New Year New Horizons



Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.
Kahil Gibran 



A new year and new horizons. The start of another journey, but this time, surprisingly we have had some misgivings. The last year was a wonderful year of adventures but it has taken its toll. Perhaps we are tired of travelling and longing for a more permanent base. For eighteen months we have travelled nonstop and are probably suffering from a sensory overload. We have lived the Australian dream but the reality is sometimes a little less romantic!
Our Melbournian friends have an apt saying “ Build a bridge and get over it mate!” this is often accompanied by a whack across the head with a piece of 2 by 4, presumably to get you started with the building of the aforesaid bridge. This is just what we need right now! Enough whining ……..or as they say in Afrikaans “Vat jou goed en trek Druce” A new adventure is around the corner......lets go!

Beach bums...two years on.

We left the Clare valley with heavy hearts, our plans to buy some land dashed as our home in South Africa didn’t sell. In hindsight a blessing as we still have so much of this wonderful country to explore before we make our decision on a final resting spot.  The valley will remain one of the most memorable places I have seen and we will definitely go back some day.  Our year started with a week of bush camping at Wrights Bay in South Australia. The beach windswept and wild was notable for its seaweed,  which looked liked stands of luminescent green pearls. Small spotted puffer fish littered the sand which the disgusted local fishermen seem to catch and discard in large numbers .We celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a a rock lobster dinner and a bottle of bubbly under the stars To say it was  windy is an understatement. Most nights we were rocked to sleep in the van and eventually it swept us right out and into a new state Victoria.

Rare Green pearls

Over the border, the local Mexicans gave us a warm welcome in the little fishing village of Nelson. It was a great base to explore Mount Gambier and its extinct volcanic crater lakes. The most famous, Blue Lake, whose water is normally a dull grey blue has a metamorphosis every November and  turns a brilliant cobalt and remains that way for the rest of the summer. The colour change is apparently caused by calcite particles in the water which absorb all visible light except blue. On a sunny day it is quite a magnificent sight. We had our lunch in a sinkhole........another first. In 1884 James Umpherston set out to create " a pleasant resort in the heat of summer" and  a sinkhole was turned into a beautiful garden,with terraces, rock walkways and even a small lake in the bottom. Today with ivy hanging over the edges and filled with fuchsias, hydrangeas, ferns and roses it is a quiet and peaceful spot in which to dine.

Sinkhole Dining

The Bluest Blue lake........but aren't they all?

 We were headed for Melbourne but couldn't resist the lure of the mountains so did a detour to the rugged ranges of the Grampians National Park. A wrong turning took us over a spectacular mountain pass. It was the first time we had taken the rig on such a climb and we had some heartstopping moments going around tight corners downhill. We arrived shaken and definately stirred hours later to our camp at Halls Gap and vowing never to repeat the experience.

McKenzie Falls Grampain Mountains

The Crimson Rosellas and Sulpher Crested Cockatoos made up for our frightening descent. Every morning was a riot. Sometimes as many as 30 cockatoos  joined us for breakfast . The three bright red and blue Rosellas were my favorites. So trusting they would sit on my hand and  I could feed them a  single sunflower seed which they would  nibble delicately  However the love affair soon wore off and ended altogether when  the cockatoos decided to eat the chairs and then pooped  in disgust all over them when they tasted the vinyl. We eventually had to keep the door of the van shut as they were happy to take up residence inside if they could spot some tucker.



Breakfast for the birds



Next stop Melbourne and a time to catch up with our friends Chris and Terry who we met in Katherine, Northern Territory.

We are looking forward to it! See you at Point Leo guys! Get the wine ready.............

Soul Food Kitchen

I was tempted to give you a recipe for Roasted Crested Cockatoo with a vinyl jus ..............  but this salad I had in a local resturant is more delicious and so quick to make.

Grilled Haloumi Salad  with Pear and Fennel

Prepare a salad with a handful of fresh coriander, some baby spinach leaves, half a fennel bulb cut into fine strips and a thinly sliced ripe pear.

Dress with generous glug of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and a squeeze of lemon. Season with black pepper and a sprinkle of fennel seed and rock salt.

Cut Haloumi into slices and cook on a ribbed frying pan over a high heat till golden brown or under a grill.

Place on top of the salad and garnish with a fennel frond. Serve with a crusty roll and glass of chilled Chardonnay.

