here's Emmett looking adorable.

Aussie larrakins being what they are, occasionally a wiseacre will catch a baby shark and let it loose in the pool. And, as you can see, the waves wash over the top constantly, so there might also be jellyfish, seaweed, fish, swimming birds, or other creatures taking a break from the pounding surf.

The rock pools are cleaned once a week--one day, about the time when we arrived in Australia, the pool cleaners opened the sluices to drain the pool and unwittingly sucked out a swimmer doing his laps. He was flushed right down the tubes and spat out into the ocean, covered with scrapes and cuts from the barnacles and shellfish lining the pipes. Lucky he was thin.