Brolga Healing Journeys

Before last weekend, I’d never considered a truck to be a thing of beauty.  Sure, I’ve looked on some of the enormous outback road-trains with a sense of awe, or should I say terror, as they loom towards you in an all-engulfing cloud of dust along a rough dirt road.  But the enormous gathering of trucks, old and new, large and small, in Alice Springs for the National Road Transport Hall of Fame re-union changed all that.  I’m now in love with trucks.  I want to be a truck-driver when I grow up!

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Forget all the hype about the Federal Election, there was something far more important and exciting happening today in Australia– the Henley-on-Todd Regatta!  Today marked the 49th consecutive year for this annual event held in Alice Springs.  The Henley-on-Todd is unique among boating regattas in that it is held on the dry, sandy bed of the Todd River.  Indeed, when the river flows, as happened one year, the regatta is cancelled.   After all our rain this year, organisers were nervous in the lead-up to this weekend, especially with rain forecast.  They needn’t have worried – the weather was perfect and the regatta venue suitably sandy and dry.

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We admired the beautiful full moon in the early evening of 26 June 2010, but had no idea that there was to be a partial lunar eclipse, until we received a phone-call from my father in Canberra suggesting we have a look into the night sky.  A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth’s shadow blocks the sun’s rays from striking all or, in the case of a partial eclipse, some of the moon.  As it can only occur when the sun, earth and moon are in full alignment (or close to it), a lunar eclipse only occurs during the full moon.  Around half of the moon was to be in shadow during this eclipse. 

Unfortunately, we missed the start of the partial eclipse, and the first couple of hand-held photos are somewhat blurred.  Once the tripod was set up the photos improved.  I took the first photo at 8.06 PM Australian Central Standard Time (8.36PM Aust Eastern Standard Time) and took the final one of the series at 10.36PM ACST, by which time I was just about frozen solid.

Thanks Mum and Dad for the call!

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Alice Springs comes alive during the cooler winter months, and the annual Finke Desert Race is one of its many attractions.  It is a gruelling event, stretching some 229km from Alice Springs to Apatula Community on the Sunday, then returning to Alice on the Monday of the June long weekend.  The race crosses the Finke River, believed to be the oldest river in the world.  To travel this track at a cautious pace in a 4WD is challenging enough, but to race across it at breakneck speed is mindboggling.  This year the number of motorcycle entrants was limited to 500.  This surprised me, because I thought you’d have trouble finding 100 suicidal maniacs to enter the event, let alone 500!  Seventy or so 4-wheeled entrants also entered the event.  I hesitate to call them cars, as they resembled something you’d more likely see in a Mad Max movie.

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We were excited to learn that, hot on the heals of the Anzac Day long weekend, we were to have another long weekend here in the Northern Territory.  Who said this was an uncivilised place?  What were we to do with three days off? The answer was obvious – we’d “go bush”.

Now, deciding what to do was the easy part, where to go not so simple.  Alice Springs is the largest settlement for around 1500km in any direction, and Alice has a population of less than 30000.  So you get the idea – there is plenty of bush out here. 

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Alice Springs is famous for its Henley-on-Todd Regatta, an annual ‘boating’ event held on the Todd River in the centre of Alice Springs.  Why is it famous?  Well, because the boat races only ever take place on the dry, sandy river bed.  The ‘boats’ are carried across the sand by their crews in a race to the finish.  Indeed, the only time the Regatta has ever been cancelled has been when there has been water in the river!

It was with this image of the Todd River in mind that we arrived in Alice Springs late last year.  Dry river bed, not a drop of water in sight.  We both spoke of how much we would like to see the river flow, but didn’t hold out any hope.  

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We finished our adventure along the Kimberley’s famous Gibb River Road feeling a strange mixture of elation and flatness.  We were elated to have experienced such a rugged, remote and ancient landscape, surprisingly full of wildlife and beauty.  We were also elated and relieved to have survived with car and camper trailer intact.  But we both also felt flat.  How could anything or anywhere live up to what we had just experienced?  How could we rekindle the almost magical quality of that region?

It was with these mixed feelings that we left the dirt and drove up the bitumen highway towards Wyndham, the most northerly major town in the Kimberley.  We had expected to drive along river flats and past mangrove swamps, but the region was surprisingly mountainous.  This was another reminder to us that Australia is a country of surprises.  Wyndham itself is a small place, with two halves separated by several kilometers.  The more modern administrative half appears to be the ‘growth’ district, while the older Wyndham Port features most of the town’s historic buildings. 

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FIRST STOP – CAPE KERAUDREN

Our last blog finished with us at the DeGrey River campsite, north of Port Hedland.  We had a week to burn before we were to return to Port Hedland for some work on the car.  Where to go?  I know Nirbeeja would have returned to Carawine Gorge in the blink of an eye, but it was quite a distance from Port Hedland, so we opted to travel instead up the coast.  After a couple of false starts we arrived at the Cape Keraudren Coastal Recreation Reserve (try saying that after a couple of wines).  Cape Keraudren is at the southerly edge of the well-known Eighty Mile Beach, so we thought it might give us a taste for the area. 

We planned to stay for two nights, but stayed for five.  We loved it.  The area was full of wildlife, the beach was beautiful, we had our first sighting of Brolgas on this trip and we saw many magnificent kangaroos.  We were camped beside Cootenbrand Creek, a lovely sheltered spot that kept us entertained with its massive tidal variations and pale aqua waters.  The only drawback was that the campsite was on a limestone shelf, making it impossible to use pegs to secure the camper trailer.  So we improvised, tying the ropes to large rocks and using boxes to support inside the walls of the bedroom. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

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Contrary to what you may all be thinking, we are still alive, we are still travelling, we are still together and yes – we are still enjoying our adventure, loving it in fact.  It’s just that life, work and travel have all interfered with our capacity to write this blog.

Where did the time go?  Well, since our previous blog way back in October 2008 we’ve been pretty busy.  (more…)

We learned of Karijini National Park while we were still in Canberra.  A Tai Chi student of Peter’s showed us photos of his many travels around Australia, and we remember being struck by the ones of ‘that place with the magnificent gorges’.

Next, we heard about the park while staying in Ceduna, just before we crossed the Nullarbor.  A very friendly, enthusiastic lady from Mandurah, south of Perth, was going around the caravan park telling all of us easterners that we must visit Karijini.  This became a standing joke between us – “Young lady/man, you really must visit Karijini”. 

So we did. (more…)