A marriage of flavours made in heaven! Enjoy!



Christmas Letter from Clare 2011

Loved family and friends,



It’s the Christmas season and that time when you are all even dearer and especially so because you are far away. We miss you.


Tommy and I will celebrate Christmas Day in the vineyards of the beautiful Clare valley in South Australia, and share our day with some new friends we have made here.


We have had an adventurous year travelling around Australia and a wonderful month in the USA with our American family. Managed to drive through five states, and 3,000 miles in three weeks in March and saw so many canyons we were literally “rocked out”. Slept in so many different beds at times it was difficult to remember where we were but it made for magical memories.


Sue has chronicled our many Aussie adventures on her blog, soulfoodtraveller.com so we will not repeat them here, but it has been an exciting and challenging experience to explore this vast and beautiful land we call home. To do it justice we would need another two lifetimes.


In November Sue spent six weeks back in Port Elizabeth, with her South African and Kenyan family. A bittersweet time as Ian is battling cancer but she was able to spend time with Kathy and Chris as he went through another round of chemotherapy in Cape Town. It was also an opportunity to try and sell Chocolat, our home at Schoenies, which has become increasingly difficult to manage being so far away. Unfortunately we did not find a buyer but managed to find great new tenants, the Sweet family who we have known for years and are as nice as their name.


Despite a difficult year, Thom and Ems have once again shown courage and resilience. They continue to work and live in London and we are hoping will pay us a visit in 2012. Tom, Tommy’s son, and partner Joy are happy in Perth with their combined families. Thank goodness for the internet it’s a case of keeping up on Face book and emails with the family being so spread about.


We have fallen in love with the countryside of the Clare valley, the sense of community and the many friendly natives who have made us “blow-ins” feel so welcome. One day we hope to purchase some land here so we can build a place for us to stop and rest when we have tired of travelling.


In the New Year we will be hitting the road again and travelling east towards Melbourne, Tasmania and the Gold Coast. The Great Barrier Reef is on our “bucket list” and will complete our Big Lap. Please check out the Sue’s blog as she updates it monthly.


Thank you sharing 2011 with us, even at a distance your love and friendship enriches our lives. We wish you a Peaceful Christmas filled with the hope that the Christ child brings, and a New Year that will bless you more than you can ever imagine with love, laughter and the gifts of faith, friendship and most of all family.


With our love,


Sue and Tommy.xx

Clare Valley South Australia

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all of our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Elliott





Journey's End?




Uluru -Moon rising

 

Think with awe on the slow and quiet power of time.

                                                    Friedrich Schiller

The road to Uluru took us through groves of dusty desert oaks before opening out to the vast empty ochre plains of the Red Center. No matter how many pictures you have seen, nothing can prepare you for your first view of Uluru or Ayers Rock. It rises above the surrounding desert like a huge slumbering beast and its ancient spirit overwhelms you. Its not the worlds largest monolith, just the most famous but when you stand at its base and touch the rusty pockmarked surface, the sheer scale of it fills you with awe. It  rises 348 metres, is 9 km around the base,and it is estimated that at least two thirds of this weathered rock lies below the surface.   You have to look at it through the eyes of the traditional owners, the Anangu to fully appreciate its significance. It is sacred to them, the essence of Tjukurpa, the ancient and traditional law that moves through all mankind linking us to nature. They ask you not to climb the rock as it disturbs their sacred sites and a path of spiritual significance taken by a only few aboriginal men on special occasions That does not deter the thousands of  tourists that travel miles just to climb it. This tortuous climb,as high as a 9 storey building up the sheer rock face with only a chain to hold onto, has claimed many lives. Bronze memorial plagues at the base of the climb bear testimony to the recent casualties,the 35 that died ,mostly from heart attacks or by being swept off the summit by the high winds. This was one controversy I was happy to avoid.........climbing was not an option. Vertigo or Vino?.  I choose the later..........no contest! To watch the ever changing colours of the Rock as the sun set was a magical moment and as the moon rose over the horizon I took my final shot of Uluru . It was a fitting end to a memorable love affair with the Northern Territory and one I will never forget.



