Grandma and Grandpa arrive!

Three weeks of fun with Grandma and Grandpa (the American versions) began when they landed after nearly 30 hours of travelling on the 13th. Due to some maniac who abseiled down the Harbour Bridge to disrupt traffic on a Friday morning, I was a little tardy collecting them from the airport. Not a great start, but suffice it to say that the rest of the trip was pretty wonderful and ran right on schedule. In less than 3 weeks, they experienced the Northern Beaches, Sydney, the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest, Hunter Valley wine tasting, the Blue Mountains, and Canberra. That's 2 states and 1 territory for those who are counting. We had generally good weather, too, with the exception of the last two days of storms (including a waterspout!).

Let this blog post serve as the general overview with more specific ones to come.

Easter

Photos to come...

Eastward Ho!

I had tears in my eyes when we left. But all good things must come to an end--we flew out of Mornington at about 10am with Mark again as our pilot. This time we had Tony and Sally on the plane with us--Sally is the feral cat finder--a brilliant dog! Tony is her trainer/handler and a terrific guy. From Broome, we took a flight to Brisbane and then another to Sydney.

Here are some photos of our goodbyes:

That's Butch the chopper pilot/photographer/expert on Aboriginal art above with the kids. Joey and Swanie are below with Emmett; and there's Clare with Sarah, chief scientist of the AWC. Oh yes, and how can we forget Isabella with her crutches?

Mornington, part quatre

Our last full day at Mornington was a doozy. We began bright and early with a quick trip (via chopper) to the Fitzroy to check on Cath's quoll traps. Catherine is studying the Northern Quoll (an endangered marsupial, see spotted cutey in the photo above), and she had three healthy specimens for us to admire. The first scrambled out of the trap before anyone could get a good look at it, but the next two were beauties. They're carnivores as you can see by their teeth. The males die after mating (!), so yep, the population faces some tough obstacles. Cath and Sarah handled them masterfully, only getting a few bites and scrapes on their hands. They quolls were glad to be released and Cath ended up with the data she needed. Very cool bush science at work!

After breakfast we took another helicopter trip to the base of a massive waterfall. It took about an hour to of rock hopping and climbing to reach the high pool under the waterfall. On the way up, Clare and Isabella spotted a 10 foot Olive Python lying in the sun--he or she slid away into a crevice until we all passed (see photos). It took all my concentration to put the snake at the back of my mind as we continued up the scree.



The climb was well worth it--the Edenic pool was icy but invigorating, and the vistas were beyond gorgeous. We had our morning tea up there in paradise and then began the downward climb. Isabella and Clare kept up a fierce pace, but toward the end of the climb, Isabella fell and turned her knee fairly badly. Philip carried her across rocks and streams to the helicopter. Always resourceful, the AWC gang found her some crutches back at camp.

That night we had our farewell dinner--lots of laughs, lots of drinkies. Fun times. The best of times.

Mornington, the third

Day three at Mornington Wildlife Reserve began, again, early with a canoe trip down the mighty Fitzroy River. The water that flows through the Fitzroy is plentiful enough to fill Sydney Harbour. Just coming out of the wet season, the water was flowing pretty fast, and since we were canoeing with the current, the excursion zipped along. We arrived at the launch site early after another killer breakfast at the camp (courtesy of the inimitable Jane). Butch landed the chopper on the river rocks, ferrying us in shifts. Our guides for the trip were Catherine (expert in wallabies and other marsupials), James (expert in lizards and other reptiles), and Joey, general all-around specialist.


I paddled with Joey so he could point out all the birds (honey eaters, mostly, and an odd-sounding kookaburra). Philip went with Emmett, and the girls split up with the two conservation scientists. Looking in vain for crocs, goannas, legless lizards, water monitors, the other canoe-ers soon got silly, pretended to be gondoliers and tipped over the boats. We stopped for morning tea on the mudflats--good talks and some swimming and we were off again. This time, I managed to spot a legless lizard (!)--a reptile that looks, you guessed it, exactly like a snake. The scenery was spectacular--the trees on the banks of the river were still bent over from the floods of the rainy season, telling quite a story. Another stop, some more food, another quick paddle, and we were at the end of the trip. Butch came along to take us all back to camp via chopper--and I think that was when he spotted some crocs slipping into the waters we had just navigated (uh, and swam in).

Later that afternoon, we took a swim in Annie's Creek by the camp, spotting a large goanna on the way. The girls and Philip swam again in croc-infested waters. Emmett and I looked on wisely. While we were swimming, Sarah and Butch had begun their eco-burns--they firebombed about 200+ km of land--burning it early while the lingering wet and dew would curtail the fire somewhat but allow enough of the bush to burn to prevent a massive wildfire late in the dry season. This kind of land management saves wildlife and prevents tons and tons of carbon from escaping into the atmosphere. It is good work but hard work. Sarah had earlier demonstrated her preferred genre of bomb. We cannot disclose the recipe here, but it involves exploding ping-pong balls. Cool!

We had to leave by 4:30 to make it to the "secret location" for dinner--we ended up with the conservation gang on a hilltop a few km from camp.


With the sun setting on Sarah's eco-burn (smoke rising in the background), we had cocktails and canapes, followed by a gourmet dinner under the stars (most notably Orion and the Southern Cross)--dingos howling in the background. Heaven.

That night, after chasing the frogs around the loo, we once again fell asleep to the sound of soft splashes in Annie's Creek--a reminder of the freshies (crocs) that live there.

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: