Trying to be a better blogger ...

Ok let's restart this blog :)

Nothing to report as yet, but two weeks tomorrow we fly out  to Iceland and the start of the 2019 adventure. Stay tuned people!

A new year, an updated blog

OK, I'm going to start this again. It's like a diary - I start and then quit. Or like a diet!! Anyway I am going to start again and see how it goes.

Meeting up with relatives

Had fun meeting relatives this week!

This is my 2nd cousin David Albert Vaughan Thomson (left). We're descended from Adam Merry Thomson and Mary Withell: David through James Marcus Thomson who emigrated to New Zealand, and me through Robert William Thomson, his younger brother. On my left is David's son Michael, who is a plastic surgeon in Hobart. They were over for the AFL grand final.



The following week, David came and stayed overnight with us on his way back to New Zealand. I arranged for another cousin, Wayne Masters, who is David's cousin through his aunt Elsie, and thus another second cousin to me. I corresponded with Elsie for many years, she provided me with all the details on the Kiwi family. We went out for lunch with mum - on the right is a good photo from the cafe!

  

Petra - all I imagined and more!

Bright and early we were up and ready for our guide, Ali, who was supposed to be the best guide in Petra. Also a chainsmoker as we were to find out - he smoked constantly while we were in Petra. We wanted to go as early as possible as we knew it was going to get hot, so we set off at 7am, when the park opened. Heading past a cacophony of men wanting to provide us with a carriage ride or a horse ride, or a donkey ride, we said no to all and hoofed it down ourselves. Walking through the canyons on the way down was awesome, they are so steep, the colours superb. Ali pointed out several walls built along the way to stem the flash flooding that can occur in winter time - if the place flooded you would have nowhere to go and be drowned. That last happened in the late 60's.  It's also interesting to think about Petra, abandoned for all those centuries, left to the ravages of sand and water - a lot of the damage done to it is man made, but there is also a lot of water damage caused by flooding waters.  As we walked, people clattered through the canyons in horse and cart - missing all the interesting bits on the way down!

Finally after about half an hour we turned around a bend and saw the Treasury through the gap in the rocks. Stopping to take some photos, I had my Indiana Jones moment, with the theme running through my head! Then through the gap in the rocks and there it was, the Petra Treasury.

Petra is a vast, unique city, carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataeans, an industrious Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago, turning it into an important junction for the silk, spice and other trade routes that linked China, India and southern Arabia with Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome. The Treasury, Al-Khazneh soars 45m high above the sandy floor, carved into the rock face so long ago. Unfortunately, unlike in the movies, there is nothing inside - you can't go in.  We sat and looked - just absorbing the beauty of the place, thinking about it's history.

... and then Ali moved us on to the REST of the site. Ye Gods I never thought about there being anything much other than the Treasury, but how wrong I was!  There's a huge site there with a great many other buildings, although none as spectacular as this one.  
Ali soon decided that walking along the main road through the sand wasn't enough of a challenge for us, so we went off overland - along a part that did say 'Do not climb here". Apparently that was just for newbs, not for us... Anyway whoever it was for, it was damn hard work.  We climbed up and saw things from a different angle - the theatre, some rock caves, some more attempts they'd made of carving something like the Treasury but facing north so not protected from the wind and sand storms. An old Bedouin who just happened to be there (OK I got a nice photo with him in it...) tried to sell us some ancient coins, which Ali, in his expertise, assured us were real... of course they would be cheap for us and why he would sell to us rather than a museum is beyond anyone's guess.... One thing we did get to see was the spectacular caves - see below.