Ant Heaps at Coober Pedy Opal Mines



The next day we set off down the Stuart Highway to Coober Pedy, Opal capital of the world, and our first stop in South Australia. Opals were first discovered here in 1915. Mullock hills of gravel that the miners have cast aside in their search for the rainbow coloured gemstones look like giant ant heaps It seems unbelievable that anyone would want to live in such a desolate, and treeless hellhole. But Coober Pedy exists for only one reason, Opals, and when the opal fever strikes you, you never escape. Out of the resident population of 4,000 at least half live underground in dugouts or "kupa-piti" (white men holes) to escape the fierce summer temperatures of 60C.These are no ordinary holes mind you, four bed roomed luxury homes some even have swimming pools.Apart from the miners homes,there are bars, restaurants, hotels and churches all underground. There is even a golf course, above ground,without a blade of grass, but golfers carry a small square of astro turf around on which to tee off. This apocalyptic lunar landscape has been used to great effect in films like Mad Max-Beyond Thunder dome, Red Planet and my favorite Priscilla Queen of the Desert. All water has to be imported here and you pay dearly for it...........oh take me back to Mataranka!  A couple of days here and you feel " as dry as a kangaroo's paw ". A week here and you would have severe case of " a few kangaroos loose in your top paddock" and risk going totally loopy. It was fascinating but I was happy to see the back of the place.


Underground Greek Orthodox Church

It didn't get much better further south. We drove for hours through endless dry and barren flat lands covered in saltbush with only the occasional salt lake to break the horizon . Lake Hart is situated on the edge of the Woomera Prohibited Area. One eighth of South Australia or an area twice the size of Tasmania is a no-go zone.  In the post WW11  era of the Cold War secret military testing of more than 4,000 rockets and at least nine devastating atomic bombs took place here. Some areas are still radio active to this day and in one area the tremendous temperatures have fused the sand into shiny bomb glaze.The WPA was also home to a controversial detention center and joint defence projects with Britain involving long range weapons. Conveniently the distance between Woomera and the Pilbara  was the same as London and Moscow! You need numerous permits from the Department of Defense to enter the area but the town of Woomera near Lake Hart is now a tourist destination filled with rocket memorabilia. When we visited it was like a ghost town,never saw a soul, but at least 300 people live here with a cinema, a school which could cater for 1000 students, a bowling alley, huge swimming pool and other essentials that the Americans needed to function when they occupied the town in the 1970's.

Anyone for salt?

We spent two nights bush camping at Lake Hart, it had a stark beauty. At night the desert sky seemed so low , the Milky Way stretching over us like a shimmering gossamer shawl of stars.You felt you could just reach up and grab a fistful .

It was another long haul down to Port Augusta on the Eyre Peninsular and our first glimpse of the Spencer Gulf. We had two choices. Turn right down the peninsular with its picturesque fishing ports along the coast or left into the Clare Valley. We choose the latter and it proved to be a wise choice. With a blustery wind behind us we drove into an area of outstanding pastoral beauty. Fresh spring green acres of barley and wheat, as smooth as billiard tables stretched out to the horizon.  Sheep grazed between chrome yellow seas of canola and fields of purple Salvation Jane. The closer we got to the town of Clare the countryside became softer with rolling hills and under the groves of gum trees splashes of wild white iris and lavender. The hedgerows were full of olive trees laden with fruit and a profusion of pink and white dog roses. After the desert the joy of seeing grass again was like an aphrodisiac to the eyes, and then it started to rain..........




 Yellow seas of canola

We have been here a month now camping next to fields of neat corduroy vines. This valley which has a rich history of first copper mining and then wine making has become a wonderful  place of rest. We have only sampled a few of the delicious wines from some of the 36 wineries but we intend to savour more! We love this beautiful valley, the people are welcoming, and it has a real spirit of creativity . This could well be the place where we will settle and cease our travels. We have made an offer on a small cottage with 2 acres in historical Penwortham and only time will tell if this is "Journey's End"

 

 Iris Woodland

Soul Food Kitchen



Olive oil and Almond Tart

We tasted this delicious dessert at a local resturant. It makes good use of all the beautiful local produce of this area and is a taste of heaven!

Sweet Pastry

250g plain flour

150g cold butter grated

60g icing sugar

1 egg yolk

Grease a 30 cm flan tin lightly with butter.Mix flour, butter and icing sugar and egg yolk ,bring together to form a dough. Wrap in plastic film and rest in fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out on a floured board to about 3mm thickness. Line flan tin with pastry and rest in fridge for a further 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 160C.

