This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Category Archives: 2005 Travels


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2005 Travels September 6

TUESDAY 6 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

I was up at 7 to do breakfast. Packed a sandwich and cake lunch for the men to take with them.

The group departed about 9am. Their comments:

* thanks for a wonderful stay in a wonderful part of the world. The food was great, the rivers and springs are fantastic in their natural setting and O, John and Wendy are great hosts.

I packed things up as usual, did the washing and tent cleaning and putting them back in order for any unexpected guests.

I tidied up our van annexe area a bit.

Resize of 09-06-2005 01 Annex

The word came from A that the group that was booked in for October for five nights, had cancelled. So we had no more bookings and little prospect, I thought, of any more.

We now began to wonder if we should stay on into October, as we had planned? Had intended to be here for that October booking, then to help O pack up the camp – apart from helping, just to make sure that all was put away clean and in proper order. And that camp gear stayed together, not disappearing to the house!

But with no more guests there was little to do. There was no point in me cooking up any more stocks for the freezers. John still had his vegie garden work and daily watering, but only limited camp upkeep with no expected guests. It felt like we were being paid for no longer full work.

Resize of 09-09-2005 01 Veggy Patch September

Lots of vegies but no guests……

As well, we had been getting some broad hints from O that his lady would be coming back for another visit and he would really like his privacy then.

Our happy hour was pleasant. As the days heated up, the cool of dusk was much appreciated. There was just a crescent moon as we sat out in the clearing.

Resize of 09-06-2005 05 September Sunset 2


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2005 Travels September 5

MONDAY 5 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Worked 7am till 9.30pm, though we were at the camp, talking with the guests, till later.

After breakfast – with cooked bacon and eggs – O took the men out sight seeing. I packed a smoko for them of leftover pikelets, and biscuits.

Resize of 09-10-2005 21 Bowl Material 3

I cooked a couple of chicken breasts for cold meat for lunch, and also defrosted some left over roast beef that I’d put away. Defrosted a fruit cake earlier made. I made a batch of cheese scones and tarted up last night’s left over rice, into a rice salad to go on the lunch plates, with hard boiled eggs and the usual salad things.

Guests were in for lunch and I served salad and meat plates. These always look pretty good, if I do say so myself – colourful and generous. There were scones and fruit cake to follow.

They all went out again with O, after lunch.

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I prepared the steaks for tea and made fruit salad.

I was half expecting O to come back and say they were going out again to watch the sunset from the Escarpment, but he didn’t. I think that, at this end of the season, he was losing his enthusiasm for guests!

After the usual nibblies, tea was brandy pepper steaks with jacket baked potatoes, gingered carrot and zucchini sticks, followed by fruit salad and cream.

After cleanup, we joined the guests around the camp fire. O departed not long after, but we stayed talking with them until they went off to bed.


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2005 Travels September 4

SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Worked 8 am to 10.30pm.

It was a misty morning again.

Resize of 09-04-2005 01 Spider Web

Resize of 09-04-2005 04 Misty Sept Morning 2

John was finding the camp cleaning up work really hard – mowing and raking. Ever since the trip back from the coast with the Daihatsu, his back had been really sore.

He refuelled Truck. Had only done 248kms, but he was starting to feel concerned that the drums of diesel may be running low – so it was wise to keep our vehicle fairly full.

I cleaned the showers and toilets and checked the tents the men would be using.

Cooked Cornies biscuits, a tiramisu, spicy pikelets. Brought a fish from the house to defrost. Made a pineapple salad.

The guests arrived mid afternoon. O brought them down to camp in the Troopy. They had brought their own beer with them – lots of it! They actually seemed quite under the weather – I think they had been refreshing themselves in flight. The one who was piloting seemed more sober though – as I would hope!

I fed them spicy pikelets for afternoon tea, got them settled in. After their flight – and after their time at Birdsville – they just wanted to laze about for the rest of the day. That suited O, who returned to his work at the house as soon as he had deposited them at camp.

I served the usual pre dinner nibbles, which they actually collected and took back to their tents.

Dinner was threadfin salmon, cooked Asian style, with rice to  which I added peas, spring onion and corn kernels; green salad, pineapple salad, with tiramisu for dessert.

The men had brightened up with their afternoon rest and spent a while sitting round the camp fire after tea. They were nice enough guys, maybe in their 30’s.

After dinner clean up, I hard boiled eggs for tomorrow. Asked O to get out from the house freezer some “fillet” steaks to defrost. Sometimes he remembered such requests, sometimes not. One of the reasons I was missing A’s presence at the house! It was just one of the hiccups to deal with because of the way the fridges and freezers were split between house and camp.

O left the camp fire fairly early and left us to chat with the visitors until they were ready for bed. I thought O really wanted to get back to his house wall building.