Ali left us right at the end of the Petra site - barring the 800 step climb to the Monastery, which he did not recommend, and given the heat and general tiredness, we gave in and decided not to climb. Apparently you can hire a donkey to take you up but I couldn't do that to a poor donkey!! they are not particularly well treated here, it's common to see the boys whacking them with electrical wire. We went through the archeological museum (5 minutes - it was cool - temperature wise) then we set off back through the Roman ruins to our first drink stop!  There we came across Sheik Abdullah Brogden... and took him with us.. :)

Many hours later (at least it felt like it) we made it back to the Treasury then staggered back towards the hotel. The last kilometre I confess - it was too hot, too dusty, too much uphill and I was totally knackered, so we paid 5JD for a horse and cart back up to the entrance. Then back to the hotel, pool and afternoon nap!!  A splendid day!

Internet woes

How strange is it that we can get easy, fast Internet at almost any cafe or restaurant we stop at in Turkey, but rubbish at all of the hotels?

These are our dinner companions!

Jordan continues after a short intermission

I am a vry slack blogger. I think it's because I don't think anyone bothers to read this - they might look at photos but not read this. Surprise me... if you read this leave a comment  ;)

Well we're a couple of weeks in now I believe.... what the hell's been going on?

Last post we had been to Jerash.  Freaking hot, lots of Roman ruins, good stuff.

Had fresh felafel and hot bread (Turkish bread...?) in the car while we headed off to the next ruins... which were at Ajloun, which is a 12th century Islamic castle built by Saladdin. Then off for a few hours drive to Umm Qais, which is another Roman city - actually one of the famous Decapolis - a union of 10 cities founded by Alexander the Great. This took us up near the Syrian border, so we went through a number of police checks on the way.  We got there to see another lot of colonnaded streets, and actually a much bigger site than we had thought it would be, but probably the most outstanding thing about it was the view - across the Sea of Galilee, the North Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights. Fabulous scenery.

Back to Amman and a lazy dinner at the hotel.

Next day, up at sparrow's again and off to see around Amman first.  We went to the Citadel, which had the obligatory Roman ruins through to more recent Islamic period, such as the Umayyad Palace.  A little drive through the 'souqs' which in this case were pretty much just shops, to the Roman Theatre, which was pretty cool (not literally, it was already 38 degrees) and well preserved.  Off then to see the Desert Castles in Eastern Jordan. the first one we went to, Qasr Kharanah, was pretty much in ruins, it had been used as a caravanserai in later times.  Still we could climb up to the second floor and get an idea of what it must have been like.

The second 'Castle' was Amra Castle, which although it looked pretty small, was actually lovely. The dome used to represent all the zodiac signs - there are bits of it left, and bits of other frescoes being preserved on the walls.  We chatted to a bloke fixing the remaining mosaics on the floor, of course he had relatives in Australia... 

So off we went to the last castle for the day, which was a black basalt fort at Azraq. In two days we had been near so many borders- Palestine, Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Day 3 saw us up early and out of the hotel at 7am.  We drove to the Dead Sea - the lowest point on earth, which is getting lower every year as they take salt out of it. Apparently there are plans to put water in there from the Red Sea, which will change things substantially. We got to the Dead Sea at about 9am and set off down to the water's edge.   It was already hot, and I entertained a hope that the water would be cool.  HAH! I had no idea of what swimming in the Dead Sea would be like, despite having read about it. To start off with, it IS incredibly salty! so salty that it stings your eyes and leaves a great taste in your mouth.Not having been warned, we hadn't taken any fresh water down with us, so basically just sucked it up and waited until it stopped stinging.  The buoyancy is just amazing. You really have to work hard to do anything other than bob up and down like a cork!!  We followed the lead of some more experienced swimmers and found the mud - the Dead Sea mud that is supposed to be so good for you - and liberally smeared it wherever we could - although Michael resisted putting it down the front of his bathers like all the other men were doing! Oh and the water was not cool - more like a tepid bath, and so not refreshing at all. After the mud had set a bit we got out and showered it all off, then trudged back up the hill to the airconditioned hotel and a couple of cold drinks.

Heading off, we drove to a town called Madaba, where we visited a church with a partially intact 6th century mosaic map of  Palestine. pretty awesome.  Then after a short break for lunch, where I discovered I really like the local drink of fresh lemon juice and mint, to Mt Nebo. Historically, this is where Moses gazed over the Promised Land before his death, and supposedly the site of his burial. Who knows. Nice site though.

Then onwards towards Petra, riding along the King's Way and stopping for a couple of fabulous views along the way. Late afternoon brought us into Petra, all ready for the next exciting day!

Jordan - couple of days in

We're sitting in the sportsman's bar of the hotel in Amman, waiting for a late lunch. I'm happy because the internet access is good, unlike in our room, and Michael's happy because Liverpool's playing in the first game of the season and it's live on the tv here.  The little things in life :)

We flew into Jordan on Thursday afternoon. Michael had a sliver of a view out the window, and all that could be seen was dust and sand... but fortunately there was a terminal there and we could get off. I have never travelled with so many kids - there were 47 children and 22 babies on the flight from Dubai! No school trips, just kids travelling with their parents. Amazing.  No screams on take off or landing, but plenty of noise otherwise, and boy the flight crew had their work cut out for them!  Once off, we found our way to Immigration, got out some Jordanian Dinar to pay for our visas, then went to what looked like the shortest queue for a visa. Of course Murphy's Law struck, and we noticed after a short time that the people in front of us were holding 10 passports. So every one of those had to be processed, letters checked, and only then could they progress to have a retinal scan done and go through passport control. So we waited about 20 minutes until our turn, and then wouldn't you know it, stamp stamp, scan scan, and we're in.  Down the escalator and then a couple of minutes later there were our bags.

Through customs and out, found our tour guide Ahmed, and off we went.  First room had two double beds so we asked for a change, got a room identical to the first but higher up and with one queen sized bed. Much better :)

Friday we were up early and out of the hotel by 8am.  First stop was Jerash, which is famous for an unbroken chain of human occupation dating back more than 6,500 years.  Jerash lies on a plain surrounded by hilly wooded areas and fertile basins. Conquered by General Pompey in 63 BC, it came under Roman rule and was one of the ten great Roman cities of the Decapolis League. The city's golden age came under Roman rule, during which time it was known as Gerasa, and the site is now generally acknowledged to be one of the best-preserved Roman provincial towns in the world. Hidden for centuries in sand before being excavated and restored over the past 70 years, it's now a magnificent site. It was also bloody hot!  One of the most surprising finds was in the amphitheatre, where we came across a piper ... yes, bagpipes!

Off we go!

Just enjoyed a delightful lunch in the qantas lounge at Tullamarine, couple of glasses of Bolly and we're just about ready to go. Oh the desserts here are to die for! Mine was a pav with strawberries and rhubarb and a huge pile of Persian floss, michael's a lemon Madeleine with creme brûlée ... Nom nom nom

Preparations

I started the day with a list of about 30 things to do before leaving work today - knowing that I was also going to the inaugural ACER Alumni lunch in the city which would chop about 3 hours out of the day. Happy to report that completed all but one of the tasks I had set myself, as well as a few others that popped up along the way. Oh and haven't changed my voicemail message yet :(

The house looks like a bomb's hit it, but once we start actually packing, it will all fall into place. I'm trying something new this trip and trying to travel light. It's always tempting not to when you know you have 96kg luggage allowance, and as Michael is travelling with me, he does too!  But I keep thinking about trying to sling a 32kg bag on and off a bus and I figure that I will try and start light.

Plans - Monday fly to Dubai - three nights at the Palace Hotel in Dubai, then off to Jordan.

After baking in Dubai, we head off to Amman, Jordan. We have a total of 6 days in Jordan, travelling through the north, then down to Petra and the Dead Sea. Petra's been on my bucket list since I saw Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!

Next fly through Istanbul to Cappadocia, then three days one balloon flight later fly through to Antalya and then head off across the south coast of Turkey, finishing up in Gallipoli and then to Istanbul. We're staying there for a week at a rather gorgeous hotel: Ishak Pasa Konagi in Sultanahmet, right next to (actually joined to) Topkapi Palace.  And I have to go to the conference - chairing one session, discussant on a couple and my own presentation... :)  should be fun!