Olive Oil and Almond Filling

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1/4 cup local olive oil

1/4 cup Annies Lane Botrytis Reisling ( a sweet dessert wine will do)

1/2 cup plain flour

1 cup almond meal

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups poached fruit of choice ,drained (tinned raspberrieswould be delicious)

3 egg whites

1/4 cup caster sugar

Cream yolks, sugar and zest until light and fluffy. Slowly add oil, then wine and beat until just combined.Fold through flour, almond meal and baking powder.Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, add sugar and beat till glossy.Fold into the almond mix. Pour into prepared tin and arrange fruit on top. Bake for 40-45 minutes until cooked.

Serve a slice on a plate dusted with icing sugar, a fresh sprig of lavender and a generous dollop of whipped cream.

Almost too pretty to eat.............almost!

We of the Never Never

Behind the Back of Beyond, in the Land of the Never Never;

a land that bewitches her people.

Called the Never Never  because those who have lived in it , and loved it, Never Never voluntarily leave it.

But those who do leave know that their hearts will Never Never  rest away from it.

                                                          Jeannie Gunn 

We headed down into the Never Never under a pall of smoke. Down into the "Woop Woop, Way out back, Beyond the black stump, to the Red Center.".................... but which ever way you say it its still a long 3,033 ks down the middle of Oz from Darwin to Adelaide. The fires went before us leaving only termite mounds as tombstones in a blackened landscape. We found another Eden at Mataranka, birthplace of Jeannie Gunn's great Australian classic novel We of the Never Never .  Having a hot bath was taken to another level, as we floated serenely downstream on our noodles with the steam rising gently from the thermal springs amid the lush tropical vegetation and bright blue kingfishers. We were only going to stay for a day ......it turned into a week of baths.
 

Daly Waters

On the road again we had a pitstop at the famous Daly Waters Pub. it was started in the 1930's to service the crews and passengers of Qantas as a refuelling stop. Its walls are festooned with anything the weary traveller can leave as a memento after that ice cold "stubby" Bras, panties, T shirts, foreign currency and more are pinned to every surface. We had a delicious "snag and bum nut toastie" aka sausage and egg toasted sandwich, very tasty. The curio shop  across the road was doing a brisk trade in real kangaroo paw "back scratchers" and stuffed cane toads.......NASTY!  Then it was on to a quick detour round the Devil's Marbles, bum nutts of a more generous size. Huge granite boulders which the local aboriginals claim are the eggs of the Rainbow Serpent.
 

Devils marbles

We have reached the center of OZ and its almost a year since we started our Great Lap. I had heard of,  read about and seen the movie, but was enchanted by the real Alice Springs. The Alice as she is affectionately known by her locals, seems to be the destination of choice for every man and his dog. Over 350,000 visitors a year at the last count, and that's not counting the dogs. Nestled between the scenic Mac Donnell Ranges its a neat town with a strong aboriginal flavour. Shops full of aboriginal art and didgeridoos ,and a strong cultural presence that I hadn't felt before. The air was like champagne ,crisp and clean and a welcomed relief after the humidity and smog of the top end. It was cold! The first few nights we snuggled under double duvets and blankets and took advantage of the camp fires which were lit every night in the caravan park. We explored the surrounding countryside and went to markets where there was some exceptional beautiful aboriginal artwork, full of vibrant colour and quite different to the traditional dot paintings I had seen before.



leaves



soakage



We spent our last evening huddled next to a roaring fire with other campers singing along  with a local troubadour . We all joined in with those well known Aussie favorites"The pub with no beer"  and "Give me a home among the gumtrees' What talent we lacked we made up with enthusiasm. Besides after a couple of drinks everyone thinks they sing like Freddie.  As the night grew colder ,the southern cross shone brighter , and our songs more sentimental. As  the last strains of "I am, you are, we are Australian" there wasn't a dry eye, even the good old bastard was brushing his cheek.

I came upon the prison ship bowed down by iron chains.

I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains.

I'm a settler.

I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run

A convict then a free man I became Australian.

