Dolphin Delight

Today the dolphins came to play....

Generator Land

Point Parham

Awesome.....

***   It's free
***   It has a flushing toilet and wash basin
***   It has access to the beach
***     It has a few running taps so you can fill your van (or wash your dog, as some people do)

But.....
X      It's absolutely packed out
X      Every grey nomad with a dog comes here, because dogs are allowed (ie, it's not a national park)
X      The generators start whirring and clattering at 9.30am and don't get turned off until 10pm.  It's enough to knock the false teeth out of your head, should that apply to you.
X     It is also (permanent?) home to a truly wild family living in a bus (which is towing an very old grotty caravan which I am hoping is acting as a shed).  The family includes mum (no bra, no make up, no talking), dad (swills beer like water, and leaves his cans where he empties them) and 4 little children (no shoes, grubby faces, same clothes on every day, dread locks down to their dirty little bums).  For fun they throw bags of dry seaweed to each other.

Point Parham - free camping but at what cost?

Our camp - complete with new shade cloth (to the right of the photo).  Our little basil plant is still going strong, and the Weeeber gets a regular work out.

And now for something completely different.....

A couple of fishermen innocently haul their catch while pelicans and seagulls lurk close by....

Another boat joins in....

Once the haul is complete....

....  they simply drive back to shore.......

The locals here are well accustomed to the predictable waters of Pt Parham.  You see, the beach lies atop an immense amount of flat bedrock, and so the water level never increases beyond 6 feet or so, regardless of tidal movements.  So a "car" perched on stilts is the easiest (and silliest!) way to get your boat out onto the water, and back in again.

Just call me Bruce Wayne

Naracoorte is a World Heritage Listed site which contains an enormous cave system, fossils, and tens of thousands of bats!

We are camped here in the National Park with full water and electricity supplies – very rare for a government-run park.  Opposite our van is a grassy area which attracts large grey kangaroos who wander lazily across the lawn to eat their dinner each night.  We meet a nice Canadian couple who are spending a few months touring in their Isuzu and must regrettably cut their trip short due to lack of funds.  They adore Australia and wish they could stay longer.  This is a common story – people from Europe or America come to get a taste of Aussie life and don;t want to leave.  Most people remark on the lay-back approach of Australians and the diversity of our land, from forests to deserts to vibrant cities, quirky towns, and everything in between.  They also comment on how expensive it seems to be to live here and many run out of funds before schedule.  And picking fruit for $18 per hour is hardly a king’s ransom too.

Tourists are permitted to visit several caves, either via tour guide, or self-guided.  We purchase the $60 ticket which gives us as much access to these natural beauties as we can handle, plus entry into the very informative and somewhat 70’s-retro-style exhibition. 

Just call me Batman

The highlight of our time here at Naracoorte was undoubtedly our experience with 34,000 bats.  After dusk, if you stand at the mouth of one of the caves, you will witness, and indeed, experience, the population of tiny bats flying in a cyclonic wave from the cave mouth, into the nearby forest to feed.  At the peak of this amazing event, 1,200 bats leave the cave per minute, and although it is almost too dark to see (although you can see the silhouettes), you can feel the air whip around your face, as the bats narrowly miss hitting you as they fly erratically past you.  It is a truly remarkable sensation, exhilarating and a little frightening, and it can be difficult to stand there without wanting to shield your face with your hands.  (Ever seen the movie Wayne’s World?  There is a scene in which Wayne and Garth lie upon the bonnet of their car next to the airport, and cry out in joyous fear as low-flying planes pass right over them).  There is a scientist here who 'counts' the bats nightly, using a thermo-triggered movie-camera, and she invited us to look at her laptop screen to view little glowing white creatures fly up and out of the cave - and there are far too many for us to see with the naked eye!




The cave tours

 The first cave tour is to see Alexandra Caves. 

The 'dripping' stalactites in the photo below are also called 'straws' and are entirely hollow (other than being filled with water).  They are formed when water that drips from the ceiling combines with the minerals in the rocks to form calcite tubes.

Next on the list is Bat Cave and Blanche Cave.  The Bat Cave experience was 'gay' at best, involving us being herded into a room and shown some bats via ultrasonic camera on a TV screen in a dingy room with outdated posters and dusty stuffed bats hanging from the ceiling.  Unfortunately we were not invited into the cave itself due to the intense smell of (and threat of stepping in piles of) guano (bat poo). 

Blanche Cave was similarly unstunning, with the exception of an exposed archaeological site, displaying layers of soil and even a little pile of old bones.