Daisy's bath

Daisy

Yep, took her to a new groomer today and she did a spectacular job. From a smelly dirty matted dog, I got this beautiful one!  Good trade I reckon.

She's getting a little uncomfortable. Jess has been gone for a week and my suitcase is out. She's really going to know when Michael's also comes out...

Tomorrow I head in for a couple of nights at the Hilton South Wharf, chairing the ACER conference. One of the little perks of being the Director of Research that I do like! So it will just be Michael here with Daisy and Neo.  And then packing for our trip. Can't wait until we go, but I am going to miss this little face :)

Waiting in Dubai

Four hours layover in Dubai. Whisked through security when we got off the plane by some quite charming staff - pleasant surprise!  Didn't even have to take out laptop or ipad - yay!

Strolled down through the miles of shiny duty free and lift up to the Emirates First Lounge - one of the perks of Platinum status!  Down to the end of the lounge to the dining room, where we seem to be the only customers. Had a lovely breakfast (must remember to get Jess to cut the crusts off my toast from  now on!) and then basically we've just crashed here in the lounge.

Emirates have been delightfully helpful in trying to organise the limo transfer in Paris that Qantas seemed unable to do. Cross fingers and hope that the car will be there when we get into Charles De Gaulle.

Looking forward to being back in Paris - last time it was so cold, weather looks perfect for Sunday and our trip out to Giverny to Moet's Garden... cannot wait! Tossed up whether to go to Versailles in the morning but I think we might just wander from our hotel through to the Eiffel Tower.

en route to Paris

sitting here in the Emirates lounge in Singapore, waiting for the flight to Dubai which leaves at 0140. Have a nice glass of Moet to dull the pain (LOL) but bloody tired and just want to go.

It's been so hot here in Singapore, alternating with the frigid airconditioning of the lecture rooms at the University. Outside, drenched with sweat, then inside to have it evaporate and leave you freezing. Rinse and repeat 6 times a day until you collapse in the hotel room.  The haze from the fires in Indonesia has largely abated this week, and it's just been the usual haze from other things, probably mainly humidity.  We went to the new Gardens by the bay, which were spectacular. Loved the design, the supertrees, just the fact that everything is environmentally sustainable. Beautiful architecture.

The conference has been good, catching up with old buddies that I see at various events and meetings during the year, others whose paths I only cross every few years.

Now back at Changi, waiting for the A330 to dubai then the A380 to Paris. We (Lisa and I) have a couple of days there this time before catching the train to Liege, in Belgium. 

If it's October then this must be India!

Wow.. can't believe I haven't been anywhere out of Australia since March - well other than that quick trip to Dubai, but that hardly counts... ;)

Anyway last Friday saw me back in the Qantas international lounge at Tulla heading for Malahide, just north of Dublin, where I had the honour of representing Australia in the IEA General Assembly. Five days in beautiful Ireland and then time for me to head back south again, to Singapore then across to Delhi. The day started well in Dublin where the girl on checkin blithely tagged my bag as 'heavy' at 27kg but didn't even hassle me about excess baggage - let alone charge me for it :) Then had the good fortune to be upgraded to business on the London-Singapore flight, and was already on business for the Singapore to Delhi so arrived feeling a bit worse for wear in terms of time adjustment, but not as bad as it could have been. Bag arrived safely, driver from the hotel there to pick me up, all's well!

So to bed at about 12.30am, then up again at 4.45 for a 5.15 pickup to take me to Delhi Station to catch the train to Agra. Interesting. Would probably have paid extra to be in a more comfortable cabin, but it was ok. Just after we left the hotel a little piglet trotted past. Yep, I did say a piglet.

Arrived in Agra at about 8.30, got out of the bedlam they fondly refer to as a carpark then headed for the hotel. Road fairly chaotic, cattle everywhere, horses with carts, tuktuks, bike rickshaws and people on scooters, bikes, you name it.