I'm the daughter of a digger who sought the mother lode

The girl became a woman on the long and dusty road

I'm a child of the depression

I saw the good times come

I'm a bushy, I'm a battler

I am Australian

I'm a teller of stories

I'm a singer of songs

I am Albert Namatjira

I paint the ghostly gums

I am Clancy on his horse

I'm Ned Kelly on the run

I'm the one who waltzed Matilda

I am Australian

I came from the dream time from the dusty red soil plains

I am the ancient heart, the keeper of the flame

I stood upon the rocky shore

I watched the tall ships come

For forty thousand years I'd been the first Australian.

I'm the hot wind from the desert

I'm the black soil of the plains

I'm the mountains and the valleys

I'm the drought and flooding rains

I am the rock, I am the sky

The rivers when they run

The spirit of this great land

I am Australian

We are one, but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we come

We share a dream and sing with one voice:

I am, you are, we are Australian

I am, you are, we are Australian.

Soul Food Kitchen

Red Center Soup. This is a quick and easy recipe to keep you warm on those cold outback nights.

1 x410g tin of Tomato soup

1x210g tin crab meat, drained

1/2 teaspoon dill

1/4 cup cream

salt and pepper

dash of Tabasco

Prepare soup according to directions on tin using milk not water as the liquid. Heat through then add the crab meat and dill. Season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper and a dash of Tabasco. Swirl through the cream before serving with some warm crusty bread or damper.

"It will warm the cockles of your heart, it will!"

The Top End




Lovely Loquacious Lorikeets ..........it just rolls off the tongue.

 
My love affair with the Northern Territory started in Katherine our first stop in the Top End. A long hot and dusty journey from Kununurra took us through some spectacular escarpments and across the Victoria River. Termite mounds as large as dinosaur droppings covered the landscape. Not so far fetched as you might think. This whole area from Broome to Kununnura was once an vast inland sea and the first fossils of invertebrates that copulated and gave birth to live young as apposed to spawning have been found here. Another piece of useless trivia for you but the scientists get excited about the fact that this is one of the first places on earth that we got down to some serious nookie. The temperature has been climbing steadily and I am slowly becoming dessicated in the Australian heat . I have developed an obsession with water and all I think of is the prospect of a swim,even if it means Katherine's warm thermal springs.  There is only one way to rehydrate this mermaid and that is total immersion. We set up camp on some grass, a welcome relief after all the dust bowl camping of the last few weeks,and  in the shade of some tall red gums.  A crowd of candy coloured lorikeets like flying Smarties joined us to take advantage of a sprinkler and were soon squabbling over who got to bathe first.

Rare sighting of African Bushducks at thermal springs

 The true blessing of our stay turned out to be a pair of welcoming Welsh neighbours who set up camp next to us. Some people you feel you have known all your life even if you have just met. Chris and Terry O' Laughlin from Melbourne,were that rare breed. Their love of South Africa where they had spent many years endeared us to them and we had many happy hours around our respective tables reminiscing and  exchanging stories, in the company of delicious food and fine wine.

Katherine Gorge

Nitmiluk (Cicada Dreaming) is the aboriginal name for Katherine Gorge which winds along for twelve kilometers.We spent a couple of nights in this spectacular park and took a cruise up the first two of thirteen gorges with sheer rock faces seventy metres high. Bolung-the Rainbow Serpent is said to inhabit the deep water in the second gorge where in the wet season huge whirlpools form and  suck everything into their depths. Maybe that  is why the local Jawoyn people fear the place and wont fish or enter the water at this point. I found it a peaceful and tranquil place. Hundreds of little Fairy Martins build their bottle shaped nests under the overhanging ledges and the silence is palpable. A cute wallaby visited every night for some tucker. I wish I could have taken him on board.