Resize of 09-10-2005 07 The Wall

Wall was cement, faced with stone gathered about the property

 


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2005 Travels September 3

SATURDAY 3 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Today was officially a day off, but I a little preparation to do for guests who were coming in tomorrow – four men who would have been to the Birdsville Races, flying in from there, scheduled to arrive about 3pm.

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I cooked some eggplant slices, to be part of pre-dinner nibbles. Turned on the fridges, wiped them out, put water containers in to chill. Brought the alcohol stocks down from the house and put those in to chill.

The generator had to be turned on for the fridges, but we turned it off again at bedtime.

We were both upset, John more so. O had been doing some fire break burning of the grass surrounding the house yard. He allowed the flames to burn in under the side fence, by where we had been nurturing the little paw paws. The heat from the fire had withered and killed a lot of the little plants. We had both put so many hours into watering these. O was quite offhand about it – no apologies. Now, we wondered why we had bothered trying to improve the house surrounds.

Resize of 09-09-2005 07 Squeeze Gate

Burnt area where the paw paw trees had been. Squeeze gate – big enough for people, at a squeeze, but not for cows!

 


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2005 Travels September 2

FRIDAY 2 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

V and F left after a fairly early breakfast. They would be returning to Adels to collect their caravan and then start the drive back home to Griffith.

The mail plane came, so I had the paper to read. The “outside” world had come to seem increasingly distant and almost irrelevant.

Resize of 09-10-2005 17 Cheeky Dings

The house babies

We had enjoyed having friends here. Their visit had been all too short.

Resize of 08-27-2005 09 August Sunset 6


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2005 Travels September 1

THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER     PUNGALINA

Another leisurely start to the day.

After John’s routine chores, we took V and F out to Bubbling Sands for a swim. Much appreciated in the growing heat.

Resize of 06-12-2005 07 Bubbling Sands 4

Resize of 06-12-2005 04 Bubbling Sands

We returned around via Squeaky Trees, to show them the camp area there. There were a number of other places we could have gone, but no one felt like going too far after the long day yesterday.

We visited with O up at the house for a while. He had been busy on the house site. He told us that he had gotten into the habit of working out there at night, when it was cooler. He had rigged up some lights to do so. Putting up the form work for the cement foundation wall was taking time. Then there would be making and pouring the actual cement. That would be huge, as the wall would be quite thick as well as long. Then, he was planning to face the river wards side of the wall with stone.

It looked like the new house would be his focus now, rather than working on planning or opening up new tracks for next season. Apart from his own comfort, he wants a decent house for when his lady  comes to stay – and maybe live, one day? John and I threw around the idea that maybe she would run the safari camp next year?

We just lazed around the camp for the rest of the day, enjoying the peace.


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2005 Travels August 31

WEDNESDAY 31 AUGUST     PUNGALINA

Was an early start today, because we took our guests down the Calvert and as far as the Stinking Lagoons. I packed a picnic sandwich lunch to go.

We had set up a makeshift seat in the back of our Truck, where – in travel mode – we only have three seats. but with some extra padding put on top of the tents we carry in the seat space, it was quite adequate.

Stopped at Mystery Shovel Water Hole, briefly, to stretch legs and admire its beauty.

Resize of 08-31-2005 01 Mystery Shovel August

Had a second stop – again brief – at the Calvert Crossing, then it was the slow and bumpy stretch to the lower river.

Went first to the Stinking Lagoons, where we walked around for a bit, while John described the trip done with the Japanese to the coast itself. There were some horses at the far end of the big lagoon – presumably station horses from Seven Emu, turned out.

Resize of 08-31-2005 11 Stinking Lagoon August

Drove to the end of the cleared track at the lower Calvert and looked at the river there, from the vantage points on top of the high cliff-like banks.

Resize of 05-14-2005 28 Calvert Tidal Section 3

Resize of 05-14-2005 33 Calvert Tidal Section 8

Then back tracked to the fishing access point on the river, where John and F attempted to catch something – anything, with no luck. It looked like the tide was out at this time.

Resize of 08-31-2005 06 Calvert Tidal Area 3

Resize of 08-31-2005 08 Calvert Tidal Area 5

Fishing – and keeping watch for crocodiles!

The drive back to camp seemed a long one to me – a sign that I had become very familiar with that route, I think.

Resize of 08-31-2005 02 Mystery Shovel August 2

Back at Mystery Shovel Water Hole

When we got back to camp, found that a ding – probably Lachy – had torn through the fly mesh door of F’s new tent, which they had left zipped up. F’s clothes, which had been folded up in the tent, were strewn around the clearing – with the exception of John’s long trousers. He had lent F these, to keep off insects at night. These were still neatly folded on their camp bed! We decided that was a ding sign that John “belongs” here and F did not! Male territoriality…….