Car screened before entering, checked underneath with a mirror and in the boot and under the bonnet, then bags scanned on the way in. Rested until the afternoon then off to see Agra Fort. Very lovely, especially with all the red sandstone. Walked all around with the tour guide explaining all about the palace. Big pack of monkeys near the entrance to the fort had a major domestic dispute, much to the amusement of all there, resulting in the large male (and yes, he was QUITE large...LOL) climbing up a tree, angrily shaking it and glaring down at the younger monkeys. Very amusing, although one of the little ones was shaking.....

Way back fairly uneventful except saw a camel on the side of the road in amongst some cattle, dressed up and loaded up, and a guy on a bike with a little trailer with a water tank on the back. Other than that just lots of people, dirt, rubbish and life!

Early night tonight after a delicious meal in the restaurant - very indian, very yummy! Pick up at 5.15am I think to go to the Tak Mahal at dawn.

Must show the driver how to focus my camera - he took rather a good shot of me with the Taj in the background - except it is in focus and I am not....

Too tired to blog!

OK this is just an internim blog because a few funny things happened and I wanted to get them down before I forgot.

Today we'd booked a trip to go to Pisa, San Gimignano and Siena. We're waiting to be picked up at 7.30am downstairs when this guy pulled his car up on the street and asked if the scooter in front of us was ours. We said no, and so as he obviously ewanted the parking spot, he picked it up and moved it back abit so he had more room. Then he did the most pathetic attempt at parallel parking, which resulted in him scrunching the scooter between his bumper and that of the car behind him! SO he stormed out of the car, picked up the scooter and dragged it about 10 m down the road and continued with his efforts backing into the parking spot. CRUNCH into the car behind him... then we left. We've seen quite a bit of this bumper parking here in Florence - despite people largely driving tiny cars!


So Pisa this morning - first we saw this dog - there were three daschunds - but this one had the weirdest bright blue eyes! It wouldn't stand still for me to take a proper photo!

Second - gotta love these shorts - how classy are they? I thought the ones with Davids's willy on them were the ultimate in class but these ones go one better I think!Now the third thing. We're in San Gimignano this afternoon and I spy a Westie strutting down the street. He's a very handsome boy... I thought about pattng him but every time the woman walking him would even slow down a faction he'd be hard at it humping her leg.... LOL Michael and I nearly fell over laughing...but we did make one animal friend today ... this guy...

Pompeii

Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 metres of ash and pumice, and it was lost for over 1,500 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1599.
On the left you can see the entrance to Pompeii - up a steep slope from what was quite near to the sea - so named the Porta Marina. Sailors used to come to Pompeii frequently. The people of Pompeii used to flood the streets to keep the city clean, and the big stones you csn see int he road int he picture to the left is so that people can cross the street without getting their feet wet! They are all evenly spaced so a chariot could go through the gaps!
On the right right is part of the Curia - where the senate met in ancient times.

Below : the first is a bronze statue of Apollo - just imagine him holding a bow... Next to that is one of the many dogs in Pompeii - they are very sweet and there is a program underway to cull the numbers in the most humane way - by people adopting them and offering the dogs homes and love :)

Next - two of the victims ....

Below.. this mosaic is believed to be the earliest "Beware of the dog" door mat!
On the right, part of the public baths, or Terme, in Pompeii. These are beautifully preserved.

Now it is apparent from all the bits and bobs in the Napoli museum, that the Pompeiins were not prudes...

On the ground, embedded in the stone, is a phallic symbol, apparently pointing the way to the brothel area... one of the brothels is very well preserved, and apart from the fact that I find it hard to believe anyone could have sex on stone beds, I guess it all depends on just how long you'd been at sea!