Wally

I was excited as we drove into Darwin. I had read so much about the city, the bombings in the second world war by the Japanese and the total devastation by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.  It is a colourful, tropical, laid back city with a real sense of place which is definitely more Asian than Australian. Beautiful colonial buildings with wide verandas and palms and  frangipani trees line the streets.Its a haven for backpackers with cheap accommodation and  endless watering holes.The street markets lure you with the tantalizing aromas of food from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. I tasted my first "crispy fried duck egg" a hard boiled egg coated in a spicy anise batter and deep fried, stuffed chicken wings,(surely life is too short to stuff a chicken wing?!) spring rolls the size of my little finger filled with aromatic pork and a sweet coconut Cambodian rice cake steamed in small baskets.Half the time I didn't know or care what I was eating, it all tasted delicious.But I drew the line at Roo........anything that says "Outback" on the menu features Roo or Croc. Not for me and besides I have an ongoing  love affair with  Roos of all kinds..........it would be as terrible as eating dog!
At the Darwin museum you can view an exhibit of Cyclone Tracy. You wander through furnished rooms filled with memorabilia of northern territory life in 1974. Radios play the weather broadcast, but no mention of the impending disaster.Finally a door shuts behind you and in a pitch black room you discover first hand how terrible the sound of it was from actual recordings taken at its height on Christmas day. You emerge to unbelievable photos of the total devastation of a flattened city.The sheer scale of the disaster is mind boggling.But true to form there are the Aussies with their indomitable optimism waving merrily from the ruins with placards "No worries mate" !
By the end of the week the humidity was soaring and a pall of smoke hung over the city,bush fires were raging and a total fire ban was in effect. It felt time to leave, you couldn't even escape the heat with a swim because of the danger of the deadly box jellyfish at this time of the year. We celebrated Tommy's 37th birthday on Mindil Beach watching the sun set over the Timor Sea,eating fresh mango and satay prawns on a stick. A Japanese Didgeridoo player moaned at the moon and we knew we were on our way down........down to the red center of Oz and another lovely lady, a town called Alice.

Sunset at Mindil Beach

Soul Food Kitchen

We had so many exotic gastronomic delights in Darwin its proving difficult to choose a recipe for the Soul Kitchen but perhaps this will tickle your taste buds. This is an authentic Aussie recipe "hearty tucker" probably went down well after the Cyclone........

Burdekin Ducks  (fancy name for corned beef fritters!)

1 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 cups diced corned beef
2 cups assorted diced veggies,(corn, potato, pumpkin,peas or any left over cooked veg)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 teaspoons vegetable oil.


Sift flour, salt and baking powder together Add eggs beaten with milk. Stir in meat, veggies and melted butter. Fry in large spoonfuls in hot oil turning once and cook until golden brown. Serve warm, but they are great cold. Tomato sauce is an ideal accompaniment. Best drunk with a bottle of ice cold beer.........Enjoy!

Diesel, Dust and the Dreamtime



Aboriginal Sacred Site Winjana Gorge Dreaming

                                       When you stand and gaze at Winjana Gorge
                                               its easy to understand the Dreamtime.................


 Some two thousand generations of men and women have lived and died since the first Aboriginal walked upon the soil of this land , now known as Australia.  Forty thousand years since the beginning of the Dreamtime.  In the beginning the earth was featureless, flat and grey. There were no mountain ranges, no rivers, no billabongs, no birds or animals, in fact no living thing...........then came the Dreamtime. Giant mythical Beings rose up out of the great grey plains where they had been slumbering for centuries; they looked like animals or plants or insects but they behaved just like humans. As they wandered in search of food and water they dug huge ravines and rivers,pushed up mountains and gradually the earth as we know it today took shape. Aboriginals believe their ancestors were taught by these mythical Beings and how as their descendants they should behave. Then the Dreamtime ended, and they were left with rites and ceremonies to preserve this heritage. Tribal lands and all forms of life contained within it are now held in sacred trust. Land  has a very special meaning to Aboriginals for all over the land are features which remind them of these Beings who had a part in their creation and the truth of the connectedness of all things, both living and dead.

These are our last weeks in Western Australia, and the diversity of the scenery in this state is remarkable. The road from Broome to Derby and Kununurra in this part of the Kimberley region is so like Africa,especially Kenya or Zimbabwe. Savannah doted with Baobabs and yellow flowering kapok trees. It made me very nostalgic. I keep scanning the bush for buck, zebra or giraffe but alas only the odd Roo. 

A day trip to Wyndham , the northernmost town in Western Australia . Its dry, dusty and has a dubious claim to fame for the most beer drunk per capita in the whole of Oz .......I  can see why.  Not a lot here, but at the Five Rivers lookout you can (predictably enough) see five rivers at one time. The homestead scenes in the film Australia were filmed here and the local museum was a wealth of quirky information. In its hey day it was the center for the meat processing industry and Johnson's Fluid Beef aka Bovril was made here in HUGE quantities.........if you could see how they made the stuff (the old photos were pretty graphic) you would never touch the stuff........VEGEMITE RULES!