Mmmm blobby



Our journey into the Victoria Fossil Cave was stunning, interesting, and thoroughly enjoyable.  Accompanied by a tour guide who had a great sense of humour, and an intimate knowledge of the history of the caves, this was by far my favourite tour.

The Victoria Fossil Cave is one of the best showcases of the World heritage values of the park.
Within, the Fossil Chamber is the most extensively studied. The fossils in the chamber give us a unique window into the climate and environment of the times when these animals lived.

The tour takes you through several chambers on the way to the Fossil Chamber where time is spent discussing the accumulation of bones in the caves and excavation techniques.

 

You'll also get the chance to analyse complete skeletons of megafauna species.  Spooky!



After the tour, we took a short walk to view some apparent "cliffs", which turned out to be a walk through prickly grass and blackberry bushes for naught.  But.....  blackberries abound! 

We picked a nice big handful for the next day's breakfast, and they were delicious.

Finally, the last day arrived, and we spent this day wandering through Wet Cave and exploring the Woonabi Fossil Centre.

 Wet Cave can be accessed via self guided tour.  It does not contain very much calcite (which is disappointing) but it does hold many of these small watery structures - interesting to look at but very difficult to photograph.

Walk through the doors of the Woonabi Fossil Centre and step back in time!

This exhibition is filled with stuffed examples of extinct animals, many of which are extremely large, and which represent life in Naracoorte millions of years ago.  There are loud-speakers placed around the exhibition which bark, screech and roar at you.  Most of the animals have moving parts, such as an arm that swings or a head that tilts.  Overall,m this exhibition might excite a young child, but really, it's very outdated and, as I kept telling myself as I was forcing myself to immerse in the experience, "gay".  I think the silliest animal was the large bovine-type mammal which was either giving birth or was in the middle of the very difficult poo.  Think "Ace Ventura 2".


Despite the gayness of this exhibition, we thoroughly enjoyed it!



McKenzie's Falls (Grampians)

During our stay with the Barbierato's we spend a day at the Grampians.  We try fishing but decide it would be more fun to take a hike and maybe view some of the area's renowned waterfalls and check out some 4WD tracks.

There are several waterfalls on the many watercourses in The Grampians, but by far the most popular is MacKenzie Falls on the MacKenzie River, a short drive from Halls Gap.

Named by explorer Mitchell on the 21st. of July 1836, the MacKenzie River rises in the higher reaches of The Grampians and flows north-westward through Zumsteins towards Mt Zero. The falls can be reached down a well constructed walk from the kiosk in the carpark. Steep in places, it follows the river to the base of the falls offering many opportunities for spectacular photographs.

Back on the road

After the fun and excitement of spending weeks with Sue, Jamie & family, and Rebecca, Tony & family, and Paul & Tam, and of course, our families back home, we are finally back on the road to enjoy unexpected adventures, and roads untravelled.

I want to take a moment to declare that we are all so darn lucky to live in a place as beautiful as Australia.

A stone's throw from metropolis, and you are greeted by kangaroos and wallabies who chew grass lazily at dusk. Juvenile roos play-fight in a display of muscle and determintation, then return to eating their supper. Echidnas waddle in search of food, and will pertrude their bristles if you get too close, while their pointy nose digs into the scrub to hide their little faces. The call of birds comes from all directions - the warble of a magpie and the mock-call of a parrot mimicking a bell-bird can be heard from the tops of gum trees. Hawks screech as they lay claim to their turf, and, below, smaller birds flit about on the ground closeby; little male fairy wrens with irridescent blue feathers wag their tall vertical tails as their harem of fawn-coloured wives pick at insects cooperateively.

The sun droops peacefully in the sky, bringing with it an everchanging watercolour painting of orange, mauve and gold, and on the other side of the horizon, an enormous yellow baulbous moon rises slowly, creating spindly blue shadows across the ground.

Australia's landscape in these parts is distributed between open pasture dotted with grey woolly sheep and thick forest lined with green curly bracken and straight eucalypts. Flowering gums are heavy with soft frilly pink blooms, and are food to honeyeaters, rosellas, bees, beetles and ants. The beetles here are red with eery metallic blue dots masquerading as evil eyes - we see them crawling across the sand when we take our daily walk. The air smells sweet and clean - it is wonderful to fill your lungs with it, in great deliberate inhalations.

It's no wonder we attract so many tourists who put up with living in a station wagon or van for months on end just to be here; to absorb Asutralia's sights, sounds and smells, and take home with them visions not encountered anywhere else in the world.

Stawell with the B's!

Dear Rebecca, Tony, Theabella and Christopher,

Thank you so much for allowing us to camp our caravan in your backyard last week - we had so much fun!