Vesuvio and Pompeii

Ok I am going to try and be a bit better about this seeing as we are in Firenze with free wireless access :)
Tuesday, as I said, we took a couple of trains - first the fast train to Napoli, then into the basement of the station to catch the local train to Sorrento, called the Circumvesuviana - love it! Disembarked at Pompeii and decided that as it was furthest, we would take the bus as far as went up Mt Vesuvius. Of course Vesuvius is still an active volcano, last erupting in 1944. It's main claim to fame, however, is the eruption in 79 AD when it covered Pompeii and Herculaneum.
So we zig zagged up the side of the mountain, stopping about halfway to "admire the view" of Napoli, and of course buy postcards and souveniers. There were a bunch of dogs hanging around, and we had to give our money to one of them, who then took it over to the till...

Anyway we continued up the mountain, up to the 1000m point, at which the bus stopped and let us out in a rather drab parking area.

The rest of the way was on foot. OMG. I looked at it, I started it, I really did not see how I could possibly do this! Michael was forging ahead, however, so I kind of had to.This is what awaited us .....

However 40 mins later we made it to the Caldera - where this view awaited us...


Fabulous and spectacular - no lava of couse but lots of sulpurous clouds smoking away.

Climb down much easier - and then back ont he bus and back to Pompeii.

And that, my children, will have to wait or another day.

After what seems like half a cow for dinner, plus red wine and then cider in the Irish pub on the way home, Michael is snoring gently away and I am fzalling asleep. Nighty night, will try and do some more tomorrow. In the mean time there are tons of photos on Facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=274193&id=532332283&l=9b3255ba3f

for these ones...

xxx Sue

Trying to catch up

The view over the Roman Forum from the Capitoline Hill

It's clearly been a very busy few days.

The weekend was absolutely flat chat, with walking walking walking - all over the Forum, Colosseum, back to the Trevi.. all over the place.


Monday it was off to work for Sue while Michael gadded about Rome. He visited the cats at the Largos Argentinos, went over the Garibaldi bridge onto the Island, visited a heap of churches, the Pantheon, and then popped out to the Vatican to buy tickets, went to the church at Repubblica and then took me out for a romantic Valentine's Day meal... hahahaha


Tuesday I played hookey ... we caught the early train to Napoli, then the Circumvesuviano to Pompeii Scavi, a bus to the parking lot at Vesuvius (1000m above sea level) and then climbed the remaining 283m (was it only that??? rubbish...) to the summit and the mouth of the volcano. I will add pictures. This was not a stroll to the top, this was a frigging climb. I really did not think I would make it - makes the thousand steps look a bit pissy... ;)

Day 1 Rome

Well here we are, 10 hours sleep and I feel human again :0

Quick post before we head out for the day.

VEry tired when we got in last night and fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book, with the result that thecabbie ripped us off 50 euros. Gave him a 50 and he held a 10 up and said I had not given him enough - without thinking (tired tired tired) I gave him another 50, but then of course I didn't have any 10s did I? I feel so stupid getting caught like that first day here :(

Ahh well, lesson learnt... off to explore Rome!

Random thoughts on life

Well here I am sitting in the study looking out at a back yard that's pretty well under water. I'm trying to finish a report that I promised I would send off today, then have to finish off another article to send off to Japan, and prepare for a meeting in Sydney on Wednesday. The weather is bloody awful - I have mum's birthday present and want to get it to her, but I don't want to go out in this weather. maybe tomorrow that will be a possibility.

Along with Karen and Stuart, we've bought her a Kindle. I love mine :)

And at the same time I have to start packing for Italy. We leave next Thursday at midnight, and arrive in Rome late afternoon on the Friday. One week in Rome and then 3 weeks travelling north. I can't wait. I am excited to be seeing Rome again, with more time there than I have ever had, and then a leisurely tour through the fabulous cities of the north - Firenze, Venezia, Vicenza, Verona, Milan, and the towns of the Cinque Terra. This will be Michael's first trip to Italy, and he is also looking forward to it, although I suspect we might both be asleep before the plane takes off.

Daisy came in from outside yesterday absolutely filthy. She needed a nail cut so we took her to have a bath and pedicure today. She looks (and smells) gorgeous. Damn. I'm going to miss the little terror so much.