 



Dawn fishing on the Ord

Derby will be remembered for the meal the sand flies had of Tommy's legs........ and a meeting with Margaret,a wonderfully colourful colonial lady originally from East Africa and editor of the local paper,The Muddy Waters. Then on to  Kununurra famous for  Pink Argyle Diamonds and a too brief friendship forged with Geoff and Kaye Brown, lovey people from Dalmeny NSW......... what a lovely daughter.....now they would be great in-laws................ well a mother can dream can't she!



A swim with a view



A last few days at Lake Argyle and  another memorable swim this time in the infinity pool overlooking the lake. Tommy caught and lost a HUGE fish in the Ord River..........he has witnesses.

Now its time to hit the road again and this time we are heading for the Top End................Darwin here we come!
 
 

Soul food Kitchen

Fresh Mango Salsa

Locals are always looking for new ways to use the over abundant supplies of mangoes in the Kimberley region,this is my version of a fresh and piquant mango salsa the quantities are really a matter of personal taste, I love the heat of fresh red chili but you can omit it

 
1 large mango peeled and cut into small dice.
1/2  Red onion cut into small dice
1/2 cup fresh pineapple cut into small dice
1 cup chopped fresh coriander
1 fresh red chili chopped fine
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
pinch of salt
 
Mix all together and chill in the fridge. Great with fish and seafood.and in tacos

Broome and Beyond



Monument to women pearl divers



            If diamonds are a girl's best friend,

                                                      then pearls must be her sister...............

I had my birthday in Broome. "The town built on buttons" Once the pearling capital of the world. until the mother of pearl industry was almost wiped out by the invention of the plastic button .The red pindan soil, white beaches and turquoise sea are as famous as the pearl divers themselves that came from Japan and China, Malaysia and Makassar, as well as  local Aboriginals. The Aboriginal  men and women were sometimes lured onto pearl luggers with the promise of grog and then forced to dive. If you didn't come up with a shell you had to produce a handful of sand to show that  you had reached the bottom.The pearl beds were deep, often more than 27 meters and hundreds of divers died either from the bends or drowning. Broome has the largest Japanese cemetery in Australia, with rough headstones carved from local beach stone. A silent tribute to the men who dived for "the tears of heaven"




Japanese Graveyard

  The corrugated road out to Willie Creek Pearl Farm was teeth rattling but the tour was fascinating.The poor oyster "pinctada maxima" has a tiny piece of Mississippi mussel shell inserted  into its gonads.......ouch!   Over the course of  a couple of years it secretes enough nacre (mucous) to ease the irritation and produce that highly desirable pearl. Each oyster also has its own home help, a tiny pea crab. In exchange for protection it keeps everything neat and tidy. Apparently the skilled operators, mainly Japanese that do this delicate seeding operation earn in excess of $100,000 for three months work, not too shabby but a mere bagatelle when you consider the industry turns over $200 million a year. I got to hold a couple of prize beauties for a few minutes.............but alas too dear for my budget to take home.





Pearls of great price!



Broome

I managed a swim at the fabled Cable beach, so named for the first international telegraph line that linked Australia to Java and the rest of the world. Walked through Chinatown to covet the pearls and finally watched the sun set whilst feasting on crispy Barrumundi wings under a star studded sky. A time for reflection as I celebrated my journey of 58 years.I've come a long way.My travels have taken me to five continents,and more exotic places than I could ever have imagined. It has been a privilege to explore new horizons, meet fascinating people and discover myself in the process. The internal journey has been  far longer than the external one and I still have a fair way to go............I read somewhere "that memories are a cushion for our old age" I have managed to stuff a few duvets so far.......God grant me travelling mercies and a soft landing!



Soul Food Kitchen

Fresh Lime Cordial.
This has been the best thirst quencher on our travels. We pop some bottles of the diluted juice in the freezer overnight and have ice cold drinks for the road.

60 g citric acid
30 g tartaric acid
30 g Epsom salts
Juice and rind of 12 limes or lemons
2 kg sugar
2 litres of boiling water

Pour the boiling water over all the other ingredients.Allow to stand overnight, so that the dry ingredients are dissolved. in the morning strain and bottle. Dilute to taste. Mmmmm.................... could be good with a G&T too ?