Every morning we were greeted by Woody, your adorable little dog who seems to have a 'spaz-attack' whenever we rub his head - gee, we laughed when he ran  from one end of the yard to another over and over, tongue lolling out and ears flapping everywhere!

Morning coffee and "Good morning Evie!" from Theabella and Christopher was so nice each day; especially the daily hug from both kids (did I say 'hug'?  Maybe "squeeeeze" is a better word!).

And let's not forget the obligatory beer/scotch/whatever when Tony comes home from work - we really enjoyed helping Tony wind down after a hectic day at 'the office'.  And oh my goodness... the food!  Between bbqs and roasts and all the trimmings; we feel so spoilt, and can't wait to do the same for you one day at Nearly Creek.  And may I please request, in advance, a repeat of Rebecca's special ice-cream malty-Maxi-Bon desert for our next visit?

We enjoyed looking after the kids when you were both at work - I never knew Wii MarioKart would be so much fun!!!!  Theabella and I made some lovely chocolate cake too; it was delicious.  Just kidding!  We made the cake out of mud - make sure you don't really eat it; just pretend!!!  Later, Theabella showed us some of her tricks on the trampoline - and Woody even jumped up when he figured he could use the little pink chair as a stepping stone - silly Woody!  Theabella, you should show Jase how to to use the trampoline properly next time we visit - he really hurt the skin on his toes when he was throwing you and Christopher around!

And Christopher, I hope you make lots of paper aeroplanes, and Theabella, maybe you could colour them in and draw more suns and things on them?  I think Jase will miss making these for you....

I hope Tony enjoyed his 40-somethingth birthday, we were really pleased to be there and thoroughly enjoyed the barbecue.  Here's hoping that bottle of Bundy helps him enjoy many quiet (or noisy) evenings over the coming year. It was great also to have a good pub meal with Terri and Charlie to celebrate Charlie's birthday - and Theabella's calamari rings looked delicious!

Of course, we loved being a part of Christopher's first ever day of school and feel very special to have been included in this special day.  We hope Theabella and Christopher enjoy their year of learning and making new friends.

See you soon, and miss you all like crazy,

Love
Evie xxxx
PS Jase sends his love and hugs too xxxx

Theabella and Christopher with Woody at the back door

Playing paper aeroplanes



Roast dinner with all the trimmings




First day of school!



Narrawong with Sue & family

The gusts blow from all directions in Narrawong.  Some protection can be found behind tall ancient pine trees along the river's edge, or between rows of caravans.  On the beach, waves create numerous rips, and the Surf Lifesaving flags flap wildly.  It can take all your energy to swim or paddle in a single location, as the strong current will pull you sideways towards Portland.  On the river, however, the water is calm, and, if you are so inclined, and have a little patience and a cube of chicken or cabana on your fishing line, you may be lucky enough to catch a small bream for your dinner.

It is school holidays, and children excitedly ride bikes, fly kites, build sandcastles, and boogeyboards; whilst dads stand belly-out, discussing cricket and boating, with a beer in hand.  Mothers can be heard chasing their children ("Just behave yourself!"), and call to their husbands to light the barbie and get dinner underway.

Narrawong is a very small town sandwiched between Portland and Warrnambool, and once you have set up camp in the caravan park, there is little reason to drive anywhere.  We are here for a week or two, to catch up with Sue and Jamie and their gorgeous kids Jade, Luke and Beth.  Also here are Jamie's brother and family, who drop by numerous times during the day to shoot the breeze over a casual drink.

We have set up our caravans in opposite directions, so that our awnings are together, and we have a fantastic common area which is shielded from the wind. 

During our stay, we enjoyed many activities, such as fishing (and a fishing competition for the kids), building a fortress within the sand along the riverbed, taking a long walk to view a seal colony, playing tennis, boogey boarding and body surfing, and generally being silly with the kids and with each other.  In addition, Jade took a surfing lesson, and Beth spent a whole day horseriding! 

We can't wait for next year!!!!

Jade enjoys snorkelling in the river

 

Eve catches this AWESOME snapper!!!!!! 
(from the Zodiac, aka "The inflatable boat, not the blow up boat!!!!)



Sue and Jamie hold Jade close after a surfing lesson in some pretty wild weather

Sue and Beth enjoy a little quiet time

 

The Narrawong kids' fishing competiton (which Jamie's nephew Jake won!)

Jase enoys a hit of tennis

 

Our lovely long walk up and long the cliffs to see the seal colony





The kangaroos basking in the sun were more interesting than the seals



Sue and Jade (with Luke in the background)

Fun back at camp

 

See you next year!!!!