Back to work.

The Top End of WA

We left Derby early on Thursday morning with the aim of getting to Fitzroy Crossing for the 11 am Geike Gorge boat trip. Got there right on time - booked the tour andwalked onto the boat - about 35 degrees in aluminium boats.... Geike Gorge is the remains of a Devonian Reef system that once stretched 1000km along a vast inland sea in the middle of Australia - or probably Gondwanaland. The Fitzroy River flows through the Gorge and at present is at its low point - in the middle of the Wet season it is about 15m higher and the flood plain is 25km wide. It's really hard to get your head around just how much water these rivers carry!
Anyway quick drive around Fitzroy Crossing - now a fairly dry community - no alcohol over 2.5% at the order of the women of the community - same in Halls Creek as we found when we went into the bottle shop and had a choice of 3 different types of light beer. No wine at all, not even our beloved 1litre bricks!!!
So we headed on to Halls Creek - figured there was really nothing in either Fitzroy or Halls Creek that we really wanted to do, so we just went to the Halls Creek Caravan Park - dry dusty and locked in overnight - and then out the next morning at 7am.
The road to Kununurra is spectacular - through several sets of mountain ranges (all low - these are very very old mountains and although many were once the size of Mt Everest they have eroded over the millenia) and through some spectacular Kimberley countryside. Arrived in Kununurra early afternoon and parked at the caravan park near the lake. Lots of bugs and a few mozzies but not too bad.
When we went through Turkey Creek we booked our flights into the Bungle Bungles - or so we thought, When we called the office to confirm and tell them where we were staying they cancelled our booking and moved it to Monday. Not much we could do about it, so we "did" Kununurra - difficult as most things were closed because it was Saturday afternoon! Went and had lunch at Ivanhoe Crossing, went to a rum distillery (too sweet for me) and Zebra Rock Gallery. The highlight of this was feeding the fish - a thousand disgusting black catfish all with mouths open trying to get the food. However this soon turned to great amusement as Michael was "attacked" by one of the Archer fish - who seemed to have it in for him - circling and then squirting him with water until he was really quite wet. :)
After a really hot uncomfortable night we had a day to kill. Michael decided we would go have a look at Wyndham. We knew this would be an auspicious trip when we crossed over Cheese Tin Creek and then Dead Horse Creek, but little did we know what delights awaited us!
Twent-five km out of Wyndham, the most northerly town in WA, we came across our first traffic light since we left Perth 25 days and 6,500 km of road later. Waited there in 35 degree heat until the road cleared of the two cars coming in the opposit direction through roadworks and then headed on into Wyndham.
Made it to the outskirts when Constable and Sergeat Plod pulled us over and breathalysed Michael. 12.20pm on Sunday. We went on to the fiver rivers lookout, looked out, had lunch, fed brown kites and tried to get them to fly in close enough to take photos and then headed back into town.


I was all for going straight back to Kununurra but Michael insisted on seeing the port, so we headed out there. Very old, very dingy, trying to make history out of bugger all. For example the hospital which opened in the late 1890s and closed in 1909 because it was riddled with termites, or the magistrate's residence, which was built with inferior mortar and never occupied because it was so far away from anywhere and the local aboriginals were very hostile.

However part of it still stands. Go figure.

Left is the main street.

10 minutes later we were on our way back across the mudflats with a big 4wd up our clacker. I was driving at this stage, so when the red and blue flashing lights went on all I could think of was whether for some insane reason the speed limit over the mudflats was only 60.... however , it was another pair of Constable Plods doing random breath testing, so I was also tested (2.30pm Sunday). We were doing well so far - 2 breath tests and a traffic light - so we got the hell out of there as fast as we could, and back to sunny Kununurra. We may be getting a but jaded, but beer o'clock couldn't come fast enough!! OH - I forgot to mention the giant croc didn't I? hmmm. This is Michael wrestling the giant croc in Wyndham...