We felt really bad that the tent had been damaged. But I was just grateful that there had not been more damage. It was not a great ending to what had otherwise been a very enjoyable day.


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2005 Travels August 30

TUESDAY 30 AUGUST     PUNGALINA

We did not rush around to get too early a start. John still had to do his garden watering, and V and F went with him to be part of that.

Took V and F driving, out to the Dragons Breath Cave – the nearest one.

On the way there we saw a couple of euros in the bush. As with much of the wild life on the place, they were more curious about us than scared.

Resize of 08-30-2005 01 Euro X 2

John took V and F down the cave. I think they were a bit apprehensive, especially when they saw the narrow opening they had to go down, but trusted that John knew what he was doing.

Resize of 08-30-2005 03 Cave Explorer

Quite a narrow opening to the cave!

John took the camera down with him. Getting decent photos in the caves was difficult, because they were always very warm and humid, and condensation soon formed on the camera lens.

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Resize of 08-30-2005 13 Cave Shot 8

While they were exploring the cave, I pottered about up top, exploring the area around the cave, with its fossilized limestone outcrops and stromatolites.

Resize of 08-30-2005 18 Cave Roof Outside 2

Big cave system under here

Resize of 08-30-2005 20 Stromatolites 2

Stromatolites

We then drove on to Croc Hole, on Karns Creek, where John took our guests out in the boat there, for the experience of puttering down the long water hole there.

Resize of 08-30-2005 22 Croc Hole

Resize of 08-30-2005 29 Croc Hole 8

Resize of 08-30-2005 35 Croc Hole14

They saw a couple of nankeen night herons perched on a dead tree – were able to get the boat surprisingly close to them.

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I waited back at the big fig tree that was such a feature there.

Resize of 08-30-2005 21 Croc Hole Fig Tree

Then it was back to camp for lunch.

We finished up the day with a drive out to the wetlands, to see Lake Crocodyllus, continuing on around the circuit track past Jabiru Billabong. By this time, V and F were totally disoriented – the network of tracks all seemed similar to them. I could remember feeling like that the first time we visited here, in 2003!

Resize of 08-30-2005 46 Jabiru 3

Again, we did happy hour in the clearing, then I cooked tea at the camp and brought it back to the clearing.


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2005 Travels August 29

MONDAY 29 AUGUST     PUNGALINA

It was very pleasant to have a sleep in.

John called me down to the camp, where he’d spotted a file snake on the sand beside the creek. It was very subdued and did not seem to want to move. We used a stick to push it right back to the edge of the water, where it slowly swam away. Had no idea why it had come up onto the sand. Maybe it had tangled with a big python or water monitor? Maybe it wanted to do a skin shed?

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File Snake

John went up to the house, to water, and to do an inventory of the alcohol supply, that A wanted.

Resize of 09-09-2005 08 Hard Ding Day

A hard ding day…..

As we moved about the camp, kept listening for any distant sound of a motor.

V and F arrived about lunch time. They had been camping at Kingfisher Camp for a few nights. I served them a cold meat and salad lunch. They set up their tent – a nice new one – in our clearing.

We sat around in the shade of trees, and talked. They filled us in on how the season had been at Adels and news of people we all knew.

Showed them over the safari camp. So far, from what they had seen on the drive in here, they were impressed with our wilderness.

They had met O when they arrived. Although we had given them directions to take the short cut from the track in, to the camp, they had not been sure about the turn, and had found themselves on the airstrip, which they followed to O’s house. He then gave them directions to here. They also met the dings.

Resize of 08-26-2005 track maze - zoom

A maze of tracks (from Zoom)

After happy hour admiring the sunset from Cane Toad Clearing, I went and cooked our dinners down in the camp kitchen. It was easier to do using the camp stove and oven, rather than heating up our van. But we took the food back up the path to our camp to sit and eat.

John had to lend F a pair of long trousers, as he only had shorts with him and there were some mozzies about.


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2005 Travels August 28

SUNDAY 28 AUGUST     PUNGALINA

It was our plan to take days off while V and F were visiting. Under our employment agreement with A, due to all the long days we had done, we were owed heaps of days. There were no guests booked in for a week, then after that no more until October. As the weather heated up, it became less likely that there would be last minute bookings happening. The steady flow of people of July/August seemed to have ended.

So today was devoted to getting all the cleaning up done, getting the tents back in order – in case there were unexpected guests next week. We tidied up our camp, a bit, too.

We were noticing that there was starting to be some cloud in the sky, something we had not had for a while.

Resize of 08-30-2005 40 Croc Hole 19

Clouds building again